As in the majority of good holes, it is the subtlety of the slopes that makes it so.
[Illustration: THE SIXTEENTH HOLE AT ST. ANDREWS.]
The green is tilted up slightly from right to left, and it would be a better hole still if the inclination were greater. It is also guarded by Grant’s and the Wig Bunkers on the left-hand side, so that the approach from the right is easy, as all the slopes assist the players, and the approach from the left is exceedingly difficult.
The point about the hole is that it is so difficult to get into the best position to approach the green, because of the proximity of the Principal’s Nose Bunker to the railway, and the difficulty of placing one’s tee shot in such a small space with all the slopes leading to the bunker. On the other hand, there is a perfectly easy route free from all risk to the left of the Principal’s Nose, but the player in all probability loses a stroke by taking it.
The fourteenth and seventeenth holes at St. Andrews are excellent holes, full of dramatic incident in match play.
The fourteenth hole is probably the best hole of its length in existence. Here, again, the hole is made by the slope of the green. There is a most marked tilt up from left to right, so much so that it is impossible to approach near the hole from the right. It is slopes of this kind which are so often overlooked in designing a golf course, and it is one of the most difficult things imaginable to construct them really well; but it is subtleties of this nature which make all the difference between a good course and a bad one.
At the fourteenth hole at St. Andrews this tilt of the green has a considerable influence on the tee shot 530 yards away. Some years ago there were four of us playing four ball matches nearly every day for a month. We, according to our own judgment, attempted to play this hole in four different ways. A played his tee shot well away to the left of the Beardies on to the low ground below the Elysian Fields, so as to place his second in a favourable position for his approach. B, who was a long driver, attempted to carry the Beardies with his drive, Hell with his second, and run up his third. C, who was a short but fairly accurate hitter, attempted to pinch the Beardies as near as he dare, and then played his second well away to the left, so as to play against the slope of the green for his third. D took what was apparently the straightforward route along the large broad plateau of the Elysian Fields, and eventually landed in Hell or Perdition every time: he invariably lost the hole.