As long as we’re talkin’ duffer sports, let’s talk golf. On clear days, the tee at Tilden Park Golf Course’s par-three sixteenth hole offers a dazzling vista clear across the northern East Bay from Berkeley to the Carquinez Strait. From this clifftop peak the hole drops off into a ravine; the tiny fairway then climbs to yet another hilltop. The green is entirely obscured by sand traps on both sides; behind it is a bald slope with a chain-link fence at its foot. The right side of the hole is a veritable forest that swallows balls for breakfast. The meager fairway is little more than a small lawn at a 45-degree angle on a mountainside. Denied any clever, sneaky, or lazy ways to reach the green, golfers are compelled to attempt Tiger-like precision, hitting the green on the fly, with a healthy dose of professional backspin to keep it in place. Old-timers try their one trick, aiming just beyond the right-hand sandtrap, where — if they’re lucky — an unseen slope can kick a ball onto the green from the rough. Enjoy the view.
.Best Golf Hole Invoke your inner Tiger
Tilden Park Golf Course, Hole 16