Worst Hole You've Ever Played?!

[Jordan Caron]

#1 at Furry Creek in British Columbia.

It's about 320 yards that's really tight with water all along the left and rubbish to the write. A 100 ft drop from the tee to green allows for the ball to get offline.

It use to the be the 9th now it's the first. Great view but not a great hole.

[Duncan Cheslett]

#1 at Furry Creek in British Columbia.

It's about 320 yards that's really tight with water all along the left and rubbish to the write. A 100 ft drop from the tee to green allows for the ball to get offline.

It use to the be the 9th now it's the first. Great view but not a great hole.

That's one nervy 1st tee shot! 

I don't see how such a spectacular looking hole can be described as being so bad, though. It's just a pity about the cart path (or is it a road) on the right.

For big hitters it's a drivable par 4;  at the other end of the spectrum it's 5 iron, 9 iron.

I wish that was the worst hole I'd ever seen!   

[Phil Lipper]

Years ago I played Pok-Ta-Pok which is Trent Jones jr course in Cancun. They have a green with a bunker in the middle of it. Somehow the notion of being on the green and not having a putt at the hole seems absurd to me.

[Garland Bayley]

Years ago I played Pok-Ta-Pok which is Trent Jones jr course in Cancun. They have a green with a bunker in the middle of it. Somehow the notion of being on the green and not having a putt at the hole seems absurd to me.

The PGA Tour has this issue every year at Riviera, a Doak 9.

[Phil Lipper]

I think the concept is nuts but at least #6 at Riveria is very narrow behind the green, therefore its not quite as bad. The one in Cancun is truly in the middle. Either way I am certainly not a fan of the concept,your either on the green or your not. If your on the green with a wedge in your hand you might as well be off the green.

[Jim Nugent]

I think the concept is nuts but at least #6 at Riveria is very narrow behind the green, therefore its not quite as bad. The one in Cancun is truly in the middle. Either way I am certainly not a fan of the concept,your either on the green or your not. If your on the green with a wedge in your hand you might as well be off the green.

Maybe they could build some risk/reward features into that type of green.  Give the player a route to the hole, even if the bunker is in his way, with the risk that he could putt into the bunker if he doesn't pull the shot off. 

[Matthew Rose]

Speaking of Denver, Hyland Hills has several candidates.  The 3rd is a par 5 that double doglegs around a pond with giant trees guarding the inside of both doglegs.  The optimal strategy is to hit something about 225 off the tee to the first bend, then about 200 straight away to a narrow opening then a 135 yard shot to a green which tips heavily left to right down to a bunker or hazard.  There really isn't any other way to play the hole.  You can try to whack one over the first dogleg with driver, but you take on trees and the pond.  Even if successful, your second will be blocked out by a massive tree guarding the inside of the second dogleg, so your play is PW, PW from there.  It is an absolute disgrace of a golf hole.  

Ah Hyland Hills.... I see your #3 and raise you #18, which actually might be nearly as bad as my original entry, now that I think about it. Sadly I find myself going there often as my family lives close to it and they seem to like it, for some strange reason. I actually prefer the nine-hole course on the property.

Also forgot another notorious Denver staple.... the 10th at Aurora Hills. The 90 degree dogleg par-five somebody posted elsewhere in this thread actually reminded me of that monstrosity.

[JBovay]

Here's my pick. It may not be the worst hole in the world, but it's a total joke*. It was built on a decent site with good, sandy soil about an hour north of World Woods on similar terrain. As far as I know, there were no development or environmental restrictions. The 16th and 17th holes at Williston Highland(s) Golf Club are pictured below:



From the back tee of the 17th, at the lower left, the drive must be hit at least 230 yards, slightly uphill, to allow the player a straight shot at the green. But it can only go 250 before the fairway runs out. From there, it's about another 180 yards back down the hill to the green. To top it off, the green is so severely crowned that a bogey is almost certain, even after hitting decent first and second shots.

What about alternate playing angles? A sign just to the right of the tee declares that any ball that flies to the right of it (i.e., over the 16th hole) is OB. When I played this hole in high school matches, throwing caution to the wind, I routinely played over and through the trees in the approximate direction of the "fairway" (woods) bunker. I'm not sure I ever pulled it off.

* The joke is that after 8 holes among the first 16 with severe but not completely unusual doglegs to the left, the course's designer felt the need to overcompensate.

[JWL]

Matt...wow, that's about as bad as I've ever seen...and I've seen some strange holes.   Question.....do players just line up and drive it over the house on the corner lot across the street, or is there something stopping them ?

[Matt Frey, PGA]

Matt...wow, that's about as bad as I've ever seen...and I've seen some strange holes.   Question.....do players just line up and drive it over the house on the corner lot across the street, or is there something stopping them ?

It depends on the golfer, his or her confidence and the situation.

There is a net that guards the road (and houses) that lines the net, however, if the golfer tees the ball on the very far left side of the tee and can get the ball up in the air quickly, it is possible to go over it. Of course, you run the risk of hitting into the net and not having a decent second shot, or worse, mishitting it and hitting a car or a house.

Furthermore, I remember from a high school match I played there in 2004 that there was a local rule that penalized players stoke and distance if he or she attempted to go over the net. It was more of a liability thing rather than a "competitive advantage" rule.

[Carl Johnson]

No. 14 at Crowders Mountain Golf Club (a public course), Gastonia, NC.  Claimed by the course as "The Hardest Par 5 in the World."  http://www.golfholes.com/nc/crowders-mountain.htm  Photo of part of the hole at the bottom of linked page.  Click on photo for more views.  Narrow, fairway slopes severely right to left, with blind "pond" smack in the middle of the of the fairway off the tee.  Really stupid hole.