I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across something that grabbed my attention.
The account is called Design Disasters, run by the fine folks at The Fried Egg. If you are an avid MGS reader, you’ve probably seen me write about The Fried Egg’s outstanding podcast and phenomenal YouTube channel (both were included in our top golf podcasts and YouTube golf channel rankings).
Design Disasters is exactly what it sounds like—we’re talking about golf holes that make everyone cringe. The Fried Egg’s Joseph LaMagna hosts short videos highlighting some of the worst holes on the planet. Special guests Brendan Porath, Andy Johnson, Will Knights and Tron Carter (of No Laying Up) have joined to break down what is happening with some of these epically disastrous designs.
After watching a few videos in the series, I am completely hooked. I’ve now been through all 40-plus posts that have been put up since debuting in November. Apparently, I’m not alone, given how more than 20,000 followers have quickly signed up to be updated by the worst golf architecture has to offer.
Why are these videos entertaining?
First, it’s just comical how bad some of these holes are (and strangely a lot of them are in Illinois? What are you guys doing there?). It usually comes down to lack of land or developers trying to shoehorn a hole into a space that shouldn’t have a golf hole.
It’s also a fun part of golf’s shared suffering. When a hole is brutally unfair or strange, it unites golfers in a way that little else can.
In that spirit, I reached out to the Design Disasters team asking if I could highlight a few of the terrible holes they have featured. They agreed so here are 10 of my favorite disastrous designs on the channel.
Please follow them! You can find it here on Instagram and on YouTube.
Also, if you are interested in appreciating good golf course architecture, you can learn more about that here or consult The Fried Egg site which is teeming with excellent videos, newsletters, podcasts and more.
10. 11th hole at Salt Creek Golf Links (Warkworth, Ontario, Canada)
Do you like U-turn holes where going backwards off the tee could be more beneficial than just playing the hole normally?
If that is the case, the par-5 11th at Salt Creek Golf Links in Canada is just what you are hoping for.
The hole starts with a tee shot that asks for a 230-yard drive that is hopefully into the opening where you will be making a sharp turn with your second shot.
The second shot is about 230 yards from the green which has random tree directly in front of it. Behind the green is a creek, just for good measure.
My real question is whether you can punch a tee shot through the trees into one of the other fairways, leaving a shorter second shot. I’m guessing it’s not an option but someone please report back.
9. 9th hole at Hickory Hills Country Club (Hickory Hills, Illinois)
If you’ve seen a Google Earth image of this hole and weren’t not sure what you were looking at, let me help you.
You are looking at a center-line cart path.
The par-4 ninth at Hickory Hills Country Club in Illinois has a cart path that goes directly down the middle of the fairway, leading to a second shot that likely has to fly trees.
Another design disaster awaits you at this course as the parking lot is a few yards directly behind the 18th green.
Don’t park there.
8. 8th hole at Blackmoor Golf Club (Murell’s Inlet, South Carolina)
The par-4 8th hole at Gary Player-designed Blackmoor Golf Club in South Carolina features a risk-reward decision that is no decision at all.
It’s a drivable hole that offers a “chute” for golfers to hit down directly towards the green. The ground in this chute isn’t fairway grass—which is kind of a weird situation—but the distance from the tee to the green is the same yardage as what it would take to hit a proper layup to the left.
Amusingly, the forward tees on this hole have no option to go down the chute because the trees block those players out.
Woof.
7. 4th hole at Skyview Golf Club (Sparta, New Jersey)
While not appearing too egregious at first glance, the par-5 fourth at Skyview Golf Club in New Jersey asks golfers to hit a bizarre sequence of shots.
The hole (nicknamed “The Edge”) starts with a tee shot that needs to find a 25-yard-wide fairway that slopes hard right to left. Anything not on the fairway is bad news.
If you hit the fairway, you are then asked to hit a blind lay-up shot—but only about 150 yards.
The reason for only wanting to hit a short second shot is because the green is 70 feet below the fairway. It is surrounded by rock outcroppings so going for it in two is not really an option.
An AJGA event was held here in 2011 and the average score was a double bogey.
There clearly shouldn’t be a golf hole here. “The Edge” is nightmare fuel for anyone who struggles with accuracy.
6. 2nd hole at Oakland Riverside Golf Course (Oakland, Iowa)
You’ve heard of OB bordering holes—but what about aerial OB?
You have questions. That is fair.
The par-4 second hole at Oakland Riverside Golf Course in Iowa is a 90-degree dogleg right that goes around property not owned by the course.
You could go for the green—it’s only about 160 yards or so as the crow flies—but you are not allowed to do that.
There is an OB stake on the corner of the property. Anything right of that pole, as the ball flies, is considered automatically OB even if the ball lands in bounds.
Imagine the fights over whether a ball crossed the OB or not!
There are two options for how to play the hole. The first is to hit an 150-yard shot and then hit a wedge over trees to a green that has OB a few paces from the right edge. The other option is to hit a longer club around the corner and then hit back to the green.
Either way, I’m not sure what is happening here.
5. 15th hole at Mistwood Golf Club (Romeoville, Illinois)
Mistwood Golf Club’s back nine comes to a crescendo with Kelpie’s Corner, a few brutally difficult holes that wrap around a lake.
The par-3 14th requires a long shot with water short and left with OB right. The par-4 16th has golfers hit to an island of fairway surrounded by water and OB before hitting over the water to a carefully guarded green.
In between is the par-5 15th, a hilariously narrow hole that takes a hard left turn around the corner of the lake. The fairway is about 25 yards wide, guarded by water on the left and OB long.
If you take a more conservative approach off the tee, you are left with a layup into a 13-yard wide fairway that slopes hard right to left. By the way, you still have water left and OB right.
If you squeeze driver into the fairway, you still have to hit a second shot into an area that is about 50 yards wide between the water and OB.
The real “charm” of this hole is that the tee shot is basically OB on both sides because hitting into the water would necessitate a re-tee. Golfers have been known to take big numbers here. You can see why.
If you add in any wind, this terribly designed hole gets even more comical.
4. 3rd hole at Legacy Golf Course (Buford, Georgia)
Lake Lanier in Georgia is known for being haunted.
This golf hole also has some ghosts.
The par-4 third is a great example of when developers just don’t have enough space to put an actual hole.
Your options are to hit a 220-yard shot into a fairway the size of a thimble or you can take a rip at the green about 250 yards away depending on which tee you are playing.
The big issue is that there just isn’t enough room. Anything short is in the water and anything long could easily catch the cart path en route to sailing into the trees. Either option requires a shot that lands into a 25-yard-wide area (at best) with no bailout.
There are also a lot of drunk boaters hanging around so be prepared to hit a great shot.
3. 14th hole at Sheridan Park Golf Club (Tonawanda, New York)
What happens when you design a golf hole that goes around a maintenance complex?
Things get complicated.
The 14th hole at Sheridan Park Golf Club just outside of Buffalo is a par-4 that asks golfers to hit across a creek into a fairway and back across the creek again to the green (just a few yards beyond and to the right of the green is a residential road). That shape to the hole is necessitated by a large maintenance complex.
With the creek being a hazard and the maintenance facility being out of bounds, that led to a lot of confusion. Players were hitting drives that may or may not have found the water or the OB. It was difficult to tell.
After many years of trying to find a solution, the course decided to make everything (including the water) between the two bridges OB so the water is only a normal hazard before the first bridge and after the second bridge. As you can imagine, a lot of golfers go way left in response.
Here is where it gets interesting: Better golfers can carry the maintenance facility with their tee shot. It’s about a 265-yard carry to go over the complex and reach the other side.
Notably, the roof to the maintenance shed near the fairway is flat—so even a slightly shorter drive will still bounce forward.
If you can pull it off, you only have a flip wedge into the green.
Now that is golf course architecture.
2. 9th hole at Ramsey Golf and Country Club (Ramsey, New Jersey)
The par-4 ninth hole at Ramsey Golf and Country Club has a commuter rail, power lines and a traffic cop.
Seriously.
The 423-yard hole requires a perfect tee shot around the corner to a 35-yard-wide corridor between a commuter rail on the right and power lines on the left. Miss in either direction and it’s OB.
If you hit the fairway? You are left with a long-iron approach to a small green … and you have to watch out for people playing another hole that shares the same fairway with the ninth hole.
Due to this design disaster, the club employs a “traffic cop” in a hardhat to signal when players should hit.
How did this happen?
1. 18th hole at Rolling Hills Golf Course (Godfrey, Illinois)
I chose this as my favorite disastrous design for one reason.
Internal out of bounds.
In your own fairway.
You read that correctly.
The 18th hole at Rollings Hills in Godfrey, Ill., is a chicken-wing 250-yard par-4 that was clearly jammed into the property due to a lack of space. The hole requires that you hit a shot 200 or so yards into the fairway and then make a sharp dogleg to the left where you hit through a narrow neck to the green. Everything left off the tee is guarded by tall trees.
That is the boring part. There are OB stakes in the fairway that prevent players from cutting the corner (I’m assuming the reason is so players near the green can’t get bombarded with tee shots).
So if you hit a sweeping draw that ends up 40 yards short of the green, perfectly in the fairway, you are re-teeing.
If you were to, say, top one off the tee, the internal OB in the fairway goes away. It’s only for the tee shot. Provocative!
On top of that, the tee shot is made harder by a cart path and trees awaiting golfers who go too far off the tee. But if you go too short, you can be blocked out by trees.
This is a true nightmare. I love it.
What are your design disasters? I’m sure there are some egregious ones out there. Let me know below in the comments!
The post Design Disasters: 10 Of The Worst Holes In Golf appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
