What hole baffles you?

[Gary Daughters]

I just got back from my home course, where lightning chased me off after nine.  As always, I bogeyed the sixth hole.

It plays 175 yds., probably 20 feet down tee to green.  The green is roughly the shape of an upside down L, with a sizable bunker filling in much of the gap, especially toward the front.

Depending on wind and how I am swinging, I have hit 7-iron into the bunker, 6-iron into the bunker, 5-iron into the bunker, and 4-iron into the bunker.  Everything goes into the g----- bunker.

Is there a hole you cannot figure out?  Does it drive you mad?  Is this good design?  

I believe it is.

[Mike Dickson]

I actually enjoy playing holes that I have trouble with.  I suppose it's a combination of excitement and the hope of success.  Things like this, however, I find are frequently less dependent on architectural design and have more to do with a golfer's comfortabilty with a shot, past experiences and psychological strength.

But if, for example, you find yourself time after time being rejected by a false front or mocked by a closely mowed collection area, I'd give the architect his full due and proclaim it excellent architecture, provided the shot is not asking too much from the golfer from a design standpoint.

[Jay Flemma]

Hey Gary...yeah lightning just missed my butt too today.  I never knew how fast I could run with my bag on!

As much as I love Tobacco Road (alot) I have never hit the 18th fairway on  the first try.

[Gary Daughters]

ain't scareda a little lightnin, izya?

[PThomas]

i'm REAL SCARED of ANy lightning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Phil Benedict]

Many holes give me trouble but what I find strangest is the way history tends to repeat itself on certain holes.  For example, there is a par three on my home course where I always hit it left.  It feels like Groung Hog Day.  I have no explanation for this pattern, but it's persistent.  I often begin the golf year with the goal of improving on a particular hole.

[Kyle Harris]

The first hole at Huntingdon Valley STILL messes with my head. A downhill sweeper of a hole with a green that just sits there mocking you to hit it from the sloping angle.

Just DOES NOT fit my eye at all.

I love it - one of my favorite openers in golf.

[Gary Daughters]

Phil,

I made a conscious effort today to "reverse" my strategy on a number of holes.  It had never occured to me before.  I played different clubs, took different sides of the fairway, even saw parts of the course I had never seen before.  Not only was it interesting, I think I scored better.

[Brian Cenci]

The 13th at Crystal Downs always gets me on the second shot.  I'm convinced it's best to go long (when the pin is in front) and chip back to the front of the green.

#5 @ Eagle Eye (in East Lansing, MI) always gets me.  It's a par 3, 200 over water and the hole (and water) are cut right to left.  I bale out so far right (away from the water) it isn't even funny.  I'm always pin high in the rough about 70 yards away.

[Jay Flemma]

Gary, I was so scared I sprained my thumb THROWING my bag in the trunk and fleeing into my car.  It got too close. And the thunder made me jump fifty feet.

You know what you do if you see lightning?  You point at it, yell "LIGHTNING!" and run like hell.

That works for "Tornado!" too.

Phil, nice groundhog day reference!  Gary I like your reverse psychology strategy, but how will that help me at 18 at Tobacco?!  There's no reverse!

[Gary Daughters]

disclosure:

"ain't scareda a little lightnin, izya?

this is what the geezer on the practice green hollered as i was sprinting for the clubhouse.

[Phil Benedict]

I made a conscious effort today to "reverse" my strategy on a number of holes.  It had never occured to me before.  I played different clubs, took different sides of the fairway, even saw parts of the course I had never seen before.  Not only was it interesting, I think I scored better.

One of the better players at my club suggested something like this to me last year, although it was a more general statement about my approach to the game.  For example, I was having trouble with a hook, so he said consciously try to hit a fade.

Back to the subject of problem holes, so much is determined by how the hole suits your eye.  I tend to hit a draw so left to right doglegs can be a problem, particularly if the hole runs out of fairway to the left pretty quickly.  

Players at the highest level have holes that are recurring nightmares too.  Last year at the Players, there was one hole where Tiger drove it into heavy rough to the right of the fairway four days in a row.  He could not hit the drive the hole called for.  Forget which hole but it was early in the back 9.  I'll bet he dreaded hitting that tee shot.  

[M. Shea Sweeney]

 the 13th hole at Mid Pines gets me everytime, those who arent familiar, 230 from the back of the box, 218 at the mark, bunkes short on the right, bunker along the left greenside, open in the front

[Peter Sayegh]

Gary, Paul, Jay-

Have you learned nothing from Trevino?
Just hold up your one-iron

[SPDB]

Though I know I'm not alone, the 11th at Merion is a hole that terrifies me. True its got a dicey greenend, but at 370 with a pronounced downward slope in the middle section, I don't feel it should be this difficult. I've screwed this hole up more ways than you can imagine. The worst is when the rough is up and you push your drive right, and it gets caught like velcro in the downslope, where you have as nasty a 150 yard shot as you can imagine, and, of course, you're telling yourself the whole time "there's no way i'm laying up from 150 yards." Logic you are cursing on the 12th tee as you write down 7 (or worse).

[mike_beene]

It pretty much ruined Trevino.The hole that has my number is 11 on TOC.

[Bill_McBride]

M. Shea Sweeney,

I thought #13 Mid Pines was a pretty easy hole the only time I played it last October in the Dixie Cup -- hit driver at the right edge of the green, walked up there and found the ball 4" directly behind the hole.  

Needless to say this was quite a pleasant surprise!    I didn't come close to birdie any place else....

[Jordan Wall]

Theres this one hole...

Its Ballinger GC, my schools course.

#5, 129 yards from where are tournament is.

Every time I play a wedge, whether a hook or a cut, it gets over done.  Then I play for the center of the green in frustration and hit it right where I am aimed.

Then a couple weeks ago I got it right.  I take a wedge, a DEAD MIDDLE PIN, and it takes one bounce into the hole...then it bounces out??!??  OMG it was bad.  So I at least had a shortish birdie putt of about a foot and a half.  Hit a perfect putt, hits a rock, bounces off line and I make par.  WOW.

Man, I love that hole!

[cary lichtenstein]

I think the holes that baffel me are the ones that are poorly designed.

[ForkaB]

18th at Cypress Point.  1st bite of the cherry I pull hooked the ball to a place where I assumed I was dead, but it was possible to hit a 9-iron over the trees and onto the green.  Easy 4.  2nd time I hit what I thought was a good high 3-iron and it hit one of those trees in the middle of the fairway and bounced right.  I was dead there and proved it, hitting a sliced 6-iron that cut too much and bounded into the boondai.  Easy X.

If I ever get to play there again, I think I'll pull a Ty Webb and play blindfolded......

[Mike Benham]

The 7th at Olympic Lake ...

270 - 290 yards, should be a simple 4, a hole that you should birdie 50% of the time.

A slightly uphill tee shot, that visually lines you up to push the ball right.

If you are in the fairway, your second shot is not from a level lie (it is Olympic afterall), a triple tiered, narrow green that is surrounded by 5 bunkers ...

[tlavin]

The tee shot on 18 at Lost Dunes.  I just cannot get myself oriented on that tee box.  I blame Tom Doak.  I blame him.  I'm sure that he is unapologetic about the architectural sleight of hand that he engineered, doubtless with the single goal of helping me triple bogey the hole every time I've played his gem of a design.  I'm thinking of it as a 17 hole course from this moment forward.

[Eric Franzen]

The 5th on my home course drives me nuts.

Either you go over the water with a straight drive and find your intended line for the approach blocked by the small tree in front of the green...

A tee shot to right usually lands somewhere where the middle cluster of trees interfers.

The green is raised and slopes downhill from left to right and leaves you with an impossible chip if the approach is too long.

Ahhh... I would just love to bring a chainsaw and take my time with the trees in the middle.

[TEPaul]

"Is there a hole you cannot figure out?  Does it drive you mad?  Is this good design?"

Gary:

There sure are--lots of them.  

Sure they drive me mad. But it's hardly ever because I can't figure them out---I can do that just fine. What almost every one of them does to me is make me feel uncomfortable or unconfident for some reason which of course is never much more than some shot requirements demand something of me I'm not too confident about doing well.

Do I think that's good design if they make me feel that way? Sometimes but certainly not necessarily. I've seen plenty of holes that are designed in such a way that no matter what kind of shot anyone hits the hole may not work that well. But on well designed holes something (an option) may work really well, it's just that I'm not much good at using that option.  

In my opinion, the best of the latter type holes strategically offer the best examples of options which can level out various players into what used to be called "tortoise and hare" strategies.  

[redanman]

Shinnecock #10, but it seems to baffle everyone.

I believe holes that baffle you more often deserve study than they are actually "bad holes" as Q suggests.