Worst modern hole you have ever seen but not played.

[John Kavanaugh]

Can anyone defend this hole...skateboarders excluded.

[Bill_McBride]

What do you find objectionable?   Is there a better angle into that green from the other side of the fairway?

[John Kavanaugh]

I find the front run up to be comical. Looks like an X Games motorcycle ramp. With all the money and talent in the world at your disposal it looks like a hole with all the money and talent in the world at your disposal.

[Bill_McBride]

I see nothing wrong with the occasional forced carry hole, although lots of golfers might hit ground game approaches if the turf was firm.  Variety is the spice of golf design...

[John Kavanaugh]

Is it a reverse Redanman wher the play is to aim at the flag?  You can't make this stuff up.

[John Kavanaugh]

My favorite extra feature is the hump of grass in the bunker you can stand on to get the height needed to read your bunker shot. They thought of everything!

[Bill_McBride]

My favorite extra feature is the hump of grass in the bunker you can stand on to get the height needed to read your bunker shot. They thought of everything!

There's one just like that on the 18th hole at Muirfield, a top 20 in the world. 

[John Kavanaugh]

And there's an Eiffel Tower in Vegas.

[Bill_McBride]

Over and out. 

[Keith OHalloran]

Is this a troll of Doak? Nicklaus? Or a wonderful rendition of the very rare double troll?

[Ronald Montesano]

The photo doesn't capture the entire fairway. It truncates the right side and gives a false (front) impression of what makes the hole. If you go up the right side, you have a totally different shot into the green. I remember this from the Women's Open of 2013. Everyone played out to the right, unless the flag was on the right side of the green. Then, they played left and shot over the edge of the bunker. Great collection area to the right. I'll go through my images and see if I can pull some up. It played (I believe) as number two at the Open, as they moved the real #1 to the 9th position.

[Ronald Montesano]

Here we go. A bit more perspective (and width).

[Marc Haring]

It does look like there is a run up area to the right and the fairway does appear to be wide so for me it appears to provide options, even ground game options when f & f. And it looks terrific.

[Marc Haring]

With Ronald's pictures I'm starting to think it could be the best hole i've never played.

[Tom_Doak]

Ronald's description of the strategy of the hole is right on.


I've never been very happy with how the green LOOKS from the fairway, though.  It was an awkward one to build because there was a 40-foot pile of topsoil between the fairway landing area and the green for the whole time we were doing the shaping of it ... we had to approve the green for drainage and irrigation without being able to see what it looked like.  That's the only time I have ever had to do that ... it came close to that on the 13th at Pacific Dunes, but the fog finally lifted after three days.


We've built better, but we've also built worse.  So, to John's thread title:  probably not.

[Paul Gray]

You have got to be kidding me. Worst modern golf hole? Seriously John, of all the hundreds of thousands of golf holes built since the 1980's, it is beyond ridiculous to suggest this is the worst of the lot.

I started a little light hearted thread a year or so ago about the worst golf holes anyone had ever seen. Any of those would put an immediate end to your churlish notion.

[John Kavanaugh]

Paul,


You need to consider the sister courses in the neighborhood. This is like winning a date with a Judd and having Wynonna answer the door. It's just too much of a good thing.

[Ronald Montesano]

Based on the only picture to which he had access, I'll give JK the benefit of the doubt. I hope that the addition of photos has effected a clearer picture and understanding of the hole.

[Martin Lehmann]

It has been said on this website many times: it's hard to judge a golf hole merely by looking at a picture. Without ever having been at this golf course, I can say however that the most hideous thing must be the clubhouse in the background. Why do so many clubs in the US build these monstrous retro kitsch clubhouses?

[Ronald Montesano]

Remember that time when Walter Travis and A.W. Tillinghast were asked to work together to build a course? Oh, you don't? Hmm...


Or that occasion when Alister Mackenzie and Donald J. Ross joined forces to create the plans for that club? No? My stars...


Or how about Harry Colt and Tom Simpson? Stanley Thompson and A.V. Macan?


Well, surely, you recall when Robert Trent Jones, sr. and Paul "Pete" Dye conspired to co-create that...oh, never mind.






Sebonac is the implausible melding of the diverse talents of two architects of an era, with differing approaches and styles. For that reason, it is unlike anything else out there.

[Paul Gray]

Paul,


You need to consider the sister courses in the neighborhood. This is like winning a date with a Judd and having Wynonna answer the door. It's just too much of a good thing.

And if then you'd said "worst modern hole within a three mile radius" you might have had a point.

And besides, nature, which is exactly what the right portion of the approach is trying to replicate, does all sorts of 'unnatural' things. None of it would look out of place on an old seaside links. It's the apparent imperfections which are the mark of nature. Book a seat or two on one of those flying bird things and come see for yourself.

[Joe Sponcia]

Plumas Pines, (Flint 1980), 15th par 3

[John Kavanaugh]

Joe,


That is an interesting hole. I hope you have not had the misfortune of playing it. That said, I bet it is worth a few laughs.

[Richard Hetzel]

So John, would this be the most (semi) modern hole you have seen AND PLAYED?

[Richard Hetzel]

So John, would this be the most (semi) modern hole you have seen AND PLAYED?
PS: At approximately 200 yards, I walked off that green HAPPY with a bogey.