- 8 minutes ago
In this video, Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland senior panellists Rob Smith and Jezz Ellwood discuss the best holes in the UK and Ireland. They are joined by Golf Monthly editor Michael Harris and the three of them each pick their favour par 3s, 4s and 5s from the Top 100 list. These are some of the most beautifully challenging holes in the world and the team discuss what makes them so special.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video in which we're going to
00:03take a look at some of the best golf holes in the UK and Ireland in association with Peter Miller.
00:09Now the way in which we've worked this video is that I've recruited the help of Rob Smith and
00:13Jez Elwood who run our Top 100 Courses panel and Golf Monthly editor Mike Harris and I've asked
00:19them all for a nomination for their favourite Par 3, Par 4 and Par 5. We're going to discuss
00:25exactly what makes these golf holes so special both in terms of the quality of the test and the
00:30design and also what makes them really exciting to play once you get there. Right we're here at
00:36Warpleston Golf Club, let's get started. Right so we are going to start with Par 3s and Rob you're up
00:48first. What are you nominating as your best or one of your best Par 3s? Well it's tricky to pick
00:54one
00:54out of so many obviously but the one that's always been in my mind. Very often people say what's your
00:59favourite golfing day out? I say Sunningdale because of the two courses. It's the fifth on the new course
01:05at Sunningdale. It is just sublimely beautiful. It's about 180 off the very back tees, 160-ish off
01:12the regular tees, big cross bunkers hidden down below in front of the green. Then there's two more that you
01:19really can't see that much of on the right of the green and behind it you see that sixth Par
01:235 heading
01:24up into the distance as well. It's just you could be standing there and be back a hundred years it
01:29would just have looked exactly the same. It's just beautiful and mentioning a hundred years it is
01:33centenary this year for the new course so it seems an appropriate one to put in. Yeah and I think
01:38with
01:38all of the Par 3s in particular they should all be great photo opportunities really shouldn't they?
01:43So Mike what would you put up as a great Par 3? Well that's really interesting when you say a
01:48great
01:48photo opportunity because it's a hole that whenever I go and play sometimes it's not raining I'll take
01:55a photograph of it and it's the 11th at Royal Liverpool. I'm very lucky to be a member there.
01:59I started playing golf there in my 20s when I was at university and very lucky to be a member
02:05there
02:06and it's called Alps. All the holes at Hoyl Lake have have names and it's just beautiful. You've got the
02:18dune behind it uh about 180 yards I think something like that um from the you know from the sort
02:25of
02:25green tees which are our medal tees at Hoyl Lake um and it's a really good test. There's normally always
02:31a crosswind very rarely will you be playing it down or into it normally off the left so to control
02:37the
02:37ball um with that length of shot it's always a good normally for me like a hybrid or you know
02:43sort of five wood um it's a great hole um they've done some more contouring work behind the green
02:50it's great runoff there's a big bunker which you think shouldn't be in play at all it's sort of
02:54short and right but it a lot of balls yeah go in there and then it's a really difficult shot
03:00to get
03:00it out of there but you've got this amazing view I love to you know sort of stand take a
03:04picture
03:04just sort of you know look up you know look at the beauty of the hole but it's a really
03:09really great
03:09hole but I always think a good test of any holes when you look back is a good view as
03:14well and
03:14yeah 11th at Hoyl Lake. Interesting thought and actually any par 3 with a crosswind is is tricky
03:20getting the clubbing right is very difficult uh Jess what have you got for well yeah as Rob says as
03:25a
03:25cast of thousands I actually went for the 15th at St Ennardoc which is a downhill par 3 mid-length
03:32um and why I've particularly picked that out is because at that point in the round without being
03:38too unkind I think you've just played some of the less exciting holes at St Ennardoc yeah because
03:43there are some it's important to say there are some unbelievably exciting holes there are some
03:47fantastic holes and then it just goes into this little section which is a bit quieter shall we
03:51say and then you reach this tee and it's downhill and you see the estuary beyond you and it just
03:58reinvigorates the round for the final push for home and 16 is a fantastic par 5 along the the camel
04:04estuary and then the last two holes are pretty strong as well but it just comes at the right
04:08time to give you that final push for home. There's something quite appealing about downhill
04:12yeah I think what is it you feel that you've seen the ball in flight the whole way I don't
04:16know
04:17what it is you see everything don't you which you know on an uphill just inviting yeah you can't
04:21always see that much of the green the element of elevation brings you great visuals doesn't it
04:26yeah okay Jess well fantastic par 3 on a brilliant golf course uh Rob your par 4 that you've gone
04:32for
04:32is the opening hole it is and I think that actually opening holes is another good discussion
04:37point for top 100 but let's talk specifically about the first hole of the course that you've
04:42chosen here well I've chosen the the opening hole at Royal Porth Call which is one of my
04:47favorite courses we have it as the and most people do the the best course in Wales it's on a
04:51brilliant
04:52piece of linksland that rises up from the coast and and so as you come out into the first you
04:56see those holes stretching up into the hills beyond you and it really whets the appetite
05:01the first is not particularly demanding unless the wind is blowing in or out and it very often is
05:06I remember playing there with a group of a dozen or so of us and it was absolutely howling in
05:13off the
05:14off the beach all of us of course tend to hit with a bit of a cut uh well the
05:18one guy with us was
05:19delighted because he was a left-hander so it meant he could hit his first straight shot of the tour
05:23we all had to aim out over the beach to keep it back on the hole but it's a great
05:27hole so two or
05:28three bunkers down the left one on the right and then you've got a deep bunker short of the green
05:31but it eases you and it's not too difficult but it's really appealing really attractive and a great
05:36start to an absolutely great round uh what makes a great opening i mean rob you've just described it
05:41very well there but what do you think makes a good opening something that's not too hard yeah
05:45you've got to get people away haven't you i think yeah from a from a golfer's perspective certainly
05:50from a design perspective you know it could be very different but a brutally difficult first hole
05:55and i can think of a couple in our top 100 where you're almost guaranteed to make bogey at best
06:00is
06:00probably not ideal i think it's something again it's that pace of play it's like you do not want
06:04people spending 15 20 minutes playing the first hole it's so hard yeah and also when you're playing
06:09a medal and you're watching the group in front of an absolute nightmare in the hole that you're about
06:12to play yeah you're still a slightly ippy i think we're talking about par threes uh you know an
06:18opening par three is not always great because it's usually a fairly lengthy one yeah and you're
06:22hitting quite a small-headed club for your first swing of the day and i'd rather be hitting a big
06:27headed drive absolutely to be honest absolutely yes right so just going to go back to you again
06:31for this one what's your give us a nomination for one of you one of your best holes in the
06:36par four
06:36uh i've picked a long par four the ninth formby on the northwest coast there uh and it's 450 460
06:44yards
06:45so it's no pushover you do have an elevated tee to give you a bit of a potential advantage in
06:50terms
06:50of distance so you're playing straight towards the sea although you don't really realize it because
06:54there's a big stand of pines behind the green um and it's just it's a test because you know you've
07:00got to get a good drive away uh for average golfers to get home in two but then when you
07:05get there
07:05the green is quite big not ridiculously sloping so if you do do the hard part and get there in
07:11two
07:12you have got half a chance of walking off with a par and feeling very pleased with yourself as you
07:16head
07:16to the 10th tee is the ninth at fourbury a hole that they've made some changes to over the years
07:20well i think the ninth has changed recently they've moved the fairway a little bit further left i think
07:25to allow longer hitters to to attack the hole if they want to i think there was some there was
07:30some
07:30cross rough before which meant longer hitters were perhaps having to lay up even on a long hole like
07:35that um but around that part of the course at for me there have been a lot of changes over
07:39the years
07:40uh because of coastal erosion so i think the holes before the ninth were new holes some years ago to
07:46replace holes that did actually get much closer to the sea yeah and of course for me i mean just
07:51brilliant golf course that proper a mix of two different styles you've got to play it to experience
07:57it for yourself it's good it's quite hard to describe but well worth going to if you can mike
08:01uh give us another par four yeah i'm afraid i'm gonna um talk about another club i'm very lucky
08:07to be a member of royal north devon um westwood hoe as it's um also known and i'm going to
08:14go for the
08:15par for sixth hole um so you've just played this brilliant uphill par three um fiendishly difficult
08:23surrounded by bunkers and you walk up and you are confronted with really inspirational 360 degree view
08:31you've got the wild atlantic out to your left to go and look across over to saunton to the golf
08:37courses
08:38over there in the hotel and then you've got westwood hoe and north and behind you um and it's just
08:43a
08:43really really incredible uh hole in terms of the visuals stand on this tee you've often got a little
08:52um there's a bench behind the par three and you have walkers um just sort of be sat there and
08:58watch
08:58you sort of play into uh the par three and then tee off at the par four so you've got
09:02a little sort of
09:02mini audience um and quite often they'll be chatting away it's like golf's just incidental to them and
09:08that's sort of a bit the whole royal north devon experiences you know whether it's sort of cows and
09:13uh and sheep and horses yeah and there's walkers um but it's a really great par four it's sort of
09:19400 odd yards big drive down you've got out of bounds up the left hand side um and then you
09:26play
09:26to sort of quite a narrow green some little hidden bunkers in the fairway because it's just such a
09:32natural golf course they're sort of marked out with little gray stones uh white stones um but yeah
09:38really brilliant powerful yeah no wonderful and actually it's that the knowledge that you're going
09:43to play this hole without bounce just runs down the left hand side of the hole plays into your mind
09:47a bit
09:47as you're playing the holes before it as well so um well worth again well worth the trip if you
09:51get
09:51the chance to play royal north devon um rob give us a par five to talk about okay uh i'm
09:56gonna stay
09:57down then in the southwest actually and i'm gonna go into into cornwall and go to travose um where
10:03mackenzie and ebert have made some changes tom mackenzie i think in uh about 10 years ago maybe a bit
10:08less than that um the bunkering has been revamped everywhere and looks beautiful now and the hole where it
10:14stands out the most was to me the favorite my favorite hole anyway it's the a par five which
10:18runs parallel to the beach then turns left towards the beach and as you get to the corner of the
10:24dog
10:24leg and go around you get ever closer the the right the rugged bank bunkering is is fabulous you then
10:30have the the atlantic and you actually see the white horses behind there too you have to be careful
10:35which flag you're going for too because if the uh the lifeguards are out then there's a big big flag
10:41on
10:42the left and then the green is just below that it's now a huge uh undulating green but complete
10:48different to the way it was before and it's just a glorious par five because you've got options it's
10:52risk reward you can how much of the corner do you take on and but then the reward regarding
10:57regardless of the score is when you get to the green what a brilliant sight right down by the beach
11:01absolutely lovely it's one of the most beautiful holes for sure within our top 100 courses i would
11:06say uh jez give us another par five oh well i've gone for lip hook and uh the par five
11:11which is now
11:12the seventh i think used to be the 13th they've done a lot of work at lip hook recently and
11:16rerouted
11:17it to make a road crossing point safer and this hole now comes much earlier in the round it plays
11:24down
11:24and then up to a green that's just got the most fantastic visuals as you play up to it heather
11:28right
11:28and left a couple of big bunkers pine trees right and left and the drive is fairly generous but if
11:34you
11:34don't quite get it there's a penalty area across the bottom of the valley which i'm told actually
11:39marks the hampshire west sussex border yeah and if you're in the heather or you haven't quite got
11:45your drive you're gonna have to decide whether or not to try and take this penalty area on before the
11:49final climb up to the green i've played lip hook a number of times and that's always the hole that
11:53sticks in my mind which is such a good hole it's sort of quintessentially so that it's in inland
12:00and golf in england uk and ireland at its best i think it's heather and pines and a little bit
12:06of change of elevations you go down and up is enough to paint a very pretty picture yeah yes
12:12um and also i quite like the fact that it's it is as you say slightly fairly generous t-shot
12:16so it
12:17feels like you can have a go at it but you you would have no trouble getting home in two
12:20tappers
12:21wouldn't it wouldn't even have to go after it yeah and mike give us another uh our last par five
12:27i'm i'm gonna cheat a bit and i'm gonna say the red course uh at the barx which has uh
12:33six par
12:33three six par fours and six par five so it's great it's a really fun golf course i would find
12:39it hard
12:39to pick any one of those par fives because they're all great um first is a really good hole really
12:46inviting drive uh probably the third would be my favorite of the par fives and it just plays up to
12:53a really great green um but say they're all good and i just you know none of the par fives
12:59feel
13:01overly long you feel like you've got a chart you know get a decent drive where you feel like okay
13:06i've got a you know decent birdie chance you should be coming in if you're a big hitter like you
13:09maybe knock it on and two but for the rest of us you're probably coming in with a shortish iron
13:14for
13:14your third shot um but i just love that as a make i think it's so fun having those you
13:19know those par
13:20fives you know six par fives um there so yeah a bit of a fudge there that i couldn't you
13:25know
13:25couldn't quite pick one couldn't hold in one but yeah i particularly like the one just before the
13:29par three across the big dip i can't remember what number that is and i like it because i very
13:34nearly
13:34made an albatross there last time i played with rob yeah but i don't like to talk about it that
13:39much so just leave it there very good so there you have it that's our look at um some of
13:44the best
13:45holes in the uk and ireland we took them from our list of top 100 courses because you know a
13:51great
13:51one great hole doesn't make a great golf course but having these top 100 courses and then picking
13:56out some of our absolute favorites is probably worth doing what do you have to say have you played
14:00any absolutely wonderful holes that you want to talk about please do leave some comments below
14:05we'd love to hear what you have to say but that's it for now from wapleston thanks for watching we'll
14:09see you next time
14:09you
14:10you
14:13you
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