Signing off on signature holes

No hole is truly an island.
One of the most iconic holes in golf may detract from the course's other 17.

I’ve been suspicious of the whole concept of “signature holes” for a long while. As far as I can tell it’s a marketing gimmick and a cliche whose time has come and gone – if it ever took hold.

My suspicions about the concept were first awoken almost 25 years ago at a course reopening, when the director of golf asked me, immediately after the round, which one of the holes out there merited the term “signature.”

"It’s hard to tell," I said politely. "They are all so good, no one of them jumps out ahead of all the others."

The marketing power of a signature hole is without doubt considerable. We’ll be reminded of that all week during the Players Championship at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, whose par-3 17th hole has become iconic. For all the work done over decades by the design team of Pete Dye and the late Alice Dye, it’s probably their most famous and the one that most golfers recognize, even if they have never played it. Now that’s powerful branding.

The oddity, though, as with all signature holes (or so I contend) is that the island-green par 3 is also the least characteristic of any on the golf course. On a layout rich in strategic options and alternative paths, the 17th is the hole that really presents no choice but to hit the 4,100-square-foot green or face doom. The one available option when the hole is cut back right (as it always is on Sunday of the Players Championship) is to fly the ball directly to the little corner of putting surface that’s squeezed between the pot bunker and water. But for 99% of golfers, the shot here is to hit the green with a prayer and a swing.

Arguably, no hole in all of golf exercises such a decisive hold on the imagination throughout the round. It’s a looming presence from the first tee. But along the way it’s all too easy to lose sight of what a brilliant set of holes precedes that little par 3. And thus my real concern with signature holes: they break up the aesthetic unity of a golf course and make people think of a round in discrete, isolated units.

Recently I visited Patriot Point Links at Charleston Harbor in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. to walk. The daily-fee layout occupies very promising open ground along Charleston Harbor. When I asked the fellow behind the counter about the course, he steered me to the back nine and made a point of the par-3 17th hole.

The 'signature' 17th at Patriot's Point.

“That’s our signature hole," he said. It’s also the only hole on the golf course that made great use of the coastal ground and brings the harbor into the background.

Of course you could do what some designers started doing to avoid the owner-driven cliche of having an identifiable signature hole. "We don’t have one signature hole," went the explanation. "We have 18 of them."

Or maybe just a grouping of three under some catchy banner. We’re seeing plenty of that on TV now. The PGA Tour just left the Champion Course at PGA National, where the much-ballyhooed highlight of the Honda Classic is watching players tiptoe through a watery chicane at Nos. 15-17 that has come to be labeled the "Bear Trap." Chalk this one up to the marketing ingenuity of folks eager to exploit the target golf elements of a redesign by Jack Nicklaus.

Next up after the Players Championship is the Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort, where the concluding three-hole stretch has lately been designated as the "Snake Pit." In fact, the holes don’t differ much in look or character from those that precede them, though these last three are admittedly harder.

When it comes to a famous stretch of holes, no one can beat Amen Corner at Augusta National, where Masters coverage regularly invokes the term first applied to holes 11-12-13 in the late 1950s by famed golf writer Herbert Warren Wind. There’s something to the designation in terms of the relief one feels after playing the first three water holes on the golf course. In fact, the entire course is far more complex than that and gives rise to all sorts of emotions along the way.

If you’re going to name it like that it better be special. I’m rather partial to the "lava loop" at Cerbat Cliffs Golf Course in Kingman, Ariz. Most of the course proceeds on low-lying ground. But when you cross a little road to play Nos. 16-18, the land suddenly becomes dramatically elevated - all humpty dumpty and lumpy – thanks to the congealed lava underfoot. If only the rest of the course were as interesting.

That’s the problem with signature holes. They draw attention away from the strengths (or weakness) of the other holes out there. A golf course ought to be a tonal composition, not just a compilation of discordant notes or of one exciting passage in the entire score.

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Veteran golf travel, history and architecture journalist, Bradley S. Klein has written more than 1,500 feature articles on course architecture, resort travel, golf course development, golf history and the media for such other publications as Golfweek, Golf Digest, Financial Times, New York Times and Sports Illustrated. He has published seven books on golf architecture and history, including Discovering Donald Ross, winner of the USGA 2001 International Book Award. In 2015, Klein won the Donald Ross Award for lifetime achievement from the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Follow Brad on Twitter
9 Comments
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from hole in ones to the robert gamas 13 i think it was brill tv

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I recently played Patriot's Point. Very disappointing use of prime real estate. Last 3 holes hug the water. 15 and 16 have interesting design. 17 was surrounded by garbage in the weeds. Course basically a pasture and a little pricey for a muni.

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For those looking for a Pete dye design ( but not on the level of courses mentioned in this article but still very good) that’s open to the public in the north east : consider iron valley in Lebanon pa. And pound ridge in pound ridge n y

Strongly disagree.in the case of signature holes the Marketiing is justified. I played the 17th at Sawgrass with my son. We each missed the green 3 times and have that memory for a lifetime. The “postage stamp” at Muirfield had a better result but an equal lifetime memory.. and high excitement leading up to playing those special holes. I will say all 18 at Pine Valley are the closest to 18 signature holes for me. I love true signature holes. They are great for a game that needs excitement and wild anticipation to make it more appealing to a younger audience, not just leaving the stick in.

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As a seasoned citizen, I've long seen "gimmicks" in athletics, but I don't think that is appropriate. We have the "Green monster" in Fenway Park or the ivy in Wrigley. Madison Square Garden, Notre Dame or Beaver Stadium at Penn State and Lambeau Field and on and on. Perhaps there is a new move to create an "iconic" mystery attachment for marketing. That seems a cynical way to copy true unique or original and unintentional venues. It is eye-catching and attention grabbing and isn't what they want so their tournament or event gets coverage? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

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Couldn’t agree more- especially with the “Snake Pit” at Innisbrook Copperhead Course- that layout is so much better than to be defined by just those three holes.

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I have to agree with the premise. Let me add something further.

A signature hole is great for watching on TV. I'd much rather watch "the best players in the world" tackle something unusual and difficult, and a hole that I watch year after year so I know what's coming. (That is one of the reasons I resent the move to TPC courses from the courses where I know the finishing holes. Also the reason I miss seeing the pros play at Sherwood, whose last 4 holes might be called "signature".)

TV is probably the reason that a signature hole can be a marketing tool to sell rounds at the course. Without TV coverage of the pros, I don't know if a course with what THEY consider a signature hole could use it as a selling tool.

And, as you say, once you are playing the course the signature hole is likely to be a problem rather than an advantage. If can break up the character, the "flow", of the course in a negative way.

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16,17,18 at Harbour Town.

Antipation, rhythm, pacing, terrain.

The rest of the course is good, but that stretch of 3 are among the finest finishers anywhere.

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Mike, 16-18 at Harbour Town are outstanding, though I think 13, 14, 15 is my favorite three-hole stretch of that course.

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Signing off on signature holes