To dovetail off of Kyle's thread on the very interesting 2nd hole at Galen Hall, I present now the "moat hole" at GH, done by Tillie in 1917. He came in and added a 2nd nine to the original Findlay nine.
This par 3 is the 15th hole and pretty much sits in the middle of a valley. So as you are playing your round, you can get glimpses of the hole from other parts of the course. For instance, while near the 8th tee you can see the green down between some trees:
From this same spot I took a series of photos and put together a QT VR movie, where you can zoom in on the moat hole green:
http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/GalenHall/GH_pano.movOn the 14th hole you are sort of on the other side of the valley and the green is really coming into view now:
Once on the moat hole tee box you see that it perhaps play a little bit downhill, but a couple of things really stand out:
1. It really is a moat hole! It is completely surrounded by water.
2. When played from the tips, it is pretty tough at 193 yards. That's just a wee bit longer than the 17th at Sawgrass.
Here is a picture of the hole from the June, 1927 edition of Golf Illustrated (thanks Phil Young!):
So it looks like the hole now is pretty much like it was many years ago.
After we exited the green using the bridge at the rear, we were just taking in the sunny day, then decided to have some fun and play the hole from the cart path and across the bridge:
Kyle's putt made it down the macadam and started along the wooden bridge, but took a bad bounce (rub of the bridge?!), popped up in the air, and stuck between two of the boards. This put a lot of pressure on me. I took my time to prepare:
I gave it a mighty whack.... then Murphy's Law was in action. As my ball left the asphalt and started over the bridge, it hit Kyle's ball and we both ended up in the moat. Laughter ensued and we moved onto the next hole.
Galen Hall is a pretty neat place. I have a photo album of all 130 pics I saved if you really want to see it in full:
http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Galen_Hall/index.html