Nemesis Hole

[Bo the Golfer]

When I lived in Massachusetts the 8th hole at Rowley Country Club always killed me. It's not long or overly difficult but that damn hole had my number.

 

[DrMJG]

10th hole at my local course.  Maybe it is because I just finished the front nine and need to step back a tad more, maybe there is something in the hole that never plays well into my game.  I have never birdied the hole.  Heck, never parred it! While I have had a few close bogies, a double bogie has become the norm and even a few triple bogies have been carded.  It is not that long of a Par 4, only a bit of water which has yet to even come into play.  I tend to be a bit short on most shots!  Playing tomorrow, I will take a longer clubs for most shots and try to simply have fun.

[Patch]

The 10th hole at Rockwood GC just north of Ft Worth. Actually that whole course kicks my butt. Just something about it. 

That said, I always play that course when in the area. 

[billchao]

There are a few threads on this topic. This one comes to mind:

 

[ChetlovesMer]

17 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

You must have one in mind personally. Start us off. 😉

Sorry, I got called away for work and was unable to post this yesterday.

Okay so my Albatross hole story is a pretty good one, I think. Way back in 2006 I bought a season’s pass to Coldwater Golf Links in Ames, Iowa.  https://www.coldwatergolf.com/ 

At the time I joined I was about a 28 handicap. I worked on my game over the next couple of years and played literally 100-150 rounds a year at Coldwater. Over that time, I kept meticulous stats. Everything was on a spreadsheet I created in excel. One day in late 2007 I got my handicap all the way down to about a 14. But I noticed that I had birdied every hole on the course at least once. Every hole, that is, except hole number 5. On that hole I was averaging nearly 2 over par and had never birdied it.

Number 5 is an uphill, 160 to 195-yard par 3 to a crowned green. On the left is the concrete cart path on the right is a hazard (it’s supposed to be a water hazard, but it was nearly always just a swampy area with waist high weeds.) If you missed the green left you’d bound off the cart path and end up someplace on hole 6. If you missed right it was a lost ball or a goopy, sloppy mess. 2 very deep (links style) bunkers guard the front of the green. 

So, for all of 2008 every time I played the course, (which was a lot) I did my best to birdie hole 5. But couldn’t get it done. It was making me crazy. My handicap was someplace between 12 and 14 and I still had never birdied this hole. Then on July 2, 2008 I headed over to the course. I had the day off work, it was a Wednesday and I can’t remember why I was off work.

I played alone that day. It didn’t seem like anything special. I went boogie, boogie, par, boogie. On hole 4 I caught up to a twosome. They said, “Why don’t you play through on the par 3?”

“Oh, crap.” I thought. That’s my nemesis hole.

I get to the teebox and they are waiting for me to hit first as I am playing the blue tees and they are playing the whites. That day it was 184 yards with a slight breeze at my back. 6-iron. In my head I’m thinking these guys are watching me, just don’t embarrass yourself. Hit the ball solid and hold your finish like you know what you’re doing.

Sure enough, I hit my very first hole in one. It was a beautifully struck 6 iron, hit high with maybe a 2 yard draw. The 2 guys I played through signed my card and everything. I went on to shoot a 78 which at the time I think was my personal best.

From that day on, that hole never seemed so difficult again. I made plenty of birdies on it. But for whatever reason I had to eagle it before I was ever able to birdie it. Even after probably playing it 500 times in my life.

The scorecard and the ball hang in a plaque in my office still today.

On a whim, I just went to Coldwater golf Links website. Even though I live about 650 miles from there now in Ohio. I thought it would be fun to look at the webpage. They have a couple of pictures of hole 5 on their webpage. 

I've probably played this course 1000 times in my life. But I haven't been there for at least 5 years. The pictures on the webpage are exactly the way I remember it.

Ah... the memories.

[klineka]

18 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Sure enough, I hit my very first hole in one. It was a beautifully struck 6 iron, hit high with maybe a 2 yard draw. The 2 guys I played through signed my card and everything. I went on to shoot a 78 which at the time I think was my personal best.

From that day on, that hole never seemed so difficult again. I made plenty of birdies on it. But for whatever reason I had to eagle it before I was ever able to birdie it. Even after probably playing it 500 times in my life.

I really thought the story was going to be that you got a hole in one but still hadn't birdied it. 

[ChetlovesMer]

9 minutes ago, klineka said:

I really thought the story was going to be that you got a hole in one but still hadn't birdied it. 

Well, that was the story for a short while. But after that hole gave up the hole in one it was never the same. Sort of like Mike Tyson. Once Buster Douglas beat him, he was never the same.

[pganapathy]

Not me, but my dad.  There was the 7th hole on the golf course in Maputo, Mozambique.  My dad generally goes straight or a bit of a slice.  This hole has an O/B on the left.  It was a banana plantation of some small scale farmer who lived next to the course.  Every first tee shot on that hole was almost invariably draw/hook to the left and into the bananas.  The second one he would invariably overcompensate and go right 🤐

[jamo]

The fourth hole at the course where I play in a men's league is a killer. Par 3, usually plays about 165-175 from the middle tees, but it's massively uphill to a blind green. There's a bunker left, fescue long and right, and anything that doesn't land on the green and stick will roll off the domed green. I think I've birdied it once or twice, it and it feels like a miracle to escape with a par. I'm a solid player and I make double pretty often.

I've had plenty of shots land in the middle of the green and roll off the back, especially when it's wet (and I've lost multiple balls in the fescue back there this way). Small misses left or right bounce way down the hill, leaving you with a blind pitch where you're just hoping to get it somewhere near the green because if it goes over or comes up short it'll roll off. Short is the only place you can miss, and even then it's not a guarantee that you'll be able to get it close because the green is so domed that if you're chipping towards the left or right it could roll right off. 

From what people tell me, it wasn't always this domed, and they didn't always mow the greens so tightly. 

[billchao]

2 hours ago, jamo said:

The fourth hole at the course where I play in a men's league is a killer. Par 3, usually plays about 165-175 from the middle tees, but it's massively uphill to a blind green. There's a bunker left, fescue long and right, and anything that doesn't land on the green and stick will roll off the domed green. I think I've birdied it once or twice, it and it feels like a miracle to escape with a par. I'm a solid player and I make double pretty often.

I've had plenty of shots land in the middle of the green and roll off the back, especially when it's wet (and I've lost multiple balls in the fescue back there this way). Small misses left or right bounce way down the hill, leaving you with a blind pitch where you're just hoping to get it somewhere near the green because if it goes over or comes up short it'll roll off. Short is the only place you can miss, and even then it's not a guarantee that you'll be able to get it close because the green is so domed that if you're chipping towards the left or right it could roll right off. 

From what people tell me, it wasn't always this domed, and they didn't always mow the greens so tightly. 

That's the course we played last summer? That hole sucked.

[jamo]

2 hours ago, billchao said:

That's the course we played last summer? That hole sucked.

That's the one! I think we might have played it pretty well that day though... I have a faint memory that leading up to it I said a few times how I always play like crap on this hole and then we both made par or something. 

[billchao]

28 minutes ago, jamo said:

That's the one! I think we might have played it pretty well that day though... I have a faint memory that leading up to it I said a few times how I always play like crap on this hole and then we both made par or something. 

I like your memory better 😉

Unfortunately what actually happened was we both hooked it off the tee and managed to pitch on. I three-putted. I don't remember if you made your par putt or not, the only thing that stuck in my mind once I got on the green was how ridiculous it was.

[dennyjones]

I found a similar thread:

Nemesis Hole

[mcanadiens]

There are several candidates but Kittyhawk Eagle No. 3 has been my special, little hell.

If you look close at the picture you can see a ditch that is between  8 and 10 feet wide and, depending on the portion some 210 to 225 yards to clear. Lousy odds for somebody like me, so I generally layup with 5W or, now more frequently, 3I. What you can't tell from the picture is that everything left of center (towards the property line) is an upward slope. I love to hit hooks there and give myself awkward, beneath my feet lies. Too many of those go the same place I tried to avoid with the drive. . Even if the tee shot goes well, I'm looking at a 170-180 poke at the green with the two traps in front.

But, the powers that are just decided over the winter to fill the ditch in. Not sure how I feel about that.

[boogielicious]

On 4/10/2019 at 5:01 PM, boogielicious said:

There’s a downhill 175 yard par 3 at my league course that should be easy, but I mess it up most of the time. There’s water on the left and traps short. It just psychs me out for some reason.

Ok, I parred this hole yesterday. So maybe that’s it. You must declare publicly that a hole has your number. Then it releases you from the bondage of mediocrity and you can move of with your golf life.

My name is Scott and I have a problem with the third hole at Scottish Highlands.....😀

[dennyjones]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

You must declare publicly that a hole has your number. Then it releases you from the bondage of mediocrity and you can move of with your golf life.

My name is Scott and I have a problem with the third hole at Scottish Highlands.....😀

One of the 12 steps.....Congrats.