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What is the HARDEST opening hole??

Mine's a 236yd par three, no water, no bunkers, and no trees to speak of (not unless you're really wild). But the green sliopes away from you & is the very devil to hold. Sorry Homer but yours is a piece of cake compared..

Could be tempted to agree with J_F about Whitekirk - but we played it in fog so don't really know what it's like - other than it's a ball eater.
 
Probably not THE hardest opening hole, but certainly one which requires you to step up and play a golf shot right from the off. This is the first hole at Aberdour in Fife and it's only 155 yds off the yellows. However, the wind is invariably blowing a gale so that makes club selection a bit of a lottery. As you can see, too long and you're in the sea, too right and your in the sea and too left? Yup, you're in the sea!

I agree with you, the second hole isn't much better if you take the Tiger Line!
 
Certainly not mine. Ours is a downhill par 5 around 500yards. OB to the left. The 9th fairway runs up alongside it and is an option if you're too scared to go for the real fairway!
Par is a bad score! :D
Back to the question...the first hole that comes to my mind is in Concra Wood. It is a long downhill par 5 with OB (environmental areas) left and right. There is water just in front of the green so it is extremely hard to go for it in two.
 
I'll throw in the first at Wimbledon Common. 228 off the whites with OB all down the left and particularly tight up by the green. Big gorse area short and right for the sliced tee shot and the ground falls away over the top of it right into trees and real thick stuff.

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Pooh bah and Del B,
I played Whitekirk this year and would agree that the first is a beast. I'm sure someone told me that the clubhouse was supposed to have been built towards the village and this was never meant to be the first? Aberdour is a great course and I played the first on a calm day for a straightforward par but when the wind blows that must be a devil of a whole. But the most difficult whole there was the fourth-you could putt all day there it was scary!
 
Aberdour is a great course and I played the first on a calm day for a straightforward par but when the wind blows that must be a devil of a whole.

I played there a couple of weeks ago and hit a pretty decent 4 iron into a fairly strong south-westerly wind. Bearing in mind it's only 155 yards, it still ended up just short of the green! :eek:
 
I think the 1st at Bellshill is a card killer.

447 yards off the yellows and OOB to the right and the valley of the 15 to the left. I have seen me flush a drive and a long iron and still come up short.

My new course has a par 3 start which is 204 yards from the big boys tees or 192 from the yellows.
 
Doesn't get much tougher than the opening hole at Moffat Golf Club! Which is a tough opening par 3. 199yards of carry demands a wood from many people. Out of bounds on the left, trees and bunkers to the right make this a difficult starting hole.

http://www.moffatgolfclub.co.uk/hole_detail.asp?ID=1

What's going on with the yardages there? The yellow is further away than the white :D

Medal 3 199
Gents 3 210
Ladies 3 199
 
Can certainly vouch for the Trevose, Cooden Beach and Royal Ascot shots.

To be fair, having scoured through my 'courses played' list, the majority do seem to get us away fairly gently - very sensible.

These three do not though

1st on the Dunes Nine at Prince's - 471 yard par 4, dogleg left with a magnetic central bunker short of a green which is the most upturned saucer I've ever had the misfortune to play into

1st at Tenby, Wales - just a long, hard links par 4 into the prevailing wind

1st (and indeed 2nd) at Tandridge in Surrey - 449 and then 459 off the whites - fairly tight. Can't remember playing anywhere else that asks you to cover over 900 yards in just eight strokes straight off the bat?
 
Our opening hole is a 570 yard par-5 (off medal tees). The pond left of the teebox doesnt come into play nor does the small creek 80 yards from the tee unless you hit a real dog. There are large bunkers on the right half of the fairway but they dont come into play for me because I am too short - they do come into play from the club tees. There is a difficult pot bunker infront of an enormous green with a big undulation (back left to front right). As it is virutally impossible to reach the green in 2 unless you are JB Holmes you have only a wedge or short iron for the 3rd shot so you should be able to avoid the bunker. Not an easy hole but not the most difficult either.
 
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