Perhaps the way this thread should go to achieve Tom's desired effect is for all of us to name holes with water hazards in the form of ponds, lagoons, marshes, etc. (everyone seems to love a creek, however) that are well integrated into a hole from both an aesthetic and functional perspective and then try to explain why we think they work, or why the are different and distinctive.
I'll start.
The 436 yard (398 from the tee most play) par four 12th hole at the Jack Nicklaus designed Bayside Golf Club in southern Delaware is one of 18 holes that include water hazards on a lowland course built close to a tidal bay. Some of them work rather well, such as this one.
The 12h hole has a water hazard extending essentially tee to green on the dogleg left. The part closest to the tee seems to be an extension of a natural marsh, and your drive needs to carry a very small portion of it before the hazard swings back to the left and parallels the left side on the dogleg left hole down through the driving zone. At about 200 yards from the back tee, there are a few tall trees left right at the edge of the pond.
At 315 yards from the back tee, the hazard cuts across the fairway, and is pleasantly appealing visually with some natural vegetation growing within it and no sharp edges. From there is continues up the right side of the hole to the green and beyond, progressively turning from open water to marshland.
This water hazard works well because there are choices to be made on each shot and because of the diagonal nature of the use of the hazard, as well as the natural appearing integration of the natural features with the unnatural ones (the golf hole, essentially). On the drive, there is plenty of room to bail out away from the hazard on the right, but that leaves a much longer, awkward carry on the approach, to an elevated green built to receive a shot working left to right (again, back towards the hazard), and a steep falloff to the left of the green down to a bowled short game feature, where a recovery shot is very concerned with not blowing over and back into the hazard.
A drive that is aggressive and confronts the hazard on the left leaves a shorter iron (140 to 170 or so),which is what is really needed to approach the elevated green. Even there, however, one must be concerned because getting a ball up high plays into what is often a stiff, prevailing left to right wind where balls can be tossed blithely back to the right and into the hazard, although two low-lying pot bunkers well below the surface of the green and just a few feet from the hazard might "save" you.
However, whether your approach shot is from the shorter left or longer right, what makes this hole work for everyone is the fact that although there is water from tee to green, the only forced carry is perhaps the 20 or so yards of marshy hazard that intersects the fairway where the hole turns. One can always elect to play left and short of the green where there is a generous, but interestingly and highly contoured area, also protected by a bunker about 60 yards short of the green. From there, it's a funkily awkward little pitch, but the kind of shot that can be accomplished by anyone, yet still give a better player room for pause and confusion on exactly what type of shot to hit.
So there you have it. 436 yards of water hazard, only a few yards of forced carry, optional choices on all shots, continuing interest in how to factor in the wind, a green that is well designed to maximize the effect of the successes of pulling off those options, and a hole that can be played by anyone. It also helps that at no point is there a jarring visual transition between land and water.