Holes that have your number

[Tommy Williamsen]

There are some holes that have bogey written all over them even before you tee it up. I was a member at the CC at Woodmore for twenty-five years. I loved the Palmer designed course. It was where my son learned to play.


Number 17 is a shortish par four (360 yards) that doglegs to the right. The fairway narrows at the turn about 200 yards out. Hit it short of the turn and you are behind a set of trees. Hit it left and you are in the rough. Hit it 230 yards and you could be through the fairway. 16 is a 440 yard par four, all carry to reach the green. I would make just as many fours there as on 17. No matter how I tried to adjust my attitude on 17 I'd do something stupid. It just had my number.


Note: they have softened the hole in the las4t few years.

[Greg Hohman]

4 and 16 at Balboa Muni in San Diego. Pete L. can explain better than I. If he doesn’t chime in, I will try.

[Peter Flory]

18 at Butler is the one that stands out for me.  I realize it is a very difficult hole, but it has my number beyond that.  I've messed it up every way possible and built up enough mental scar tissue where I just surrendered and play it as a par 5 now. 

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[Matthew Rose]

For me, long par-threes that required a fade. By long I mean anything 5-iron or longer. It's a shot I didn't really have for a long time. I played with a very strong grip for most of my 20s and 30s and so I always found it much easier to hit draws, especially with longer clubs.

I'm better with it these days but it still isn't a point of strength.

[Charles Lund]

I used to say that I had a long term lease on certain fairway bunkers on holes at a couple of courses in Ireland.


Charles Lund

[Bill Seitz]

The 4th at Oak Valley in Beaumont, CA (formerly the 13th).  375 yards, generous fairway, pretty easy to get yourself into good position.  But then it's straight up to the green a good 25-30 feet above the fairway, almost volcano style.  I just could never get comfortable with that second shot.  I probably played it 8-10 times and was in the fairway every time. Don't think I ever made par.

[Thomas Dai]

These days just about any par-3 that requires both a long club from the tee and a shot that lands and stops on a firm green. Trajectory and loss of power as age increases don't go well together.
atb

[Ira Fishman]

A couple of not long Par 4s:


Mid Pines 14. Straightforward and straight but can never get comfortable on the tee, and the green side bunkers just gobble my ball up.


Hope Valley 7. Even shorter but sudden severely elevated green guarded in right front by deep bunker and bunker that runs along left side of green that leaves an awkward shot to green running away. You cannot see the bottom of the pin from the fairway and judging distance is compounded by long green and front bunker being several yards short of green. 300 yards and hole just eats me alive.


Ira

[Jim Tang]

The 12th at Ballyneal is a puzzle for me.  I have never felt comfortable on the tee and 80% of the time I seem to end up in the bowl on the right.  It's so disorientating at the bottom of that bowl and the angle into the green is unfavorable I typically go into butcher mode from there. 


I have tried laying up short of the bottleneck created by the bunker left and bowl right with hybrids and irons.  I have tried blowing a driver over the bottleneck with disastrous results.  That hole rents space in my head.

[Ian Mackenzie]

14th at Shoreacres has mine.


The "Redan" par 3 is 185-200 and I'm just hoping to not soil myself.
NARROW green, junk left, dead long...only a perfect shot seems to be rewarded.


Ive been hitting low running, hooded 4 irons just to find the front of the green and let my flat stick pull me out...;-)

[David Ober]

The 4th at Oak Valley in Beaumont, CA (formerly the 13th).  375 yards, generous fairway, pretty easy to get yourself into good position.  But then it's straight up to the green a good 25-30 feet above the fairway, almost volcano style.  I just could never get comfortable with that second shot.  I probably played it 8-10 times and was in the fairway every time. Don't think I ever made par.

Interesting hole to have trouble on, but I guess I could see it -- not to many holes with that short of a shot up that steep of a hill. Love that course. Back in the day when it was in fantastic shape, it was one of my favorites in SoCal for sure.


For years, growing up at Canyon Crest in Riverside, I had trouble with the straightaway 393 yard par-4 6th. OB with houses on both sides, and with a strange big "hump" at about 150 yards out from the green. I donated many, many balls to the backyard God back in the day....

[Bill Seitz]

For years, growing up at Canyon Crest in Riverside, I had trouble with the straightaway 393 yard par-4 6th. OB with houses on both sides, and with a strange big "hump" at about 150 yards out from the green. I donated many, many balls to the backyard God back in the day....

Our home course for my first three years at UCR before we went to Victoria my senior year.  Definitely some claustrophobia on that part of the golf course.  Haven't played either in 25 years or so.  Would be interesting to see how some of those holes hold up to newer equipment.


Last time I was Oak Valley it was crazy to see how much the area around it grew up.  There were almost no houses there back then.  Always loved playing it though.  Worth the drive from Pasadena.

[Dean DiBerardino]

Just about every Redan hole I've ever played 

[Sven Nilsen]

#4 at Three Jack National.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Just about every Redan hole I've ever played 

I finally went out to the fourth hole at Hidden Creek one evening and hit ball after ball to figure it out. It helped. Now I just love a redan.

[David Ober]

It's interesting, the more I've played and the older I've gotten, the more I just don't have these holes anymore. I can turn virtually any shot into some other shot on some other course I've played many times. I heard that trick long ago, and it really helped me in playing courses I was playing for the first time.

[Michael Essig]

16 at Bandon Dunes.  I have tried to play that thing a variety of ways, and I probably average a double-bogey on the hole; that is also why I consider it one of the best holes around.  Summer wind being different than the winter wind, do you try and drive the green or layup with a hybrid?  Failed miserably at whatever I chose to do virtually every time. 

[Bill Gayne]

Just about every Redan hole I've ever played 

I finally went out to the fourth hole at Hidden Creek one evening and hit ball after ball to figure it out. It helped. Now I just love a redan.

That's probably the best way to solve these riddles.

[David Ober]

16 at Bandon Dunes.  I have tried to play that thing a variety of ways, and I probably average a double-bogey on the hole; that is also why I consider it one of the best holes around.  Summer wind being different than the winter wind, do you try and drive the green or layup with a hybrid?  Failed miserably at whatever I chose to do virtually every time.

Crap! Forgot that one! Only played it twice, but it does, indeed, have my number.

[Andrew Harvie]

The 2nd at St. George's (Canada) eats me up every time

[Andrew Keddie]

The par 5 11th at TPC Sawgrass. Laying up is such an awkward shot and I’ve never hit a decent ball across the water with my second.

[Greg Hohman]

4 and 16 at Balboa Muni in San Diego. Pete L. can explain better than I. If he doesn’t chime in, I will try.

4: It’s as if the land near the right side of the hole sank into the earth. Trees line the ridge where this hypothetical subsidence occurred. I don’t think the hole as it stands is Bell’s.


16: I think a prize used to be awarded to anyone who made par.

[Tom_Doak]

The 12th at Ballyneal is a puzzle for me.  I have never felt comfortable on the tee and 80% of the time I seem to end up in the bowl on the right.  It's so disorientating at the bottom of that bowl and the angle into the green is unfavorable I typically go into butcher mode from there. 

That's funny, because I love that hole and I almost always manage to hit my tee shot in the narrow slot by the bunker, against all odds.


The one hole of mine that wrecks me is the 16th at St Andrews Beach.  I have played it 7-8 times now and I have still yet to hit a shot anywhere near the green.  It's a hard hole, but I've definitely got mental issues there, and I don't know why.

[Simon Holt]

17 at Carnoustie haunts my dreams.  Maybe a dozen rounds and I'd be surprised if I've had more than one par.

[Tommy Williamsen]

17 at Carnoustie haunts my dreams.  Maybe a dozen rounds and I'd be surprised if I've had more than one par.

This is one of the scariest holes on the planet for me. The drive has gotten into my head. I just play it as a three shot hole.