best hole to hit a really, really, really long drive...

[Jordan Wall]

Immediately everyone will think of Kapalua 18, especially with it going waaaaaaaaaaay downwind.  But the first hole at Castle Pines, up big time in elevation, with a 60-foot elevation drop, and going way downwind, would seem to me like the hole most likely to hit your one really really big bomb.

What is the easiest hole to bomb your one 'super bubba' drive on??  What is the easiest hole to consistently hit the 'big bubba'??  As far as what I've played, it would be Kapalua 18 but in my brain the 1st at Castle Pines would be easier?!?

[Mark Brown]

Augusta 10 -- just don't hit it in the bunker

Pebble 18

[Glenn Spencer]

# 1 at Cherry Hills

[SPDB]

#16 at CPC  

[Glenn Spencer]

17th at Moraine, 7th at Inverness, 1st at Shinnecock

[Doug Braunsdorf]

I really liked 10 at Pine Needles.  Seeing the pictures of the hole, it was very intimidating in the weeks leading up to the tournament, to be honest with you.  The fairway appears to be miles away from the teebox, carry over water, and the first part of the fairway is a hill, which turns left sharply around a bunker guarding the corner.

I sure as heck didn't want to be hitting a second from the uphill part of the fairway.  My only thought was that with my length, I must clear the bunker.  

#10 Par 5 is reachable if you hook one around the corner and/or blast over the bunker--I took an aggressive line over the bunker, and made the shot, but Sean and I lost the hole to Brent Hutto and Steve Wilson.   Well played, Brent and Steve.  

I practiced that draw for WEEKS leading up to DCII!

[Pat Howard]

The 1st/18th at St. Andrew's. It may not be downhill, but the fairway is the largest I've ever seen. You can really have a go at it!

[Doug Siebert]

#12 Lahinch is a pretty good one for bombing a monster on level ground.

[Michael Robin]

Here's one that's a little obscure - the 15th at Pasadera (Nicklaus on the Monterey Peninsula) is 562 yards par 4!!! The tee shot is off the top of the mountain and is something like a 285 yard downhill carry to the fairway. The ball just stays in the air forever. It was Driver, 2 iron 4 years ago.

[ForkaB]

Not at all obscure, Michael.  I hit driver 3-iron there 5 years ago (nyah,nyah! ).  If it were maintained firm and fast, Tiger could probably drive that green.....

I personally much prefer flat links holes which are slightly blind after the 280 mark or so, have humps and hollows which will either turbo boost your ball or stop it in its tracks, and are tuned up to tournament speed, particularly with a modest (1-2 club) wind behind you.  The anticipation walking to your ball is priceless.

PS--Did I mention that we walked Pasadera?  Only 4-ball to ever have done that and survived.........

[TEPaul]

The hole that would've produced the biggest drive of all time from some is a hole that was not built---at least not yet.  

It was the 12th at Ardrossan Farm (the course GMGC would've moved to).

The hole would've been done using an absolute natural landform (essentially nothing at all would've needed to be done to it other than plant it).

It could've been set up as a very long (yardage-wise) par 4 or a medium par 5 of about 550. The tee shot would be gradually down a long decline that about 300-350 out and way over on the right of about a 150 yard wide fairway would catch a huge turbo-boost that would even take a ball trickling on the fairway maybe another 200-250 yards down to a  valley to the right and right underneath the green.

Only problem would be from there you're looking at a shot to a green maybe 30 feet or more above you that's long side to side but very narrow from there. The risk is if you didn't hit that high shot within a distance of about 12-15 steps your ball would come all the way back to you or go over the other side which drops way off again and is death.

But for the long hitter who could get the ball way over to the right and carry it maybe close to 300 (firm and fast would definitely help here) that drive would end up close to 550 yards from the tee. I doubt any other hole in the world could top that.

[Mike_Sweeney]

The Jump @ County Sligo # 5

[Dan_Callahan]

#16 at the Ranch Golf Club in Southwick, MA. It's by far the most severe elevation change I've ever seen (although the 9th hole at the same course follows a parallel line down the side of the mountain). It is routine to hit 350– to 400-yard drives. Of course, the first time you play there and see the next group is 400-yards away from you on the GPS, you think you are safe to hit (the fairway is blind from the tee because of the extreme drop off). All sorts of near misses on that hole.

[Scott Witter]

We are working on a project where the 17th hole will have a 235 foot drop from tees to the green coming down the mountainside.  The hole length is a 630 yard par 5 with very interesting choices to make after your BIG drive

[Doug Wright]

Jordan,

Having played both Castle Pines and Kapalua, I'd say it has to be Kapalua. The combination of elevation change, slope of the fairway, downwind (usually, and usually a lot) and downgrain make the tee shot at Kapalua #18 easily the chance to hit your longest drive of a lifetime. Castle Pines #1 gives you a LOT of air time     which is fun but you don't get a lot of roll afterward (except for the week when the pros play the International and unless it rains the fairways are much firmer, that is... )

[Tom Huckaby]

Rich - not all that long ago we did the NCGA rating at Pasadera.  We had the scratch hit the ball something like 310.  Remember his normal distance is 225 in the air plus 25 roll for these purposes.  He easily reached it in two - thus the 521 par 4 designation was deemed to be correct.

Which of course leads me to ask:  were you sick that day, or just exhausted from the walk?  I have to assume the latter.  Because 3iron in, well jeez... even weakstick me got to to about 200 in, and the 2nd continuing so downhill that meant a 5iron....

 

BTW, of course you also know I cite you guys all the time when the subject of stupid walking just to make a point comes up.  And it does come up often.  Walking that course... good god, I continue to ask:  why?  Did you lose a bet or something?

 

[ForkaB]

Huck

Michael and I (and Gib and Neal and Dave) played the back tees at 562.  You must have been rating for the "bogey score" if you played from the 521 ladies tees.  Speaking of which, what was 14 like from those ladies tees--playing to the side of rather than over the canyon....?

PS--Real men walk.  Gib even ran up the Eiger from 13 to 14.

[Tom Huckaby]

Rich:

Heck this was a while ago - as I recalled the back tee was 521, not 562.  But heck check my tagline about my memory these days.  In any case we don't rate from ladies tees.  Obviously I'm hazy on the distance of the hole, but us getting the scratch out 310 is solid, because that was by far the farthest we've ever made him go in my experience. Anyway we rated from the back through the middle... and I played the back.  I had 5iron in.  Nice try.  You are getting old - maybe time to take up Mucci's exercise regimen?

As for your walking, I still feel more pity for you than I am impressed.  Sure anyone CAN do it.  I continue to ask, why?  Real men don't have to prove their manhood through stupid acts of stamina.

 

TH

ps - 14 is a pretty fun shot from the other side of the canyon... I know this because well, it's also the drop area.  

[Tim Leahy]

We are working on a project where the 17th hole will have a 235 foot drop from tees to the green coming down the mountainside.  The hole length is a 630 yard par 5 with very interesting choices to make after your BIG drive

Sounds like #18 on Lake Chabot in the Oakland hills. 660 par 6 all down hill and actually reachable in two in the summer time. A national long drive contest was held there in the 1940's, I think, that was won with a drive of 440 yards by a guy using a garden hose for a shaft.

[Brian Cenci]

#10 at Crystal Downs!

[Paul Payne]

The one I have had first hand experience with was on a decent course in Wisconsin called Trappers Turn. 27 holes by Roger Packard and Andy North. It was hole #9 but I forgot in which 9 hole series.

I am not exceptionally long, 240-250 but on this hole, hitting the downslope and rolling I ended up with a drive of 355 YARDS!

I'm ready for the tour.  

[Jordan Wall]

Theres a hole during my state qualifying tournament that is 500 yards or so and shoots 200! feet downhill.  When I played the tourney, it was downwind 30mph...hit 3-wood about 340 (342 was the measurement), and gap wedge to the green for an easy two putt par....500 yards, 3-wood, gap wedge.  Thats nuts considering my three wood only goes about 240 anyways!

Oh, BTW, the long drive for that hole was 403 I think, by a long bomber!!

[Tony_Muldoon]

The Jump @ County Sligo # 5

Well done Mike, I was going to nominate ‘the jump’ earlier today but without a photo I figured, what's the point they wouldn’t understand?

So you tee off here and the ball hangs in the air forever.  It's got to be 300' down to that fairway, the only course I've ever played where in order to walk down to the fairway you have to negotiate a couple of hairpin bends.

I've often thought that most people on this group have been playing too long to remember some of the first pleasures you get from playing golf. They have forgotten that when you start playing you don't give a rats a*** for the flight of the ball or the sound off the club, you just want to see that pure white thing fly high up into the sky.  And for a few seconds on that tee I was Shivas Irons, I was the ball flying high into the sky, gliding gently down to the earth below.  I parred the hole off 22 and I still get a warm feeling telling you about it now.

Two other thoughts.
I’ve been told that a couple of years ago Colt’s original plans for the course turned up – anyone know anything about them?
Secondly were those bunkers always supposed to be in the rough?

Mike you obviously played on a good sunny day. If you’ve got a picture, like Ran’s of the 17th from behind the green with a blue sky I’d love to see it. (Not a hole where you want to hit your drive a long way).

[Tony_Chapman]

Wait a minute. Isn't the 14th at Sand Hills the greatest Driver, Sand Wedge par-5 in the world?

[Andy Troeger]

Theres a hole during my state qualifying tournament that is 500 yards or so and shoots 200! feet downhill.  When I played the tourney, it was downwind 30mph...hit 3-wood about 340 (342 was the measurement), and gap wedge to the green for an easy two putt par....500 yards, 3-wood, gap wedge.  Thats nuts considering my three wood only goes about 240 anyways!

Oh, BTW, the long drive for that hole was 403 I think, by a long bomber!!

Jordan,
  It can be fun to hit some of those downwind holes. I remember a round a few years ago where I practically whiffed a drive out into the right rough on a hole that was playing very downwind (although it was flat). I was probably trying to do something silly like swing too hard to hit it 350 off the tee. I pulled out 7-iron from 240 out, and knocked it on the green after he ball bounced and rolled for about the last 70 yards

   Next hole I hit 4-iron from 165 and didn't make it there though going back the other way.