Tell Me What You See

I promise, that's the last obscure Beatles reference in a post title.

Aerial View Of No. 17 (click image to enlarge)Anyway, the miracle that Google Earth is, the Hoylake aerial photo is not out of focus as I originally thought, but very much in tact and showing...yes, the old 17th green that was taken out by Donald Steel a few years ago.

Playing as the first hole in this year's Open Championship, the original 17th was an H.S. Colt-designed number perched on Stanley Road, where the occasional putt on the back portion of the green could conceivably roll out of bounds.

SI Golf Plus readers know that we featured it as the finisher on our recent Colt Dream 18, in part to highlight one of the great architectural crimes of the new century.
No. 17 and Stanley Road (click on image to enlarge)

No. 17 up close (click on image to enlarge)Imagine how fun it would be if they returned the original routing at Hoylake to not only put back the infamously difficult finish written about by Darwin and company, while also returning a genuine road hole that would give Hoylake the classic hole that it currently lacks.

Key word there, imagine. Because it probably won't happen. 

Comments

[Van]

That's what's neat about a lot of links courses over there...the challenging short finishers.

I immediately think of the par-4s at Old Prestwick and North Berwick (West), where you can drive the green, or go out of bounds.

There are also stern par-3 finishers at Royal Portrush (Valley Course), and Killarney.

Just a few examples.

[CBell]

People say you're a dreamer?

[Lynn S.]

St. Andrews has the Road Hole. Hoylake has the "long winding road.......hole."