Claudia Laurent
Golf writer, Golf Handicapp · 5 October 2026
160 yards across open air to a green pinned on a shelf partway down a black mountain face. Not on the top and not at the bottom: there is rock and snowfield rising behind the flag, and several hundred feet of nothing beneath it, falling to a valley floor of grey glacial gravel with a milky river braiding across it. The putting surface fills the shelf and is mown to the edge, where the ground simply stops. The path in is a bare cut ledge with no wall on it. Two things make a hole like this play differently from the same shot anywhere else. Cold mountain air is dense and steals carry, so the number on the card is not the number in your hands, and almost nobody takes enough club the first time. Then there is the wind, which on a big face does not blow across, it blows up. Air hits the wall and has nowhere else to go, so a ball flighted high gets held, hangs, and drops short into the void rather than onto the shelf. The percentage play is a lower, harder shot that gets under the lift, aimed at the middle of the green with no interest at all in the flag. And be honest about what the miss costs here. Short is unrecoverable, long is rock, and the only good outcome is the putting surface. A three is a very good score and a four is no disgrace at all.
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.
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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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 5 October 2026.
