First off, it is lovely having our prodigal oral surgeon back in the Treehouse - particularly because my table in the Faculty Lounge has more gravestones than chairs these days. Luckily, I've got an open channel to the entire Mucci clan, but you cannot really have a beer with my favorite icon on Zoom.
Speaking of, "Iconic holes" . . . . hmmmm.
Rather than identify a hole as "iconic" exclusively out of some visceral groupthink consensus, I reserve a special sub-category for complex strategic designs that set my brain into cognitive dissonance.
In other words, holes that - no matter how many times I play them - I cannot reach a conclusion on the best way to play them.
It seems the Bandon complex has more than its share of holes that drive me so mad, I'm prone to changing my mind in the middle of my backswing.
Yet these are the holes I invariably find most interesting - although there must be a component of masochistic futility in the same way I cannot seem to beat a computer at chess, but keep trying in the hope I'll eventually outsmart it.
#5 and #16 at Bandon, #2 and the deviously evil #16 at Pac Dunes - although #7 gets my goat every time, too. #14 at Trails is an obvious choice although I lack sufficient intellectual horsepower to make par on #8.
But those holes strike me as - at least - *intellectually* iconic.
It occurs to me #12 at TOC falls into that category . . . . . even the caddies cannot agree on how to attack it.
I'll get to Old Mac later . . . . . there should be little mystery because I've written a chapter on every single Macdonald template hole in detail, except my lowest score is still my maiden voyage - likely because I was playing with TD for part of the course and had Uncle George talking me through each hole the next day.
On the same minor key note, my lowest score at NGLA (1988) by five shots was also the first go-round, but I had Timmonds leading me around by my big Armenian nose; left to my own devices, without being shepherded by the diminutive shepherd, I've never broken 80.