Best Hole You Saw This Year: Why?

[Dan Kelly]

That thread about the "best holes" you've seen this year isn't doing much for me. (Not that that matters, of course!)
 
I -- and others, I presume -- haven't played or seen most of those holes, and few (if any) of you are saying WHY any of the holes you mention is great, let alone the best.

Michael Moore, just for example, very economically and articulately tells us that Friar's Head No. 7 is the best "by a mile." I want to know why! After all, presumably he saw the other 17 holes at Friar's Head -- and judging from the pictures, they all look pretty good to me. What is it about No. 7 that makes it better than any of the rest by a mile?

At the risk of inviting a terrible case of logorrhea to beset gca.com: Would you please pick one hole and say what makes it a great hole?

[Mnemonic device for the spelling of gonorrhea, diarrhea, hemorrhage, and logorrhea: They all (R)eally (R)eally (H)urt -- except, of course, for logorrhea. ... Now, how in hell am I supposed to remember how to spell mnemonic?]

[Dan_Callahan]

While it isn't a "new" hole, my favorite hole remains #13 at the Orchards. At 441 yards, it is a long (at least for me) par 4. With a tee box pointed down the heart of a dead-straight fairway, there are no tricks or gimicks to trap you. Trouble off the tee is plainly visible—trees on the right and fescue-like hay on the left—and the second shot usually involves a long iron into a green that is protected by a bunker on the right and deep rough/trees on the left.

The hole doesn't have the knock-your-socks-off visual impact of a Pebble Beach or Shinnecock. Rather, it is Donald Ross at his best: a hole that fits the terrain so perfectly that you couldn't imagine any better use of the property.

[texsport]

Hole # 13 Par 4 323 yards  The Quarry@Giants Ridge

Why? The hole is beautiful, exhibits great creativity of design around the existing topography, and  offers at least 3 options from the tee, with a unique graduation of risks and rewards.

As the difficulty of the tee shot increases, the potential difficulty of the 2nd shot decreases. Pick the easiest tee shot and have the least chance of making birdie.

Option #1-Drive the green

                 Reward-Probably a 2 putt birdie/ possible 1 putt
                            eagle.
                 Risk----Unplayable lie/penalty stroke/difficult 3rd
                             involving steep grassy mounds fronting
                             green. (Probably a 5 if you fail to drive
                                        it.)

Option #2-Hit to the small, semi-blind, alternate, left fairway.

                 Reward-Best view of pin at the same elevation
                             as the green. Best spot for approach.
                             (Possible 3.)
                 Risk----Missing left fairway means 100 yd. shot
                              from deep rough, bunker or severe
                              downhill lie to multi-level green.
                              (Probable 4 or 5.)

Option #3-Hit a safe shot to the broad, but sunken right
                 alternate fairway.
 
                  Reward-Guaranteed good lie for approach shot.
                              (Probable 4)
                  Risk-----Cannot see green's surface or exact pin
                                location. Right fairway 10-15 feet  
                                below green. Getting it close very
                                difficult from this fairway.
                                (Probable 4 but 5 possible with poor
                                  approach shot.)

NOTE: A prevailing tail wind from the extremely elevated tee on this hole makes Option #1 more tempting, Option #2 more dangerous due to the distance control requirement, and the approach shot for option #3 more difficult for the same reason.

The green for this hole is huge. It has 4 or 5 distinct plateaus and slopes significantly from back left to front right. The distinct pin positions available multiply the difficulties of the approach shot. Three, or even four putts are a distinct possibility if you leave yourself a long way from the hole.

Finally, since Giants Ridge is open to the public, it's a hole everyone can experience!

Texsport

[Michael Moore]

The seventh hole at Friar's Head begins with a cool aesthetic that I had never seen before, which is that the area behind the sixth green kind of flattens out and seamlessly becomes the seventh tee.

Let's say you hit a decent drive safely away from the deadly bunker on the left. You won't be able to see much down there, you will probably have a hook lie, and the target for the second shot becomes more and more narrow the closer you get to the green, with trees on the left and a gigantic waste area bunker eating into the other side.

So let's say you get your second shot in the fairway. As you walk up the fairway, which keeps getting steeper and steeper, in the zone 250 - 100 yards away from the green the countours are simply awesome, and the green actually appears and then reappears a couple times! It's like being lost at sea, for real! Unbelieveable!

After two super shots you find your ball within short iron distance, and you can even see the green on top of the hill. But wait! The front left portion of the green is entirely missing! Where did it go? This false false corner is only the beginning of the wildest green on the course. I can't decribe it. The photos on this site sort of do it justice.

This hole is loaded with optical illusions and strategic options, and it requires three excellent shots to leave you with an insane forty footer.

On top of it all, expert golfers can go for this green in two, which would require a whole other post to describe.

[Dan Kelly]

Great answer, Michael Moore (and others). Thank you!

I love the "lost at sea" idea. I hope I'll get to see it someday.

Reading that part of your description reminded me of driving in to Sand Hills, with the ribbons of green appearing and disappearing with every turn in the road.

[Tim_Weiman]

Dan Kelly:

I completely agree with you that it makes no sense for someone to describe a golf hole as "the best by a mile". For the 99% who haven't seen it, that kind of description means almost nothing.

The trick is to write a description for all who haven't seen the hole.......not always an easy thing to do.

[hp@hc]

Michael Moore et al.

I was one of those guys who went for Friar's Head #7 in 2 shots, and was able to hit it on the front right of the green and 2-putt for birdie.  I totally agree to the asthetics that they provide with the green on hole#6 flowing to the tee on #7.  It looks great - a set of tee blocks on what looks like an extended area of green.  They used this look on holes #13 to #14 tee as well.  Awsome.  The view from the tee says it all - many options and a fun hole to challenge!

[Brian_Gracely]

Make the walk across 17 Mile Drive from the 13th green and you notice a green-site perched on the edge of the ocean.  The flagstick is leaning left and the flag is whipping in the wind from the breeze off the Pacific.  As you walk through the wooden gate, you notice a tee near the road and start to pull a short iron thinking this is going to be a short pitch.  And then you realize that your playing partners didn't put their bags down at the tee and have continued walking back towards the water and into an outcropping of rocks.  Maybe they are just taking in the scenery or watching the sunset?  No such luck.  The tee-box is situated amongst those rocks and just below the outlook where the tourists have been collecting to view the spectacular horizon.  

Now that short pitch has become a 180-190yd mid to long iron, with the wind blowing directly across the hole.  Draw a straight line from the tee to the green and you realize that rocks and water don't make for friendly layups.  This shot is going to be all or nothing, and with the wind across from the Pacific you're going to have to aim out over the rocky point about 10-15 yards to the right of the green...over the ocean.  A medium-large green will accept well struck shots, but the putting surface slopes from back left to front right, so two-putting is no gimmie, especially considering you'll struggle to keep your balance over that last two-footer.

Par 3 14th at Monterey Peninsula.

[grandwazo]

#1 RCD
After the red eye flight from JFK on our first trip to Ireland, we stepped onto the first tee at RCD nervously looking forward to 7 days and 11 rounds of golf.  My good friend Curt hit last and with a mighty swing, covered the first tee with white powder having used one of those stupid exploding balls.  The Starter looked at us, you could have cut the silence with a knife.  He proceeded to tell us the dirtiest joke I have ever heard, wished us an enjoyable round and sent us on our way.  I found my tee shot about 310 yards down the fairway on the left side, having caught the slope on the right perfectly.  I proceeded to hit a four iron thinking I was laying up, having been told by our caddy that there was only a very narrow opening to the green on the left side.  I found my ball 15 feet to the right of the hole and then proceeded to hole the putt for eagle 3 and was on my way to probably the most enjoyable golf related 7 days of my life.  Is RCD #1 the best architectually designed hole in the world, far from it, but for me, it was without a doubt the "best" hole I saw this year.  

[Michael Moore]

Mr. Tim -

"By a mile" was a nod to Ran's description of the sixteenth hole at the Cypress Point Club (help stamp out abbreviations and acronyms on this site) as the best in the world by that margin.

I really thought it was head and shoulders above the other holes at the course. Really.

Many have mentioned it among or as their favorite this year.

[Bob_Huntley]

Brian,

A wonderful description of a great hole.

[cardyin7]

My nominee is the 14th at Dark Horse, Auburn, CA. (Keith Foster's design has been ranked 2003's 3rd best new affordable course by Golf Digest.)  It is a short, 312-yard, par 4 transitional hole, the purpose of which is to cross the end of the property to lead holes 15-18 back to the clubhouse.
What makes the hole intriguing is a sand bunker centered in the fairway. It requires about a 230-yard carry to reach the other side, which is slanted so that the ball might roll onto the green.  The green is narrow back to front, so a layup short of the bunker will require a very precise second shot. To the left of the bunker is a narrow sliver of fairway with trees lurking left, and to the right is another slightly wider area, but with a creek and marsh hazard right of it.  The green is bunkered to the right.  I just thought for a potential throw-away hole that Foster put a lot of thought into making it special.

[Bob_Huntley]

I have had a couple of photos of the 14th on the Dunes at MPCC that have just been emailed to me.

I do not know how to get them on the GCA. Can I forward the e-mail to one of you who is a rocket scientist in these matters?

 

[TEPaul]

To me the most interesting hole this year, all things considered, was the 14th at Ganton (2003 Walker Cup).

The hole is only about 280 yds. It's driveable but at some serious risk and also some serious reward!! But the entire look and structure of the hole is fascinating. You can't see the green from the tee--matter of fact the green really isn't exactly where you think it might be. All you can see is some cross-bunkering that you must choose to layup in front of or else carry and shoot almost to the green. There's some pretty serious danger down at the green-end too.

But this hole is a spectacular match play and stoke play seriously multi-optional hole. It's pretty much an "In your face" multi-optional hole! I could see golfers standing on this tee for a while trying to figure out exactly what they should try to do here--matter of fact I saw some of those Walker Cuppers doing exactly that!

The scoring spectrum on this hole in the Walker Cup was interesting and wide too. Matter of fact, the GB&I guy who ended up beating Williams and winning the Cup eagled this hole with a chip in. And Kuehne, playing clean-up stood on that tee for a while and eventually took his 3 wood and ripped the damnedest draw that must have curved 50 yds right at the green and made an easy birdie to win the hole.

I really thought Williams ahead of Kuehne was going to hang on and that Kuehne was going to turn his match around on #14 and win the cup for us because Kuehne has so much firepower! Then he hit that amazing tee ball and I thought we were going to win but it just didn't work out that way on the next four holes for either Williams or Kuehne.

Ganton's #14 at only about 280 yds is one stunning little par 4---and it's the most interesting hole I saw all year!

[Scott_Burroughs]

Bob,

Here's 2 pics from Ran's write-up:



Isn't the back tee actually to the left of the big boulder back there?

[Bob_Huntley]

Scott, Thank you.

Here is the best I've seen.

See:

http://www.joanndost.com/com/detail.asp?SearchLetter=M&offset=6&SubCatID=70&sku=mpcc-dc-h14

[Bob_Huntley]

Oops, go to the Gallery, US courses, California, M, and the second page of MPCC.

[THuckaby2]

I wish someone had a pic of #17 at Cabo del Sol Ocean course... the similarity to #14 MPCC is uncanny.

Great description of a great hole*... put Brian's words with these pics and the feeling of being there is palpable.

TH

* I said this before, but the post somehow got deleted.

[Brian_Gracely]

Scott,

The tee-box is that small patch of grass below the boulder in the bottom picture.  But the angle from that tee is farther right than the top picture.  It's on more of a direct line with that bunker.  

[Norbert P]

  One of my "most memorable" golf holes is one that I can't remember the # of !Do'h! at The Reserve North (Cupp), in Hillsboro, Oregon.  

Actually, it is #13.

  http://images.wolfpk.com/reservegolf/cupp13.jpg

 (The writing is sort of small so you may want to CLICK on VIEW on your upper taskbar and Click on LARGE TEXT for Zoom box if you want to read their description and suggestion)

It has a shaded tee area and is a good time for conversation and where one has to hit over a nearish ravine with agua. Not really in play but in the mind.  
  It is a short dogleg whereas you can tee off with a midiron to driver and still possibly have the same distance to the green but the angle to the green makes all the difference for the approach.  

 If a short tee shot, one has to clear a hippo hill on the front of shallow green with an enormous collection area in the back.  If the hippos back is landed on, most likely the ball will skitter down the collection area. So, from one side of green off quite far away on another.  A trek for Frodo and his Fellowship.  
 If one hits it long from the tee, the angle to the green is narrow but the hippo is off to the left with col area to right.

  Short hole but each shot is critical.  Each decision is critical.
If it was hard and fast it would be even more fascinating.

   

 

[Rob_Waldron]

Hole #18 at Pine Valley as I drove in this fall. There is no feeling quite like the one you get driving over the railroad tracks and past the guardhouse.......knowing that you have entered paradise!  And the best is yet to come...... As Dan Jenkins put it "the best 18 consecutive golf holes anywhere, period!

[Matt_Ward]

The 16th at Black Mesa / Santa Fe area / New Mexico

The uphill par-5 is simply grand stuff. Why? First, you have to salute Baxter Spann with the creativity to have such a hole because it allowed him to use a good portion of the property for the back nine, however, he needed a segway to get back to the clubhouse in fine fashion. The 16th does that so well.

When you finish the neat par-3 15th you walk down the path and then as you turn your back towards the fairway area for the 16th your eyes are riveted on the gorgeous nature by which the hole fits the actual site. The 16th uses the canyons to frame every part of the hole in a memorable manner.

When you stand on the championship tee it's a simple proposition -- it's you and the hole -- nothing else is in the way to divert your attention when playing it. It's nothing less than the bull and the matador -- Ole indeed!!!!

The only downside of the hole is the manner by which the right hand fairway bunker pinches in so tightly with the canyon on the left that it's no more than 10 paces to get pact the extreme choke point. I would personally like to see that narrow distance be widened in order to "tempt" the player to hit driver and try to get past it.

The hole is loaded with a range of options after the tee shot and much of it is dependent on where the pin is located on the putting surface. The green has more dips and folds than a three-day-old napkin. Even the power player who opts to go for the green in two had best be very aware of where the ball finishes because nothing on the green is automatic. Some may say the green is a little too "busy" but I think it fits what a par-5 should be about -- yes, the birdie is possible but it's not being given away soooo fast and soooo EZ.

The 16th at Black Mesa is also a stunner from a visual perspective. As you turn back towards the tee from the green you actually see the namesake for the course in the background that makes up the beautiful New Mexico terrain.

The 16th at Black Mesa is a wonderous mix in routing the course so well and not sacrificing quality in order to do that. In this age when 535 yard par-5's are thought of as pushovers the 16th at Black Mesa says it simply and well that such a thought is not to be used when this hole is mentioned.

[Scott_Burroughs]

to help Bob:



Brian,

Yes, I was just thinking it was even further out there, next to
a big boulder, but the above pic shows it next to a different
one.  It's been a year for me, longer than your month ago or so.  

[Rick Shefchik]

Well, here's an obvious choice: #8 at Pebble Beach. I played it for the first time in May.

It's hard to strip away all the baggage you bring to a hole like #8, but if you can, it is still almost overwhelming how the hole makes you think, worry and hope. It begins with the blind (not blonde, Curtis) drive -- bailing out is easy, but judging how long or how far right you dare hit it to set up a chance at the green is the essence of risk/reward golf. Your decision plays such a huge part in the heroic second shot to the tiny green perched above the beach -- if you don't have an approach shot inside 210 yards, then you have to ask yourself if you came all that way to lay up short of the green. If you're at 190, you've got to go for it, but you know you need the long iron of your life to hit and hold that little target. If you hit the perfect drive, leaving you maybe 170 to the green, the pressure really builds because it's a shot you know you should pull off.

Then throw in the hole's history and aesthetics, and it has more going for it than any par 4 I've ever played.

[Bob_Huntley]

Scott,

Thank you. How on earth do you do that?

Bob