What are the most controversial holes of all time?

[Tom Birkert]

5th Sunningdale Old for one day only though during Open qualifying when the pin was unplayable and had to be re cut mid round and replayed by the early starters.

Mark,

That was the 4th, and it was down to the R&A taking control of pin placements. The pin was very close to the front of the green and with the slope there coupled with the speed the greens were running at it was almost impossible to stop the ball on the green if putting from above the hole.

The whole green is very challenging in winter, yet alone summer!!

[Rory Connaughton]

Sven

 I understand. I have been baffled by some posts on RCD 17 over the years some of which suggest that it was a feature added by the club (though it does appear to have been formalized somewhat). I know that that was not the point of your post. At Portmarnock the pond is left of the fairway on 6 (long par 5).

[Sven Nilsen]

Rory:

I remember it now, and I think your thoughts about hazards that are not directly in the line of play is interesting.  My recollection of playing 6 is that if you didn't know about the pond in advance, it was hard to tell it was there from the view in the fairway.  Almost like a sneak attack on your score for the uninitiated who happened to play a little too far left.  In some ways 17 at RCD may be less controversial because the hazard is clearly visible during your play of the entire hole, and can therefor be managed.

Scott:

Perhaps we've found the answer to the most controversial 18 holes question.  TEC is loved by many but equally disdained by others.  After my trip last summer I would say at least half of the group thought it was their least favorite of the 7 courses we played (other than the Cashen, which won that award hands down).

[Joe Andriole]

Machrie's origimal Mt Zion

[Paul Jones]

Any hole with in-course out of bounds stakes.

[Tim Martin]

Any hole with in-course out of bounds stakes.

This is usually done for safety reasons and has ruined many a good hole.

[David_Madison]

Olympic #18 during the Open, specifically the green that got out of control.

[Michael Huber]

There was plenty of bellyaching during the 2007 US open when Oakmont's #8 Hole was listed at 280 yards or whatnot.

But the 17th at sawgrass has to take the cake. 

[Jason Topp]

18 at Wentworth tournament course must now be added to this list.

18 at Bandon Trails?

1 at North Berwick.

[Kevin Pallier]

13th at St Andrews Beach has since opening been regulalrly mentioned

[Jamie Barber]

How about the 14th at Hunstanton, 222 yards and completely blind, with only a pole behind the green to aim at?

[Ally Mcintosh]

Sven, Rory,

Re- the pond to the left of 6 at Portmarnock....

There are in fact quite a few ponds at Portmarnock (most of which are hidden)... The course is built on an aquifer and these ponds were originally wells that were used to withdraw fresh water for the farming cottages that occupied the land... They were then used for irrigation before two new wells were dug at the maintenance facilities... Many of them still bear the name of the cottage owner (note Biddie McCann's Well at the back of 4 green)... The last of the cottages was knocked in the late 40's...

Holes 5 & 6 are the lowest part of the course and the only parts of the course with a tile drainage system because a high water table causes problems.....

[Mark Chaplin]

Tom my mistake re the 4th, I remember at the time the R&A took a load of stick and there was lots of talk about "professional" staff from the tour rather than the R&A being responsible for course set up. I suppose they got away with it as the final result wasn't affected by the replays.

[jonathan_becker]

Scott Warren,

I give Pat Ruddy props for following his dream of building his own course.  But that fake burn in front of #18 is terrible looking....and I'm a guy that generally doesn't mind a little oddity on a golf course.  You're right - a fountain would be a great addition!! 

[Mark Arata]

Wouldnt the Pit at North Berwick be up there? Not a lot of holes guarded by a stone wall lying about.............

[Kevin Pallier]

Mark

Couldn't that be characterised as "quirk" as opposed to "controversial" particularly given that is the original ?

Now trying to somewhat take the wall concept and copy it ala Sandhurst in Melb. and then make a hole from it.......

[V. Kmetz]

I agree with those have mentioned...

TPC Sawgrass 17
Yale 18
Engineer's "2 or 20"

And I suspect that most every solo Desmond Muirhead design has got a hole that is as controversial as health care. 

I mean, in his canon, he's got a floating buoy green, island fairways, and paralleling greenside bunkers formed to mimic a shark's mouth separated from their green by 5 yards of water on each side.  I've played his Stratford, CT "Oronoque" and his NJ "Stone Harbor", both of which are the craziest things going.  And I know he's exceeded those.  I realize he's collaborated with Nicklaus on some of the Bear's early signature designs (Muirfield) but that is damning with its own faint praise, I suppose.  I can't imagine an architect more personally jealous than Muirhead probably was when Pete and Alice unveiled Sawgrass.  He was devastated and he probably thought to sue them both, saying to himself "All this!? My idea!!!".

On the provincial side, any of the golfers on our board who frequent courses in Westchester and Fairfield Counties of the metro-NY region realize there's a bevy of lesser-explored quirky courses and quirky holes that could take up 18 legit positions on such a list.  Of course nothing is as "controversial" as TPC 17 because of its profile, but I want to mention one of those holes.

- "Kilimanjaro" 4th hole Pequehenockonck GC North Salem NY. - this must take the cake because of all the things a controversial design can encapsulate, Kilimanjaro has a trump card...you don't even know where the hole is the first time you play it!  You look at the card a second time and confirm that you are standing on the correct teeing ground and that the hole is only 130 yards long...so where the hell is it.  After minutes of true indecision the group behind is starting to press on the 3rd green when they take pity and say..."the hole's up there."  They point to scrubby cone like hill that looks like a rock cliff about 80 feet above you about 40 yards on the other side of the course's entry road.  You cannot believe it and the elevation is so steep from the tee to the green that no flag or sense of green area is remotely possible.  It's impossible to judge club, and you just sort of hit a mid-iron up there and it rarely works.  That's bad because outside of the green (which actually has a large exposed rock sticking out 3 inches through the putting surface in one sextant) there is nothing but dust, shrubs and broken ground.  The "rough" is just fescue allowed to gro wild since the time of Old tom Morris.  It's hit the green or else and it's less fair than Sawgrass because you cannot even see it.

[Rory Connaughton]

Ally

  Thanks for that great information. I have been to the club 4 times and did not recall the other ponds but when I pulled my yardage book they were all there.  Did not realize that there had been cottages out there. For that matter I always assumed that the pond on 6 was brackish and not fresh.