"18th" Hole at Hoylake

[Evan_Green]

I'm curious as to what everyone thinks of the "home" hole at Hoylake (at least it being the home hole for the Open rather than #16) - in particular the cop/OB features which protrudes into the hole and must be carried on the second shot.

I usually am not a big fan of OB, but it certainly did make things exciting on the last hole as one blocked or cut shot could easily lead to a seven as in the case of Adam Scott. On the other hand the hole is at the same time Eagle-able - there is definately some risk-reward elements to think about.

Furthermore the cop/OB feature is (I believe) unique to Hoylake - does it exist anywhere else?  At the very least it is a penal feature that is something different from what we usually see (e.g. lake with a fountain or "dead" area - e.g. very dense bushes/ desert/ jungle, etc. that leads to a lost ball).

Thoughts?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Did anyone lament the removal of the OOB to the left of the old 7th/new 9th?  I completely forgot about it.

[ForkaB]

Sean

That cop I pointed out on the 9th(7th) was on the left, not the right. Looking at an old diagram of the hole from my '76 copy of the WAofG it did run through that new bunker on the left, right up to the edge of the green.  I'm pretty sure it played that way in '81 when I was there.  Also, in those days the cops were shaved rather than hairy, as they were last week.  No way then that a ball rolling at them at pace would stay in bounds as Els(?)'s drive did on 18(16) yesterday.

PS--I think our beloved leader was more than a little OTT when he called the re-do of the 7th(9th) as one of the 10 architectural crimes of the century, but that was his wont in those days when he was young and foolish, and used to post on this website.....

[Paul Richards]

This was a great hole for a Championship finisher.

Lots of interest - the cops are pretty cool and unique - lots of trouble and yet it's a reachable par 5 that had guys slinging the ball over everywhere.  Ernie had a short iron in yesterday's final round, yet almost hit it over the cop and had to scramble for 5.  Sergio hit his drive almost to the cop and had to make sure that he hit something high enough to clear it.

Great excitement and interest at this home hole.

 

[Mark Pearce]

I think the redesign of 7(9), which was a few years back and not for the purposes of this Championship greatly improved the hole.  In the past I'd hit a tee shot into a right to left wind at 7 which had hit the green and gone OOB.  I have no problem with hazards close to a green but OOB so close to a green was, I think, too punitive.

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