Received opinion among tour-hardened professional golfers says that it ain’t over till the very last putt drops on the very last green.

The four major championships of 2009 seemed to confirm this truism—remember joy for Y-E. Yang and Lucas Glover; heartache for Tom Watson; brute bravery from Angel Cabrera? The excitement that can be generated on the 72nd hole in a major administers a tingle that few other sports can match. Yet history suggests that more often than not the pivotal hole in these great contests is the 17th, not the 18th.

Standing on the 17th tee with a slender lead is perhaps the most uncomfortable feeling a would-be champion golfer can experience. So much can still go wrong, both on a self-inflicted basis and via the exploits of others. Come the final tee shot, many of the extraneous variables in the overall equation have been all but eliminated and the destination of the title has boiled down to a question of individual fortitude.

Take Watson, for example. Two of the championships in which he was a central figure were clearly decided on the 17th hole. At Pebble Beach in the 1982 U.S. Open, he dashed the hopes of Jack Nicklaus by chipping in for a title-clenching birdie two. But two years later at St. Andrews, he fell foul of the ‘Road Hole’ and missed out on his sixth Claret Jug by two shots to Seve Ballesteros.

The 17th hole at Augusta National has seen its fair share of excitement over the years—indeed, had Arnold Palmer not birdied it in the final round of The Masters in 1960, his chances of a second Green Jacket would have been virtually non-existent. It was also the scene of the birdie that appeared to have put Roberto de Vicenzo into a playoff with Bob Goalby eight years later—only for the veteran Argentine to lose by one after failing to check his card carefully enough.

Two 17th holes also had a significant influence over the outcome in recent Ryder Cup matches—at Valderrama in southern Spain and at the Palmer-designed K Club in Ireland.

As this is the 17th edition of kingdom, we have decided to celebrate some wonderful 17th holes that have delivered ecstasy, drama and distress over the years. As is often the way with these eclectic exercises, there is insufficient space to include every ‘great’ 17th hole. So some subjective selection was required, especially as we wanted to create a golf course that would stand on its own merits as a balanced test of skill.

The result is a par-72 layout with five par-3s and five par-5s that stretches just beyond 7,000 yards. The trick, though, has been to come up with an order of play that makes use of the challenges posed by each hole at the most appropriate place in the round. In our view, there can only be one 17th hole on this particular card and that honor falls to the oldest 17th of them all—the aforementioned ‘Road Hole.’

All the other 17th holes, therefore, fall in line behind this timeless monument. No doubt every reader will have a view about the rectitude of our selection—we don’t expect everyone to agree, but we sure hope you all enjoy the journey…

Hole no. 1
Lower Course, Baltusrol Golf Club, Springfield, New Jersey
650 yards, par-5

Where better to start than with the shoulder-opening challenge of the longest hole ever to feature at a major? Designed by A.W. Tillinghast, the Lower Course opened in 1922. However, it wasn’t until the 1993 U.S. Open that John Daly became the first competitor to reach the green in two shots—covering the 623 yards it measured at the time with a driver and 1-iron. After that ‘humiliation’, it was stretched to 650 yards by Rees Jones for the 2005 PGA Championship. Not surprisingly, this hole is now treated universally as a three-shotter. The tee looks down on a long, straight fairway flanked by trees and the second must clear a group of cross-bunkers known as the Sahara Desert at around 450 yards to leave an approach into a small, circular, elevated green encased by seven bunkers.

Hole no. 2
Stadium Course, TPC Scottsdale, Arizona
332 yards, par-4

After the exertions of the 1st, our 2nd poses an entirely different question. Designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, this drivable ‘risk and reward’ hole delivers almost as many bogeys as birdies—just ask Korea’s Y-E. Yang who led this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open before pulling his drive into the water hazard that runs to the left and behind the green. Desert separates the tee from the fairway which undulates towards the front of a long, raised green. The putting surface narrows increasingly between several run-off areas as it moves back towards the ‘Sunday’ pin location. With a large trap waiting to gather the bail-out tee shot short and right, laying-up isn’t exactly a danger-free option—in effect, it turns the hole into two short par-3s where both shots must be struck with exemplary precision.

Hole no. 3
Palmer Ryder Course, The K Club, Ireland
424 yards, par-4

Named ‘Half Moon’, this demanding right-to-left dogleg requires accuracy and commitment from the tee. This is the second successive hole on our card that presents a watery grave (in this case the River Liffey) to a pulled or hooked drive—and little solace for those who choose to bail-out right towards woodland that has thickened considerably since the introduction of several trees for the 2006 Ryder Cup. Arnold Palmer, the hole’s designer, says: “The ideal drive is down the left side of the fairway, but this is very risky. Much easier is to hit a long iron or rescue club to the middle right of the fairway, but this can leave a lengthy shot into the green.” With the putting surface also sloping sharply from right to left towards the Liffey, a delicate touch is essential around the green.

Hole no. 4
Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
219 yards, par-3

Originally designed by Dick Wilson and revised by Palmer and Ed Seay in 1989, this intimidating par-3 underwent one of the more pronounced re-jigs overseen by Palmer last year when he upgraded the course’s general layout. It is played across an expanse of water to a raised, table-top green which is guarded by a deep bunker that eats into the front right and two shallower sand traps to the left. The conservative tee shot is aimed at the front left portion of the green, but the pin is usually positioned at the back or in the shallow part on the right. Another word of warning—anyone long off the tee can expect to bounce down a steep slope into the stream which feeds from the lake and runs round the back of the green.

Hole no. 5
West Course, Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, New York
449 yards, par-4

Another Tillinghast creation, Winged Foot opened in 1923 and has a deserved reputation for the brutality of its finishing stretch. The most recent major staged over this demanding parkland layout was the 2006 U.S. Open, and the 17th played a crucial part. Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, the eventual winner, looked dead the moment he thinned a chip out of some wiry greenside rough. His ball was scurrying through the green towards similar cabbage the other side when it hit the flagstick and dropped for a three. Jack Nicklaus described this hole as “one of those textbook tests that really pits the player against the designer.” It is a slight dogleg to the right, round a crook consisting of four large bunkers. On either side of a narrow, curving green are long, deep bunkers amidst clusters of tall, overhanging trees.

Hole no. 6
Lake Course, Olympic Club, San Francisco, California
522 yards, par-5

This classic hole, into the prevailing wind, was played as a long, uphill par-4 for each of its four U.S. Opens. Olympic dates from the 1920s, but needed a facelift from Robert Trent Jones Sr. prior to its first Open in 1955 when the unheralded Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in a playoff. In 1966, Palmer led by seven shots standing on the 10th tee, but by the time he holed out for a bogey five at 17, after finding thick rough with both his drive and second shot, he had been caught by Billy Casper who went on to win the playoff. A severe left-to-right slope halves the width of the fairway while the second shot is aimed at a heavily-bunkered green which has a small bounce-in area at the front but also severe left-to-right and front-to-back slopes.

Hole no. 7
Champion Course, PGA National Resort, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
190 yards, par-3

Everyone playing the Champion Course, home to the Honda Classic for the past four years, must shudder when, after leaving the 14th green, they are greeted with a sign bearing the words: ‘You Are Now Entering “The Bear Trap”.’ This stretch of three water-infested holes, redesigned by Nicklaus in 1990, consists of two par-3s and a left-to-right dogleg par-4 shaped around a piece of real estate where H2O outranks dry land by a ratio of 2:1. The 17th might be the Champion Course’s shortest hole, but it’s by no means the easiest. Water guards the front and right of the green while a long, diagonal bunker eats tight into its left side. If the wind is against, or blowing left to right towards the water, the only policy is to take dead aim at the green.

Hole no. 8
Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia
440 yards, par-4

This right-to-left dogleg is another hole where extra distance has been added—25 yards in 1999 and a further 15 for 2006. Ike’s Tree, which stands in the middle-left of the fairway about 150 yards from the tee, was named after former President Dwight D. Eisenhower because he invariably drove into it. His fellow Augusta National members were convinced they would wake up one morning to find the offending loblolly pine sawn down, but it never happened. The fairway then curves round to the left on an adverse, left-to-right camber. The bunker at the right front of the green catches numerous approach shots and makes it particularly awkward to get at the flag when it is only a few paces onto an often rock-hard putting surface which slopes sharply left-to-right with a drop-off at the back right.

Hole no.9
Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lancashire, England
457 yards, par-4

At driving distance, this right-to-left dogleg narrows between a nest of bunkers on the left and a bank of sand hills. The correct strategy is to drive down the right of the fairway before firing at an open but deep green sandwiched between traps. Bobby Jones pulled off an immortal shot en route to winning the 1926 British Open after hooking his tee shot. Lying in sand 175 yards from a green he couldn’t see, he took his hickory-shafted mashie iron, picked the ball clean and flew it over gorse, scrub and thick rough into the heart of the green. His playing partner and rival Al Watrous, on the green in two, muttered: “There goes a hundred thousand bucks,” and promptly three-putted. The host club installed a plaque at the spot where Jones executed his miracle shot.

Hole no. 10
Ailsa Course, Turnberry Resort, Ayrshire, Scotland
559 yards, par-5

Known as ‘Lang Whang’, this man-sized par-5, lengthened for the 2009 British Open, provides the ideal start to the back nine. It remains a birdie opportunity, even for those who can’t get up in two, but there is little margin for error as far as the big hitters are concerned. Following the redesign, most drives now land on the upslope of a fairway which looks from the tee like a long valley stretching almost into infinity. Even after a kind bounce, a fairway wood is usually required to reach a green that is framed by dunes and guarded at the front by a pair of bunkers on both sides. The difficulty entailed by this shot generally persuades even the better players to lay-up and take their chances with an uphill pitch to a raised and often firm green.

Hole no. 11
Pebble Beach Golf Links, Monterey Peninsula, California
218 yards, par-3

In the 1982 U.S. Open, Tom Watson’s chip from thick greenside rough rattled the pin and dropped into the cup for the birdie two that consigned Jack Nicklaus to yet another runners-up spot. The irony of this act of ‘fairway robbery’ was that in the final round 10 years earlier Nicklaus produced one

of the most extraordinary shots of his illustrious career at the same hole to seal victory. Taking a 1-iron into the teeth of a stiff wind and blinking into the setting sun, his ball flew laser-like into the green, struck the flagstick and finished five inches away for a tap-in birdie. This scenic hole has the Pacific Ocean down its left as well as behind a long, two-level green that slants diagonally from front right to back left and is surrounded by a cluster of deep traps.

Hole no. 12
Oakmont Country Club, Pennsylvania
313 yards, par-4

Every inch of our second ‘risk and reward’ par-4 goes uphill. A relatively wide fairway doglegs from right to left around a mass of six bunkers and up to the narrowest of openings onto a raised green surrounded by five more traps. It was here that Jim Furyk’s chances of winning the 2007 U.S. Open were dashed. Unsure where he stood on the leaderboard in relation to eventual winner Angel Cabrera, but buoyed by his two-putt birdie in the third round, Furyk opted for driver again on the final afternoon. He struck it solidly, but it flew 20 yards further left than intended into rough the U.S.G.A. had grown especially thick. Short-sided and faced with an awkward flop shot to a pin tight to the back left of the green, he ended up with the costliest of bogeys.

Hole no. 13
Cypress Point Club, Monterey Peninsula, California
393 yards, par-4

Cypress Point, once a host course for the AT&T Pro-Am in its clambake days when Bing Crosby ruled the roost, is now a fiercely private club. When asked to compare Alister MacKenzie’s masterpiece with its neighbor Pebble Beach, Julius Boros said: “Pebble has six great holes—all those that lie on the coastline. Cypress has 18 of them whether they lie on the coast or not.” Of Cypress’s holes, the 17th, a 90-degree left-to-right dogleg, is the most admired by professionals. The drive, from an elevated tee above the steep cliffs behind the 16th green, carries across the Pacific to a wide fairway. Then the approach must bypass a tangle of cypresses around 50 yards short of a green that is backed and flanked by massive bunkers and fronted on the ocean side by a stone retaining wall.

Hole no. 14
Straits Course, Whistling Straits, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
223 yards, par-3

The closing stretch on Pete Dye’s cutting-edge homage to Irish links golf on the shoreline of Lake Michigan is one of golf’s most exhilarating experiences. From the bluff-top green at the 13th, the ride home to the clubhouse is the ultimate roller-coaster between the lake and millions of tons of imported sand—which take the form, seemingly in equal measure, of hundreds of traps (some not really in play) and almost as many drifting, man-made dunes. The 17th, though, dominates this sequence of holes. Named ‘Pinched Nerve,’ its green, larger than it looks, is angled right to left along a bulkhead precipice that plunges left toward the lake. The right side of the green, obscured by traps carved into a steep hillside, provides some bail-out room, but not enough for comfort.

Hole no. 15
Cherry Hills Country Club, Englewood, Colorado
555 yards, par-5

Trailing by seven shots after 54 holes in the 1960 U.S. Open, Palmer unfurled a closing 65 for a two-shot win. Even though he chalked up a routine par-5 at the long 17th, it was to prove the championship’s pivotal hole. “Its design forced even long players like me to go with an intelligent drive, careful lay-up and safe pitch,” Palmer says. “The pin in the final round was dangerously close to the front of the green, and the slope that led to a watery doom.” The false front duly drowned the challenge of Ben Hogan, who just failed to get up in two when tied for the lead. The fairway is relatively wide apart from a row of trees down the left, but the second shot is the conundrum. It involves a carry upward of 230 yards to a small, undulating green.

Hole no. 16
Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
132 yards, par-3

Described by one writer as bringing a dash of Evel Knievel to the most genteel of sports, this is golf’s most nerve-wracking hole. We all know what it looks like: Tee, water, island green; dropping zone, water, island green; bunker, island green, water—the permutations are Satanic, especially when there’s a breeze blowing. Interestingly, its creator—Pete Dye—only envisaged it after being forced to dig out tons of dirt to fill other pits and chasms around the layout. With no land left, the hole had to be 90 percent water. In fairness, at least the green banks up toward the back with a tier across the middle. “It’s great,” former Players Championship winner Sergio Garcia says. “Any hole where you get to the tee and think, ‘just hit it on to the green,’ has to be good.”

Hole no. 17
Old Course, St. Andrews Links, Fife, Scotland
495 yards, par-4

The R&A have built a new tee to extend the ‘Road Hole’ to almost 500 yards for the 2010 British Open, but this might not be used if a strong wind is blowing directly against the players. However, it is probably irrelevant which tee is adopted because nothing can detract from the sheer majesty, and complexity, of this incredible hole. It is, without question, the ultimate double-dogleg. Off the tee, the drive needs to be fashioned as a slight fade over the hotel wall to hold the fairway; then a second shot shaped gently from right to left is the best way into a long, tantalizing green protected to the right by the ‘eponymous’ road and the wall beyond. To the front left lies the sheer-faced bunker that has spoiled more cards than any other in the game.

Hole no. 18
Club de Golfe Valderrama, Andalucia, Spain
540 yards, par-5

Designed by Trent Jones Sr., this left-to-right dogleg with a fairway sloping the other way was toughened up by Seve Ballesteros prior to the 1997 Ryder Cup. Seve’s efforts were not universally appreciated but he unquestionably increased the hole’s difficulty. He shortened it—from 570 to 540 yards—so why the complaints? The reason is the potentially glass-like state of the putting surface. Quite shallow but with a significantly raised (and shaved) front, the green is guarded by a huge pond with two cavernous bunkers at the back. Bail-outs to the right have been blocked off by steep banking toward a stone wall that is part of an ancient fortification. Come tournament time, the bank in front of that wall provides the perfect amphitheater for spectators.