Great holes with a blind tee shot

[Tom_Doak]

id like to come up with a thorough list of great holes with blind tee shots.  I'll start it off with two:


#8 at Pebble Beach, great in spite of its blind tee shot, and


#4 at Royal Melbourne (West), great because of its blind tee shot


Please contribute one or two more!

[Matthew Mollica]

18 Barnbougle Dunes
13 St Andrews Beach
18 Portsea
11 Lost Farm
4 Cape Kidnappers
16 Kingston Heath


All great holes, and all blind tee shots.

[Ira Fishman]

#3 Lahinch
#5 The Island Club
#16 Pasatiempo

[Jim Nugent]

A very famous one: #9 at RCD. 

Doesn't the Road Hole have a blind tee shot? 

[James Brown]

8 and 17 at Dornoch.

[Eric Smith]

#2 at National Golf Links
#3 at Old Macdonald

[Peter Pallotta]

For further down on your list as I suppose it's not technically/fully blind - but the 5th at Crystal Downs sure felt blind...or would have if I'd had the courage to aim over the tree on the right instead of laying up short left of the 3 Sisters!
A neat trick: the ideal line feels blind, while the rest of the fairway is all right in front of you -- but take that 'safer' route and you're left with a much more difficult approach.

[Mark Kiely]

I second 16 at Pasatiempo:
IMG_20170726_171839508 by Mark, on Flickr


9 at Southern Highlands:
IMG_0450 by Mark, on Flickr


17 at La Quinta (Mountain):
IMG_3447 by Mark, on Flickr

[Greg Gilson]

5 at Yarra Yarra

[Sam Krume]

Going to throw in the 8th at The Addington but also possibly the 12th(dependent on which tee you use)

[Adam Lawrence]

Sunningdale Old, seventh hole

[Sean_A]

St Enodoc 3


Sandwich 4


Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Some that haven't been mentioned -
Tenby - 4th
Narin & Portnoo - 9th
Cruden Bay - 15th!
Royal Porthcawl - 3rd
Pyle & Kenfig - 13th
Carne Kilmore - 8th
atb

[Joe Bausch]

With the Crump Cup in progress, the 4th at PV comes to mind.


And Joe Dey thought the original 6th hole at Cobb's Creek was pretty good.

[Tim Gallant]

Some that I don't believe have been added:


3rd at Machrihanish
11th at Muirfield
5th at Prestwick!
5th at Lahinch!
1st at Elie
10th at Elie

[Scott Warren]

St Enodoc 3

Ciao

Okay, I'll bite. What is great about 3 at St Enodoc?

[Tim Gallant]

Sunningdale Old, seventh hole

+1

[Ira Fishman]

One I should have had in my first list:


#8 Cypress Point

[Mark_Fine]

There have been a lot of blind tee shots holes mentioned.  I might beg to differ however if they are all great!  I also think some are great "despite" the blind tee shot.  I won't elaborate but it is worth thinking about. 


There is so much blindness at courses like The National and Lahinch and it can be cool and quirky but I am not sure it is what makes all of those holes great. 

[Mike_Trenham]

#8 Pine Valley
#1 Plainfield
#4 White Manor

[Adrian_Stiff]

4 @ Royal St Georges was the first that came into my mind.


17 @ TOC was the second thought.

[Tim Martin]

Essex County(MA) # 8
Fishers Island #'s 6,9,15
Sebonack #14
Plainfield # 5
Boston Golf Club #7
Yale #'s 2,17,18

[Jeff_Brauer]

18 Riv?
Pete Dye has done some nice ones. 14 at Stonebridge Ranch is good, with two bunkers lining up the shot line.
Haven't been there in a while, but similar to 10 at Shinny where at least a good portion of the fairway disappears off the tee.


I'm with Mark F on this one a little bit.  We are listing blind tee shots.  In most cases, for many golfers, a hole might be great in spite of a blind tee shot as much as great because of a blind tee shot. 


To parse it even further there are holes that let you play one area that is visible, while the premium area is not, which I call the option to not outdrive your headlights.  Do those count as blind shots if optional route is blind?

[MCirba]

10 Misquamicut
14 Metacomet
3 Stonewall North

[Tom_Doak]

18 Riv?
Pete Dye has done some nice ones. 14 at Stonebridge Ranch is good, with two bunkers lining up the shot line.
Haven't been there in a while, but similar to 10 at Shinny where at least a good portion of the fairway disappears off the tee.


I'm with Mark F on this one a little bit.  We are listing blind tee shots.  In most cases, for many golfers, a hole might be great in spite of a blind tee shot as much as great because of a blind tee shot. 


To parse it even further there are holes that let you play one area that is visible, while the premium area is not, which I call the option to not outdrive your headlights.  Do those count as blind shots if optional route is blind?

Part of my point here is that it's possible and not even uncommon to have a great hole in spite of a blind tee shot.  So many people talk as if a blind or partially blind shot will automatically ruin a hole, and it's just not true.


Part of my point, too, is that sometimes the blind tee shot is actually the best thing about a hole.


There may be some of these holes that are not "great" in everyone's eyes, but I think it's fair to say that all of them add to the experience of the courses they inhabit, which is a really good rejoinder to the notion that blind holes are anachronistic and we shouldn't build them anymore.


Keep them coming, please!  There are lots of good ones listed here that I didn't think of right away.


P.S. to MCirba:  It's #3 at Stonewall North that you were thinking of, I believe?  Not the par-3 over the wall, but the up and over par-5, that's a shameless rip-off of the 4th at Royal Melbourne (West) ... and makes the routing of the whole front nine fall into place.