[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

In between patients so explanation is brief...
Royal Birkdale #6...very long and into the prevailing wind..well bunkered..great green complex with run offs into the deep bunkers.

Pine Valley #13...simply a brutal second shot unless you opt out ro the right side..perhaps should be played in the manner Hogan played #11 at Augusta National

2 and 18 at Sand Hills...great demanding teeshots and approach shots to very tough undulating greens.

Oak Hill...a number to choose from, but I will go with #17..close to 500 yards, uphill teeshot that has to hit the left half of the fairway, then a tight shot into the green...a tough hole, but not really a par four except for the tour players.

[ward peyronnin]

Patrick

Great way to frame an answer and very relevant. There is an Art Hills course in Bowling Green ky Old Stone i think where the opener is a 440 yd par four where the tee shot is played over a ravine ,that then runs along the left side of the hole, to a banked left dogleg fairway where you then have an uphill shot over the same bloody ravine to a very small domed green that is exposed and usually subject to the prevailing wind blowing in your face. No shit i made 11 first time i played. I don't like that and think the owner may have influenced this choice. Very dark initial impression

[Dan Kelly]

No need to identify the holes, but the Why is interesting:

They're the hardest because I stubbornly play them as par-4s, aiming for par and most often double-bogeying them -- whereas if I played them as par-5s, I might sometimes "birdie" them and would almost always "par" them.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Ward,

Difficult holes that appear further into the round tend to be mentally assimilated better than opening holes where the fear factor and unknown is more pronounced.

Likewise, when you've got a great medal round going, finishing the round, or needing a par on a difficult par 4 adds additional elements of fear and the unknown.

ie, if you needed to make par on # 18 at WFW or Riviera to shoot your career round, those holes tend to be far more difficult than if the same holes were in the mid-section of the course.

It's that special, excrutiating pressure that the last hole places on the golfer that can make the 18th hole so formidable, moreso than it actually is..... physically.

[JESII]

Interesting point, but is that enough to make it "the toughest hole"? How often are we trying to finish off our career rounds?

The last hole on the planet (of the 20 or so courses I've played...) I would want to have to bogey to win a bet is #10 at Shinnecock when the greens are fast.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Jim,

From which tees ?   

[Tommy Williamsen]

My vote goes to Royal County Down's 2nd, measuring 444 yards from the back tee.

Blind tee shot to a narrow fairway.  Played entirely along Dundrum Bay, where the winds are strongest.  If the fairway is missed you now need to decide if you'll either challenge a crazy evil cross bunker 50 yards short of the green, or, lay up.  The cross bunker also partially obscures the view of the green and flag on the 2nd shot.  The green is very narow, although deep.

The 2nd is just a very hard golf hole.

Sure is.

The 3rd is no bargain either, nor is the 15th into the wind.

My first thoughts were 2 & 3 at RCD.  It is a very stern start to a very stern course.

[Alex Miller]

I haven't played them, but openers always give me fits.

I nominate #1 at Oakmont and #1 at Pasatiempo.


The toughest one I have played is 4 at PD with a winter wind.

[Michael Huber]

I'm surprised there aren't more responses something like "I hate hole X because its completely in my head and I know exactly how I'm going to screw it up." 

On that note, when I went to the US Open at Oakmont a few years back, I wondered how it was humanly possible to reach the fairway from the way, way back tees on #7.  What a brutal tee shot.

[Rory Connaughton]

15 at Enniscrone.  The hole is not a brute in terms of distance (421 from the members tees and 371 from the society tees) ad the fairway is reasonably wide but the green is off set from the fairway to the left and 2/3 of the green is tucked behind a little knob.  Although reasonably long back to front, the green is also angled such that the approach from the blind side of the fairway has less green to work with.  The green surrounds are rumpled and maintained at fairway height so even if you miss the green you can putt but the up and down is not easy.  No. 1 handicap hole on a course with plenty of difficulty.

I have also found 8 at RCD to be very difficult.  Feels a bit like 15 at PV in that the hole keeps stretching up and away with a narrow green. Also plays into the prevailing wind which makes it feel even more difficult.

[J Sadowsky]

Rustic Canyon 14, into a 30 mph wind.  First drive, which I hit ok (I hit my drives about 225 then, and was playing from the Blues, at 440 yards), didn't make it to the fairway.  Second shot chipped out to the front of the fairway.  Third shot with a 3 wood made it to just around the fairway bunker.  My then 18 degree Hybrid made it to the front of the green on the 4th shot (flag was in the back), 2 putting for a double bogey with no bad shots (and 2 rather good putts). 

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