The 4th Lido:
I personally think the direct route to the green at 4-Lido was too penal which caused most golfers to select the 3-shot route, negating much of the choice.
Fortunately Macdonald (and Raynor) decided to use it early in the front 9. At least if you screwed it up (easy to do) you had 14 holes left.
Remember there were winds at Lido and the 4th was very susceptible to a left to right, off ocean wind so a faded ball to the risk fairway could easily blow off the course into the channel.
Off fairway was sand and sea bents. The raised risk-fairway was considerably higher than the safer-route fairway. That route had all water all along the left and sidehill sand hazard on the (slice-side) right on the tee shot.
At Old Macdonald this “hole strategy” falls late in the round and a strong effort will be made to make both routes to the green the be both attractive off the tee as well as confusing and confounding off the tee.
I'm bumping this whole thread based on the other discussion on Lido. I'd rather talk wildly about Lido with 30+ posts then talking about Pine Valley during Open week.
Anyway, this hole still exists. RTJ left it essentially unchanged in the new routing, and it is hole 16 (I think - it's been several years since I've played the RTJ Lido). It's a very clever hole, and the jewel of the course. Unfortunately, driver is simply not a realistic option off the tee. For all but the best players, and in all but the quietest winds, this means playing an iron off the tee into the center of the dual fairway, then playing a second shot into the layup area.
The current green is not spectacular - I assume the original contours have not been maintained.
I'd love more discussion on this hole - it is certainly one of the best I've played, and on what is otherwise a relatively mundane course.