This past year I was fortunate to play 78 golf courses, 34 for the first time.
Of those, the hole that jumped immediately to mind when I read the title of this thread is...the 45 yard par three 10th hole at Beaver Bend Par 3 Golf Course in Hummelstown, PA. Designed by the fertile mind and obvious good humor of one Harvey E. Skinner in 1961, Beaver Brook has little creative delights strewn throughout.
In the case of the 10th, it appears somewhat innocuous from the tee. (Photos courtesy of the Bausch Collection)
What you can't quite see, but what you can clearly sense (and would never forget again after a first play) is that the right to left sloping green also falls away from the golfer, and rather precipitously at that. (seen here from the right of the green)
In fact, just beyond the green the ground continues plummeting for about a 25-30 foot drop, which is the fate awaiting a thinned tee-shot, or one just a bit bold. This view of the next hole (from a tee just to the right of 10th green) shows the natural lay of the land down to the river just beyond.
Now, before you get your fairness hat on, why is it that we wouldn't blink about an approach to an elevated green with a false front sending a slightly mishit, or under-clubbed, or timid shot coming back down a steep embankment as cool, but one that features big trouble just beyond the green is somehow excoiated? In fact, I would argue that reasonable but difficult recovery beyond a green is one of those underutilized assets in an architect's toolkit that is probably due to a subtle mindset over what is fair and what is not. In the case of a hole often requiring a less than full-shot approach by the unwary golfer, as seen at the 10th at Beaver Bend, it can be quite effective both psychologically and in practical terms.