Every course has them. They are the holes where golfers hope to make up shots lost elsewhere. Some of the ones at Niagara Falls, in the hands of the best the Porter Cup has to offer, might even be called eagle holes. We’ll stick with birdie holes and we’ll find you at least three on each nine. Trust me on this one: there will be lots of birdies at this year’s Porter Cup, so strap yourselves in and get ready to shake it up.

Front Nine~
Hole #2: 407 yards

Understand that 407 yards is as the dogleg bends. The bombers will take it over the first bunker, darned near the second one. The boys will come in to the flagstick with spinning wedges. After the challenging first, number two will be a free run at a 3.

Hole #3: 552 yards

So if the college guys are hitting the ball 300 yards, that means they’ll only have 250 left to get home on numero tres. That’s IF they play the hole back every day. Move it up a deck and in they come with irons. If they hit the green, it’s eagle-putt time; if they miss it in the sand…well, they love the sand. The only bad miss is the rough.

Hole #6: 417 yards

Wide fairway, straight tee shot, not much trouble, round and flat green…that spells birdie for me.

Back Nine~
Hole #11: 554 yards

Pretty much the inward twin of #3. Slight dogleg left, sand in the drive zone, sand around the green. The start of Patrick Rodgers’ fabled run of 2011.

Hole #12: 148 yards

That’s a wedge for these guys, and not always a full one. They put stick’em on their wedges and those boys bite hard! It won’t matter which section (front or back) houses the hole…they’ll find it.

Hole #15: 342 yards

Some guys will carry the creek twice, while others will lay up in the flat. In either case, the approach is played uphill to a tilted green. It’s tough to putt from above the hole, but easy to read from below.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll deal with the heartbreakers: the bogey holes.