NY Times · Jul 15, 2015
Check In for Drama on the 17th at St Andrews
ST ANDREWS, Scotland — There are few holes in world golf revered quite as much as the 17th on the Old Course at St Andrews -- a par-four brute where British Open dreams could be crushed this weekend.
The Road Hole, named after the old turnpike road that forms its right boundary, plays 495 yards, if you're feeling brave, requires a tee shot aimed at the Old Course Hotel, then a long second at shallow green guarded by the infamous Road Hole bunker on one side and a stone wall at the rear.
Players averaged 4.653 on it in 2010 to make it, not surprisingly, the toughest hole on the course.
It has a habit of creating drama.