[Mike Hendren]

In The Golf Courses of the British Isles Bernard Darwin writes of Walton Health:

It is the duty of every golf course to have a good seventeenth hole, and the seventeenth at Walton certainly need not fear comparison with the Alps and the Stationmaster's Garden.

Two questions for discussion:

1.  Must a great course have a great 17th hole?
2.  Is it as important as Darwin suggests in the U. S. given the dominance of medal play?

Note:  Perhaps I'm the only poster unfamiliar with the Stationmaster's Garden.  It is the area between the 17th and 2nd at The Old Course that was the walled residence of the stationmaster.  Any ball winding up there was originally treated as lost, but apparently Old Tom  had the lot cleaned up and players were given access to the garden to play their next shot.  

Here's hoping that 2014 is the best year of your life.

Bogey

[DMoriarty]

Note:  Perhaps I'm the only poster unfamiliar with the Stationmaster's Garden.  It is the area between the 17th and 2nd at The Old Course that was the walled residence of the stationmaster.  Any ball winding up there was originally treated as lost, but apparently Old Tom  had the lot cleaned up and players were given access to the garden to play their next shot.  

Are you sure about this location?   I thought the Stationmaster's Garden was on the other side, in the location of what is now the infamous Hotel? 

[Mike Hendren]

Happy New Year David.  I found an excerpt from Horace Hutchinson's Golf called "Local Rules for St. Andrews Links" that included the following local rule:

A ball in the enclosure (between the road and dyke holes) called the Station Master's Garden shall be a lost ball.

I believe that book was published in 1892 and I have seen a reference that Old Tom cleaned up the garden and eliminated the OB rule in 1901.  Apparently the in-course OB was quite controversial.

I have also seen a reference somewhere to a Station Master's Lodge that might have been located right of the 17th.

Mike  

[DMoriarty]

Thanks Mike.  Happy New Year to you, too!

[DMoriarty]

Mike,

I think maybe when the rule referred to "between the road and dyke holes" it was referring to "holes" in the old sense of the actual location of the holes in the ground, or the green.  If you look at map or aerial, the corner of the hotel is situated between the second green and the 17th green.  

In other words, I think perhaps the Station-master's garden was the hazard predating the Hotel (and sheds in between.)

From Hutchinson's Golf, 1902:

. . and are coming to that dreaded seventeenth—so near the end, and so dangerous! For after we have piloted our way through, or round, or over the corner of the wall enclosing the Station-Master's Garden, and the little bunker on the left, and have turned up towards the right, with our seconds, then we see that little Garden of Eden—very different from the river so called—where the hole is, lying between Scylla and Charybdis (a dread vision such as may excuse any anachronism in our similes!), that horrid little round bunker to one side of it, and that hopeless hard road on the other. And the canny golfer we see approaching it in instalments, and the bold spirit, taking his fate in his hand, going for glory or the grave.

[Carl Johnson]

Calls to mind the response attributed to Ben Hogan when asked which was his most important (or critical) shot during a tournament.  He's reported to have said, "They all count one."

[Mike Hendren]

David, your scenario makes better sense.

Bogey

[Brett Wiesley]

I think a difficult and challenging 17th is critical for a great golf course.  I personally think the 18th shouldn't be too punishing, as it will ruin the chance to bring home a great round.  Remember, most golf is played by us regular folk, not tour pros.  However, given the popularity of TV golf, a punishing 18th is sought after to bring drama to TV.

Additionally, most of the golf I play is match play, either friendly or in competition, and many matches are over before the 18th, so 16 & 17 should be good, as it can be critical.  Just look at the change made at Murfield Village's 16th (to a bear of a par 3) in anticipation of the President's Cup match play.

[Sean_A]

There is an inherent difficulty with making 16-18 holes which are hard to play.  This tends to mean one or two may be high handicap index holes and thus more likely be subject to shot giving in handicap matches.  I tend to think 18 should be a good birdie opportunity and that 17 (or perhaps 16) should be a difficult hole to par.  But I wouldn't want to get too caught up in any sort of finishing formula other than trying to make 18 not overly taxing if possible, but with guile. So no, Bogey, I don't think the 17th is critical.

Ciao

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