Claudia Laurent

Golf writer, Golf Handicapp · 30 September 2026

123 yards, and every single one of them has to be carried. Between the tee and the putting surface there is nothing but a deep bank of gorse, heather and foxgloves, chest high and thick enough that a ball going into it is gone, and the only relief is a pale bunker short and left of the green. There is no run up, no safe layup, no bale out. You either carry the stuff or you reload. What makes a hole like this so hard to club is that it looks close. The flag is right there, the green is big, and the number is small enough that most people reach for the club that gets them exactly 123 if they catch it perfectly. That is the mistake. Heathland sits high and open, the wind swirls over the top of a bank like this without ever showing on the flag, and a shot struck one groove low finishes two yards short and is never seen again. The other trap is the pin position. A flag cut near the front looks like an invitation and it is the single most dangerous place on the green, because the margin between it and the gorse is about eight yards. Take the club that carries the back edge, aim at the fat middle of the green, and accept a forty foot putt as a good outcome. A two putt par here is a far better score than it looks, and anybody telling you they take the flag on every time has lost a sleeve doing it.

This hole is not real. Like every hole in the collection it was conjured with AI, a golf daydream rather than a course you can go and play. The thousands of courses in the Golf Handicapp app, however, are very real.

This one is make-believe. The thousands of courses in the app are not.

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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.

This image is AI-generated. Published 30 September 2026.

The Gorse

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