Blog · 29 July 2026

Imagined holes

Claudia Laurent

Golf writer, Golf Handicapp · 29 July 2026

The short answer

None of these holes exist. We conjured them with AI, the golf daydreams you have standing on the range and will never actually play. It is a collection we keep adding to. Tap any hole to watch it and read the story. The real data lives elsewhere on the blog; this one is purely for fun.

Every golfer has a mental highlight reel of holes that could never be built, greens on the edge of cliffs, carries over things that should not be carried, settings too dramatic to be real. So we built a few. None are real courses, and we would never claim otherwise, but each one is the kind of hole you would give a limb to stand on for ninety seconds.

A par 3 played across the top of a waterfall that pours off a green clifftop straight into the Atlantic, from a tee on one side to a green with one bunker on the headland opposite, with black basalt cliffs dropping sheer to the sea below and a pale path crossing the river upstream on a stone slab bridge

The Falls Edge

Par 3 · 145 yards

A short par 3 played from a tee on a headland of blinding white marl, across two great weathered steps of white rock, to a green laid on a lower terrace with one pale bunker and a dry stone kerb along its seaward edge, with clear turquoise Mediterranean water breaking white at the foot of the rock

The Scala

Par 3 · 120 yards

A par 3 played from a shoreline tee across a channel of clear turquoise water to a green on a low spit of white sand ringed by marram grass, with the sea turning deep blue behind it and a wall of black sawtooth granite peaks streaked with snow rising straight out of the water

The Shallows

Par 3 · 155 yards

A par 3 played along the top of a Victorian stone railway viaduct, the old track bed laid to mown turf from parapet to parapet with a cart path down one side, the arches and piers marching away below to a valley floor and stream, and a green with one bunker on the deck at the far end with open parkland fairways beyond

The Viaduct

Par 3 · 135 yards

A short par 3 played from a canyon rim tee to a green on a narrow rock shelf, with a sheer vertical wall of banded rose and cream sandstone dropping away beneath the putting surface to a second golf hole on the canyon floor, and a golf buggy wedged at the edge of the cart path with two men beside it

The Precipice

Par 3 · 98 yards

A par 3 played across the flat water of a reservoir, past an enormous circular concrete bellmouth overflow standing clear of the surface with water pouring over its whole rim into the shaft inside, to a green on a grassy promontory on the far bank with one pale bunker and a single flag

The Spillway

Par 3 · 159 yards

A par 3 played into the middle of a motorway interchange, from a striped tee outside the loop, along a cart path that drops through a concrete underpass beneath the loop ramp embankment, to a green on the island of mown grass enclosed by the curving ramp, with the dual carriageway and a plain overbridge beyond and open fairways in the distance

The Interchange

Par 3 · 155 yards

A short par 3 played entirely across water, down a long rectangular canal with a stone kerb along each side, running between two facing rows of contemporary houses whose terraces and gardens come almost to the water's edge, to a green with one bunker at the far end

The Neighbours

Par 3 · 138 yards

A short par 3 played from a striped tee on a valley floor straight up a four hundred foot limestone wall to a green on the clifftop, a cut stone stairway with an iron handrail zigzagging up the rock face beside it, and beyond the green the land falling away again into open sea

The Back Edge

Par 3 · 100 yards

A short par 3 played along the crest of an enormous curved concrete dam, from a striped tee on the crest to a green on a grassy promontory pushed out into the reservoir, the dam wall falling seven hundred feet away on the left with white turbine water boiling at its foot, and mown fairways and a cart path running away into wooded hills beyond

The Dam

Par 3 · 145 yards

A par 3 played from a horseshoe shaped glass tee platform cantilevered out from the rim of a red sandstone canyon, a strip of striped mown turf laid down the middle of the glass with the canyon floor visible straight through it either side, to a green on the flat top of a rock butte out in the canyon with a river winding far below

The Skywalk

Par 3 · 198 yards

A tee made of weathered timber crates on the bare red rock summit of a desert mountain in New Mexico, a golfer standing on the boards looking out over a huge drop, dirt tracks switchbacking down brown scrub covered foothills far below, and a hazy desert valley with a small town stretching to distant mesas on the horizon

The Elfego Baca Shootout

One hole · 5,280 yards · 2,550 feet down

A par 3 played along the top of a high sea cliff, from a clifftop tee to a green on a grassy promontory further along the headland, with a small stone fort and lighthouse on the point and an enormous ocean wave rearing up in the bay below, its crest reaching two thirds of the height of the cliff and spray tearing backwards off the lip in the offshore wind

Nazaré

Par 3 · 192 yards

A long par 3 played across a river gorge to a green on a broad grassy ledge at the very lip of a wide waterfall, the whole river pouring over the edge beside the green into a deep plunge pool far below with spray rising and a rainbow standing in it

The Falls

Par 3 · 203 yards

A par 3 played across the sea to a green on the flat top of a raised block of hexagonal basalt columns, thousands of packed grey columns stepping down in tiers into white foaming water, with a cliff of vertical columns standing behind like organ pipes

The Basalt

Par 3 · 125 yards

A short par 3 played from a clifftop tee across a broad shelf of dark wet wave cut rock, with a tall column of white spray erupting from a circular blowhole directly on the line of the shot, the green with its single bunker on a raised rock platform just beyond it and heavy surf breaking white against the outer edge of the shelf

The Blowhole

Par 3 · 110 yards

A par 3 played from a clifftop tee across open sea to a green on the flat top of an enormous natural rock arch, the sea and horizon visible straight through the opening beneath the green, heavy white surf breaking around the legs of the arch and a narrow stone causeway running out from the near cliff as the only way on

The Keyhole

Par 3 · 141 yards

A short par 3 played from a mown tee on the roof of one skyscraper, across a deep city street canyon, to a small green with a bunker sitting on a deck jutting from the tower opposite, two glass and steel skybridges spanning the gap below it and the street falling away hundreds of feet beneath

The Skybridge

Par 3 · 90 yards

A long par 5 played down the floor of a narrow orange sandstone slot canyon, a strip of immaculate striped fairway running away between sheer rock walls that close in on both sides, crossing band after band of sunlight and shadow to a small green in the far distance, with a skyline of angular red sandstone fins and spires beyond

The Slot

Par 5 · 510 yards

A par 3 played from a tee on the floor of a narrow orange sandstone canyon, straight across still dark water that fills the canyon floor, to a small island green with a single flag reached only by a low timber footbridge coming in from the right, sheer rock walls close on both sides and pale rounded sandstone domes stacked against a deep blue sky behind

The Ribbon

Par 3 · 199 yards

A long par 3 played steeply downhill from a ridge tee across a deep rainforest gorge, to a green on a shelf whose front edge falls away down a sheer mossy cliff to a river running white over boulders far below, a pale cart path traversing the far wall on a cut ledge behind a stone parapet, cloud hanging inside the gorge and a neighbouring green visible on flatter ground away to the right

The Lost Serpent

Par 3 · 215 yards

A short par 3 on an immaculate parkland course, played across a small stream to a green with a deep shadowed hollow running the full width behind it at the foot of a huge steep bank of rough grass, white raked bunkers cut into the mounding either side, the turf lit brilliantly by low sun while an enormous black shelf cloud fills the sky behind with rain falling in the distance

The Anvil

Par 3 · 127 yards

A par 3 played at night across dead still black water to an island green lit by four floodlight towers, the luminous green turf and its single flag the only colour in an otherwise black frame, the whole lit island mirrored perfectly in the water below it

The Lantern

Par 3 · 165 yards

A par 3 played from a clifftop tee across open water to a green on the flat summit of a huge sea stack, reached by a slender steel footbridge from the mainland, with Atlantic surf breaking round the rock far below and a coastline of cliffs running away behind

The Stack

Par 3 · 178 yards

A par 4 played from a small striped tee on a golden limestone clifftop straight across the mouth of a deep sea bay, breaking white surf filling the water below, the fairway beginning on the clifftop on the far side and running away to a distant green, a cart path curving round the head of the bay

The Bight

Par 4 · 452 yards

A short par 3 played from a striped tee to a green sitting on a natural shelf partway down a huge limestone cliff, the rock continuing up above it and falling away hundreds of feet below to a wooded valley and a river, a pale path traversing in to the green on a cut shelf with a low stone parapet

The Balcony

Par 3 · 110 yards

A short par 4 at sunset played out along a narrow finger of coastal land, ravines falling away on both sides to rocks and surf far below, a cart path running the length of the left edge, bunkers staged down the fairway and a small green at the tip with open ocean beyond it

The Prow

Par 4 · 340 yards

A long par 3 played from a striped tee along the top of a golden sandstone headland, a cart path running down the left, a green with one bunker near the cliff edge, and a harbour city with a wide steel arch bridge and a white shell roofed opera house across the water behind it

The Heads

Par 3 · 252 yards

A short par 4 played from a striped tee along a narrow shelf of coastline between steep rainforest on the left and a rocky shore on the right, a cart path running the length of the hole, a green with one bunker on a low headland, and two enormous bare granite peaks rising out of the water across the bay behind it

Sugarloaf

Par 4 · 310 yards

A short par 3 played from a striped tee across a vast circular limestone sinkhole to a green with one bunker on the far rim, sheer pale rock walls hung with vines falling hundreds of feet to still black water, jungle spilling over the edges and a timber walkway crossing on the right

The Underworld

Par 3 · 147 yards

A par 3 played from a striped clifftop tee across a gap in the chalk cliffs to a green on the flat top opposite, a sheer white chalk face falling hundreds of feet to boulders and clear green water below, a timber boardwalk running out to the green on the right

Old Harry

Par 3 · 172 yards

A par 3 played from a striped tee on high ground straight across a six lane German autobahn running through a cutting, to a green with a single bunker on the ground opposite, a green steel footbridge crossing the road on the left

Überfahrt

Par 3 · 165 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a short par 3 played across a deep river gorge, a wide waterfall pouring over the lip between the tee and a green perched on the clifftop opposite, dense rainforest on both walls

The Cauldron

Par 3 · 137 yards

A short par 3 played across frozen sea ice in an arctic fjord, the green a circle swept clear on the ice with a red flag, icebergs locked in the ice all around it and dark snow streaked mountains beyond

The Floe

Par 3 · 90 yards

A par 3 on a vast flat red desert plain in outback Australia, an artificial turf tee mat in the foreground and a small green far off on the horizon, with a dead straight highway running to a vanishing point alongside

90 Mile Straight

Par 3 · 167 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a short par 3 played from a rock shelf across a sunken pool to a green raised on a terraced stone wall, with crocodiles basking on the sand bank below and lost golf balls scattered around them

The Lost Crocodile

Par 3 · 142 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 played from a North Atlantic clifftop tee across open water to a green on the flat top of a basalt sea stack

The Chimney

Par 3 · 150 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a long, dead-straight par 4 with a wide river hard down the right side and a broken belt of sand and scrub down the left, the fairway a thin ribbon threaded between them

The Narrows

Par 4 · 444 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 played out along a rocky headland to a green at the foot of a white lighthouse, the Atlantic breaking on both sides, with the old keepers road running the length of the spit

The Watchman

Par 3 · 167 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a clifftop par 3 in the African bushveld, the tee a slab of turf on bare red rock four hundred metres above a green cut in the shape of Africa and ringed by sand

The Vulture

Par 3 · 341 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a short parkland par 3 played across a pond to a green beneath a vast terraced grass amphitheatre, with a smooth mown chute running down its centre

The Grandstand

Par 3 · 121 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a coastal links par 3 at sunset, its small green ringed by more than twenty deep pot bunkers above the sea

The Hive

Par 3 · 147 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 threading a tight avenue of blazing autumn trees to an island green ringed by water, reached by a low walkway at the back

The Needle's Eye

Par 3 · 122 yards

AI-imagined aerial of an entire golf course carved into misty tropical rainforest

Emerald Jungle

An imagined jungle course

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 to an emerald green marooned in a canyon of towering red desert sandstone

The Furnace

Par 3 · 130 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 to a green perched on the very edge of the sea cliffs, ocean on three sides

The Brink

Par 3 · 200 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a long par 5 running along the top of dramatic sea cliffs to a green out on a headland point

The Headland

Par 5 · 560 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 4 tumbling down a misty rainforest valley, doglegging to a green tucked under the mountainside

The Lost Valley

Par 4 · 360 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a circular island green ringed by a moat of still water, with sand bunkers stranded on their own little islands around it

The Moat

Par 3 · 200 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a tropical par 3 to a green benched on a hand-stacked stone wall, with jungle and towering green mountains behind

Mauka Valley, Hole 12

Par 3 · 196 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 to an island green marooned on a sandbar in turquoise tropical water

The Sandbar

Par 3 · 152 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 to a green clinging to a jungle mountainside deep in the rainforest

Lost World

Par 3 · 200 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a short par 3 across a mirror-still Irish lough with mist and mountains behind

The Lough

Par 3 · 120 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 to a table-top green above emerald Balinese rice terraces

The Terraces

Par 3 · 180 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a dawn links par 4 doglegging through towering grassy dunes down to the sea

Daybreak

Par 4 · 430 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 green on a sheer clifftop above a cloud-filled valley, snowcapped peaks behind

The Hope Crossing, Hole 16

Par 3 · 110 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: two island greens on a mirror-calm alpine lake below snowcapped peaks

The Mirror

Par 3 · 148 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: an ocean-cliff par 3 carrying across the Pacific to a clifftop green

Gull Rock

Par 3 · 231 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a long par 3 down a narrow corridor of tall pines

Blackpine GC, Hole 12

Par 3 · 238 yards

AI-imagined golf hole: a par 3 green across a river of lava beneath an erupting volcano

Timanfaya GC, Hole 8

Par 3 · 158 yards

Redrock Canyon

Par 3 · 176 yards

These ones are make-believe. The thousands of courses in the app are not.

Track your handicap and run live competitions on real courses with Golf Handicapp. Logging rounds and your handicap are free, always.

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Common questions

Are these real golf courses?+

Most of these are completely imaginary. There is no Timanfaya Golf Club, no Blackpine, no canyon green you can go and play. They are golf daydreams we made for fun, not real courses, and we would never pretend otherwise. Every so often we include a hole that genuinely exists, and where that is the case we say so plainly in its write up.

Can I play any of these holes?+

Sadly not. But the app is full of thousands of real courses you can play, track and compete on. If you want the real thing, that is where to go.

About the author

Claudia Laurent · Golf writer, Golf Handicapp

Claudia writes about the World Handicap System, golf scoring and getting more from every round for Golf Handicapp. She is a mid-handicap golfer who logs every card, the good ones and the ones she would rather forget.

Every image here is AI-generated. Last updated 11 September 2026.

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Imagined holes

The Falls Edge

The Scala

The Shallows

The Viaduct

The Precipice

The Spillway

The Interchange

The Neighbours

The Back Edge

The Dam

The Skywalk

The Elfego Baca Shootout

Nazaré

The Falls

The Basalt

The Blowhole

The Keyhole

The Skybridge

The Slot

The Ribbon

The Lost Serpent

The Anvil

The Lantern

The Stack

The Bight

The Balcony

The Prow

The Heads

Sugarloaf

The Underworld

Old Harry

Überfahrt

The Cauldron

The Floe

90 Mile Straight

The Lost Crocodile

The Chimney

The Narrows

The Watchman

The Vulture

The Grandstand

The Hive

The Needle's Eye

Emerald Jungle

The Furnace

The Brink

The Headland

The Lost Valley

The Moat

Mauka Valley, Hole 12

The Sandbar

Lost World

The Lough

The Terraces

Daybreak

The Hope Crossing, Hole 16

The Mirror

Gull Rock

Blackpine GC, Hole 12

Timanfaya GC, Hole 8

Redrock Canyon

Common questions

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From the blog

Imagined holes