"A gentle handshake"

[Nigel Islam]

The first at French Lick's Hill course is certainly one of the tougher par 4s on the course (5 and 18 are tougher and maybe 12).

[Matthew Petersen]

#1 at We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro) is tough. 469 from the tips. Downhill drive to an angled fairway that falls away on the right. Second shot requires a carry over a wash, the only place this is required on the course. Green runs hard into bunker right, actually better to miss there than to miss in the short grass left. Tough par.

[Thomas Dai]

I mentioned the 1st at TOC above.

I've just seen a Gary Player interview on TV where he said his first ever shot in The Open was played at TOC - and he snapped hooked it but was saved from going OB left by hitting one of the OB marker posts and coming back into play. So much for IB-F's shot many years later.

atb

[Carl Rogers]

Welcome to Ballyhack.
WW

huh??  First Drive is very disconcerting.

[Carl Rogers]

Tom D's & Team 1st at Riverfront is a wide open drive, only to be rudely shocked into a very prececise approach with no particularly easy pin locations .... no. 3 handicap hole

[Sean_A]

Birkdale's opener is tough as nails.  Saunton East's is a brutal hello.  Believe it or not, but Church Stretton's opener will quickly dispell ideas of a birdie fest based on a short yardage card.  Not necessarily tough, but Painswick's can literally kill folks with a weak heart.

Ciao

[David Ober]

I greatly prefer gentle handshakes to start a round. Nothing too long, certainly. I don't like having to really swing at a driver on the first hole. As a working man, rarely do I get enough time to fully warm up prior to a round, and I prefer to bump a hybrid or a 4-wood down the fairway than having to really get into one right off the bat....

[Keith Grande]

Bethpage Red, 470 yard par 4, green located atop the hill alongside the Black's 18th tee.  A stout driver, 3-wood start.  A good bogie hole!

[Brent Hutto]

The first hole at Pitlochry is 376 yards from the visitor tees I played and 384 from the medal tees.



You can't tell from the picture but the tee shot landing area (between the two sets of cross bunkers) is about 20-25 feet uphill from the tee and your ball lands on an upslope. Then uphill another 15-20 feet to the green. Prevailing wind is in your face or just a bit from the left. That's an OB fence line on the right. Green has a false front.

For a course that's under 5,700 yards from the tips (albeit Par 69) that opener plays as long and as hard as any hole on the course.

[Guy Nicholson]

Highlands Links has a tough opener. Uphill, usually straight into the wind, bush on both sides, no range.

http://www.highlandslinksgolf.com/golf/proto/highlandslinksgolf2/hole01/hole01.htm
https://www.flickr.com/photos/guynick/3816371374/in/set-72157610577915489

[Brad Tufts]

In the Boston area...

Essex #1 is 430 par 4  (may not be a Ross original hole)
Salem CC #1 is 420 with a blind second shot
Charles River #1 is about 420 with a blind pond at the bottom of the hill
Weston #1 is about 430

Brae Burn, Wellesley, Winchester, Vesper are all short par fours...Woodland is a short 4 too but he may have inherited that one. Concord CC is a short 5.

[JESII]

Pine Valley's first is one of the more difficult holes there...potential monster score on the opener.

[Michael Felton]

Pine Valley's first is one of the more difficult holes there...potential monster score on the opener.

My lasting memory of that place is that every hole had a potential monster score on it.

[Michael Tamburrini]

Wentworth... for years the 1st was the longest par 4 on the course (although I think the 15th is longer now). 

[Jon Wiggett]

One lesser known course is the wonderful Huddersfield GC known locally as Fixby. I has many good holes on it including a brutal 1st hole. Also York GC known locally as Strensil has a tough opener. But up here in the Highlands I am really struggling to think of a tough opening hole.

Jon

[archie_struthers]

 



Depending on the audience , the architect should design accordingly .  You can take more liberties on a lightly played private with no revenue needs.  In our area Pine valley and Galloway would qualify for this .   Otherwise I prefer a gentle opener with a few good pin positions and a longer back tee that can be used for tournament play if desired.

The wider the better for the opening tee shot , let the player get moving and enjoy !

[Patrick_Mucci]

I wonder, when they were first designed and built, if there was any relationship between the difficulty of the first hole and the lack of a practice facility.

Some courses, like BFF and Wannomoisett have difficult openers, others are more benign.

It would be interesting to hear the architect tell us why they designed the first hole the way they did.

AWT seemed to favor par 5's as some of his starting holes.

[Mark Steffey]

In the Boston area...

Essex #1 is 430 par 4  (may not be a Ross original hole)

Brad,

It is my understanding that the nine's as we play them now are flipped from Ross' time there.

[Bill_McBride]

I wonder, when they were first designed and built, if there was any relationship between the difficulty of the first hole and the lack of a practice facility.

Some courses, like BFF and Wannomoisett have difficult openers, others are more benign.

It would be interesting to hear the architect tell us why they designed the first hole the way they did.

AWT seemed to favor par 5's as some of his starting holes.

Most of Mackenzie's California courses start with par 5s except for Cypress Point.  Of them - CPC, Pasatiempo, The Valley Club, Meadow Club - only the Meadow Club seems to have had space set aside for a formal driving range.