Florida Swing: Ranking Best 9 Holes
By Ryan Andrade
3. 18th hole at Bay Hill
The finishing hole at Bay Hill is one of the most dramatic in golf.
After a relatively simple, but important, tee shot players will be left with a mid iron into one of the most unique greens on tour. The green is shaped like a kidney and slopes from back to front. It requires a very precise second shot.
Short of the green are rocks that separate the green from the water. If you come up short and hear a clanging sound, it’s pretty much anyones guess as to where the ball will go. Some of the time it will kick back into the lake fronting the green, and other times it will take a bounce forward to dry land.
The bailout, however, is not long. The bunkers behind this green make getting the ball close very difficult as you are hitting off a downslope and it’s down hill all the way to the hole. Going from the bunker to the rocks is a very real possibility.
Each day it seems like the hole location just moves further and further right. By Sunday you have to take on the water to leave yourself with any legit birdie opportunity. It always makes for some dramatic finishes. Many of those have involved a man named Tiger.
This first one here was back in 2008. The NBC crew sure did a whale of a job at setting this one up.
This next one was the very next year. Just like déjà vu isn’t it?
Really makes you miss this guy doesn’t it?
Next: No. 2 - The Blue Monster