Modern Road Holes

[Mike Hendren]

Thanks to George Bahto for drawing my attention to the Road Hole bunkering of the first green at The Knoll West, yesterday's AOTD.

The combination of the front bunker and angled rear bunker mimicking the road presents angular strategy at its best.  It would seem that this tandem could be easily produced on virtually any topography.  The combination could also be reversed to favor the left to right shot - the Reverse Road Hole or, shall we say, the Hole Road?   Why don't we see it more often?

Please provide examples of modern Road Holes or Hole Roads.

Regards,

Mike

[Tom_Doak]

The New course at Grand Cypress has a left-to-right version of the Road hole tailored for JN's fade.  It just didn't seem the same to me at all -- especially since the OB was still down the right, but you wanted to play left for a better angle to the green.

Cape Kidnappers has a short par-4, the 14th, with the nastiest example of the Road green built in many years.

[George Pazin]

Tom D -

Doesn't Beechtree feature a road hole as the closer?

[Jeff_Brauer]

The Tribute in the Colony, TX has a good replica of the original, with a stone wall serving as a symbolic train shed.  Green is very similar in dimension (presumably measured) but the bunker seems shallower than I remember the original.  Perhaps now its accurate!

[Mike Hendren]

Tom Doak,

Thanks for getting this thread off the snide

I was winding down the workday with my legal pad and pencil and sketched the Road Hole green complex.  It got me to thinking about the fairway cut during the most recent Open.  I recall the fairway was ribbon like - extremely narrow.  This eliminated the advantage gained by cutting the dogleg and took away the opportunity to challenge the Road Hole bunker with a second shot from the outside of the dogleg since one is merely hacking out from there.  Is my recollection correct and premise valid?

Also, would it make sense to design a Road Hole that is straight-away (perhaps 350 yards as the crow flies) with an extremely wide fairway so that the ideal play would be to treat the hole as a dogleg left by playing way (40 yards) right off the tee.   The bigger hitter might be temped to go right at the green, only to be left with a most delicate pitch.  Should the tee ball need to carry a bunker in the right third of the fairway to access the preferred line to approach the green?  Am I suffering from tornado warning sleep deprivation?

I wish I had a scanner.

Mike

[George_Bahto]

MIke: sorry for butting in ...... it seems to me that the beauty of the Road hole concept, aside from the obvious hazards along the way, is more that the hole requires two absolutely perfect shots not only to get on the green but to even get in decent position to get up and down for par (considering the version is a par-4.

[John_D._Bernhardt]

I have hit some very good shots setting up my 3rd shot with a position just short of the green. It is one tough great hole.

[mike_beene]

Jeff,I agree the road hole at the Tribute is good,but doesn't it seem wrong that the road is a cartpath?Kind of like walking over the swilican bridge from your gps cart in Las Vegas.