I recently returned from playing in the Kansas Amateur in Garden City, Kansas.  The tournament was played at Southwind Country Club, a Don Sechrest design in the southwest corner of the state which most would be surprised to learn is sand dune/desert landscape complete with ice plants, cacti, and rattle snakes.  The 15th at Southwind is quite possibly the hardest par 5 in golf.  Certainly harder than anything I've played.  

564 yards double dog leg into the wind which during the summer is typically 10-20 miles per hour with gusts to 30.  The tee shot is played from an elevated tee box to the southwest.  The fairway is ample but from the left side your second shot is a blind shot over a hill to a narrow downhill fairway.    The right side of the fairway provides a view of the fairway for the second shot, but errant tee shots too far right and through the fairway find severe side hill lie on a sand dune covered with the aforementioned ice plants, cacti, and an occasional rattlesnake.   The second shot is played to the southeast down hill to an incredibly narrow fairway, 6 paces wide at its narrowest point.  The rough is another six or seven paces and beyond that back into the sandy gunch.  One may be tempted to go for the green in two but the right side of the green is guarded by a 65 foot thick gunch covered sand dune 30 yards in front of the green and the left by an expansive green side sand bunker with yucca plants (a la Prairie Dunes) on the green side margin of the bunker.

The third shot (from the 6 paces wide fairway if you hit it) is played back uphill to the southwest to the elevated green, an errant pitch shot to the left finds the aforementioned vegetation rich sand bunker and errant shot right the green past the sand dune finds a severely sloping rough covered hill running away from the green.  

The green which is approximately 30-45 feet above the fairway is a long (front to back) narrow green with two levels, the front half is slightly dome shaped, the back tier, which is maybe fifty feet above the fairway is relatively flat.

Hardest damn par five I've ever seen.

But is it an easy par-6?

Doug,

OK, I give. When are we playing? What is the tariff out there. I cannot and will not give Hills more than $50. I wouldn't be able to call myself a golfer anymore. How far is it from us? btw, nothing is harder than #18 Fox Run. There can't be anything harder from the back tees, there is nowhere, nowhere to hit it on the tee shot or the second shot. No play makes sense and the right side of the fairway is a riot!!

Quote from: Glenn Spencer on July 27, 2006, 02:24:35 PM

there is nowhere, nowhere to hit it on the tee shot or the second shot. No play makes sense and the right side of the fairway is a riot!!

Sounds a little like Yale # 18 . . .  

John,

I don't know which one of us is at fault, but somehow we have managed to have Yale and Art Hills in the same discussion. Something is just flat-out wrong about that.

Yeah, I know you were. I am about 0-20 on Fox Run's 18th. Made one birdie there, best drive and best 2-iron I have ever hit, but you are not supposed to go in two, so that doesn't even count. I ahve made about 7-8 doubles though.

I'd say San Juan Oaks #15 is the hardest par-5 I've ever played, and it's not super long. From the blues: Almost no landing area for the drive.  

Sidehill lie in the rough for a lay-up 2nd of about 170 yards to clear a diagonal barranca, still going up hill.  There are Oaks in the hazard that catch many balls. If you over club, you can fly it over the fairway into a hazard.

The ostensible 3rd is usually about 150 uphill, playing on a sidehill lie that pushes everything towards barranca (or bunkers if lucky).  Easily plays 2 clubs longer.
Big green.  Left is very heavy rough hillside...

Anyways, I've played there about 50 times.  I have 1 birdie, maybe 3 pars, and any number of 7,8,9+

http://www.sanjuanoaks.com/pages/hole15.html

Harder than Eagle Ridge #4 by a lot...

I feel like I've done an injustice to the Shattuck for not listing the par 5 (4th or 5th?) but I think that hole has been discussed in more detail on another thread.  That hole is just silly.

Tom

I'm surprised that 10 people have actually played Cape Kidnappers.  A friend of mine was there recently and he and his whost were the only players on the course.

At least ten people have told me that the 15th at Cape Kidnappers is the hardest par five in the world.  On windy days they may be right.

OK, if we're talking about wind... I would nominate #5 at NSWGC. Downwind: Driver, 9 iron. Into the wind: Driver, 3 wood, 3 iron and you'd better hit each one in the screws or you'll never see that ball again.

Tom - I played at Wairakei in NZ the day before I played at Kidnappers and there was a par 5 there (maybe the 14th) which seemed more difficult than the 15th at CK.

 I suppose it all comes down to weather. I played Kidnappers twice and the am round was benign, and though the wind came up pm, the 15th was downwind so it was actually reachable in two (whereas a good drive on 16 did not reach the fairway) - I don't recall the markers we played. No doubt conditions  were different when the other ten guys were playing it.

18th at paxon hollow

you can sit on the patio looking over the green and just watch one player after another just butcher the hole.
8's, 9's, and 10's are common place on the hole.

after playing it several times, i have found out that the best way to play it is: 5 iron - 5 iron - 8 iron

So, apparently we are talking about, stupid-hard here? It does sound difficult. I will throw #18 at Fox Run's hat into the ring, an Art Hills par 5 that is so bad that it is impossible to play properly and that makes it the hardest par 5 I have played. Yours does sound difficult though.

I nominate above hole for the worst hole in golf.

Sorry to miss you too Mike. You must have had a lot of fun inside the ropes those last two days watching the Tiger master-class. Hopping around the course getting to see occasional shots was fun enough - seeing the whole thing in technicolor was a special privilege. It was a lot of fun and I am glad that Hoylake came out of it well.

I am sure glad, btw, that I did not play CK on a hole 15/ten shots day. I think the experience might have paled a bit!