Just had to drop in a troll post, huh?
An implication of CBM's comment is that the best holes have no dominant strategy for how to play them -- there's no one best way but rather the way varies according to the conditions, the conditions of one's game that day, and the state of the match.
Lack of a dominant strategy, as that other Mac wrote, contributes to the lasting appeal of a hole -- and to an inscrutability that should pardon a hole from immediate judgment.
I don't know NLGA, all I know is Yale. But Yale has plenty of holes where play will vary.
Three examples for a start:
4: how much to challenge the pond off the tee.
14: slingshot it off the left chute, blast it over the trees right, or lay back center.
18: after playing the hole hundreds of times, still have yet to figure out which way to go on the second shot -- usually go left, but after playing the hole usually curse not going down the right. Of course, I'm not saying it's a great hole...
And, besides, everyone knows Merion is, if not a product of Mac's hidden hand, pure homage to the Old Master. That template holes lurk underneath that verdant canvas. One cannot criticize CBM without damning Merion. One cannot hold up Merion without bowing at the altar of the founder of American golfing religion, The Very Golfing Reverend Charlie Mac.
Yes yes!!!