Doug:
GREAT CALL! Now I always knew I am not the best with heights out in the open... I do get a little skittish... but man I was feeling vertigo on that tee box. I seriously had to move way to the right side, because I felt like I might fall off the cliff on the left. Get this too: one of my buddies hit a hook that hung up on the cliffside, in the high grass... and went down there and HIT IT... try to picture that... man I could barely watch. Thank god I found the fairway, through to the right side.
TH
Actually, the heights there don't really bother me. On my previous trip to Ireland I got a picture at the Cliffs of Moher STRAIGHT DOWN, after having walked up the path to the left (less well travelled part) stepping over the friendly little white fence with the warning signs talking about how many people have died doing what I did.
I just consider it the most intimidating tee shot in golf because its got all the drama of the long carry over open ocean you get at #18 Pebble or #16 Cypress, but with an extra several hundred feet of elevation above the ocean, more wind, plus the tee shot is to an angled fairway that lies well above the tee and is TOTALLY BLIND! That tee shot would be one of the more difficult around if you were hitting over a grassy field instead of the chasm of doom, you add that in and it'd take some doing to top. Only a very few properties even offer the opportunity to come close. For the architect to have the balls to actually do the blind shot above your head in such a setting is even more rare!
I can relate to what you buddy did -- on the 4th hole I played a 1 iron off the tee for "position", and positioned my hook in the ocean. I dropped in a pretty precarious position there a clublength from the hazard stakes, ball way above my feet and the wind trying to blow me off balance and off the cliff. Hit my best shot of the day with a slinging hook 4i onto the green from about 220 and almost made one of the best pars of my life.
Speaking of fear, you know what fear I do get at golf courses, even though I don't get vertigo and am not really bothered by long carries over water, etc? I have a hell of a time hitting any shot over water if I'm standing right behind it, due to some unaccountable fear of having the club fly out of my hands and into the water, despite never having the club fly completely out of my hands during even a single shot in my life. So I grip it tight and results are sometimes comical. But that didn't stop me from bombing a drive from the 7th tee backwards into the open ocean, and it was a pretty damn good drive considering how tightly I was holding the club
Its not a fear of water, move me back 10 feet and I'm fine, and not fear of falling in because I'll have it even if it was a pond so shallow I could wade across. I think I need a shrink
