Stretches of Holes

[Tony_Muldoon]

Deal 3-7 is where the course comes alive. It is even better with 3 off the forward tees as a brilliant tough par 4. 
However I don't know of any stretch, anywhere, better than 15, 16 & 17. Its where the course shines most brillliantly.




Love the whole back 9 at North Berwick, but I'd choose 10 & 11 over 17 & 18.


Its a slight generalisation, but I tend to favour courses where the interest is towards the back end?

[Sean_A]

I should have been more precise in my OP. I put equal weight on the holes being very good (not necessarily all great) and having variety.

And this is my problem with your inclusion of Crail Balcomie.  I'm not convinced that 6 is a good hole, let alone a very good one.  I could argue for 7-14, though.....

7 is not the sort of hole I would think starts an epic stretch. Not sure it belongs in any world class stretch.

To me, if a course has a world class stretch of five holes it surely must be a top 100 contender. Crail isn’t in that class, I think because it doesn’t have such a five hole stretch. Just another example of the subjective nature of rankings.

Ciao

[Richard Fisher]

Harlech 12-17 is pretty special, and varied. Huntercombe 8-13 another fab stretch. Porthcawl 1-5 using the championship ordering ditto.

[Ira Fishman]

I should have been more precise in my OP. I put equal weight on the holes being very good (not necessarily all great) and having variety.

And this is my problem with your inclusion of Crail Balcomie.  I'm not convinced that 6 is a good hole, let alone a very good one.  I could argue for 7-14, though.....

7 is not the sort of hole I would think starts an epic stretch. Not sure it belongs in any world class stretch.

To me, if a course has a world class stretch of five holes it surely must be a top 100 contender. Crail isn’t in that class, I think because it doesn’t have such a five hole stretch. Just another example of the subjective nature of rankings.

Ciao

Sean,


I know that you like to redefine posts. But let me try again because I respect your opinion. My premise in the OP is not to ask only about "epic" or "World Class" stretches. Some are, some are not. Nor do I think that a course with very good/varied stretches need to be Top 100 contenders. To take your point, 15-18 at Crail Balcomie would keep it from being even close to such a contender. Nor as much as I love Elie, do I think it is a Top 100 course, except for me.


What I do find amusing is that you consistently make the point that rankings are subjective (I agree wholeheartedly), yet you use the Top 100 as the measure for assessing the question I asked even though rankings had nothing to do with it.


Ira

[Mark Pearce]

I like 6. It is an awkward but not too awkward tee shot. We played it in August in a strong right to left wind which made it a real challenge. On both of our plays (benign and dead into), number 12 did not do a lot for me.


I agree that 13 and 14 are really good back to back par 3s in large part because they are so different.


Ira

That's the prevailing wind.  You've just slogged up 5 into a left to right wind.  But 6 is just a mid iron or long iron down the right hand side, looking for a putt up the right-left sloping green. 


12 is a brilliant green, which should inform your lay up.  You have to be on the correct side of that ridge up the green and want to lay up (few reach in 2, most play their third from short of the burn) to give an approach from the best place to achieve that.  The weaker of the back to back par 5s is 11, but I like the green and approach.