Southern Hills Golf Course

With half a dozen par threes on the scorecard, it’s no real surprise to learn the Southern Hills Golf Course at Hot Springs measures just over 5,900 yards from the back tees. Owned and operated as a municipal golf facility by the City of Hot Springs, it started out as a 9-hole layout in the late 1970s before subsequent expansion created the 18-hole layout that’s now in play.

Feature holes on the front nine include the 450-yard 4th, playing uphill to a two-tiered green; the downhill, right doglegging 557-yard 6th, which has only one bunker protecting the front left of the green; and the 409-yard 9th, where the fairway falls away from the tee then rises to the green.

On the back nine, the signature hole at the 11th measures only 338 yards from the back tees but this testing par four is rated stroke index 1. Tee shots play from an elevated position to a narrow, left-to-right sloping fairway before the approach shot then requires a carry over an intimidating canyon in front of the green.