Sure, there are plenty of great golf holes on the PGA Tour. But there are a handful of holes on public-access courses – mostly resorts – that jump off the television screen each year, screaming out for every golfer to give them a shot.
These are the holes that, when a player might describe their dream round at a famous destination to their golf buddies, friends will ask, “What did you do on No. 17?” As in, did you keep it dry on the famous island green of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass?
There are plenty of other great holes that stand out each year, but many of them are locked behind private gates. Who wouldn’t want to play No. 12 at Augusta National? Good luck finding a tee time with an online booking site. No. 10 at Riviera? Awesome hole, but that tee sheet is closed, as well.
One other track with a very memorable hole on TV each year, Kapalua’s Plantation Course and its downhill 18th, is closed for much of 2019 for a renovation.
For this list, these holes are the calling cards for every golfer to compare themselves to the pros while enjoying epic scenery and nerves generated by the knowledge that the player is on a truly special hole that anyone with a credit card can play. Not to say these courses are inexpensive, and thousands of miles of travel would be required to play them all, but the players who get the chance to stick a peg in the ground on these courses will never forget how they did on these holes.
No. 17 at Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass
Where: Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Tournament: Players Championship
Tournament yardage: 137
Par: 3
Architect: Pete Dye (with advice from wife Alice)
Buzz: The green isn’t terribly small – it’s 26 yards from front to back – and it’s only 121 yards from the middle of the championship tee to the front of the green. But you’ve seen it ¬– it’s an island.
The nerves fire up on the walk over to the tee from No. 16 green, a tromp around the lake before hitting one of the most famous shots in golf. They should have a graffiti wall there for amateurs to sign if they manage to find the green. If you sink a ball – or two, or more – don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Even for the Tour pros, it can be overwhelming: 45 Tour players, most hitting nothing more than an 8-iron and some as little as a wedge, found the water in the 2019 Players. That was actually down from 2018 and 2017, when 54 and 69 balls splashed, respectively.
Architect Pete Dye originally planned a much more mundane hole in that spot, but he took the advice of his wife, Alice, and created a hole that draws tens of thousands of fans each year and is a staple of television coverage. Alice passed away in February, but fans of the PGA Tour can rejoice in how her most famous idea still makes the pros nervous.
No. 18 at Harbour Town Golf Links
Where: Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Tournament: RBC Heritage
Tournament yardage: 472 yards
Par: 4
Architect: Pete Dye (Jack Nicklaus was a consultant)
Buzz: The hole is beautiful on television each year, with a fairway that juts into Calibogue Sound and the famed lighthouse in the marina beyond the green. The camera angle from behind the tee as the player tees off is well known to any serious PGA Tour fan.
And the hole is even more gorgeous in person.
Standing on the tee, it looks like one of the most difficult tee shots imaginable, with marsh grasses rising from all that water. But the landing area is actually quite generous, with almost 90 yards of turf side to side. Then it’s another carry over water for the approach, stretching many amateurs to take a crack with a fairway wood or hybrid to a small green perched at the water’s edge.
No. 18 at Bay Hill Club and Lodge
Where: Orlando
Tournament: Arnold Palmer Invitational
Tournament yardage: 458
Par: 4
Designer: Dick Wilson
Buzz: There are plenty of par 4s with water in front of the green in Florida, but this one is special. The late Arnold Palmer would watch Tour players wrap up the event from a spot off the 18th hole, and that connection to golf’s past and the King’s role in history are still felt around the finishing hole.
The Orlando tournament moved to Bay Hill in 1979, giving viewers four decades of the 18th hole on television. Famed results on the hole include Robert Gamez holing out from the fairway in 1990 to beat Greg Norman, Tiger Woods making long putts to lock up several of his eight titles in the event, and this year Francesco Molinari holing a 43-footer to cap a final-round 64, good for a two-shot victory.
The fairway is some 40 yards wide for players laying up off the tee short of the lake on the right side of the fairway, but the ensuing second shot can be as long as 200 yards, all carry over the lake. Amateurs who challenge the lake off the more forward tees and find the fairway are rewarded with a much more manageable second shot. Miss the fairway in the rough, though, and good luck getting over all that water and managing to stop the ball on the green.
No. 18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links
Where: Pebble Beach, Calif.
Tournament yardage: 543
Par: 5
Designer: Jack Neville and Douglas Grant
Buzz: Any player who doesn’t feel special playing this oceanside beauty should take up another sport.
Pebble Beach has been the host to five U.S. Amateurs, its sixth U.S. Open is this June, and it has been the scene of a PGA Tour event since 1947. Star-power winners there include Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods.
Phil Mickelson wrapped up his fifth AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title there in February with a birdie on the dogleg-left 18th.
Assuming good weather, this hole is a great example of a risk-reward par 5 that stands up to the modern professional game. Players must decide how much of the cliff to bite off on the tee shot, and they then face a perilous shot over sand and sea to the green. Most amateurs play it as (at least) a three-shotter, trying to get into position for a short iron or wedge onto the green.
The greens fees at Pebble are steep at $550 for the rack rate, but every golfer should experience the march up 18. And television viewers are twice as lucky this year, having seen the hole in February and getting another look in June.
No. 17 at the Old Course
Where: St. Andrews, Scotland
Tournament yardage: 495
Par: 4
Designer: No official designer, though Daw Anderson and Old Tom Morris are credited with contributions in the 1800s.
OK, so this isn’t a yearly regular on the PGA Tour, but viewers can catch it each year in the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. It also has been the site of 29 British Opens, and that championship will return in 2021. Any golf aficionado is familiar with the hole, as the Old Course was officially established in 1552 and No. 17 – known as the Road Hole for the road down its right side and behind the green – is its most famous hole.
How often does a player get to hit over a former railroad shed, possibly blasting a tee shot into a hotel, then face one of the most famous bunkers in golf? The Road Hole bunker has been the scene of countless frustrations as players fail to escape after a ball rolls too close to the face of the pit. The hole has been called a par 4 and a half, as even players who find the fairway off the tee generally try to steer well clear of the bunker while also avoiding the road and stone wall behind.
If that kind of history and challenge don’t get a player excited, then nothing will. Gwk
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