A golf hole might present an intimidating shot, but that doesn’t mean players don’t enjoy taking on the adversity. It’s another matter, however, to stand on the tee box or in the fairway and to not appreciate or understand the challenge that a hole introduces. It’s even worse if you encounter a hole that seems poorly thought out, as if the architect didn’t stop to consider the shots that a player must hit to be successful.
Here, we share insights from several PGA Tour players on the holes that they hate playing and—in some cases—how they would change the hole’s design if they could.
Jack of All Problems
Back in 2020, major renovation work began at Muirfield Village the minute that John Rahm’s putt fell on the 72nd hole. Today, it would seem the Golden Bear still has some work to do, at least in the eyes of several Tour pros.
“Honestly, I’ve played it well,” Cameron Davis says of the 5th hole, “but it feels almost like an automatic layup now. It used to be a really fun, risk/reward par five.” Although the 29-year-old Australian describes the hole’s requisite tee shot as “goofy,” meaning you had to lay up with less than driver, he says that players used to be rewarded by hitting the fairway. They’d have a long approach shot ahead of them, but the green was receptive. That’s no longer the case. “Now, the green is so small and if you’re hitting 3-wood [off the tee] and 3-wood [on your approach] you can’t miss it anywhere, so there’s no point going for it,” he says, acknowledging that he’s birdied it more than once by laying up. “I feel like it’s lost its excitement.”
The par-three 12th hole is one that looks like it should be exciting, except that some players—Peter Malnati included—aren’t enthused about playing it. “If the greens get firm, you can hit a really good shot that lands on the green and bounces into the back bunker or the back rough and now you have to get lucky to get up and down from either of those places,” he explains. “The only place you can [consistently] get the ball up and down from is in the bunker short of the green, but the short bunker is three yards over the water, so it’s not like you’re ever going to [intentionally] play into that short bunker.
“You’re trying to land it one step on the green, hope that you hit that spot, and then hope that the ball stops,” the 2024 Valspar Championship winner continues. “If you don’t hit that spot, then you’re really hoping that you missed it enough that the shot comes up short, but not so short that it ends up in the water. It’s one of those holes that you have to play super aggressively, but once you hit it you have to hope for the best.”
In Billy Horschel’s estimation, the second one-shotter on Muirfield’s back nine isn’t much better, even though the club created a new tee box that changes the angle of the par-three 16th hole. “It’s a little fairer since they moved the tee to the right,” says the 2024 Corales Puntacana Championship winner. “But I think it would be a better hole if we played it from 175 yards every time with the new tee.” When played from the existing championship tee box, the hole peaks at 220 yards.
“When you’re hitting a 6-iron or a 5-iron into a very narrow area—you’ve got maybe a seven-yard-wide gap to hit it in—there’s not a lot of room for error,” Horschel continues. “I’m not saying it should be easy, but I think it would be a more exciting hole if guys wanted to be aggressive to all the flags. I think guys would take it on a little bit more if we had a 7-iron in our hands on a regular basis.”
According to Nicklaus’s notes, recent changes made to the par-four 17th hole increased the difficulty of the tee shot; however, Rickie Fowler insists that the hole is problematic because of its required approach shot. “When the conditions get firm for the tournament and with it being downwind, that hole can be kind of unfair,” he says. “You can hit a good shot and not hit the green with your approach from the fairway. The green isn’t that big in terms of its depth, so the hole makes you try to hit the least amount of club possible and swing hard. On this hole, I’d rather hit an 8-iron, but I’m trying to max out a 9-iron to get the most stopping power on the green.”
Proof that Less Can Be More
“There’s no memorable par-three hole that’s over 190 yards,” declares Nick Taylor, who says he hates it when golf clubs add 50 yards to make the hole more challenging, even if the tactic works on some level. Justin Thomas concurs, though he’s willing to shorten the maximum distance even more. “All the best par threes in the world are probably under 150 yards,” he opines. “Short holes provide more variety.”
Sam Burns agrees, and he points to the 4th at Riviera Country Club as the perfect example of a hole that suffers from recently tacked-on yardage. “That green is made for a 7- or an 8-iron,” he says. “But I remember hitting a hybrid one day earlier this year. It’s a hole that’s really cool at 170 yards and not very cool at 220 yards.
“When you have a hole like that,” Burns continues, “guys are basically all trying to do the same thing—whether it’s with a hybrid or a 3-iron—they’re all just trying to hit it to 50 or 60 feet. You don’t really get to see a lot of ‘great shots.’ But when you get a 9-iron in guys’ hands now they can play a little more aggressive.”
When a Hole Just Doesn’t Make Sense
In Byeong Hun An’s estimation, every golf course delivers at least one hole that won’t suit a player’s eye, and for An, the par-four 10th hole at TPC River Highlands is one that immediately comes to mind. “I think the tree in the middle of the fairway is stupid,” he says. “It’s the only hole on the course where you can get unlucky. It’s okay if your ball lands short of the tree and rolls up against it, but if you hit the middle of the tree, it could go anywhere. You shouldn’t have that break when you hit a decent shot, especially in the fairway.”
It’s been more than a decade since Webb Simpson teed it up on the South Course at Torrey Pines, and the 12th hole there might have something to do with it. “It’s brutally hard,” Simpson says of the 500-yard par four that seemingly always plays into the wind. “I never play it well, and I’ll be happy if I never have to play it again. It makes me a little uncomfortable standing there [on the tee box], because I don’t have a great feel of where to go or the shot shape to hit off the tee.”
When Arnold Palmer dug into the design of the Champion/Challenger course at Bay Hill Club—the 18 holes used for the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational—he created a slew of dynamic dogleg holes. The 15th hole, a 429-yard dogleg-right par four, is not one of them, at least not according to Seamus Power. “You’re landing [your drive] on such a narrow fairway and it kicks away, so even if you hit a good tee shot it [often] ends up in the rough,” the affable Irishman says. “That hole never makes a ton of sense to me.”
Teeing Up Some Controversy
A few years ago, Keith Mitchell told us that the 10th hole at Riviera is “probably the most controversial” on Tour, even though he considered it to be his favorite of the bunch. More recently, Adam Hadwin revealed that he believes it’s “one of the more overrated holes that we play.” He acknowledged it played a bit better in 2024 because the club made an effort to soften the terrain, but Hadwin still asserts that it’s a terrible drivable par four. “If you hit a good shot and you hit it where you need to hit it, you can be screwed and have no chance,” he begins. “If you hit a perfect tee shot, I don’t think that you should then have to play for safety to try to make four, which is what 10 at Riviera does. You can hit perfect golf shots and not get rewarded, and I don’t like that.”
