Claudia Laurent

Golf writer, Golf Handicapp · 30 September 2026

170 yards, straight down off the rim of a limestone pit. The whole near half of the floor is deep water, filling the pit from wall to wall with a sheer rock lip and no shallows, and the green sits beyond it on a low shelf of rock with two bunkers and the cave mouth at the foot of the right hand wall where the cart path comes in. There is no bail out short, because short is water, and no bail out left for the same reason. The only miss that leaves you a shot is long, into the rock at the back. Playing this steeply downhill is where the scorecard gets ruined. A ball hit from a high tee stays in the air far longer than the yardage suggests, so the number on the book is not the number you are playing, and almost nobody takes enough off it. Then there is the pit itself. Down there the air is still and cool and heavier than it is up on the rim, and the ball sits down rather than running on, which pushes in the other direction. The two do not cancel out neatly and the only way to find out is to hit one. The honest play is to take the club you would hit from a hundred and fifty, aim at the centre of the green and nowhere near the flag, and be delighted with anything on the putting surface. Anybody who tells you they would take it on with a wedge has not stood on the edge and looked down.

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.

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