One of the interesting things to me about Machrihanish is that the opening hole, with its cape-like drive over the Atlantic Ocean, gets all the publicity and is viewed as one of the premier par 4s in all of golf.
To me, it's not nearly as good of a hole as No. 2, and pales besides several of the others on the front nine. Yes, the drive is terrific. But the fairway is uncharacteristic of many of those found on the front nine -- flat with level lies, and Machrihanish's front nine is all about uncertain lies and crazy bounces. In addition, 1st green is angled away from the ocean, not toward it (reducing its true cape-like nature), and is pretty tame in terms of contouring. The 2nd green is an all-world green, and much more representative of what the golfer will find throughout the round there.