[Jeff Segol]

David,I'm at least 90% confident, i've brought up Boundary Oaks at least once in the 15+ years I've been on GCA.com, I just can't remember when.  I played it a handful of times when I lived in the Bay Area, but I wasn't a fan of that hole.  Between the length, OB Boundary the entire length of the hole, the reverse camber, and harsh penalty for just missing the fairway, I thought it was far too penal for the ordinary joe to be considered great.  But sure if they're playing a US open there, maybe it would be "great" for the pros ala Torrey Pines fashion.P.S.  My favorite course in that neck of the woods was Delta View.  Some very interesting holes with a few wild greens and a theory floating around that Dr. MacK designed the original 9 holes.  But its also now NLE[size=78%]. 
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At Boundary Oak, you have to pick your spots. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10 and 11 can be had, if you play good shots. At other holes, like 14, you have to play for par. And distance control there is crucial because of the slope of the greens. It would definitely be more of a challenge for a high hcp., but I've enjoyed the challenge of trying to break 80 there regularly.


I played Delta View a few times in team matches, and didn't find it remarkable. What I really enjoyed out that way is the now sadly departed Roddy Ranch.[/size]

[Phil Burr]

Unheralded holes on great courses?  I’m going with #1 at Cypress Point.  8-9 and 15-17 are the superstars, but if there’s a better opener in golf I haven’t seen it.


So few are fortunate enough to play CPC and even fewer are lucky enough to get a second go.  On the initial visit, however, it’s really difficult to comprehend the combination of intimacy (clubhouse, parking area, 17 Mile Drive, putting green, practice areas all in very tight proximity) and grandeur (the glorious vista that previews all of the natural elements - dunes, sand, ocean, cypress trees - that you will encounter during your round).   You’re more likely to grasp how special it is when you’re on your way from the clubhouse to your car after your round, and it’s then you’ll realize you never want to leave.


As for the hole itself?  Pretty damn good.  Risk/reward on your first swing of the day.  Carry the cypresses off the tee for a straightforward second shot or play safely left of the trees and face a second shot with sand a big factor.

[Duncan Cheslett]

The fabulous 320 yard 16th at Reddish Vale. The river loops round the back of the hole creating a narrow peninsula with a tiny green at the end of it.


Even if played conservatively the pitch in from 100 yards is unbelievably nervy - particularly so late in the round if you've got a card going.


The fronting tree is an integral part of the strategy of the hole. Dare you go right of it?


Many try - few succeed!


AAA by Duncan Cheslett, on Flickr

[Tommy Williamsen]

The fabulous 320 yard 16th at Reddish Vale. The river loops round the back of the hole creating a narrow peninsula with a tiny green at the end of it.


Even if played conservatively the pitch in from 100 yards is unbelievably nervy - particularly so late in the round if you've got a card going.


The fronting tree is an integral part of the strategy of the hole. Dare you go right of it?


Many try - few succeed!


AAA by Duncan Cheslett, on Flickr

Duncan I played the course twenty years ago and still remember the hole. I was not img enough to go for it but had a delicate little second shot. Nice hole and a wonderful course. People in your area have a lot of affordable golf.

[V. Kmetz]

The fabulous 320 yard 16th at Reddish Vale. The river loops round the back of the hole creating a narrow peninsula with a tiny green at the end of it.

Even if played conservatively the pitch in from 100 yards is unbelievably nervy - particularly so late in the round if you've got a card going.

I've never seen that hole before, but in the looking it seems like a candidate for a "Perfect Hole" treatment...in DC's description and visuals I can discover, it meets an important criteria of my concept of perfection... that the tournament player's strategy confront a risk equal to the everyday player's "conservative" routes, from near the same teeing ground.

[David Amarnek]

My favorite hole at Gulph Mills, the short dogleg left #8.  Perry Maxwell moved the significantly undulating green to the base of the hill and the surrounding bunkering is extensive and challenging.  Removing the willow tree at the left pond was brilliant.

[Tim Leahy]

At the risk of being rediculed, I will nominate #14 at Boundary Oak, the Robert Muir Graves design in Walnut Creek, CA. This is something I find hard to find, a truly interesting three-shot par 5. The green is narrow, but the third shot is up the length of it, so it's fair, and is protected by a bunker to the right. It's a two-tiered green, and steep, so being below the hole is a must. The difficulty of the green dictates the rest of the hole, as the objective is to get close enough to hit the third shot with some spin or trajectory to try and control it. The fairway is a dogleg right that slightly tilts left, so the ideal would be a slight fade to the center of the fairway. Too much and you're blocked out by trees on the right. A pull left is dead, into a thick stand of the trees and the course boundary fence. The second shot must carry a bunker at the right corner of the dogleg. Making the approach more difficult is that it's almost always an uphill lie.


I really like this course, and I know it's difficult enough that the Spanos Tour, one of the NoCal mini-tours, used to have an event here. The greens are very challenging, because the course is build on the side of a hill, and I think the topography was used well. I enjoy playing there.

In 1981 the WCC was supposed to play the league tournament at Olympic Club Lake and Ocean. 1 month before the tournament they kicked us off because the US Am was scheduled the next month and there was a horrible drought. We wound up at Boundary Oaks. 36 holes on the worst conditioned course I have ever played. Literally hard as cement with incourse OB at every dogleg. I saw a guy hit a high pitching wedge on a drop shot par 3 that hit hole high and bounced literally 20 feet high like it hit on the freeway. The course had been aerated but not watered enough and aeration holes opened up on the greens the size of quarters. I have never gone back even though I don't live that far away.
I do miss Roddy Ranch in that area.

[Mark Pearce]

Might dig it out later but some of the more unusual ones in the first 18 (though they will be well known to all on here) included Elie 4th, Donegal 8th, Ganton 3rd, St Enodoc 4th, Nairn Dunbar 18th and Royal Tarlair 13th…


Further down the list, some of the other less talked about holes included Westport 15th, Carlow 17th, Prestwick St Nicholas 16th, Irvine 4th, Strandhill 5th, Rosapenna OTM 12th, Trevose 4th, Royal Ashdown Forest 6th, Leven 18th, Moray 18th

4th at Elie is a great shout for this sort of hole.  The play of the hole is strongly influenced by the ridge that runs the length of it but you don't really realise that until you have played it multiple times.  It's a subtle feature (though an obvious one once you know it's there, if that makes sense) but a brilliant one.

[Kalen Braley]

Even more intriguing, it looks to be a cross-over hole with 17...


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Reddish+Vale+Golf+Club/@53.4290513,-2.1479262,226m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487bb475dde6e6bf:0x3c22ef64b9978caf!8m2!3d53.431755!4d-2.1515562

[Mike Hendren]

Phil, the first at CPC is an interesting nominee.  Starting the day by driving over a hedge and road is dubious at best.  Btw I popped up my drive then hit a 5-wood to a foot for a 3 on my one play. 


All the best,


Mike

[David_Tepper]

#16 at Golspie is a very good par-3. 160+ yards to a perched, 2-tiered green, with views on a clear day across the Dornoch & Moray Firths to the Cairngorms Mountains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqCTLxj0-_0

[Duncan Cheslett]

Even more intriguing, it looks to be a cross-over hole with 17...


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Reddish+Vale+Golf+Club/@53.4290513,-2.1479262,226m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487bb475dde6e6bf:0x3c22ef64b9978caf!8m2!3d53.431755!4d-2.1515562

It does indeed cross over with the 17th.


The 16th has an interesting history. An early newspaper report from during the construction of the course describes the hole as it plays today. By the the time the course opened for play in 1913 however, MacKenzie had moved the green to near the 17th tee and the hole played as a 180 yard one shotter.


It wasn’t until James Braid came along in 1930 that the green at the end of the peninsula was finally built giving us the risk and reward dogleg we know today. The downside is the long walk back along the fairway to the next tee. Crossing holes were not an unusual feature of courses of the time and this one never causes any problems.

[Carl Rogers]

Hole 8 at Pacific Dunes

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