During the last few years there have been many good inland courses constructed. Several of these, such as Swinley Forest, St. George’s Hill, Sunningdale, Alwoodley, Moortown, Ganton, etc., have some excellent long holes.
At Alwoodley, two of the dog-legged holes, the eighth and fifteenth, are particularly good examples. The eighth is played from right to left and the fifteenth from left to right. In each case the green has been constructed with a marked side slope, so that the nearer the golfer plays to the angle of the dog-leg, the greater the slope favours him.
[Illustration: THE SEVENTEENTH HOLE AT ST. ANDREWS.]
In 1914 the writer designed an ideal two-shot hole which won the first prize in a competition for Golfing Architecture, promoted by _Country Life_.
In designing it, he attempted to produce an ideal hole among perfect surroundings, and what could be more perfect than sand-dunes by the seashore!
The hole is 420 yards long from the ordinary and 450 yards from the Medal Tee.
An effort has been made to produce the old type of golf, in which a player has no fixed line to the hole, but has to use his own judgment in playing it, according to varying conditions of wind, etc.
The green is guarded by bunkers and a large hillock (20 feet high) on the right of the approach, and is also tilted upwards from left to right and from the front to the back, so that the approach from the left is an easy one, and from the right necessitates such a difficult pitch that the player is likely to overrun the green into the bunker beyond.
There are five possible routes to the hole, and the choice of the player must vary from day to day, according to his length of drive, the state of the weather, etc.
It caters for all classes of players—even the absolute beginner can take No. 5 line. He loses strokes not by getting into bunkers, but by avoiding risks, and probably takes five, or at least four, to reach the green in consequence; nevertheless he enjoys his game, and not being disheartened, he improves, until finally he may be able to achieve the boldest line of all, and drive a fine ball straight to the hole.
He who takes the left-hand road by way of the island can also get home in two; he has a shorter carry, but has to make up for this by extreme accuracy.