Mike,I think the "bye" hole is almost essential, especially in public golf. Too bad the owners took a dim view of it. You are the expert, they hired you for your advice, then failed to take it.In public golf this hole could serve many other purposes than just settling the occassional even match.For the superintendent it could be a evaluation area for equipment, materials, techniques and training. If it was strong enough it could be a maintenance hole when problems occured or maintenance activitiesrequired closing a hole on the regulation course.The golf professional could use it for teaching a great variety of shots, rules instruction, beginners, hole in one contests. (community fund raisers.) Imagination is the only limit to the value of such a feature.Now, I just have to figure out how to work one into my project.