Bill, did you design this hole?

check this out:


A 900 yard par 3 is in South Africa. The green is shaped like the African continent and completely surrounded by a sea of sand. You hit off a cliff over 1,400 feet above the hole and it takes 26 seconds for your ball to land. You have to take a helicopter to get to the hole. They post spotters around the green to let you know where your ball lands because you can't possibly see it.

Padraig Harrington is the only person to ever par it. He did it in a playoff after a recent tournament there. It is the 19th-hole and only used for playoffs. Watch him do it…with a ‘sandy’ no less.

The first picture has an arrow in the center of it, but is not
active. The second picture provides the YouTube video.

http://www.compleatgolfer.co.za:80/new_site/content/news/singlepage.asp?id=856

Scott, I saw this last week. In anwer to how I would play the hole...............I would try to play it the same pay Padraig did!

I'll try and embed it:

Well, if this hole had a normal layout, I'd say, I'd use a potato gun slimmed down to fit a golf ball. But this one, I'd just hit it like any other shot.

and the point of this hole is what?????

Just to do it.

"Your attitude determines your altitude."

- How High You Can Go!

and in this case, it's about 900 yards high!

Just think about hitting a ball and waiting for 26 seconds for it to land. Now for Don, in the thin air up there, that's normal. But for me, that's a loooonnng time to wait..

Don, also, remember what the voice in Field of Dreams said, "If you build, they will come"

I'm sure it would be fun to hit a ball off the tee box and see what the ball would do. Problem is no one can see the ball that far away, and unless the spotter is pretty good at his job. it's going to be hard to learn much from your first shot to be able to figure out what you need to do on the next try. What would really be fun would be to hit a golf ball that would explode when it landed, and make a big cloud of smoke, so you could see exactly where it landed. I wonder it the TrackMan system can track a golf ball that far? Then you could have some real data to work with for the next try. Hitting from the tee, which is 466 yards above the green, any wind is going to be hell to deal with.

True...also, that green must be hard or very firm. Imagine hoow fast the ball will be coming in, talk about needing to repair your divots..those will be craters..and I can't imagine how you can hit a ball from the bunker in that buried fried-eye lie...

What an experience that would be. I would love to try it if I had that kind of money. I played a local course in Hawaii. I can not remember the name of it but it was just a local course. One of the par 3's was on a hill top and the green was on another hill top about 60 or 70 feet below. The ground in between was about 300 feet below. I had not been playing long when I went there and did not hit the green but was on the hill side about 50' below the green. That was a real fun hole. I have tried to find the course again but have not been able to find it. It is on the north shore side of the tunnel in Oahu. Anyway only a small version of that but also very fun.

There is a course near where I grew up that has a 600+ yd par 5. I think it is #13. The hole is a dog leg right with the dog leg starting around 230-250 yards out (just guessing). On the right side after the tee box is a pond with trees behind which makes it VERY difficult to cut the dog leg.

Play the course every year in June in a 4 man scramble for the local VFW outing. This year, we used my drive which went strait but into the left rough of the dog leg (just barely) On our 2nd shots, I used my 3H, my dad used is driver, and the other 2 guys used either a driver or 3W (can't remember), again we ended up using my shot but were still 200+ yds from the green. 3r shot was basically everyone using the same club as the 2nd except my Dad went to his 3H. This shot landed about 10yds short of the green (wasn't mine) 4th shot everyone tried a bump and run as the pin was in the back right corner of the green. We ended up not using the closest ball to the pin as there was a longest putt contest on this hole and we had a decent shot just outside of the current longest putt. I think I went 2nd or 3rd and was lucky enough to hole it out and win the longest putt. We were 2nd to last group as it was a shotgun start so we were finishing up our round on this hole, which is the only reason why we went for the longest putt contest.

Wow Klun sounds like a great day at the course. It is always a great feeling to see a long one drop especially when there is money involved. We have a course out here with a 590 yard par 5 and it is a tough hole. (Los Positas Golf Course)

We have a course near the coast that's a 768 yard Par 6...yes, Par 6. it starts in NC and ends in SC. It's the only real stand out part of the course it's on, Farmstead Golf Club in NC. No matter what tees you play from, when you reach that 18th hole Par 6, tee it up from the tips so you can say you played a 768 yard Par 6...

That is funny. So I take it you played the course. So did you birdie it? From the web site it looks like a nice course.

No, I made Par. but a buddy of mine had an eagle putt and wound up with birdie. It is a nice course but nothing outstanding beyond that Par 6.

A 768 yard par 6!?

I'd pick it up in the tee box. That's a gimme...