(Golfweek File)

No. 17 at the Old Course

Where: St. Andrews, Scotland
Tournament yardage: 495
Par: 4
Designer: No official designer, though Daw Anderson and Old Tom Morris are credited with contributions in the 1800s.

OK, so this isn’t a yearly regular on the PGA Tour, but viewers can catch it each year in the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. It also has been the site of 29 British Opens, and that championship will return in 2021. Any golf aficionado is familiar with the hole, as the Old Course was officially established in 1552 and No. 17 – known as the Road Hole for the road down its right side and behind the green – is its most famous hole.

How often does a player get to hit over a former railroad shed, possibly blasting a tee shot into a hotel, then face one of the most famous bunkers in golf? The Road Hole bunker has been the scene of countless frustrations as players fail to escape after a ball rolls too close to the face of the pit. The hole has been called a par 4 and a half, as even players who find the fairway off the tee generally try to steer well clear of the bunker while also avoiding the road and stone wall behind.

If that kind of history and challenge don’t get a player excited, then nothing will. Gwk