Claudia Laurent

Golf writer, Golf Handicapp · 8 September 2026

155 yards into the middle of a road junction. The green sits on the teardrop of land enclosed by the loop ramp, which is the piece of ground every junction has and nobody has ever known what to do with. Here somebody mowed it, cut one bunker into it and put a flag in the middle. There is exactly one way in and one way out: the cart path leaves the tee, drops into a shallow cutting and goes under the ramp through a concrete underpass with wing walls, then comes up inside and runs round to the back of the green. You play in, you hole out, and you walk back through the same tunnel, because the alternative is a live carriageway. Traffic runs round the outside of the putting surface the entire time you are on it, close enough that you hear every car twice, once coming and once going. None of it is in play. That is the strange part. There is no water, no gorse and nothing to lose a ball in, and the shot is a comfortable mid iron to a green with plenty of room. The difficulty is entirely between your ears, and the fix is the same as it is on any hole with a distraction you cannot do anything about: pick the club for the number, look at the flag rather than the road, and go. Nothing out here can hurt your card except you.

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 8 September 2026.

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