Quick, name a course with a great closing hole.

Pebble Beach? Sure. Augusta National? Okay. Doral? Definitely.

The Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club? Absolutely.

Maybe it's because it's out here in the desert, away from the fabled Eastern courses where the power brokers and leaders of golf play their games. Maybe it's because the Pacific Ocean is out of sight two hours away. Maybe it's because the hole is played on the LPGA Tour rather than the PGA Tour, but the 18th hole at the Shore Course isn't widely recognized as one of the game's great closing holes.

But if Sunday's final moments of the Kraft Nabisco Championship showed anything, it's that the 18th at the Shore Course is the most underrated closing hole in the game.

Everything about the hole screams for a player to be perfect. The green alone is a work of art. More than 130 feet from the left edge to the right for just the closely mown putting surface, the green features a ridge running from back to front, cutting the green into two. The left half of the green slopes from back to front. The right side slopes from left to right, but slopes more severely from back to front the farther back you go. Getting close to some pin placements requires either luck or the ability to read ridges and slopes like Minnesota Fats.

Complete hole

But the green is only part of the island, with rough surrounding the putting surface. For the tournament, that rough is shaved down, letting a few shots hit the green but eventually slip into the lake.

From 485 for the women, the green is reachable, but treacherous. Sunday's winner, Brittany Lincicome, reached the green in two with a 19-degree hybrid club from 210 yards. She said she could reach the green with a 3-wood but wouldn't try, because the green wouldn't accept the lower flight of a 3-wood without letting the shot bound through the green, over the back slope and into the water.

But even that doesn't encompass the entire genius of the hole. There is the tee shot that must be fitted into a fairway with eucalyptus trees and bunkers to the right and palm trees and water to the left. Miss the fairway and you can't get to the green in two, even with the short 485-yard tees. Play the hole into the wind, and you can't reach the green in two, and getting there in three can be tough from the 531-yard holes.

And there are those nasty little bunkers that seem to infuriatingly get in the way on lay-up shots.

Sunday's final group in the Kraft showed the greatness of the hole. Short-hitting Kristy McPherson laid up in two then nearly rolled in a long birdie putt. Cristie Kerr laid up and nearly holed a wedge, then made a nice birdie putt. And Lincicome powered a driver and second shot onto the green, played the slope perfectly and set up a winning eagle.

A tough drive between trees and a lake. A strategic decision on the second shot. A tricky lay up. An island green. A putting surface that can chew up any player. It all makes for a great hole. It's a shame more people don't recognize that.

Larry Bohannan covers golf for the Desert Sun. His columns appear Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at 778-4633.