I'm with Adam and Jason; my favorite hole this year was one I walked, but did not play, and two photos can't do it justice (so begging for indulgence for not following directions...):
The short, option-filled par 4 is my mistress; they are the holes I always remember, months after seeing them. My favorite one this year is the odd funk of the 2nd hole at Erin Hills, site of next year's U.S. Amateur Championship and a future U.S. Open course (excerpted from my thread earlier this year on the course) (Designers: Hurdzan, Fry, Whitten, USGA's Mike Davis
):
Hole No. 2 (par 4, 363/341/322/322)The tee shot of the wonderfully odd 2nd hole; from tee to green, it’s nearly a straight line. But the design of the hole makes it anything but straightforward. The play here is filled with options: the simplest play is a fairway wood/iron to the fairway on a line to the left of the small tree near the path. A more aggressive line is a controlled fade aimed at the highest point of the mound left, with the potential of catching a speed slot on the other side. A super-aggressive play is a draw over the mound right, with the aiming point the left bunker; a successful play here could end up near the green.
Here’s where the safe play ends up; it’s a blind shot to the green.
The backside of the mound right, mown at fairway height.
A look at the backside of the mound left; those playing this shot from the tee need to avoid a narrow bunker that juts out into the fairway.
The tiny green of the 2nd, enlarged from its original postage-stamp size (about 50 percent bigger) at the request of the USGA. Everything falls away from this green, which is crowned and was not manufactured in any way. A natural esker sits to the left of the 2nd green, making for a perfect runway tee used for the 3rd hole.
Three more looks at the 2nd green – from the left side…
…from high atop the 3rd tee…
…and from the back.
Why I like this hole: It really captures what the designers of Erin Hills tried to do here -- use an unusually contoured piece of land for a "natural" course that -- as originally envisioned -- would simply sit upon the land, with the glacial mounds, eskers and deposits forming much of the interest in how a given hole was laid out and played. Some holes capture this better than others at Erin Hills; none is truer to its original intent than the 2nd. It's not difficult, but one that reveals to the golfer the kind of terrain Erin Hills was built on, and how the course was routed in and around the glacial features.
Runners-up:
Walked, not played:
#8 at Blue Mounds CC (Raynor)
Blue Mound is quite flat, and much of its appeal lies in Raynor's faithful adherence to his template holes and a terrific set of greens. The 8th hole moves over some of the more interesting land at the course; it's a stout par 4 that moves uphill the entire way, features a major fairway bunker, and a wonderful punchbowl green at the end (excerpted from Blue Mound thread from earlier this year):
#8 (par 4, 445/406 – Punchbowl)
Trees lurk close to the fairway on both sides, and the rough here is some of the thickest on the course. The golfer declining to take driver off the tee to avoid the trees and rough will do so knowing he’ll be left with a much longer, uphill approach shot. Long iron, hybrid and fairway wood approaches were the order of the day during the Western Junior played here this summer.
Gashing the fairway some 300 yards off the tee is this bunker complex, which is deep and penal. I didn’t see anyone come close to reaching it off the tee at the Western Junior; one hopes the tees are moved up a bit for next year’s U.S. Amateur championship qualifying round, in the hope that the long-hitting amateurs will try to take on what could be set up as a solid risk/reward hole.
A look back at the 8th fairway and the tee in the distance; the 8th is one of the few fairways at Blue Mound where the golfer is likely to encounter an unlevel lie in the fairway.
A marvelous Raynor greensite, a true punchbowl. Although not depicted well here, the green features several internal contours.
Played:
The 17th at Spring Valley, an under-the-radar Langford/Moreau in Salem, WI, near the Illinois border about 20 miles west of Kenosha. Par 3, 184/163 yds. The tee shot is slightly downhill to a sharply tilted green:
The course is bunkerless, but the distinctive Langford/Moreau mounding found at courses like Lawsonia can also be found at Spring Valley; here's one fronting the 17th green:
The sharp back-to-front tilt of the green can be seen here, and the green features some significant internal contouring; there are easily a half-dozen pin positions on this green, some of them quite daunting:
A great par 3, with one of the best greens in Wisconsin; it can easily stand up to the best of the par 3s at Langford's better-known Lawsonia.