Favorite Golf Hole Ever Played, and One You Want to Play Badly

[Ben_Howell34]

I love to travel and hope to incorporate golf more and more into my travels moving forward.  Had a thought and figured I would share: what is your favorite golf hole you have ever played?  Post a picture (either you took or from online) and tell why it is your favorite! Also, post a pic of one hole you would love to play that you have seen on tv or maybe just heard about from friends. 

My favorite I have played is 18 at Old Waverly.  Par 4 that goes around the lake, you basically have to carry it 200 yards to have a long iron into the green, but the greedier you get with your drive the farther it must be carried. I was there with some buddies last year and one buddy said "you basically have to get lucky to not get wet or lose it in the woods beyond the fairway" and right as he said that I hit my best drive of the day to about 100 yards from the green, almost all carry over water. Ended up par on that hole. It is a really pretty hole too as is the whole course. 

As for one hole I would love to get to play, probably number 8 at Pebble Beach.  Might never make par, but just such a cool layout and challenging hole. 

 

[null]

Favorite Hole? 12 at Pine Valley.  Such a fantastic risk/reward Par 4

Go for the green with a driver?  Try to get pin high right of the green with 3W?  Play it safe with a hybrid or mid iron to the fat part of the fairway?

 

 

Hole I most want to play? Has to be #13.

Risk-reward Par 5 where so many iconic Masters Moments have been created

 

 

[vandyland]

I'm a big fan of Tobacco Road in general and it has a ton of great holes but I really loved the par 5 13th which has so many interesting aspects to it:

1) It forces you to make a choice right from the tee shot, do you hit an easy hybrid straight (white line) or take on the trees (yellow line) and potentially water if you blow it too far right? From our tees it is about a 250 yd carry (downhill a bit) to make the yellow line work. 

2) Okay depending on how you navigated the risk from the tee (or deferred it by taking safe route) you now have another choice. Do you go for the green? It is a rather important question because the green is only ELEVEN yards deep and is a "castle" green where you must fly your approach over a slope of waste bunker/tall grass to get on the green and if you nuke your approach it will be long in more waste/tall grass or possibly across the road and OB. See overhead view below from Google Earth...

And view from the side as you exit the green...

And, of course, this is all you see from the fairway...

3) Even once you are on the green, it has a subtle move from back to front that makes it hard to judge the break of the putt. Just all in all I was thinking so much on this hole. Ultimately, I took it over the trees, had a 9 iron in, hit the wrongside of the green in two and made a par. Had I made an 8 I might feel differently but this was truly a very cool golf hole. I have never seen a green like that and while I wouldn't want 18 holes of it, it was amazing to play it in person. Having it played it super risky as I did, I could see how playing it conservatively might yield the same result where you just hit Hybrid + Hybrid + SW. A lot of the holes out there were some of my favorite golf holes just because they were such radical departures from the golf I normally play. Maybe it would get old after the novelty wore off on some of the holes but this one would always get my blood pumping I think.

 

As for holes I would want to play, I have never really thought of that. I really just want to play the Bandon Courses and Sand Valley.

[Ben_Howell34]

1 hour ago, jlukes said:

Favorite Hole? 12 at Pine Valley.  Such a fantastic risk/reward Par 4

Go for the green with a driver?  Try to get pin high right of the green with 3W?  Play it safe with a hybrid or mid iron to the fat part of the fairway?

 

 

 

Hole I most want to play? Has to be #13.

Risk-reward Par 5 where so many iconic Masters Moments have been created

 

 

Pine Valley looks incredible! I just want to go to Augusta, even if I can never play it! 

[Ben_Howell34]

32 minutes ago, vandyland said:

I'm a big fan of Tobacco Road in general and it has a ton of great holes but I really loved the par 5 13th which has so many interesting aspects to it:

1) It forces you to make a choice right from the tee shot, do you hit an easy hybrid straight (white line) or take on the trees (yellow line) and potentially water if you blow it too far right? From our tees it is about a 250 yd carry (downhill a bit) to make the yellow line work. 

2) Okay depending on how you navigated the risk from the tee (or deferred it by taking safe route) you now have another choice. Do you go for the green? It is a rather important question because the green is only ELEVEN yards deep and is a "castle" green where you must fly your approach over a slope of waste bunker/tall grass to get on the green and if you nuke your approach it will be long in more waste/tall grass or possibly across the road and OB. See overhead view below from Google Earth...

And view from the side as you exit the green...

And, of course, this is all you see from the fairway...

3) Even once you are on the green, it has a subtle move from back to front that makes it hard to judge the break of the putt. Just all in all I was thinking so much on this hole. Ultimately, I took it over the trees, had a 9 iron in, hit the wrongside of the green in two and made a par. Had I made an 8 I might feel differently but this was truly a very cool golf hole. I have never seen a green like that and while I wouldn't want 18 holes of it, it was amazing to play it in person. Having it played it super risky as I did, I could see how playing it conservatively might yield the same result where you just hit Hybrid + Hybrid + SW. A lot of the holes out there were some of my favorite golf holes just because they were such radical departures from the golf I normally play. Maybe it would get old after the novelty wore off on some of the holes but this one would always get my blood pumping I think.

 

As for holes I would want to play, I have never really thought of that. I really just want to play the Bandon Courses and Sand Valley.

That is a beast of a hole on doubt. I’ve heard a lot about Tobacco Road recently that has me wanting to go play badly. 
 

Bandon Dunes is really high on my bucket list as well! 

[null]

7 minutes ago, Ben_Howell34 said:

Pine Valley looks incredible! I just want to go to Augusta, even if I can never play it! 

Still cannot believe I got to play it (twice). And it somehow it exceeded all expectations 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Myrtle Beach, Kings North course. The hole is called the Gambler and is a par 5. This hole always stands out when I think back on interesting holes. Go for the island fairway or go around the lake and play it safe.  I gambled and put a good drive down the island fairway and was about 20 short of going to long. Panic set in on the long approach all over water to the green which is almost surrounded by water again from that angle. I took an extra club and went long but shy of going in the water on the back side. Managed to make par so I was still content.

 I don't really have a must play hole.

[DaveP043]

My favorite was the first at the Old Course.  The hole itself isn't anything special, a hundred-yard wide fairway, a tiny wee creek in front, simply.  But to be there, you've gone through a bunch of hoops.  You've walked around the town, and you're standing right in front of the R&A clubhouse.  If you get to play this hole, you get to play all the rest.  Its one of the best experiences in golf.

[Ben_Howell34]

27 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Myrtle Beach, Kings North course. The hole is called the Gambler and is a par 5. This hole always stands out when I think back on interesting holes. Go for the island fairway or go around the lake and play it safe.  I gambled and put a good drive down the island fairway and was about 20 short of going to long. Panic set in on the long approach all over water to the green which is almost surrounded by water again from that angle. I took an extra club and went long but shy of going in the water on the back side. Managed to make par so I was still content.

 I don't really have a must play hole.

That may be the craziest hole I’ve ever seen! 

[Ben_Howell34]

11 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

My favorite was the first at the Old Course.  The hole itself isn't anything special, a hundred-yard wide fairway, a tiny wee creek in front, simply.  But to be there, you've gone through a bunch of hoops.  You've walked around the town, and you're standing right in front of the R&A clubhouse.  If you get to play this hole, you get to play all the rest.  Its one of the best experiences in golf.

I’m not sure you actually like golf if the old course isn’t on your bucket list! 

[BKordon]

6 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Myrtle Beach, Kings North course. The hole is called the Gambler and is a par 5. This hole always stands out when I think back on interesting holes. Go for the island fairway or go around the lake and play it safe.  I gambled and put a good drive down the island fairway and was about 20 short of going to long. Panic set in on the long approach all over water to the green which is almost surrounded by water again from that angle. I took an extra club and went long but shy of going in the water on the back side. Managed to make par so I was still content.

 I don't really have a must play hole.

I played this a couple of years ago and it is a cool hole. I agree, you have to play to the island fairway, if only to say it happened. 

[juspoole]

Great topic - I tried something similar a few months back, but I think I put a bit too much thought into it and did the entire 18 of my favorite golf holes.   

Given that, I'd have to say that I can't really narrow it down to one hole, but a couple at Bandon Dunes that really stood out.  

#13 at Augusta has always been the hole I've wanted to play.  With the slope of the fairway and the requirement of shot shaping, I've always been intrigued.   Also, with so much riding on the hole coming into the back 9 on Sunday, I've just always loved it.  This would also mean I'd get to play the rest of Augusta National as well.

[Headhammer]

Favorite hole I've ever played.

 

Hole I most want to play.

 

[Mtbryant01]

58 minutes ago, Headhammer said:

Favorite hole I've ever played.

 

Hole I most want to play.

 

I am with you on the hole that I want to play. Such a cool concept.

[Mtbryant01]

Favorite hole I've played (sucker for par 3's no matter the outcome)

230 from the tips, 200 ft drop, 7 iron to the green. Something about seeing the ball take 5 minutes to land..

Hole I want to play (besides the one @Headhammer posted)

[JeremyD]

6 minutes ago, Mtbryant01 said:

Favorite hole I've played (sucker for par 3's no matter the outcome)

230 from the tips, 200 ft drop, 7 iron to the green. Something about seeing the ball take 5 minutes to land..

Hole I want to play (besides the one @Headhammer posted)

Great first pic. Very similar to the 11th at Sugarloaf in Maine

[Hook DeLoft]

The Road Hole at St. Andrews. I’d always heard that you aim over the building on the right side but didn’t realize how frightening that shot is until standing on the tee box with the wind absolutely howling left to right just waiting to push the ball out of bounds. I couldn’t bring myself to start the shot where my caddie said to and snap hooked it into the adjoining fairway. My caddie was angry ( he didn’t let the player/caddie relationship get in the way of expressing his opinion). I then proceeded to  hit a 5 wood fat. Hit the 5 wood again and it rolled up the front slope of the green, stopped and rolled back off the green. From there I got up and down for a bogey. Most satisfying bogey I’ve ever made.

 

There are a ton of holes I would love to play but the short par 3 at Pebble Beach (no. 7?) is one I think would be great when the wind is blowing hard. 

[Reesedw]

3 hours ago, Headhammer said:

Favorite hole I've ever played.

 

Hole I most want to play.

 

Played Coeur D' Alene 4 times now.. Love this hole, never made par.. hit the green 2/4 but never stayed on.. We got there once with a buddy who had not played it yet and he was saying how can you miss it it's 10,000 sq Ft How can you miss it.. And he promptly dumped his tee shot into the water... LOL.. I actually prefer the This par 3 there.. love the whole course though..

[vandyland]

@Mtbryant01 That hole at Pursell Farms is very cool. The only thing I didn't like about it is I had no idea what club to pull (it ended up working out fine since I just punched a 9i in there). Very scenic though. Loved a lot of holes out there. Would play that course every day. Also, you played the tips? Isn't that like over 7400 yards? SHEESH!

[Mtbryant01]

5 minutes ago, vandyland said:

@Mtbryant01 That hole at Pursell Farms is very cool. The only thing I didn't like about it is I had no idea what club to pull (it ended up working out fine since I just punched a 9i in there). Very scenic though. Loved a lot of holes out there. Would play that course every day. Also, you played the tips? Isn't that like over 7400 yards? SHEESH!

Yeah, I typically play the Copperhead tees out there. Challenging, but still fun. 

If you want a real Tips challenge, go play Ross Bridge in Birmingham. Over 8,000 yards. Just hope you don't play on a windy day.