I played this hole yesterday, and I believe, at least tee to green, it's a perfect golf hole. It's nothing new - we've all played a number of holes like this - but I was blown away by how well and how simply the architect(s) of this one, in particular, executed the simple risk-reward proposition. To wit:
- The fairway bunker is perfectly placed off the tee (carries from the backs of the tee boxes: 255/225/200/170/145), and the tees are spaced such that pretty much any player has the opportunity to try and take on the bunker in order to gain a favorable approach angle.
- The green (and attendant greenside bunker) is visible from the tee (despite my poor-quality, into-the sun photo) and is angled perfectly to create a continuum of risk where variations in the hole location dictate different approaches to strategy off the tee one day to the next.
- There is ample width, not just off the tee but around the green, so that the weaker player can make a par or easy bogey by tacking around/hitting a not-so-great shot or two. Many holes like this have fairways that are a lot narrower, and so the player feels more pressure to just make a great swing off the tee than actually choose one of a few very different lines.
Despite it being "perfect," it's obviously not the most memorable or fun hole I've ever played. But is there a simpler - and, perhaps more importantly, easier in its virtues to explain to someone who hasn't before thought much about strategic design - embodiment of good golf course architecture?
Certainly a course where every par 4 was of this sort would be tedious, but this is something so elemental that there are thousands of golf courses out there missing this sort of hole that would be made better by its introduction.
What other holes/types of holes would you consider "perfect"?