[David Davis]

I keep running into golf holes that have a blind tee shot and if you hit it good you are rewarded with a blind shot into the green. What do you guys think? Are there a lot of holes you'd consider great with a blind drive/landing area and a blind approach, be it over dunes, up hills or to greens tucked behind hills or is it too much? Any examples you can think of?

[Michael Goldstein]

David:  there's a fantastic one at The Machrie.  I believe it's number 7.  It has a blind drive over a huge dune to a wildly undulating fairway.  The second shot is blind to a sunk green. 

Whilst it may break all of some folks "rules" the bottom line is it's great fun.

[astavrides]

it depends, but on a lot of courses, 2 blind shots in one round are too much for me.

[Jay Cox]

Depending on what you count as "blind," Yale arguably has two par 4s with two blind shots -- #3 (tee shot where you can see parts of the fairway but not where you want your ball to end up, blind approach over a hill) and #10 (blind tee shot over a rise with a view of the green in the distance but no view of anything in between, uphill approach shot where you can see part of the flag but none of the green).  I'm a big fan of both holes, and I think many here would agree that the 10th is one of the best (and toughest) 400-ish-yard holes in the world.

[Stephen Davis]

The first two holes at Dismal river were double blind shots. I liked the first one fine, but couldn't help but think that the second hole would have been far better had the shot been a slight decline to an open green, with a front bunker or a partially blind shot with the mound in the front. The way it is it is a huge drop off and it seemed like everyone collected into the same spot in front of the green. So two blind shots are fine, but two back to back holes with two blind shots is too much.

[Jason Thurman]

I think it can work really well on a par 5. Here's the fourth at The Harvester, a great public course in Rhodes, IA.

The tee shot plays over a rise. Average hitters will probably not be able to clear the top, but longer hitters can get to the other side.



Once on the other side, the big hitter has another rise obscuring their view of the green if they want to take a shot at it in two. For the average hitter coming from a bit further back, it's just another straightforward shot to the top of the next rise.



The hole works for two reasons. First, even though the shots are blind, it's still pretty easy to tell where you're trying to go. Secondly, the hole is visually difficult for the stronger player trying to be aggressive while the shorter or more conservative player can stay safe easily. It creates a nice risk/reward balance.

[David_Tepper]

#17 a Royal Dornoch is a par-4 with a blind tee shot and a blind shot into the green. Neither shot bothers me at all. I like the suspense of waiting to find out where my shot ended up.

[Ulrich Mayring]

Fanø #14, Par 4

Tee Shot:


Approach:


Ulrich

[Doug Siebert]

The first two holes at Dismal river were double blind shots. I liked the first one fine, but couldn't help but think that the second hole would have been far better had the shot been a slight decline to an open green, with a front bunker or a partially blind shot with the mound in the front. The way it is it is a huge drop off and it seemed like everyone collected into the same spot in front of the green. So two blind shots are fine, but two back to back holes with two blind shots is too much.

Dismal's 1st is only blind if you go around the corner down in the valley.  It's a decision off the tee, do you want a shorter but blind approach?  The 2nd is only blind on the approach from the left or middle of the fairway.  You can see the (top of the) flag from the right, but you have to risk hitting it down in the gunk to do so.  Both greens play far larger than their already large size because of all the sideboards around each green, so the blindness is not that big of a factor.  The reason you saw everyone's ball collecting in the front of the 2nd green is they didn't use enough club, and probably landed 20 yards short and just rolled down

Dismal is full of semi blind shots well beyond the first two holes, you probably can't see the surface you'll be landing your ball on for half your full shots, even if you hit every drive in position A.  It makes up for this with wide fairways and the fact almost all the greens have sideboards somewhere or another to increase the effective size of the green.

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