{"id":244783,"date":"2026-07-16T11:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/244783\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T11:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:58:11","slug":"the-9th-hole-at-laurel-valley-golf-club-is-difficult-in-all-aspects-the-elite-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/244783\/","title":{"rendered":"The 9th hole at Laurel Valley Golf Club is difficult in all aspects | The Elite 18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you think of difficult par 4 golf holes across western Pennsylvania, the 9th hole at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/laurel-valley-elite-18-golf-club-golf-course-10th-hole\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Laurel Valley Golf Club<\/a> definitely comes to mind.<\/p>\n<p>The 9th hole at Laurel Valley is challenging in all aspects as it plays long, uphill, and into the wind.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From the back tee markers, it&#8217;s 480 yards,&#8221; said Laurel Valley Golf Club head golf professional Chris McKnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are seven bunkers lining different parts of the hole, placing a premium on driving accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a very classic and beautiful hole with the clubhouse in the background,&#8221; McKnight said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/canvas.png#.png\" alt=\"canvas.png \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  The 9th hole at Laurel Valley Golf Club is a challenging par 4 that is difficult in many aspects as it is long, uphill, and into the wind.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                KDKA Drone Team \/ KDKA Photojournalist Ian Smith<\/p>\n<p>From the white tees, it&#8217;s 220 yards to carry the bunker on the right side of the fairway and a good first shot can set up for a short iron or wedge approach into the green.<\/p>\n<p>The putting surface itself features a lot of slope and a ridge that can funnel approach or chip shots, depending on pin placement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a large green that has basically, three different levels,&#8221; McKnight said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a very difficult putting surface.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Making two putts on the slick green can set you up for a birdie or par, which is still a good score on the challenging 9th hole,<\/p>\n<p>The Elite 18Laurel Valley Golf Club<\/p>\n<p>Founded:\u00a01959<\/p>\n<p>Public or Private:\u00a0Private\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Location:\u00a0175 Palmer Drive, Ligonier, PA 15658<\/p>\n<p>Phone Number: 724-238-9555<\/p>\n<p>Course Designer:\u00a0Dick Wilson<\/p>\n<p>Par:\u00a072<\/p>\n<p>Yardages, Course Rating, and Slope Rating:<\/p>\n<p>Pink &#8211; 7,366 yards &#8211; 76.2\/141\u00a0Black &#8211; 6,973 yards &#8211; 74.3\/139Blue &#8211; 6,754 yards &#8211; 73.5\/136White &#8211; 6,326 yards &#8211; 71.5\/131Green &#8211; 5,807 yards &#8211; 69.7\/125Red &#8211; 5,257 yards &#8211; 72.3\/128<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you think of difficult par 4 golf holes across western Pennsylvania, the 9th hole at Laurel Valley&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101229,772,73,75,74,726],"class_list":["post-244783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-elite-18","tag-golf","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}