17th hole, Keller Golf Course, Minnesota, USA

A critique of Keller's take on the
tree as principal hazard can be
found at Golf.com  

Par: 4

Architect: Paul Coates 

Back tee*: 376 yards / 344 metres

Joe Average tee*: 366 yards / 335 metres

Green fee: $30 twilight

How she looks

*Distances taken from course website 

Not everyone will side with me over this selection. For all that Keller hosted the PGA Championship in 1932 and 1954, some people have a real problem with holes whose strategy centres on a tree.

Their logic, in fairness, is sound. All it takes is disease or a wayward bolt of lightning and the tree could be gone, taking with it much of the hole's appeal.

In a blog confined to cheap golf, however, I've restricted my options enough already. While the tree lives, this is a fine hole, so I'm going with it.

From the tee, it seems to dominate the hole to an oppressive degree but once you're familiar with it, you realise it's not so much barking orders at you as asking questions. No-one's blithely swinging away on this tee without a care in the world.

For the conservative, the fairway bulges left in front of the fairway bunker. Put your drive there to take the drama out of the hole and leave an open line to the green for an approach of around 100 yards.

The heroic line for big hitters from one of the forward tees, meanwhile, asks you to thread the needle between sand and tree.

And for those who go more right from the tee than they'd hoped; decisions, decisions. Have you an iron with enough loft to clear the tree or dare you trust yourself with a shot that's an afterthought for those who've grown up with target golf — a low running approach beneath the tree's leafy canopy, courtesy of your 3-iron?

17th hole, Mudgee Golf Club, New South Wales, Australia

Par: 3

Architect: Dan Soutar

Back tee*: 139 yards / 127 metres

Joe Average tee*: 139 yards / 127 metres

Green fee: AUS$89 (approx. £46)

How she looks

Some holes grab you by the throat the first time you see them, others grow on you over time.

At Mudgee Golf Club, the hole popularly known as 'Donga', falls into the latter category.

It takes its name from the Donga Creek, which flows (intermittently, aerial images would suggest) perilously close to the left side of the green. No prizes for guessing the 'Sunday pin' position.

Back-left of the green, meanwhile, is a mound waiting to punish anyone who has overdone the tee shot in their anxiety to clear the water. Bounce your approach beyond that mound and a devilish up-and-down awaits.

Nor is there much respite if you miss right. Some of the trees that frame this hole so beautifully when you stand on the tee, come close to that side, accompanied by hostile undergrowth.

The net visual effect of all this is to suggest a landing area so 'cosy' that it's been compared to the Postage Stamp at Royal Troon. And all this with not a bunker in sight.

As with the 7th at McCall Lake GC, which kicked off this blog, there's a lot going at Mudgee's penultimate hole. Yet none of it yells at you; it reveals itself in the fullness of time.

No wonder the locals love this heartbreaker.

18th hole, Palm Meadows Golf Course, Queensland, Australia

Par: 5

Architect: Graham Marsh

Back tee*: 572 yards  / 523 metres

Joe Average tee*: 549 yards / 502 metres

Green fee: AUS$89 (approx. £46)

How she looks

If you're familiar with the 6th hole at Bay Hill, whose fairway doesn't so much dogleg as curl around one half of a circular lake, this fine closing hole on North-West Australia's Gold Coast will strike a chord.

Described by one architect as "one of the most dramatic, strategic/heroic holes in Australia," it epitomises the essence of golf course design.

Hit both your tee shot and a long approach over water if you're risk-inclined and keen to reach the green in two. Alternatively, hit two shots hugging the left side of the fairway if you'd rather not take on the lake from the tee and prefer to tackle the water in front of the green with a short iron approach for your third shot.

Bunkers on the outside of the elbow and left of the fairway just before the water crosses in front of the green, keep those playing the safe line on their toes, however. Ensuring that golfers of all abilities have cause for satisfaction if they complete Palm Meadows' 18th with the same ball they started with.

While the green slopes towards you and is generally receptive, there's just enough tilt to reward an accurate approach shot, which should ideally leave your ball below the hole.

Island Hole, Himalayan Golf Course, Nepal

Par: 5

Architect: Maj. RB Gurung, MBE

Back tee*: 550 yards

Joe Average tee*: 550 yards

Green fee: $50 (US).

How she looks  (The tee is to the right of the lower of the two greens in the foreground. The island green is visible at the top of the photo.) The image above right shows the hole from behind the green.

*Distances taken from club website or, if unavailable there, from Swingu.

There's a saying that good ideas don't care who has them, so maybe we shouldn't be too surprised that a course scoring 11 out of 10 in Tom Doak's merciless Confidential Guide to Golf Courses series was designed by a Sandhurst-trained ex-Ghurka.

Maj. Gurung created one of the game's unlikelier outposts in a water-gouged valley with a 250ft. drop from the clubhouse to the valley floor, where the best of the course's nine holes are situated.

Not only do the drop-offs from certain tees to the greens, set against a Himalayan backdrop, make this an unforgettable experience but budgetary constraints have also made it a step back in time.

Coarse grass, cropped by sheep, and boulder-dotted fairways evoke golf's early days, before country club beautification turned it into a French poodle. Enjoy the walk, play it where it lies, and no griping.

And the star turn is the Island Hole. I'm leaving numbers out of it, as various sources I've read seem unsure whether it's the 4th, 5th or 6th hole. What it definitely is is a fine par 5. 

Your drive must clear the Bijaypur River and avoid exposed rock outcrops that dot the fairway. If you flirt with the river and leave your drive on the left side of the fairway, you open up the green and bring it more within reach of your second shot. 

Believed to be the world's only island green set within a river, it is fronted by a generous tongue of fairway to tempt such a bold approach.

Those unsure of their long game, meanwhile, can play further up the main fairway, leaving them with a short but challenging pitch across the river for their third shot. Because of this escape route, the Island Hole gets a pass that I don't give to all-or-nothing island greens (see 'Perception' 6 here).

If you do decide to go for the green in two, you should know that some players believe the sheer valley side and majestic mountains in the background can affect your perception of distance.

A purely coincidental architectural quirk, you might think, although given Maj. Gurung's vision in putting this incredible course together, you wouldn't bet on it.

5th hole, Royal Worlington & Newmarket, Suffolk, England

Par: 3

Architect: Tom Dunn

Back tee*: 154 yards

Joe Average tee*: 154 yards

Green fee: £48.50 after 4pm. Handicap certificate required.

How she looks

*Distances taken from club website or, if unavailable there, from Swingu.

 

By the time you’ve skimmed through the reviews of this hole…

·       “Perhaps the greatest one-shot hole outside the United States” – Golf Club Atlas   

·       “…all-world fifth green” – ibid.

·       “Outside of the otherworldly USGA greens prepared for US Opens…the leader-in- the-clubhouse for the par three with the ‘green-most-impossible-to-putt-on’” – Golf’s Finest Par Threes

…you could be forgiven for expecting a cross between Pebble Beach’s seventh and Augusta National’s twelfth.

Which makes Worlington’s fifth a monument to English under-statement. From the tee, it offers none of the wow factor of its aforementioned American counterparts. Its greatness is tactile rather than visual: you must play it to understand.
Before you even address the challenges of the green, you must negotiate its surroundings. Too far right and there's a chance your ball tumbles all the way down the bank into a stream. Too far left, meanwhile...
They say Mog's Bog/Hole/Hollow (I've seen it called all three) was once a water hazard. Were that still the case, RW&N's 5th wouldn't have made this blog, for water would have been overkill and—on this hole—just as vulgar as a bunker (of which there are none).
Instead, it is a deep grassy pit, that you must golf your way out of, with a pitch to a narrow putting surface. 
A better approach, it's said, is to bump-and-run your ball firmly into the slope leading up to the green so that it just bobbles onto the short grass. Part of the folklore of this hole are the many golfers whose shaky short game has led to them chipping from one side of the green to the other and back again.
The green, meanwhile, is a challenge in itself, an undulating 35 yards in length, it rises towards the rear in a series of steps and has been described by one visitor as "one of the most diabolical greens in the world".
Although I think he meant it in a good way.

18th hole, Leven Links, Fife, Scotland

Architect: Old Tom Morris 

Back tee*: 457 yards / 418 metres

Joe Average tee*: 456 yards / 417 metres

Green fee: £40, Nov.–Mar. at selected times

How she looks

*Distances taken from club website or, if unavailable there, from Swingu.

It might not look much from the tee but the more you progress down the fairway, the more you begin to realise why this is regarded as one of the harder closing holes in golf.

Rough, gorse and concealed bunkers await the errant drive, depending on which side you miss but the reward for finding the narrow fairway, if you're long enough and game enough, is an exhilarating approach.

Good news: the green is the size of a dance floor. Bad news: the prevailing wind (and any winter sun) is in your face and Scoonie Burn guards the front and right side of the green.

Yes, for those of you whose budget or schedule doesn't run to playing the real thing, 35 miles further north, this corner of Leven Links is 'Carnoustie Lite'. As with its more famous counterpart, what's more, the word 'burn'  does little justice to the pronounced trench separating you from the putting surface at Leven.

Scoonie makes this hole, whether you're going for the flag with a medium iron or with a pitching wedge, having laid up with your second shot. Yet even if you stay dry, the Links aren't done with you just yet.

Many golfers get little practice at the kind of expeditionary-length putt that double or single greens of linksland routinely call for, so you'll have done yourself a favour if you considered accuracy as well as survival when executing your approach.

Viewed from the fairway, the 1,200-yd² green falls more than three feet from the back-left to front-right corners and should be carefully assessed for future reference earlier in your round, while you're waiting to drive from the adjacent first tee.

One footnote concerning your approach shot. The wall to the right of the putting surface surrounds the local bowling green. Tempting as it might be to attempt a recovery shot for the ages from the next-best manicured piece of turf in the neighbourhood, I'm pretty sure it's OB. 

1st hole, Holyhead Golf Club, Isle of Anglesey, Wales

Par: 4

Architect: James Braid

Back tee*: 277 yards / 253 metres

Joe Average tee*: 265 yards / 242 metres

Green fee: £50 Nov. 25-Jan. 31

How she looks

*Distances taken from club website or, if unavailable there, from Swingu.

Short and bunkerless, Holyhead’s first could be accused of taking the ‘gentle start’ philosophy* of opening holes to extremes.

And then you begin to play it. And learn how quickly this seeming ‘gimme’ of a hole can start to growl.

Clubhouse proximity might not be an official hazard but we’ve all experienced the dread of teeing off with a roomful of people just a few yards away and it’s a very real spectre here.

Bushes and OB down the left await anything drastically hooked or pushed, depending on which way round you play, and the hole’s inviting shortness is tempered somewhat by a flat-topped mound between you and the green, with just the top few feet of flagstick visible to indicate your target.

While some will take their chances and try to drive the green, Many will leave their drive on the top of the mound, hoping to avoid the patches of gorse that guard it on either side.

Architect James Braid isn’t done with you yet, though. The green is small, slopes from front to back, has a ridge running diagonally across it and is guarded by gorse on the left.

It is rammed with subtle breaks galore, while its raised location makes it particularly vulnerable to the wind. That simple little approach from the mound suddenly carries an increased accuracy tariff if you’re not to leave yourself looking down the barrel of a three-putt.

*There's a theory in golf course design that the first hole on any course should be a relatively gentle introduction, partly as a courtesy to players who are only just getting into their stride, and partly to get everyone into their round asap should the course be busy. 
Severiano Ballesteros was one course designer who had no time for such niceties, however, insisting that a course that grabbed you by the gonads from the outset was a far greater value-for-money proposition. There's a reason why his solitary UK design kicks off with a 175-yard par 3 across a lake to a peninsula green.
If you're ever booked in at The Shire behind two four-balls of high handicappers, I wouldn't bother rushing your coffee.