What's the best "tight" hole you've played and why?

[Mike_Cirba]

It seems to me that strategy most often requires width, but isn't there a type of vertical strategy that can be created on a narrow, tight hole?

I think the best example that comes to mind might be something on the order of the second and third shots on Pine Valley's 15th.  The hole narrows increasingly the further one attempts to hit their second shot, but a successful effort helps to make the third shot (to a SEVERE green) much less taxing if one is approaching from a reasonable distance.  Conversely, the timid second shot that lays back leaves a really daunting approach.

Taking that philosophy as a guideline, what are some of the best holes where a bold, long tee shot that threads a tight line offers a much easier approach than one that lays back leaving the golfer with an intensely demanding approach.  

I'll nominate the 18th at Muirfield as an example, but let's hear some that use trees, water, or other squeezing factors and do it in a way that's more strategic than penal.  

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mike Cirba,

I got very excited by the title of your thread, and was disappointed when I entered, to find out that it was about golf.  

The old bait and switch theme.

Your example of # 15 at PV is good.

# 15 at NGLA is called Narrows, with good reason.

It is also one matter to look narrow, it is another for a hole to play narrow, despite its look.

# 17 at Seminole is such a hole, it is far narrower in its play then it looks from the tee, especially with the typical breezes that sweep the hole.

[Tim_Weiman]

Mike:

There is probably more fairway than I can remember, but the opening hole at Prestwick sure feels awfully narrow with the railroad running down the right side.

Strategy: a good prayer to calm your nerves.

Prestwick has its own version of the Narrows - the original I think, #15 and also one of my favorite holes.

[peter_p]

Number 1 at Pacific Dunes, and that's without any wind.

[redanman]

NArrows at the National requires a brush with the left rough and a nearly unplayable lie to have a shot at the difficult green.

Can't say I am much of a fan of narrow as there usually is no accommodation or leeway leading to optionless golf making courses like HArbour Town booooooooorrrrrrrrrrriiiing.

But I do respect width severity on tee shots.  Over and over it gets old, but consistent tee ropes have never been  my strength.  I prefer options and recovery over unidimensional "shot values" and risking a slog.

15 PVGC and Narrows NGLA still have options.

[Mike_Cirba]

Patrick;

You're incorrigible!  

[cary lichtenstein]

When I encounter a "tight" hole, I try to play it again and again until I get it right. The best tight hole I ever played was in Mexico years ago, I forget the name of the course, but I think it was a par 6. There was very little rough, but I felt like I was playing during an earthquake,the earth kept moving,  maybe a 7.1 on the rickter scale.

[Mike_Cirba]

GOLF, gentlemen, GOLF (and I use the "gentlemen" term very loosely here).  

FOCUS!

[A_Clay_Man]

Butler nat'l has a couple of extremely tight golf holes that snake and meander with decent movement, for a Chicago course. One even parralels the creek to add further tightness.. One story about the 9th hole ( I may be wrong on the #) I was told, was that Paul Butler wanted the trees so tight that, in it's original form, it was unplayable. One night when Mr. Butler was out of town, someone accidentally cut the the roots of the first row(nearest the fairway) of the entire right side. In a few days the trees were dying and unfortunately   had to be removed.

Hell's gate #8 on the River course at BWR has a "V" over a ravine that must be negotiated and appears quite narrow off the tee. The best part about it is that it "appears" that way but once succesfully negotiated it opens up quite nicely.

The most ridiculous tight hole is on the lesser 18 at La canada in Carmel Valley. The number hole escapes me but as I recall from the one time I golf it, my thoughts were akin to "THE WORST HOLE I"VE EVER PLAYED" and I believe it still holds that moniker. Ed rationalized from this one hole that the goal was to create a course that would be considered harder than Pebble Beach to attract the Mass masocists away from the Peninsula. (Like that was gonna happen, sheesh)

[Mike_Cirba]

What are the strategies on these holes?  

Please explain them?  

Are they all simply vertical strategies where the long, bold shot that stays straight is rewarded while the timid shot leaves a daunting approach?

[A_Clay_Man]

Mike- I guess that's it. A very one dimensional process where "accuracy off the tee" is the biggest dumbing down of one of life's greatests recreational sports.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Though not terribly strategic, being longer simply makes the approach shorter to a very small and tilted green, but my favorite tight hole of the top of my head is the 3rd at Astoria here:



Just pure fun (and the scale is larger than it looks), seeing such a narrow hole down the middle of these two grassed-over parallel sand dunes.  Any tee shot will essentially roll to the middle, thought if it lands on the dune left of the fairway (cartpath), the grass is too thick to bounce down to the fairway.  Grass is not as think on right dune, IIRC.


I was giddy my one time here walking down the fairway on this hole.  The dunes come into play on a number of other holes, but this is the narrowest one.

[Rellio]

#1 at Oakmont is up there for me.  As you hit balls on the range, in the back of your mind, you know what awaits you on the tee.  A few extra drives as a warmup followed by a few practice putts on the fastest greens in the world as you watch a five foot putt roll twenty feet past the hole, and you can hardly make it to the tee box.

Generally, golfers are the most focused on the #1 tee box, and their percentages are higher, but it is tough to let it rip w/OB right and jail left.  When you hit the fairway, you are faced with a medium to long iron to a green that runs away from you.  5 is a good score on this par 4.

[Jeff Fortson]

#3 Cruden Bay

Because it is a reachable par 4 with your drive, but if you hit your tee shot offline you can pay a heavy price in some nasty fescue on extremely sloped hills.

Jeff F.

[Mike Benham]

What are the strategies on these holes?  

Please explain them?  

Are they all simply vertical strategies where the long, bold shot that stays straight is rewarded while the timid shot leaves a daunting approach?

I'll nominate the 17th at TOC ... very small window (no pun intended) off the tee to get the ball in the proper fairway location.  A slight mis-hit, either direction or length, and you are penalized at least 1/2 stroke.

The approach shot is also tight, with small room for error, again a mishit/misplaced shot is penalized by at least 1/2 shot.

Mike

[A_Clay_Man]

Scott- The picture you've added looks like a carbon copy of the old first hole at Aptos in Ca.

I respectfully disagreee that this is too narrow. Sure the fairway is, but with the half pipe, it ain't as slim as it looks. Just My O.

[Lou_Duran]

#9 at Harbour Town- precise drive, tough second, really tough thirds and fourths if you miss the green; or a go for broke drive and hope for a good angle at a benign pin.

#14 at Muirfield Village (the short 4 with diagonal green protected by water in front and bunker on back)- tough drive with iron or wood, frightful second when pin is back right, impossible if you miss left of bunker.

#9 CPC- driver to five iron off the tee, great green with four-putt possibilities and lots of wild stuff around it.

#15 (?) short, tight par-5 at Black Mesa- trouble everywhere, particularly on and near the green, but reachable by many, some with a mid-iron.

[Jonathan Cummings]

The ninth at Butler National comes to mind.  It is simply an unabashed test of laser straightness.  If you had a whole course of holes like this you'd give up golf but like blind shots, once in a while they are OK.  JC

[Scott_Burroughs]

Adam,

As I said above, balls hit on the slopes left and right of the fairway generally do not kick down to the fairway.  You're then left with the ball a foot below your feet in thick gunk (left side) or ball a foot above your feet in thick rough with huge NW pines in front of you (right).

On the hole that runs parallel to the right, on the other side of the dune, it runs in the opposite direction and I ballooned a drive over towards this hole, what I thought on the slope to the right, only for it never to be found.  It would have been one nasty shot back to the other hole.

Essentially, the tee shot IS as narrow as it seems.

[TEPaul]

"It seems to me that strategy most often requires width, but isn't there a type of vertical strategy that can be created on a narrow, tight hole?"

MikeC;

If by vertical strategy you mean strictly distance strategy (distance choices down some narrow line) I think that can be every bit as interesting as what some on here seem to think is the only proper and valid strategic set-up--eg strategy utilizing options and choices of direction or multi directions (utilizing width). Stratetgy and often really good strategy does not REQUIRE width to me as much as simply basically UTILIZING width more often or most often.

But some holes that only offer strategy of distance choices and even in a very narrow line can be as good as width oriented direction strategy.

The hole that comes to my mind and fits your description more than any hole I know that offers good distance strategies in an extremely narrow line only would be Redtail's #4. Basically the hole's midsection presents a very narrow treelined section to hit through that couldn't be more than about 75-100yds long (at the midsection).

What are the options? Basically to lay up in a short wide area before the narrow line or blast straight through it to a wide area on the other side. The strategy is not in the slightest width related or multi-direction related but strictly distance related in a very narrow line. Basically you decide on the tee to negotiate this very narrow band with one long accurate shot (driver) or with two accurate shots (of clubs that're presumably you're most accurate)!

Totally the opposite of direction and width related options but very good stuff strategically nonetheless!

[Pete Lavallee]

Definitely #10 at St. Enodoc, on the Cornish Coast of England. The hole plays 450 yards, with the tee shot severly downhill. On the left side of the landing zone is a steep drop off to a stream. On the right a huge sand hill chokes the landing zone to about 10 yards wide; right where you need to be to have a 200 yard shot in to the green. If you lay back to have a reasonable chance at obtaining a level lie you'll have over 250 in for your second. The second shot is no bargain either as the steep drop off to the stream continues all the way down the left side (the hole doglegs left at the choke point). The right side has a steep upslope all the way to the green also, so any shot hedged against disaster will result is a hanging lie. The coolest part of the hole is that it's layed out in the only way possible play around the old St. Enodoc Church, with it's historic graveyard. It originally played as a par 5; current equipment means it now must be navigated in 4 strokes. There is no room to lengthen the hole and today's bombers can now blow a drive over the sand hill and have 7 iron in. Still a great hole for mere mortals because that's what the land dictated and Braid did nothing but place a tee and a green there.

[Bill_McBride]

I guess it's okay to chime in with a "non-classic" golf course, one which probably only Tom Huckaby and other Northern Calif golfers will recognize and maybe have played.  The course where I learned to play in the middle '50's, Indian Valley GC in Novato, California, the tight hole #5, a 330 yd par 4.

This is another hole where the motif is the tightness of the fairway the closer you get to the green, although it's never all that wide.  This hole runs parallel to the north boundary, so there are literally cow pastures the other side of a barb wire fence.  The right side of the maybe 30 yard wide fairway, which narrows to maybe 20 yards wide directly in front of the green, is a fairly steep hillside which had smallish trees on it in those days.  This fall off continued around the back and right side of the very small green, maybe 2500 sf, with the only bailout a small chipping area left.  No bunkers at all on the hole in those days.

The smart play was of course a cut long iron down the left side, which would roll down within 100 yards of the green due to non-irrigated fairways in those days.  The dumb but fun play was the full blasted driver cut down the left side in an always vain attempt to drive the putting surface.  The bad play was either a duck hook over the fence or a push into those evil trees on the right side hill.

This hole obviously had an impact on me, still relish its challenge.  A par 4 doesn't have to be tightly bunkered and > 450 yards to be a difficult par or birdie.

[Mike_Cirba]

Pete L./Bill;

Great examples!  

Let's hear from others.  

[Norbert P]

  The 9th at Bandon Dunes.  (Relative to the possible magnum fairway possible if they were to incorporate the old practice range off to the right into the design of that hole; a la 14th at St.Andrews Old Course.)

[Mike Benham]

Scott- The picture you've added looks like a carbon copy of the old first hole at Aptos in Ca.

Adam -

Surely you remember the par-5 4th (now the 13th as they have flipped the nines ...) ...

No more than 460 yards, very narrow fairway and if your weren't within 5-yards of the right rough/hill, you hit wedge, wedge to the green.

Probably one of strangest/worst/poorly conceived par-5's I've seen ...

Mike

Ps:  I did happen to slingshot a 5-iron around the corner onto the green during the summer ... best shot I have ever hit on that hole ...