Your golf course nemesis? Mine's 16 at Pasa...still...

[Jay Flemma]

It happened again.  I crushed a drive right down the middle, perfectly positioned...and again I putted off that dadgum tarnation polecat green.  (The 16th at Pasatiempo).  Three times I've played it.  twice I've reached in regulation...and three times I've taken that walk of shame.  I love the hole.  I love what it can do to you.   think it's one of my favorite holes in golf.

And I still just can't beat it.  Triple bogey...again.

Tom Doak - phenomenal job restoring that course.  It's unbelievably fun, a joy to play.  I love it.  You know you did a great job when it just keeps playing me for a chump time and again.  I swear I will get my revenge on it...I just don't know when.  Three freaking times!  I mean I have no idea how I could have putted off the green this time! I was hole high and the pin was middle-ish-back left!

What's your golf hole nemesis?  What hole on what course owns you?

I have a dear friend/buddy who has left at least three tournaments on 15 at National (The Narrows).  he says that hole gets him every time and he has no idea how or why.  I watched him take a seven on it last time we were there.  Then he comes to the Narrows at Forsgate with me and he does the same thing:)

He still can't understand why...

[Brian Hilko]

Number 11 at Crystal is 16's brother. The tee shot fools me still. It looks down hill but never plays down hill. Always hard to judge the wind on that hole. The green is just plain mean. My only par was the first time I played it. 11 at CD and 16 at Pasa get harder each time you play them. Once you putt off these greens it scars you. Both those holes own me.

[Jay Flemma]

Aw, Shivas, that's just cruel and unusual! How did you do that? (and don't say "I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss, I make"

[Wayne Wiggins, Jr.]

#14 Olympic Lake.  Tee shot is unsettling as I tend to hit a little draw, which always ends up rolling too far to the left side and can get blocked by trees.  If I try and hit a little fade I block it into the rough. 

100+ plays.  Maybe a dozen pars and 1 birdie. 

[Tom_Doak]

Number 11 at Crystal is 16's brother. The tee shot fools me still. It looks down hill but never plays down hill. Always hard to judge the wind on that hole. The green is just plain mean. My only par was the first time I played it. 11 at CD and 16 at Pasa get harder each time you play them. Once you putt off these greens it scars you. Both those holes own me.

Brian:

There's a reason the eleventh hole at Crystal Downs never plays downhill.  The green is 17 feet higher than the tee.  It's only the fact that the green has so much slope from back to front, that you can see any of the surface from the tee.

[cary lichtenstein]

11 at Augusta, doesn't fit my shape shot, always in the left rough

[Brian Hilko]

Number 11 at Crystal is 16's brother. The tee shot fools me still. It looks down hill but never plays down hill. Always hard to judge the wind on that hole. The green is just plain mean. My only par was the first time I played it. 11 at CD and 16 at Pasa get harder each time you play them. Once you putt off these greens it scars you. Both those holes own me.

Brian:

There's a reason the eleventh hole at Crystal Downs never plays downhill.  The green is 17 feet higher than the tee.  It's only the fact that the green has so much slope from back to front, that you can see any of the surface from the tee.

Tom-
Everytime I get to the green I am made panifully aware. The hole makes me feel like I should ease one in there when really I should be playing much more aggresive. Tom what is the official elevation change from back to front on that green?

[Patrick_Mucci]

The approach shot after after perfect drives on The "cape" at NGLA has given me fits for the last few years .

I've either fanned my approach into the right side bunker, come up short and once went long.

All this from 140 to 100 yards from the center of the green.

While the fairway is canted and sloped, hitting 8-iron to sand-wedge should produce better results.

Three years ago it probably cost me the SR Division championship when I was playing well and two up on my opponent and a par would have put me 3 up since he bogied the hole.  Instead, with a 9-iron into the green I doubled the hole.

Today, it was Deja vu all over again as my opponent bogied and so did I from 116.

Alignment ? ??
Deceleration ?  ?  ?
Fanning ?  ?  ?
Any combo of the above.

On my next visit I intend to hit a few shots on that hole until I get it right.

Many years ago it was # 11 at Preakness Hills

[David_Elvins]

It happened again.  I crushed a drive right down the middle, perfectly positioned...

If you drive down the left, you may have better luck hitting underneath the hole with your approach. 

[Jay Flemma]

Actually to be accurate - that's excatly where I was - left side of the fwy.  Perfect position. After that...ugh...

[Doug Siebert]

Funny how a hole sometimes gets in your head.  But I don't worry too much about holes that give me trouble on courses that I only play a few times, that's not a nemesis, it's just statistics!

[Tom_Doak]

Brian:

There's a reason the eleventh hole at Crystal Downs never plays downhill.  The green is 17 feet higher than the tee.  It's only the fact that the green has so much slope from back to front, that you can see any of the surface from the tee.

Tom-
Everytime I get to the green I am made panifully aware. The hole makes me feel like I should ease one in there when really I should be playing much more aggresive. Tom what is the official elevation change from back to front on that green?

It's about 5 1/2 feet from back right to front right.

[Rich Goodale]

Nemeses change over time.  Once one learns this they are at least one step closer to total consciousness.......

[Jay Flemma]

Nemeses change when you conquer them.  I had a skiing nemesis once - "The Cliffs" at Sugarbush North, but once I beat it, I beat it for good.  But it was in my head as a kid big time.  I fell five times in one run on that thing...well I fell four times...the fifth time, I had just gotten settled after a yard sale - skis back on, poles in hand, ready to go, all of a sudden I hear a commotion behind me and turn just in time to see some huge monster sliding on his ass full steam down the hill and POW! he smashes into me and there I am ass over teakettle again

And as I'm laying there in pieces again blinking stupidly at the sky from my back, he over at me and says, "HI!"

[Mark McKeever]

My nemesis hold is 5 at Boston Golf Club.  I just can't nail down that approach to the sliver green....Even with some sort of half lob wedge in hand...

Mark

[Bill Shotzbarger]

#8 at Sandy Run C.C. The course is nothing to write home about but they have a wonderful better ball tournament that I play every year.

It's a 560 yd par 5 and there's almost nowhere to hit your second shot. OOB and a creek right, bunkers and tall willow trees on the left...I usually make a par one out of the three days and take a bogey or worse on the other two.

[Jud_T]

#8 at Kingsley Club.  A good drive must carry the bunkers on the hill on the right to give you the best approach.  Then, as a lefty, I'm left with a tight downhill lie with a short to mid-iron to a green that is unrelenting if you push or pull your approach more than a few feet, followed by a very difficult up and down.  Bogey often feels like a minor victory here for me...

[Jay Flemma]

My nemesis hold is 5 at Boston Golf Club.  I just can't nail down that approach to the sliver green....Even with some sort of half lob wedge in hand...

Mark

Hanse does that sliver green thing a lot...2 and 10 at Tallgrass come to mind...

[Patrick_Mucci]

Funny how a hole sometimes gets in your head.  But I don't worry too much about holes that give me trouble on courses that I only play a few times, that's not a nemesis, it's just statistics!

Doug,

The strange thing is that the hole and the play of the hole don't enter my mind.
My primary focus on that hole is the drive over the water, avoiding the water right and the deep blind bunkers on the left.
I just want to aim at the 15th tee, the tree to the right or between those two objects, and every time I've hit the fairway.

Once in the fairway, my concern is the hole location and my lie and the margins for error and aiming point.

On my backswing everything is good, mentally and physically, it's just the results that annoy me.

[Doug Siebert]

Well Patrick, you must have a stronger mind than most who play golf.  If it wasn't for crap going on in my head, I'd be a much better golfer.  I get down on myself after some bad shots and usually hit many more, I get squirrely when I'm doing too well and out of my comfort zone.  I miss left a few times or even feel like I'm going to miss left and I start hitting open face blocks to avoid the left.  I feel uncomfortable on a few short putts, even if they go in, and I'm uncomfortable with them for the rest of the day.

Makes me want to try Adderall once just to see what it does....a friend of my uses it before every round of golf and he plays like a zombie.  You can't tell if he just made an eagle or a triple.  Rather like most of the players on tour today, now that I think about it 

[Matthew Essig]

Shocked someone else hasn't said it yet... Sticking with the Pasa theme.... #8

[Jay Flemma]

Wow...we Pasa sure has got a lot of notches in it's belt:)

[Matthew Petersen]

16 at Grayhawk (Raptor) always gets me. Downhill par 3 with a small pond on the left, and plenty of room to miss right. My miss is usually left and I've been in that pond (and worse, left of it) enough that now I tend to miss in the generous chipping area to the right. Tough up-and-down from over there, though. Damn that hole.

[David_Tepper]

Well, it took me something like 200 rounds at Royal Dornoch before I parred #14, "Foxy," for the 1st time, so I guess that has been my golf course nemesis for quite some time. Of course, I had to bounce my 3rd shot (from 150 yards away) off the flagstick to leave me with a tap-in for a par-4.

[Keith Doleshel]

Jay,
I think I can add the entire back nine at Pasatiempo as my arch nemesis.  It did it again to me today. I turned in 40, not great, but certainly not bad for me, and get to the back nine and its like I have never taken it back before.  Hit the fairway on 10, hit it in the bunker up against a lip, have to play backwards, make a number.  Hit the cart path with my tee shot on 12, can't find my ball.  Another big number.  Three putt on 16 (standard), three putt on 18 (standard).  Doesn't seem to matter what I shoot on the front, I get on that back nine, all bets are off.  I have turned in as low as 37, and never broken 80 out there.  It does it to me every time.  Absolutely love the golf course, and think the back nine is better than the front, even though I can't play it well.  I joked that I feel like Sergio at Augusta, maybe the course is just too hard for me.