Kevin - That was, before the re-design, the WORST golf hole I had ever played in my life by a MILE.
Have not played the new one, but it has to be an improvement!
Yeah - that was a memorable one (for all the wrong reasons)! I never used the "A-Bomb" to describe it before. However, I had used the "ClusterF*ck" Label quite liberally.
If you haven't been to Holiday Valley (now renamed Double Black Diamond at Holiday Valley) since the re-design, you should make a trip. Paul Albanese (of Mill Creek) performed the work, and it was nominated by Golf Magazine as one of the Best Re-Designs of 2009.
http://www.holidayvalley.com/HolidayValley/info/hole-by-hole.aspxThe back 9 is completely different and much less claustrophobic. It's hard to describe hole numbers because they've changed the order several times over the years, but in general, the biggest changes are:
11: As described, changed from a "ClusterF*ck" Par 5 to a Par 4.
13: Used to be a very narrow, downhill Par 4 (approx. 320 yards). They brought out the chainsaws liberally, and created a double fairway (old fairway is left half). They cleared trees up the slope to add elevated tee boxes, so that it can now play 446 yards. You hit a nice drive, and you get to watch it soar for a LOOOONNNGG time until it lands (it's the hole pictured at the top of the webpage I sent you).
10: They added some elevated tee boxes to completely change the look of the hole and clear out some forest.
17 & 18 (or 10/11 depending when you played): Used to be a brutal uphill Par 4 up the right and then a long downhill Par 4 back down the left. Now, they've added a tee box so that the 17th now plays uphill on the left of the tree-line as a Par 5 (up the old 18th fairway) to a newly built green (behind where the 18th tee used to sit). The new 18th plays back down the old 17th fairway (with some trees cleared out), and uses the old 18th green (coming at it from the left side rather than the right).
There are a number of other changes you can see in the "Hole-by-Hole" link I sent. I was quite impressed with the changes.... except these two.
- The old 9th used to be a drivable Par 4 with a pond on the left side (took around 270 carry). To expand their condos, the teeing area was lost, so it's now a shortish Par 3 with a huge green built to receive a 270 yard drive, not a 7 iron. Not a bad hole, but I miss the short 4 risk/reward.
- They arbitrarily changed 16 from a half-par Five (465 yards) to a BEAST Par 4 (458 yards into the wind). That would be fine in some cases, but the green is designed specifically for a Par 5. There is a 5 yard wide creek cutting in front of the green, so it precludes any run up, and the green is not overly large (i.e. meant to receive a short approach). That's fine as a Par 5, because the person going for it in two accepts these risks. But just arbitrarily making it a Par 4 is absurd. This just reeks of the "Harder Must Be Better" mentality. The hole as designed is great - the decision to call it a Par 4 warrants the "A-Bomb."