Pete Lavallee, Index: 4.5, home course: Balboa Park Golf Club, San Diego Ca.
1.) Toughest hole: #16, 555 yard par 5 into the prevailing wind. The hole doglegs left off the tee with a pine tree in the right center of the fairway 260 from the back tee, just before the hole turns abruptly to the left. The entire left side of the hole is a deep canyon that is played as a lateral water hazard. Anything yanked off the tee is lost, but you only pay the stroke penalty, dropping where the ball crossed the canyon edge. The instinctive play is to play a draw to the right center to avoid the canyon, and leave yourself in the gap between the canyon edge and the tree. Push your shot just slighty and you put yourself right behind the tree and have to manufacuer a shot. Any second shot that draws and hits he left half of the fairway kicks off the right to left slope into the canyon, so you often find yourself trying to cut the shot around the tree off a lie with the ball much higher than your feet. A lower level of unmaintained canyon, on the right side from the 300 mark to the green, is there to catch the shot hedged against the lost ball on the left; your ball can be found and played, but with a blind shot off unfriendly terrain. Fairly easy long and narrow green with a bunker front right and two grass bunkers to the left.
2.) Easiest hole: #15, 320 yard par 4. The hole is an L-shaped dogleg, 240 yards straight out, then the hole takes a left hand turn for 75 yards to a fairly flat green. The left side is a grove of Red Gum trees, that tempt the golfer to go straight over them to the green, about a 275 yard carry. Even if the attempt fails you'll have a punch shot through the trees, which have no branches on the lower 20 feet, to the green.
3.) Toughest tee shot: Any tee shot with the wind howling left to right.
4.) Toughest shot to execute: Being a tall player with short arms, any shot where the ball is below my feet gives me the most trouble.