The best and most memorable 1st hole you've played - 1st at TOC or another?

[Patrick_Mucci]

My top 3 have already been cited: Sand Hills, Cypress Point and Spyglass Hill.

Terry,

Great choices, I'd add NGLA, Shinnecock, Pasatiempo, MPCC Shore, Bethpage, Mountain Ridge, Newport, Streamsong Blue, Streamsong Red and Seminole to name a few.  

[Brian Finn]

Also in the mix should be...

Plainfield...

Plainfield gets my vote for best 1st hole I have played

Streamsong Red might be the most memorable

[Jon Cavalier]

Merion East gets my vote.

Also in the mix would Oakmont, Greenbrier Old White and Yale.  Plainfield is certainly in the mix for me as well.

[jeffwarne]

Royal Aberdeen
Portsalon-the tee shot is wierd-the second shot epic (and then of course there's the view of second hole)

[astavrides]

Agreed, #1 at TOC gave me a bunch of butterflies.
#1 at Old White-Greenbriar is pretty cool.

[Jon Wiggett]

For setting and atmosphere it has to be Alwoodley for me. As for the best first hole Birkdale wins it hands down. This would be considered a great hole at any point during the round but it is a real eye opener as the first.

Jon

[David Davis]

TOC: was certainly the most nerve racking first tee shot ever. Had been up early in the morning, end of March, then standing around waiting for what seemed like hours with no warm up. It was freezing cold and yet there must of been no less than a couple hundred people standing around, most of which were not golfers. Then they called my name...sweating bullets I could hardly stand yet hold the club and managed to shank a 3 wood of all clubs that bounced off the fence down to the right and stayed in play. I can remember people laughing so I took a bow. Hit the approach into the burn. Good start on my first ever golf trip outside The Netherlands and my only play of the old course. One day soon revenge on that hole will be mine :-).

Garden City:

Semi blind first shot in which you have to hit over the driving range. Since most of the players there seem pretty strong it's a daunting shot. First played two weeks ago on a beautiful sunny Sunday. Driving range was overfull and all these guys just stop and walk slightly to the side, still standing almost in front of you and watch your group tee off. I had flashes of TOC so wiped my brow once I had ripped my tee shot right down the middle. Damn, that feels good...


Merion:

If you are a lefty the first tee there would be the worst tee shot in the world if played on a nice day around lunch time with a full terrace. Bad as a righty as I'm sure there is plenty of noise front he peanut gallery. However, for a lefty...yikes!


Kennemer B - 9:

Pretty awesome from the back tees as the tee box sits right against the clubhouse and next to the patio as well. Plus it's a pretty tough hole and long tee shot. The hole is about a 450 yd par 4 from an elevated tee with high rough left and right and a huge bunker in the landing area right.

[Michael Graham]

TOC: was certainly the most nerve racking first tee shot ever. Had been up early in the morning, end of March, then standing around waiting for what seemed like hours with no warm up. It was freezing cold and yet there must of been no less than a couple hundred people standing around, most of which were not golfers. Then they called my name...sweating bullets I could hardly stand yet hold the club and managed to shank a 3 wood of all clubs that bounced off the fence down to the right and stayed in play. I can remember people laughing so I took a bow. Hit the approach into the burn. Good start on my first ever golf trip outside The Netherlands and my only play of the old course. One day soon revenge on that hole will be mine :-).

Garden City:

Semi blind first shot in which you have to hit over the driving range. Since most of the players there seem pretty strong it's a daunting shot. First played two weeks ago on a beautiful sunny Sunday. Driving range was overfull and all these guys just stop and walk slightly to the side, still standing almost in front of you and watch your group tee off. I had flashes of TOC so wiped my brow once I had ripped my tee shot right down the middle. Damn, that feels good...


Merion:

If you are a lefty the first tee there would be the worst tee shot in the world if played on a nice day around lunch time with a full terrace. Bad as a righty as I'm sure there is plenty of noise front he peanut gallery. However, for a lefty...yikes!


Kennemer B - 9:

Pretty awesome from the back tees as the tee box sits right against the clubhouse and next to the patio as well. Plus it's a pretty tough hole and long tee shot. The hole is about a 450 yd par 4 from an elevated tee with high rough left and right and a huge bunker in the landing area right.

David, as a lefty I had the exact same thoughts when looking at the photos of the first tee at Merion someone posted earlier in the thread. I had the butterflies in the pit of your stomach feeling just thinking about that tee shot.

Michael

[Sam Krume]

TOC is certainly the most nervous I have ever been on any golf course, let alone the 1st tee, everything went to jelly but I really love the first at Perranporth, it sets the pulses racing straight away. Clubhouse to your left, par 4 downhill, 380 yards, to a green that over looks perran sands. wonderfull..

[Josh Tarble]

Two that come to mind for me are The River Course at Blackwolf Run and Wolf Run in Zionsville, IN. 

Blackwolf Run's first is an excellent par 5 that hugs the river.  Its both a scoring opportunity and a fantastic introduction to the round.

The first at Wolf Run is serpentine par 4 that plays significantly downhill.  It has really good strategic characteristics and you must challenge the bunkers on the tee ball to get a good look at the green.  The view from the tee box lets you know you're in for a memorable round as well.

[Ally Mcintosh]

The first 5 that come to mind:

Royal Aberdeen
Doonbeg
Portmarnock
Machrihanish
Portstewart

[Chris DeToro]

The first at Scioto can be nerve wracking with innocent bystanders eating lunch on the patio

[J_ Crisham]

Oakmont, Shinny, NGLA, Chicago Golf , Riviera, Milwaukee CC, Charles River, Eastward Ho, Mountain Ridge, Yeamans Hall Club:   All strong openers with very challenging green complexes.

[Rick Shefchik]

Great first holes, Minneapolis-St. Paul Division: I'd give it to White Bear Yacht Club. It's one of those "step from the clubhouse to the putting green to the tee" compact areas, overlooking an inviting fairway and a daunting second shot to an elevated green.

Great first holes, N.L.E. Upper Midwest Division: R.I.P. #1 at the original Sutton Bay course. An amazing vista of hills with Lake Oahe in the background. It never failed to excite and engage me.

[Ian Andrew]

Now imagine being left handed and teeing off at noon for my first round at Merion
... tad intimidating when everything went silent as I addressed the ball

[Rich Goodale]

Memorable

1.  Stanford

Up in the foothills, overlooking the kinder-gentler parts of Silicon Valley across to the Bay. The hole opens up below you and requires a long draw off the tee, as close as you dare to the bunker and barranca on the left and then a long high fade to a green angled sharply from left to right.  You are always warm and wearing shorts, even in January.  Usually the sun is shining.  In my day you walked on a creaky bridge acrosss the then 2-lane Alameda des las Pulgas to the fairway 50 feet below.  How could you not remember such a hole?

Runners-up

--Woods Hole
--Painswick
--Aberdour
--Carnoustie

Best

1.  NGLA

Your wizzened caddy hands you a driver and you ask for the knife and you melt it, failing to carry the far left bunker by a pubic hair, and you are f***ed.  But then you blast out, hit a bump and run to 5 feet, sink the putt and the guys who hit driver to the fairway are struggling for bogey.

Runners-up

--Pacific Dunes
--Dornoch
--Sand Hills
--Prestwick

[BHoover]

Memorable - Kingsley

Best - Brookside

[Ryan Coles]

Rich

You know the course markedly better than me, what is it about Dornoch's 1st?

In my few visits, I've been eager to get to the 3rd "where the course begins" so to speak.

Would be interested to hear more about your take on the 1st, what am I missing?

[Jon Wiggett]

Ryan,

not who you asked but I just got back from Dornoch 1st and last holes are okay but not the best Dornoch has to offer. Despite the mount of rain last night the course was playing well in the October sunshine and just two other groups out there.

Jon

[Dan Kelly]

Great first holes, Minneapolis-St. Paul Division: I'd give it to White Bear Yacht Club. It's one of those "step from the clubhouse to the putting green to the tee" compact areas, overlooking an inviting fairway and a daunting second shot to an elevated green.

Great first holes, N.L.E. Upper Midwest Division: R.I.P. #1 at the original Sutton Bay course. An amazing vista of hills with Lake Oahe in the background. It never failed to excite and engage me.

Agree with White Bear. 2nd place to Oak Ridge. Honorable mention to the humble 1st at Minikahda -- with its Merion-like 1st tee, just off the pro shop and a patio. The very essence of a gentle handshake -- but easy to screw up!

I'd call the first at Sutton Bay an extraordinarily memorable hole (second to Sand Hills for me, but only because I saw Sand Hills first) -- but not a great one. It was the opposite of a gentle handshake; more like a brutal thrashing!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Two very memorable opening holes from the south-west, but for the wrong reasons:

1st at what I still think of as Manor House Hotel with an unpredictable downhill drive towards a stream. Almost impossible to avoid the stream!

1st at Thurlstone which I once described: 'downhill par 4 of 268 yards. That you must drive out over a road and ditch, avoid out-of-bounds on either side, and could easily clatter into the clubhouse or car park is sufficient cause of anxiety for most of us. Deep seaside bunkers and a green angled across the line complete the defences.'

Certainly not the BEST opening holes I have ever played, but unforgettable.

 

[Brent Hutto]

1st at Thurlstone which I once described: 'downhill par 4 of 268 yards. That you must drive out over a road and ditch, avoid out-of-bounds on either side, and could easily clatter into the clubhouse or car park is sufficient cause of anxiety for most of us. Deep seaside bunkers and a green angled across the line complete the defences.'

Geez, what do you tee off with? An 8-iron then another 8-iron?

[Ruediger Meyer]

I thought the first tee at Kingston Heath was special.

[Rich Goodale]

Rich

You know the course markedly better than me, what is it about Dornoch's 1st?

In my few visits, I've been eager to get to the 3rd "where the course begins" so to speak.

Would be interested to hear more about your take on the 1st, what am I missing?

Ryan

It's the easiest birdie on the course, but due to the subtleties of the fairway and the green complex it is a very easy bogey, particularly in competiton.  It is an early warning to what lies ahead of you, the main essence of which is "Think, you golfing Moron!"  The green is driveable, even from the tips, but requires a perfectly crafted strong fade to do so.  The closer you get to the green, the more exacting the second shot, particularly since it may be your only chance at a birdie.  You can lay up to 100-120 or so, but your 2nd shot must be hit crisply and accurately to hold the green--hard to do when it is the 2nd swing of the day.  The tee is on grade, overlooked by the clubhouse and the putting green and full of vehicular and human traffic--even more than the 1st at TOC it is an integral part of the town.  Most of all, you are just starting to play one of the finest experiences in the golfing world.

Rich

PS--As to what you are "missing" you might also include the 2nd.  The views start on the 3rd, but 1 and 2 are two of the finest holes of their type in the world.

rfg

[Mark Pearce]

PS--As to what you are "missing" you might also include the 2nd.  The views start on the 3rd, but 1 and 2 are two of the finest holes of their type in the world.

rfg

Indeed.  The second is a world class par 3.  A sort of superior version of the 5th(?) at The Sacred 9.