Straight holes.....

[paul cowley]

Given a wide corridor of 350' plus.......is there any reason today to build a straight playing hole.....ie, one that is flanked by short bunker right, long bunker left?

[Norbert P]

  I was recently in a dialogue about Talking Stick North and we both got amped about discussing  #2. It was his favorite hole and the one that I appreciated more and more after rethinking over it countless times. A fairly banal looking par 5 with a wire fence hard to the left running straight by the green. The tee shot landing zone is ginormous. There is seemingly no interest in it standing there for the first time except for things that I thought should have been done like blocking the view of the fence, at least in the near distance, and since have recanted those remarks as not better than the simplicity of what is there.  
   To get quickly to the end of this, the hole gathers strategic merit as one gets closer to the green.  I happened to hit the green and actually went OB. What the Hell?! I got schooled.  The angle of attack and the angle of the green and the firm playing conditions all conspired to thwart my ambitions.

#2 @ Talking Stick North

[Jim Sweeney]

Slag:

I too am a fan of TS #2. Challenge the OB and you can reach in two. The farther right you go, away from the OB, the more difficult the approach, with bunkers intruding as well as playing back toward the OB. Great hole. C&C use the same device on another hole- a par 4- #14?- the one with the arroyo down the middle.

There is no reason a hole with a straight centerline cannot be a good, interesting hole when strategies such as above, of centerline hazards, or cross bunkers are employed.