From a playing perspective, what's your

[Niall C]

I gotta go with the obvious answer -- Machrihanish. Read all about it and be ready to be disappointed, but I wasn't at all. Love it.
Cheers,
Dan King

Machrihanish was not a grueling course, but any legitimate scratch golfer who went around in level fours would be extremely delighted. And yet I don't think a twenty-handicapper would ever struggle to break a hundred there.  Machrihanish was fun, yet challenging, a combination that is suprisingly rare.
 --Michael Bamberger

This is unquestionably my choice.   

Ciao

Dan/Sean

I would wholeheartedly agree with both of you, although I would say that these days with modern clubs the drive isn't all that intimidating compared to what it used to be but it is the sense of expectation that makes the first at Machrihanish so good.

Niall

[Patrick_Mucci]

Jim Kennedy,

Either one will do.

I happen to like # 1 at TOC., but, OB is an ominous component of any starting hole.
It can ruin a round like no other element/component, hence, holes with OB are out.

I like starting holes that allow for margins of error, warm up holes if you care to classify them.

Holes that present a challenge, but, holes that allow for mistakes and recovery.

I'm less tolerant on finishing holes, but, tend to gravitate toward par 5's

[Mark Pearce]

Looking at Pat's criteria, I'm going to nominate the 1st at my home club, The Northumberland.  It's just over 300 yards and good (or just long) players may be tempted to go witha driver.  It's a dog leg right and anything missing left is either in deep and unforgiving rough or lost.  Anything right but short is in OK rough but leaves a bling pitch over a deep bunker.  Long is the racecourse, with its deep and clingy rough.

The smart play, for me and most golfers (even very good ones) is to knock a long iron or utility down the left middle (whioch is also steeply downhill)  and then hit a wedge back up the hill to a blind green.  You won't make many birdies that way (but you'll make some) but you should make an awful lot of pars and move on the the 2nd. You may even have the advantage over a more ambitious opponent who, in his attempt to make birdie got caught out.  It's a hole where the player who plays for par will probably make it but the man who tries to make bidie might, or might make bogey.

[Chris Cupit]

Merion
St. Andrews
NGLA
Wolf Run
Stanford (OK, not really, I just liked hitting over the road)
ANGC (from 400-425 yards) before they ruined it
Shinnecock

[Scott Sander]

Cherry Hills

I'm a sap for nostalgia, and the club certainly plays to it with the '60 Open tee box maintained so that guests can get their Arnie's Charge jollies.

Whispers and ghosts aside, it also achieves a nice design balance:  The hole is only hard if you want it to be.  BUT if you do decide to take a Palmerian rip, there can be great benefit or terrible consequence.

When you think about classic holes elsewhere that have a memorable tournament pedigree or 'moment', nearly all are in the closing stretch. 
Cherry Hills is interesting in that it offers that handshake with history on your very first swing.

(...come to think of it, 18 ain't bad, either!)

[Gene Greco]

  My Favs:


Sand Hills - no surprise. A great introduction to the 18 greatest holes. The first note of the greatest symphony.

Shinnecock Hills - this is a great hole that so few ever mention. Anticipation builds to play one of the world's #1 golf courses.

NGLA - Ball busting fun and a legendary green on yet another world #1 and Bill Coore's favorite.

Portstewart - While you wait to hit you can watch the kids "sled" down the dunes on your right into the sea.

Machrahanish - My group left Scotland after Turnberry but I had to stay to play this one alone. Paid the caddy to stay home while I went to golf church.

Friar's Head - A cousin to my favorite hole at Pine Valley (#2) on one of my favorite courses in the world.

Kapalua Plantation - Another Coore-Crenshaw masterpiece in a brilliantly beautiful setting.

[Dean Paolucci]

I nominate the following top 5 in no particular order with hommage to holes which have manageable second shots and high value putting surfaces;
1) The Knoll
2) Mountain Ridge
3) Sleepy Hollow
4) Plainfield (mentioned)
5) NGLA (mentioned)

[Sean_A]

I gotta go with the obvious answer -- Machrihanish. Read all about it and be ready to be disappointed, but I wasn't at all. Love it.
Cheers,
Dan King

Machrihanish was not a grueling course, but any legitimate scratch golfer who went around in level fours would be extremely delighted. And yet I don't think a twenty-handicapper would ever struggle to break a hundred there.  Machrihanish was fun, yet challenging, a combination that is suprisingly rare.
 --Michael Bamberger

This is unquestionably my choice.   

Ciao

Dan/Sean

I would wholeheartedly agree with both of you, although I would say that these days with modern clubs the drive isn't all that intimidating compared to what it used to be but it is the sense of expectation that makes the first at Machrihanish so good.

Niall

Niall

The whole cape concept of the 1st is that the drive is only as intimidating as one chooses to make it.  The better the player, the more aggressive they are likely to be.  I saw Greg Norman waltz up and treat this hole with some disdain and plop a ball in the sea.  He turned and said the carry is longer than it looks on that line - which was dead straight at the pin. 

Ciao