I happened to stumble across this thread, and thought I'd give you guys some insight into "The Runway Hole" at Flyboy. It has always been one of my favorites, and gimmicky or not, it's one of the most fun and talked about holes on the course. As it turns out, putting disc golfers on an active aircraft runway wasn't the best idea I've ever had, and now as a result, the Runway Hole is no more. At any rate, to address your questions and comments:
Although the Runway Hole is no longer in the layout, I do still play it occasionally for fun, and it is featured as a "bonus" hole in the upcoming Clash DVD release pitting Climo/Feldberg against Phil Arthur/Double G. For those of you who've never seen or played it, the hole is 1600 feet long and exactly 90 feet wide between the yellow runway lights, down a manicured Bermuda grass runway, not out in an open field. I designed the hole to be the ultimate mental challenge, and as #18 in the flow, it came right when your mental and physical stamina for the round was starting to waver.
Standing on the tee looking up the runway, the basket, in front of my hangar, can barely be seen...about the size of a gnat. Most folks have never seen a basket that far down a fairway before, and here begins the mental struggle, as something about that particular visual creates an urge to frigg'n kill it and try to go long. The 90 foot wide fairway seems plenty wide if I rip it, right? Wrong, usually. Turns out, accuracy is WAY more important than distance on this hole, and I've seen this proven many times as the quote, "big arms" lose several OB strokes to the guys who know to back off and keep it in the runway fairway.
The mental conflict continues as the hole progresses, especially as players try to make up for OB strokes by trying to go long yet again, often digging their hole even deeper, sometimes resulting in a double-digit score! It was not uncommon to see a card swap 3 or 4 strokes between players on this one hole. The focus required to execute 4 or 5 consecutive accurate drives is difficult to maintain, either due to complacency after getting it right 2 or 3 times in a row, or due to distractions or sheer mental exhaustion. I tended to blow the hole quite often with an unfocused up shot, and missed putt, after managing to make five good drives. Of course, this discussion mostly describes the average disc golfer's experience on the hole...Climo once threw a roller on his 4th shot which rolled OB almost it's entire run, only to return in bounds at the end and curl around the basket for a drop-in 5 (par is 7)...but that's Climo.
I used to enjoy observing different players (especially those a little bit cocky about their big arms) attack the Runway Hole for the first time, get their hinnies handed to them trying to bomb it, and then play with them again at a later time and observe them swallow their pride with a much more conservative, accurate approach. The learning curve is very steep on this hole, and hey, if it teaches you something worth learning, that makes it a pretty good hole in my book.
Kelly
