Want to Concoct a Year of Golf Heaven? Try These 18 Overlooked Jewels.

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golf courseWhen a golfer gets an opportunity to play some of the best golf holes in America, he seizes the moment. It's kind of like sitting next to Julia Roberts on an airplane. You ask her out because you may never get the chance again.
Everyone wants to take a crack at the brutal fifth hole at Pinehurst No. 2, the par-3 seventh at Pebble Beach, the island-green 17th at the TPC Stadium Course and the Blue Monster - the par-4 18th - at Doral.

But how about the other terrific holes in America that might have escaped your notice? That's what we've tried to compile: the best 18 holes you probably never hear about, holes that are either so good or so difficult you can't stop talking about them after you play them - especially if you've managed a par or better.

And it's not just the best 18 holes you never hear about. It's the best No. 1, the best No. 2, and so forth. That's why a spectacular hole such as No. 17 at Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach, Calif., a 543-yard par-5 affectionately known at "Gut Check," does not make the list. It couldn't surpass the wondrous 17th at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisc., maybe the best public-access course in the nation.

Of course, the best aspect of the list is that the holes, all 18 of 'em, are accessible to the public, whether as a daily-fee or resort course. Private-course holes don't qualify here.

And, remember, no repeat winners. So, to holes such as the memorable eighth at Pebble Beach and No. 7 at LaCantera in San Antonio, Texas, sorry. You made it last year.

  1. Spyglass Hill GC, Pebble Beach, Calif., 600 yards, par 5 - What a way to start: A downhill monster that doglegs through the trees and turns left to the Pacific Ocean. The green is surrounded by sandy wasteland.


  2. Reynolds National GC, Reynolds Plantation, Ga., 388 yards, par 4 - This benign-looking hole is from an elevated tee and bends right around a lake, with a series of three sand bunkers guarding the right portion of the green.


  3. Doral Golf Resort, Blue Course, Miami, Fla., 398 yards, par 4 - Water torments you on the right, grassy mounds and two gaping sand bunkers protect the left side on this dogleg-right teaser.


  4. Seaside GC, Sea Island, Ga., 416 yards, par 4 - One of the wondrous re-creations of Tom Fazio's redesign: a sharp dogleg left that bends around marshland, with St. Helena Sound as a backdrop.


  5. Bethpage Black, Farmingdale, N.Y., 450 yards, par 4 - This might be the best of the par 4s on the 2002 U.S. Open site, a double dogleg hole with a tee shot that requires a mammoth drive over an elongated waste bunker.


  6. The Slammer & The Squire, St. Augustine, Fla., 459 yards, par 4 - Named after Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen, this course at the World Golf Village has a number of terrific holes, but this tough dogleg left has a sand bunker at the inside bend and a fairway that rides a grassy ledge.


  7. Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst, N.C., 398 yards, par 4 - The longer hitters can carry the many sand traps that guard the bend in the fairway on this dogleg right that wraps around the Carolina pines. The smart play is an iron between the sand bunkers.


  8. Pinehurst No. 8, Pinehurst, N.C., 238 yards, par 3 - Cut through the trees and ravines of North Carolina, featuring an angled green with a long sand bunker protecting the right entry.


  9. TPC at Sawgrass, Valley Course, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., 429 yards, par 4 - A narrow, dogleg left around a lake, the tee shot has to be precise down the left side to get a clear shot at the angled green.


  10. Tartan Fields GC, Dublin, Ohio, 400 yards, par 4 - An expansive landing area off the tee gives way to a wide but shallow two-tiered green, fronted by the same creek that runs through Muirfield Village GC.


  11. Emerald Dunes GC, West Palm Beach, Fla., 479 yards, par 5 - One of Tom Fazio's jewels, this risk/reward hole has watery marshland running the entire right side of the hole, with mounds and devilish pot bunkers on the left.


  12. Blackwolf Run GC, Kohler, Wisc., 465 yards, par 4 - It is nicknamed Long Lagoon, and for good reason: It's 220 yards to carry the lagoon, but a low approach will run to the sloping left-to-right green.


  13. Pine Barrens at World Woods GC, Brooksville, Fla., 429 yards, par 4 - The course is patterned after consensus No. 1 Pine Valley, and this hole has many of the same beguiling features - a forced carry over sandy wastelands with a large green set below the fairway.


  14. Doral Golf Resort, Silver Course, Miami, Fla., 155 yards, par 3 - A miniature version of the 17th at the TPC Stadium Course, but every bit as bedeviling, island green and all.


  15. Primm Valley GC, Lakes Course, Primm, Nev., 450 yards, par 4 - This dogleg left has a forced carry over water, with fairway mounds rolling down the right side and a series of sand bunkers on the left.


  16. Olde Stonewall GC, Ellwood City, Pa., 474 yards, par 4 - Tee shot is from a dramatic perch 80 feet above the fairway. Second shot must carry a ravine. This hole has it all.


  17. Whistling Straits GC, Kohler, Wisc., 223 yards, par 3 - Spectacular hole on a course that has many, with deep sand bunkers, dunes, and Lake Michigan lurking to the left. Looks like it's been there for a hundred years, which it hasn't.


  18. Wild Dunes GC, Isle of Palm, S.C., 501 yards, par 5 - A dogleg right that runs along the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. The tee shot has to carry a sandy wasteland to have a shot at the green in two. A spectacular finish.


By Gerry Dulac
Athlon Sports