Putting Around

Put a golf club in a beginner's hands and strange things start happening.

Normally relaxed hands clutch the club with white knuckles, loose muscles instantly achieve inflexible status and a slew of swing thoughts flood the brain.

Unless, of course, that club is a putter. Even the first-timer feels comfortable with a putter in hand. There aren't left arms to keep straight or heads to keep down or knees to flex with the putter.

There's no need to get the ball airborne under the pressure of your playing partners' watchful eyes. All you have to do is get the ball rolling toward the hole. And the best part is if you miss, who cares? Even pros miss putts.

Thus the appeal of The Greens, an 18-hole putting course in Irvine complete with sand traps, water hazards and rolling fairways. It's designed by golf course architect Ted Robinson, who also designed county gems Tijeras Creek and Tustin Ranch.

It's also a course where the only club you'll need is that trusty putter because the longest hole is 127 feet.

The Greens opened at Park Place in September 1995, and has since become a favorite destination for corporate outings, birthday parties, Saturday night dates and Sunday afternoons with the family.

But unlike its forefather, miniature golf, The Greens also has appeal to the serious golfer because of its level of difficulty and because the grass is real and so are the putts.

"It fills a void," said Jack Hopkins, owner of The Greens. "It's recreational, but it's also entertainment. It's competitive but fun. It appeals to golfers and non-golfers. It's participative, but it's not anything anyone gets intimidated by."

That isn't to say it's easy.

The holes range in length from 53 to 127 feet and are made of Penncross Bentgrass--a popular golf course blend. Many fairways have severe slopes with multiple hazards protecting them and most holes are not reachable from the tee.

Of the 18 holes, 14 are par-three, three are par-fours and one is a par-two, though pars are tough to come by and birdies are even rarer. On the 123-foot, par-four sixth hole, given the name "Colossus" for its resemblance to the famed Magic Mountain roller coaster, you must knock your tee shot up a steep embankment that bends sharply to the left while avoiding the left-side bunker that seems to suck your ball.