3. Ballybunion Old Course, Ireland
They call Ballybunion’s opener “Tombstones,” and it’s not just a clever name for the scorecard. A cemetery runs along the right side of the fairway, waiting for anything that leaks offline. A pull to the left brings out of bounds into the equation as well, so there’s really nowhere comfortable to miss. Throw in the Atlantic wind, which rarely seems to take a day off here, and the hole turns into a real test of ball control before the round has properly started.
Caddies usually recommend favoring the left half of the fairway. Sound advice, until that graveyard wall comes into view and quietly changes everyone’s mind anyway. Plenty of first-timers admit the scenery alone is enough to throw off a clean takeaway.
2. Machrihanish Golf Club, Scotland
Old Tom Morris laid out Machrihanish’s opening hole back in 1879, and people are still talking about it as one of golf’s great tee shots.
Known as “Battery,” it asks players to drive straight across a stretch of Atlantic beach. The ocean rolls in just behind the tee box, and sand waits for anything struck short or thin. Longer hitters can cut the corner and leave themselves a short approach. A mishit, though, just ends up on the shoreline instead of the fairway.
Jack Nicklaus once called it one of the best opening holes in golf. Standing there, it’s easy to see why hands start to shake before the club even moves. The club wisely treats the beach as a lateral hazard rather than as strict out of bounds, which rewards boldness rather than punishing it outright. Even so, few players forget the sound of the surf while they’re setting up over the ball.
1. Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia
Nothing else in golf quite matches the pressure of the opening tee shot at the Masters. Tea Olive itself, a demanding dogleg right lined with bunkers and trees, isn’t even the real problem. The setting is.
Thousands of patrons crowd the grandstands and gallery ropes each morning. The clubhouse sits right behind the tee, and every player knows history — and the legacy of Bobby Jones — is watching.
Tour veterans have openly said this tee makes them more nervous than almost anywhere else in the game, which says plenty about what that opening drive carries with it.
Unlike the other holes on this list, the danger isn’t really built into the hole itself. The fairway is fairly generous by Masters standards. The pressure comes purely from the occasion, and nothing else in golf quite replicates that.