What is the shot on your course...

...that always has you saying "bloody hell, not again!".

By that, i mean, on your home course, is there a particular mistake on a particular hole that you seem to make very often?

For me, at Yas Links (Abu Dhabi), it's the drive down the first. It's a narrowish fairway, with deep scrub all down the left hand side of the hole. The landing area is pretty narrow and there is a series of large bunkers on the right hand side from around 175-250 yards. The right side of the fairway fairway collects into these bunkers.

Now, i hit with a slight fade so this shot is always going to be problematic. I usually take driver because it's one of my most consistent clubs and i want to leave myself around 100 yards away. Otherwise, i'll hit a hybrid and try to play to around 210. But no matter what i try, i always seem to end up in the bunker! Honestly, of the 20 times i've played the course, i'd say i've hit the bunker over 50% of the time. However, it's not a particularly difficult bunker to negotiate, and it's a biggish green, so generally it's possible to hit a fairly decent recovery. But what it does do is all but remove any chance of a birdie, which is disappoining on a par 4 of just 360 yards.

I know most people wil say "well learn from your mistakes" but in truth, short of laying up to 160 and leaving a 200 yard second, you are pretty much forced to dice with the bunkers and the deep scrub, and more often than not, i get punished. I must say this is a great opening tee shot...beautiful to look at and one that demands astute decision making and 100% concentration from the first shot of the round.

What mistakes do you make on your course, and what is it that make that error reoccur time and time again?

the 5th on balcomie is called hell's hole. it's 459 yards long, dogleg right over the north sea. cut off as much as you dare to leave yourself a reasonable approach. HOWEVER... hit the ball with even a hint of push or fade and it's seal fodder and that has happened far too often. the result is that i over-compensate and end up with a pig-ugly pull/ hook thing which leaves me with a fairly severe downhill lie in the rough to a green over 200yds away.

sometimes, when the mood is right and the wind is low, i'll batter it dead straight just where i'd planned, to leave myself an 8 or 9 iron. but generally not!

Our 11th is a par 3 across a gully to a raised green with a drop off on the right. 2 bunkers down there and a load of heather, not a good place to miss.

If I miss the green, always seems to be down to the right. Did it on Sunday in the medal and finished up with a treble bogey

drive4show wrote:If I miss the green, always seems to be down to the right. Did it on Sunday in the medal and finished up with a treble bogey

Yeah, it's frustrating when you make a simple mistake and end up with a double or treble...especially in a medal! On the 1st at Yas, i generally end up with a bogey, but rather worringly i am starting to think that's acceptable. That comes from having doubled and trebled it a few times, and that's the last thing you want on the opening hole. But in reality, on a 360 yard flat par 4, i ought to be looking at par as a minimum.

Graeme, i just googled Hell's Hole and found the following:

"It is a par 4 which, in 800 rounds recorded during one period, took an average of 5.98 strokes to go from tee to hole."

No question...I have one teeshot that can be a roundmaker/breaker. The 13th is S.I. 1 north facing slight dogleg right 425 yard hole. On the right side (admittedly weak fade territory there's a big gorse bush called Toms garden. At about 240 right and about 220 left there's a ditch and hedge. At 250on the inside corner of the dogleg is a huge Oak tree. Beside the oak tree and just over the hedge is a pond. Also about 290 left is another ditch and line of trees. On the tee it is usually always nice and calm as there is a tick woodland to the left. Boom a drive up the middle and then watch the prevailing wind push it toward all the trouble right. Try and draw it and over cook it means first ditch left, get the big booming draw and you can block yourself in the rough behind the 2nd treeline. Lay up? Yes you can but that also has to be very carefully placed to avoid a 200 yard approach blocked out by the oak. Even if you're far enough left of the oak you still have a long approach slightly uphill in a prevailing left to right with bunkers both sides.

Of course you could be Paul Casey, at a pro-am about 4 years ago a member who was caddying for him on the day explained all the trouble to him at great length on the tee, Casey just raised an eyebrow, pulled out the driver, smacked it clean over the oak tree to leave himself a wee sandwedge flick in.

theeldestboy wrote:Graeme, i just googled Hell's Hole and found the following:

"It is a par 4 which, in 800 rounds recorded during one period, took an average of 5.98 strokes to go from tee to hole."

you play it, mentally at least, as a par 5 and you're grateful for that. if the drive doesn't freak you out and you can nail one, then it's not too bad but that drive...

Graeme...i assume Hell's Hole is stroke index 1...or do you have a hole that plays 3 shots over par?

For me it's the tee shot on the 2nd

A short par-4 but with an almost 90 degree dogleg left. The hole is actually the SI18 on the course (which itself gives lie to the myth that SI is entirely a degree of difficulty).

The apex of the dogleg is a thick copse of trees; to the right off the tee is a large lateral water hazard; the second shot then has a pond in front of the green. Very long hitters can actually take on the green over the copse on the dogleg though I've only ever seen anyone go for it in team events when their partner is in good shape.

Now for lower handicap players, the hoel probably IS one of the easiest on the course .. something like a 4 iron down past the dogleg to get a good view of the green and then only something like a 50 yard flick over the pond, but fur us higher handicap or shorter players it usually takes a decent driver off the back tees to get to the dogleg. With trouble left and right it makes it a very tough shot. With my fade I invariably find myself aiming for the corner of the dogleg and it very often goes straight into the copse - or the fade turns into a slice and ends up wet. Then there is always the option of the "duff" which gets nowhere near the corner (there is also a cross-fairway ditch to catch mis-hit tee shots). A guy I played with yesterday told me how he'd been playing mixed greensomes with his wife and put a tee shot out of bounds on this hole. She was LESS than impressed at having to play the next shot from the white tees...

oh yes. nothing even comes close when you look at the ave strokes...

Tee shot on the 10th at Cranleigh - a pro ended up 7 off the tee in a Pro-Am once.

For some reason the tee shot on the 4th hole is giving me a bit of trouble at the moment. It's 400 yards(ish) with a pond on the left in direct line to the flag. There are bunkers on the right and it all slopes massively into the pond.

I always end up in the water off the tee for some reason. Or in the trees at the left. It's gotten so that I'm playing it with a 5 or 6 iron off the tee a lot of the time.

My nemesis at the moment is the 15th or as I prefer to call it the "friggin' 15th". Uphill dogleg to left, with trees on left and gorse on right. I'm a leftie so have to guard against carving one into trees or hooking one into gorse. The green is wide (but not deep) and second shot either requires an accurate pitch or a bump and run (assuming you've hit a long and accurate tee shot in the first place). I've carded 9 on this bleedin' hole in my last 2 medals. Check it out for yourselves. It's an innocuous little b@stard that will beat you up www.nauntondowns.co.uk.

Probably toughest shot on our course can be one of 2 and both on the same hole.

Par 4, 4th hole, 445yards. Dog leg left to right. Thick woodland all way from tee to green down the right, with a stream running the length of the tree line right up against edge of fairway, which then crosses the fairway at 245yds, and runs back down the length of the left side of the fairway right back to the tee box. So the shot here is either a driver with soft fade to carry the stream or an accurate 3 wood right into the apex of the dog leg the problem is the wind is invariably left to right pushing the ball towards the stream and trees on the right, meaning aiming further left over the other part of the stream or playing a draw to hold off the wind but then if it doesn't gust guess what happens!!

The other shot on the same hole is the approach. Green guarded front and left with bunkers that you have to fly, the stream buts up close to the right side and around the back and again that wind is there to gust the ball towards the trouble. Good tough hole and not S.I one but usually toughest hole on course so again shows SI isn't always about how tough a hole is

Mine is the tee shot at the 1st at my golf club

The hole is just over 300 yards. Dogleg right par 4.
It's 180 yards to carry a lake and then a virtical slope (and I mean steep) to 2 bunkers which lie at 230
Out of bounds right and left

Simple really you MUST clear those bunkers at 230
But if you hit a driver and go past 270 you'll be in trouble (unless you hit a perfect fade)
So many hit a 3iron / rescue around 200-220 and have to leave themselves a severly uphill shot

If you get it over that hill and bunkers it's easy with a 80-100 yard shot
But most do not

It's a hole which if you walk off with a par 4 you'll be a VERY VERY happy man!!!

The way I have played recently - all of them!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday 3 birdies 5 pars and dropped 16 shots in 10 holes (and one of those on a hole I birdied with second ball off the tee)!!!!
there just aren't enough 8 hole comps!!!

There's two for me at my course -

18th drive - it's a real knee knocker: long carry over water, narrow gap through trees, fairway runs out at about 270 yards (dogleg) and oob left and right.

14th 2nd shot - dogleg left and the 2nd shot is only about 150 yards, but it's always a downhill lie, bunkers left and right, oob long and left. Wind is usually right to left.

Blimey there are some tough holes out there, if you lot are to be believed! Who are the vicious soandso architects of all these monstrous holes?

5th hole, 465 yards, par 4.
Tight driving hole with ob to the right, trouble to the left.
A big pond from 100 yards out to 50 yards out, so average player's second shot will be a fairway wood or long iron requiring lots of carry, to a severely sloping green.
A long drive with firm fairways might make this a drive and short iron to long hitters, but is often a daunting carry for the third shot to high handicappers to a green not designed to receive anything other than a perfectly struck shot.
It should be lengthened by 30 yards and played as a par 5, as anything slightly out of position off the tee has to lay up anyway.
I play it as a par 6 and hope to birdie it once in a blue moon.

I really don't see the point of these complete card wreckers. By all means make it tough but at least make the hole playable for the average golfer!

Sounds like some of these holes you have to hit career shots just to ensure you don't NR

d4s,
The hole I described follows a dogleg right 525 yard par five where the tee shot is straightaway for 200 yards, then 90degree right turn, with a huge oak inside the elbow. Most players aim way right over trees and hope to cut off the dogleg. Ridiculous design, what you get when you're just trying to lay out holes rather than create something that flows naturally.

I suppose mine is the tee shot on the 3rd. It's a short par 5, so if you hit the fairway then the green is in range in 2. However, from the tee you can only see the right half of the fairway, if that, through the gap in the trees and with a particularly tall, obtrusive tree on the left hand side of the gap. OB right, trees left and right and water if you snap hook it. Prevailing wind is right to left, and the fairway slopes that way too, meaning you need to aim at the right edge towards the OB. I tend to go through phases of hitting the fairway every time and then missing it every time (left or right, no chance of my swing being consistent in its misses!). While logic says to hit a shorter club off the tee and play it as a 3 shotter, the layup area brings a pond into play so can be harder than going for it (poor design if you ask me, but then I suppose I ought to be able to hit a mid iron straight enough not to worry!)

Davie wrote:For me it's the tee shot on the 2nd

I used to be a member of your course Davie and I know that hole. I used to hit a 5 wood just to keep it in play and leave me a longer shot sort of down the green.
My awkward hole was the 7th. As I fade the ball (a lot) if I was playing from the back tees, I had to drive the ball to the left of a few saplings near the tee and hoped it faded enough before the bigger trees behind them. Too much and it was going to the houses.....

8th on my course.
Daft really as it is probably the easiest hole on the course.
150yd carry over heather with heather on the left and a single bunker 230yds on right, plenty of room really but can I hit the bloomin fairway NOOOOOOOOOO,

I'm never wrong wrote:

Davie wrote:For me it's the tee shot on the 2nd

I used to be a member of your course Davie and I know that hole. I used to hit a 5 wood just to keep it in play and leave me a longer shot sort of down the green.
My awkward hole was the 7th. As I fade the ball (a lot) if I was playing from the back tees, I had to drive the ball to the left of a few saplings near the tee and hoped it faded enough before the bigger trees behind them. Too much and it was going to the houses.....

Do I know you "I'm never wrong"? I'm wondering if you are perhaps getting courses mixed up. If you could reach the dogleg on 2nd with a 5 wood from the back tees, then I wouldn't have thought the 7th would give you any problems. Yes there are houses off to the right but it takes a BIG slice to put them in danger.

From the back tees it takes me a driver to get to the dogleg 2nd, yet even though I'm capable of hitting a big slice on a bad day, the houses on 7 have never been a problem for me. Are we really talking about the same course?

kwinigolfer wrote:d4s,
The hole I described follows a dogleg right 525 yard par five where the tee shot is straightaway for 200 yards, then 90degree right turn, with a huge oak inside the elbow. Most players aim way right over trees and hope to cut off the dogleg. Ridiculous design, what you get when you're just trying to lay out holes rather than create something that flows naturally.

kwini

Is this an old traditional course or a newer layout?

The mistake I always make time after time, happens on the first hole. Nothing complicated about it 170 yard par 3 bunkers left and right.

I always pull my tee shot to left of the bunker, leaving a dolly flop to get it to stay on the green.

The reason why? Self inflicted, I seldom warm up sufficiently!

d4s,
Newish, certainly not a classic design. Some bad holes, but some really good ones too, a couple of great par 5's and two very strong par 3's. But half a dozen horrors, a mixture of poor design and penal carries with no bail out. Not many courses here though, so thankful for small mercies.

On my current track it's the tee shot on the stroke 2, 14th hole. I love the hole, especially in the evening with sun streaming across the fairway and it looks fabulous from the tee. It's not that hard a tee shot either - two bunkers at about 200-250 carry on left side of the fairway, big tree in right semi-rough at about 230 and another bunker centre fairway at about 280-290. Ideal shot is a soft draw starting on right side of fairway.

Can I hit the fairway? Can I ****! Usually a pull into left rough/cabbage/traps. Might have to go with 4-wood next time....


On my old track, the 17 was my bane. Par 3, about a solid 6-iron. Green at an angle to tee with traps right and left and a steep runoff left as well. Could I hit the green? Could I ****! This one really got in the head to the extent I was always thinking I had to be at least a shot better to handicap when reaching here in Medals etc...

not really developed a regular one yet at my new club. probably tee shot at the 11th if i had to stick my neck out. stroke index 1, 440 yards all uphill so you need to get a decent ball away to have any hope of attacking the flag. the tee is played out of a fairly narrow shoot, and if you catch a swerving draw or slice off the tee you can be in trouble before its even gone 60 yards. good hole though.

at my old club its definitely the 18th tee. 215 yard par 3, always seems to be into the wind, with whins up the left and right. always seem to get my alignment wrong on this hole - the tee points out slightly to the right of the green and it always seems to fool me now i'm only playing it once a month or so.

Ban Bam, is that Mortonhall?

s_r, its duddingston, 11th at mortonhall is more staightforward !!!

Davie wrote:Are we really talking about the same course?

A course named after a bird in Wokingham? Re the 7th.....I didn't actually go into any of the houses but it was close a couple of times....
It was some time ago when I was a member (just after it was opened) so the course may have changed.
Re the second - I would take a club to get me on the fairway - sometimes an iron - that would leave me a longer shot to the green, but not at a right angle.

Yep that's the one!

As for the 2nd - those trees on the dogleg have grown a lot over the years so unless you do get down to the end of the dogleg you've not really got a shot to the green apart from one very small gap if you're lucky