The best front pins

[Matt_Cohn]

Writing about #13 at Prairie Dunes got me thinking about this. What are the best FRONT pins in the game? Every weekend we hear, "The pin is in its traditional Sunday location, back-left." Why not front-right? Here's a starter list of good front pins, you guys can take it from here...!

#13 at Prairie Dunes
#17 at TPC at Sawgrass
#18 at Inverness
#11 at St. Andrews (right?)
#5 at Royal Melbourne

#17 at Prairie Dunes is the hardest front pin I've ever played, but I don't think it's the best at all.

[Dunlop_White]

Front pin, Hole 9, Augusta National!

Hitting from a downhill/sidehill approach back uphill to a front pin with a severe false front perhaps is one of the hardest shots in golf to get close.

[Dan Kelly]

No. 1 at The Old Course.

No. 1 at The Reverse Old Course.

[Fred C.]

#5 at Merion
#2 at Pine Valley

Yours,

FJC

[Jeff Fortson]

#11 Shinnecock

#16 Pasatiempo

Jeff F.

[redanman]

#15 NGLA (Narrows), especially left.  Host of others, too.

[THuckaby2]

#11 Shinnecock
#16 Pasatiempo

Jeff F.

Jeff - are we talking BEST, or most UNPLAYABLE?

Having witnessed young Tiger Woods take 4 to get down from just short of 16 Pasa's front pin, I call that location stupid/silly golf.  The ball just plain won't stay on the green the way the speeds are today.

No comments re 11 Shinnecock.

Tom "Quintuple Bogey on that hole in that location but that's because I'm an idiot and Greg Norman sure can play just fine to that pin" Huckaby

[ChrisB (Guest)]

With a few notable exceptions (certainly #17), the front pin positions at St. Andrews are almost always the most interesting for me, because they demand the most precision in negotiating the humps/hollows/etc. in front of the green.  I think the front pins on #'s 1, 2, 3, 4!, 5!, 6, 8, 11 (if over the Strath), 13, 14, 16!, and 18 might be the best on each of these holes.

[Peter_Herreid]

I'll put up #11 and #17 at Crystal Downs as knock-out front pin positions, although the course has any number of excellent front pins...

[wsmorrison]

I second:
Merion #5, though pin anywhere on L and ball on R is danger waiting to happen.  #3 at Merion is tough as well.
Pine Valley #5, you nearly have to putt it sideways to stay on green
Shinnecock #11

I include:
Rolling Green #8, #14 and #15
Philly CC #18

Uphill shots to greens that slope back to front make for particularly difficult approaches to front pins due to the penal nature for being above the hole and the fear factor induced.  At least imho.

[THuckaby2]

For those who have played or seen Shinnecock, what about #10?  We played that also to a front pin, and not only was it VERY hard to get at, the ensuing, inevitable putt downhill back to the front pin was amongst the scariest I've ever had.  Just a tiny bit too hard and that goes all the way down the hill....  Or is my memory faulty here?  

TH

[wsmorrison]

right on, Tom!

[THuckaby2]

WHEW!  I thought it was a combination dream (getting to play that course period) / nightmare (the putt I had on 10).  I feel a little more secure that this was indeed reality.  

Just an aside - what an absolutely phenomenal back to back 10 and 11 at Shinnecock are, by any measure....

TH

[TEPaul]

Some good ones that come immediately to mind; #2 Seminole!! When greens are fast you can't get 3 ft above it! It might just be better to come up short of the green to this one!

#6 and #15 Lehigh!! A very narrow front tongue to play to on both those green fronts.

I was going to say a front pin at Merion's #12 but I don't know if even the front half of that green is pinnable anymore. Yesterday a long hitter hit probably no more than a SW into that green to a center back pin. He hit it about 6ft from the back of the green near the fringe that had a very small upslope and obviously hit it with too much spin and eventually the ball ended up back in the fairway in front.

Anything just over the upslope on the right of PVGC's #5 and also the front left pin on #3 (the only available pin position on the front of the green) is one of the more exciting shots there is. If you can somehow manage to hit it pin high without having the ball filter onto the grassy bank on the left you've hit one really great shot!

And as someone mentioned #2 PVGC front right! There's the double front to back swales to contend with coming in and if you happen to hit it way above the pin, you have a possibility of trying the famous Zorro putt that just might be one of the most unique putts in all of golf.

The front right pin on ANGC's #16 looked real intense too--I didn't see a lot of pros trying to go right at that little ledge this year.

[Dan Kelly]

Which was the hole at Merion where, in his first trip north and unused to the green speeds, Bobby Jones putted to a front pin ... right into a creek? (That's what I remember reading, anyway.)

[Scott_Burroughs]

#18 at the Dunes in Myrtle Beach, if they ever put it there.   Otherwise, back left is only pinnable spot on green.

Front right is toughest spot on Pebble's 18th.

I'll throw in one from my club, Wake Forest GC #11.  It is usually best to leave approach short and chip up steep hill, than to be long or even pin high more than 15 to the side.

[JAMIE_BLACK]

HOW ABOUT THE FRONT PIN POSITION AT THE 16TH TURNBERRY, I ENJOYED WATCHING JOHN DALY'S BALL IN '94  ROLL STEADILY BACK INTO THE BURN TWICE THERE!

[GeoffreyC]

Ross' use of the high points on a property to place greensites tends to give his courses morre then their share of false fronts and wicked front pin locations.

In addition to Tom Pauls suggestion of #2 at Seminole I would include the par 5 14th discussed in a different thread on back to back par 5's.

In addition, the 8th at Siwanoy is another and though not a naturally high greensite the 12th ( if memory serves me correctly) at Pinehurst #2 is particularly nasty. I have a memorable 2 putt on that hole in 1999 a couple of months before the US Open.  First putt off the green, second (not technically a putt) back up followed by a 5 footer for bogey.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Geoff,

Along that lines, another one in your area would be Whippoorwill's 7th.  Anywhere on the front of that green at the top of the steep hill could be tough.

[TEPaul]

Dan Kelly (tm);

That putt of Bobby's was back in 1930 when the course was really fast "through the green"! They're looking to reestablish that condition with their "in progress" restoration.

Bobby had a putt of about 3 feet directly above a pin on #12. The putt caught the top lip, spun out, started slowly down the green into the fairway and didn't stop until it dropped into the creek between #11 and #12 about 200 yards down the fairway.

They say that Bobby's caddie heard him mutter not that softly; "This *&%$#%! ideal Merion maintenance meld is just a little too &%$#@ ideal for me!!"

There's a little known trivia fact basically referring to that incident that relates to the plaque on hole #11 where Bobby won the Grand Slam about a week later.

After all the clapping and screaming stopped Bobby Jones was asked what his initial reaction was to having just won the Grand Slam. And apparently Bobby said his initial reaction was one of total relief to not have to go to that next hole and have another %$#@& comeback putt with his 2 iron from 210 %$#& yards out after a penalty shot for going into that #@&%$ creek again from 3 ft above the pin on that #$@%$ green!

[GeoffreyC]

Tom

I'm not a rules official but could Bobby have just replaced the ball 3 feet above the hole and tried again with a one shot penalty rather then another %$#@& comeback putt with his 2 iron from 210 %$#& yards out after a penalty shot for going into that #@&%$ creek again from 3 ft above the pin on that #$@%$ green?  

[Mike_Cirba]

Yes, Geoffrey, but he knew his odds were better trying to play the 210 yard shot, and this time keeping it under the hole.    See you tomorrow!

[TEPaul]

Amazing! So you heard that little know story too, huh, Geoffrey?

There's even a less well known fact about that incident. Just after Bobby won the Grand Slam and made that little known statement there was a friend of Bobby's with him from Yale who'd followed Bobby the entire week and who told him he should've done just what you said.

And Bobby apparently said to his friend from Yale; "Well, why didn't you tell that when I putted the #$@%& ball from 3 feet above the cup into that $%#@& creek 200yds down the $%#@& fairway you &%$#@ Ivy League CLOD!!

[GeoffreyC]

Bobby knew better then to get DQ'd for accepting advice.

[TEPaul]

Geoffrey:

Well, that's true and very astute of you to mention that. Bobby Jones was a very bright guy and he also knew that his friend, the $#%&$ Ivy League CLOD from Yale, did not know that he could have been DQed for accepting advice and so he thought he may as well raze him for saying that anyway.

Although Bobby was from Hotlanta Georgia, it's a better known fact that Bobby was also a Harvard man, and Harvard men have always felt their brethern from Yale are %$#&% Ivy League CLODS--so Bobby just felt he should remind him of that extremely well known fact!