Is this a "Bottle Hole" or ...

[Steve_ Shaffer]

what is not so great about a lot of Florida golf?

[Jay Flemma]

Good Lord! Cart, orange clothes, trees AND water.  At least his finish looks good, though:)  It's a bottle all right - a seltzer water bottle the clowns used to hose down the crowd at the circus:)

[Bill_McBride]

Steve, put a cork in it!

[Steve_ Shaffer]

The culprit here is The Fountains CC, Lake Worth, FL

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/the-fountains-country-club-2314359.html

[Alex Miller]

What sort of lens is that taken with?

[Will MacEwen]

Ancient Nashville proverb:

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

This hole perhaps makes the decision a little less clear?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Steve,

Many Florida courses were built by excavating lakes and using the fill for the fairways, especially in swampy areas and frequently in residential developments since water views sell at a premium.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Pat,

I understand the construction process in Florida but usually one doesn't see a hole such as the one pictured with large lakes on both sides of the fairway. Usually, it's water left and then, on the next hole, water right. The pictured hole is almost an island fairway...and note how the cart path bisects the fairway. 

[Matt_Cohn]

Maybe the picture doesn't exactly represent the hole accurately. I'm pretty sure this is the one.

[Kevin_Reilly]

The lens used for the picture in the original post exaggerates the narrowness of the fairway.

[Jay Flemma]

Lens or no, that still looks like a terrible golf hole to me.

[Matt Waterbury]

Well, assuming the bunkers (both on the inside and the outside of the dog leg, how nice!) are in play off the tee, I think I would be going right of the lake and up the other fairway. Actually provides a better angle to the green. Take that, rascally Florida golf architect!

Maybe the picture doesn't exactly represent the hole accurately. I'm pretty sure this is the one.

[Jerry Kluger]

Aberdeen CC is up the street and their fifth hole is even more incredible - par 5 with an island fairway from which you play your next shot across the fairway.

[Matthew Petersen]

Aberdeen CC is up the street and their fifth hole is even more incredible - par 5 with an island fairway from which you play your next shot across the fairway.

McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale has a par 4 with an island fairway. The hole does offer a fairway that plays all the way around the lake as well ... except if you're playing the forward tees you probably can't use that option, because the forward tee is on the island!

[Bill_McBride]

Edinburgh USA outside Minneapolis has one of those things too.   And pretty narrow as well.

[Alex Lagowitz]

Why would someone design that in the first place?

[Kalen Braley]

The East Bay golf course in Provo, UT does this to you twice...on the same 9.  The lower hole is #1 and the upper on is #7.  What a brutal opening tee shot.

P.S.  While the picture doesn't shot it...I just looked at the aerial again.  #9 also has water left and right....sheez!

[Randy Thompson]

Why would someone design that in the first place?

I can´t speak for all but I can for myself becasue I have designed and a built a similar hole. Looking back now, I agree, a horrible hole. Why? Well when I was starting out in the business, I was looking for originality and thought that the was the key to becoming a sucessful archtiect. Eventually you learn, almost everything has been done and redone. I guess we could put a tree in the middle of a green but I will leave that for someone else. Through the years, I have clearer what I like and dislike and leave the originality to others and now try to concentrate on what are the characterisitcs of the natural property and how they can be converted to my current conceptual design LIKES!