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Paul Gray

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World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« on: October 27, 2014, 03:55:41 PM »
So, er, 'impressed' am I with Neil's offering over on the other thread that, just for a bit of fun, I wondered if others might like to cite their offerings for World's Worst Eclectic 18. Neil, whether he likes it or not, has already secured one of the 18 spots with that little doozy from Atherstone Golf Club in Warwickshire. I keep going back to it, flyover and all, and can't stop laughing at it!

Feel free to offer up as many entries as you like but please be good enough to provide a little explanation as to why you feel the hole is so bad. Diagrams, pictures anything which you feel will make your case will be welcomed.

Fire away!
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Paul Gray

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2014, 04:23:04 PM »
Just in case anybody hasn't seen our first inclusion......

The >90 degree dog-leg......



If you're not convinced try watching this.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm26byKURA4
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Chris DeToro

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2014, 04:33:41 PM »
Who are the Ryder Cup legends that are mentioned?

Pete_Pittock

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2014, 04:56:19 PM »
Who are the Ryder Cup legends that are mentioned?

Bernard Hunt, Geoffrey Hunt, both sons of professional John Hunt

Tyler Kearns

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2014, 04:58:36 PM »
Paul,

That is a truly foul hole!!  I checked out the course on Google Earth, and it appears it would have been better designed as a 210 yard par 3, which would also avoid playing into and hitting approach shots from the line of play from an adjacent hole.  I would like to give the "architect" the benefit of the doubt and assume the forested land between the tee & green wouldn't allow for a direct route, but some other alternative would have been much better.

TK

Thomas Dai

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2014, 05:18:15 PM »
Who are the Ryder Cup legends that are mentioned?
Bernard Hunt, Geoffrey Hunt, both sons of professional John Hunt

Plus Paul Broadhurst.

There's also Steve Webster, not a Ryder Cup player, but a longtime player on the European Tour and leading amateur at The Open many years ago, who is/was associated with Atherstone GC.

atb

John Kirk

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2014, 05:54:12 PM »
If conceivable, the video presentation was worse than the golf hole.  Hurry up already!  Stop playing the piano!  Who are the ad wizards who came up with that?

David Davis

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2014, 06:09:34 PM »
Brilliant! That hole has everything I admire in a hole including tight trees and no options. I strongly believe that if we keep this exercise to courses with an "A" status in first world countries that The Netherlands most likely contains all 18 holes and if we are missing any it would be to Germany alone.

I've played that same hole at least on 20 different courses. Although one of my all-time favorites is in Belgium at a course called LaBawette near Brussels. It's a Z shaped par 5 with tight trees. Hilarious! I don't have a photo of it but it plays, 200 meters out of a tight dark tree lined shoot to a small open area. Anything shot of 180 meters has no second shot because of trees on the left side and they are too tall to go over. anything longer than 220 rolls through the fairway into a solid row of trees. The second shot is similar to this dog leg but at an angle sharper than 9 degrees back. The third shot is between a 9 iron and a wedge back in the same direction as the tee shot.

there is a diagram here but it's really poor as it's old everything grew in.

http://www.golf-fairway.com/fr/parcours/europe/belgique/wallonie/golf-du-chateau-de-la-bawette

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Mark Chaplin

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2014, 06:22:02 PM »
The 8th and 9th at Gosport & Stokes Bay Golf Club are nicely framed by the security fencing of the MI6 training centre.
Cave Nil Vino

Paul Gray

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2014, 06:32:37 PM »
Mark,

The 9th I believe is a par 3, these days at least, but you are most certainly correct about the 8th. Regrettably it doesn't quite cut off all recovery options as you can just about fade the ball back into play..........off of the barracks' fence! It is a scenic little number.  ;D

David,

Completely grown in you say now? First class candidate!
« Last Edit: October 27, 2014, 08:44:20 PM by Paul Gray »
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Carl Nichols

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2014, 06:33:58 PM »
There was a similar, and similarly bad, hole at the old Sea Marsh golf course (one of the courses at the Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, which was renovated and renamed Heron Point)

Ian Andrew

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2014, 07:07:45 PM »
Trying to think of a more unusual hole in Canada than this one ... Lakeview's 12th

Blind tee shot down to the valley below - river in play on far side
Followed by blind approach 20 feet up to green set tight to the out of bounds

Or a high cut around an apartment complex straight at the green!



With every golf development bubble, the end was unexpected and brutal....

Paul Gray

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2014, 07:16:01 PM »
Ian,

That looks pretty crappy.

How far to the dogleg and can you really have a go at that green from the tee? If so, I hope those apartments don't have balconies overlooking the course!
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

David Davis

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2014, 07:24:43 PM »
Mark,

The 9th I believe is a par 3, these days at least, but you are most certainly correct about the 8th. Regrettably it doesn't quite cut off all recovery options as you can just about fade the ball back into play..........off of the barracks' fence! It is a scenic little number.

David,

Completely grown in you say now? First class candidate!

It's #7 on that link. You can see the original shape, also a Z but the last time I played it it was exactly that way. Otherwise the course is really not that terrible but that hole is hilarious.
Sharing the greatest experiences in golf.

IG: @top100golftraveler
www.lockharttravelclub.com

Ronald Montesano

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #14 on: October 27, 2014, 07:56:05 PM »
Atherstone:

Is it Bob Walsh or Bob Walash Eyewear that sponsors the hole? You might need it to see through the canopy, but the spelling is debateable.

It looks like the hole WAS a par three, as that left corner of the fairway appears to be a former green.

#treedbowlingalleyapproach
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Paul Gray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #15 on: October 27, 2014, 08:16:33 PM »
Atherstone:

Is it Bob Walsh or Bob Walash Eyewear that sponsors the hole? You might need it to see through the canopy, but the spelling is debateable.

It looks like the hole WAS a par three, as that left corner of the fairway appears to be a former green.

#treedbowlingalleyapproach

I've just found this for Atherstone, suggesting that it was a par 3 before someone had a eureka moment.  ::)

http://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/atherstonegc/actual.htm
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Jay Cox

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2014, 08:16:55 PM »
Most golf holes with mesh fences are bad holes, whether the fence exists to protect the hole from the driving range or an adjacent road or other feature from the hole.

But I doubt any of those holes could top a hole where they installed a mesh fence, not to protect anyone from anything, but to give the golfer something to aim for, because otherwise the hole would be unplayable.

The Lakeside course at Juniper Hills, in the far western Boston suburbs, is generally an okay course.  The 14th hole, however, is epically terrible.  It's about 200 yards to a green that's mostly surrounded by marsh, and that is way too small and unreceptive given the length of the shot and the nature of the surroundings.  For many years, your options were to hit and hope (with a drop area located very close to the green for the nearly inevitable miss) or hit a putter along the 5-yard-wide path from tee to green. 

But at some point, the course operators came up with a genius idea for how to make the hole playable.  The course's website (http://juniperhillgc.com/golf/proto/juniperhillgc/course_tour/lakeside_detail/Hole14.htm) explains:  "THE TOUGHEST HOLE ON THE COURSE is nearly surrounded by wetlands. The fence ( an obstruction ) behind the green is a target for those that can't hit the small landing area around the green." (emphasis mine)

And it's true!! The best play off the tee is to drill a long iron at the mesh fence, which is on the back right side of the green and is a pretty big target and chip on from where the ball ends up (usually pretty near the base of the fence, which isn't very bouncy).

Paul Gray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #17 on: October 27, 2014, 08:35:01 PM »
Jay,

A par 3 where you play for a lucky ricochet off of a fence! Classic architecture. I know Jimenez used the wall on 17 at TOC but it's hardly the preferred method to play the hole. That is certainly a new one on me. Strong entry.
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

John McCarthy

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #18 on: October 27, 2014, 10:23:36 PM »
Ian:  The left handed version of this hole is over Johnny Cash's garage at the White Witch outside Montego Bay.  I went for it with a 5 wood 20 years ago...and made it. 
The only way of really finding out a man's true character is to play golf with him. In no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself.
 PG Wodehouse

Paul Gray

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2014, 07:34:19 AM »
Ian:  The left handed version of this hole is over Johnny Cash's garage at the White Witch outside Montego Bay.  I went for it with a 5 wood 20 years ago...and made it. 

Love the little film. The commentator diligently explains how the course has been set up to make it so much worse than it could be!
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Matt Bielawa

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #20 on: October 28, 2014, 08:09:29 AM »
Ian:  The left handed version of this hole is over Johnny Cash's garage at the White Witch outside Montego Bay.  I went for it with a 5 wood 20 years ago...and made it. 

What hole are you talking about?  I played there in July and am trying to remember...

Bill_McBride

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #21 on: October 28, 2014, 09:24:34 AM »
All 18 at Furry Creek just north of Vancouver BC Canada!   ::).   The mama bear with cubs on the 15th tee and all world views of the fjord off Georgian Bay were the only highlights. 

Paul Gray

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #22 on: October 28, 2014, 12:44:29 PM »
Bill,

Any painfully shocking malpractice or just a bad course all round?
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

David Whitmer

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #23 on: October 28, 2014, 01:43:52 PM »
My nomination is from the worst hole on the worst course I've ever played. It's a public course in Cincinnati, though I'll refrain from naming it only because the owner is one of the world's great guys who donates a lot of rounds, etc. to various charitable causes. For those of you in the area, you can see the golf course from the highway that circles the city.

The fourth hole is some kind of awful. It's a par 4. As you can see, the card says it's 372 yards, but I doubt it. As the crow flies from tee to green it can't be more than 320. From tee to green it's slightly uphill.

If you tee off towards the intended line of play (not at the green), the architect has given you two small areas of fairway to hit to. The first is at the bottom of the hill, then you "step up" through rough to the next area of fairway. From there you turn 90 degrees right and hit straight uphill to the green.

When I'm unlucky enough to play there in a yearly golf outing (a very good client always asks me to play), I usually blast driver towards the green, and I end up on the hillside a bit short and right of the green. I refuse to aim at the small areas of fairway with an 8 iron.   



I think this hole beats the other lemons on this course, including the par 5 where I need to tee off with a 4 iron.

Paul Gray

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Re: World's Worst 18 - Nominations Please!
« Reply #24 on: October 28, 2014, 08:07:32 PM »
David,

This is a 'new' approach; the cape hole which forgets to include a fairway.
 
Nice.
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich