The par-three third hole at Royal New Kent in Providence Forge features a gnarly gulch to the right of the green and a pair of pot bunkers to the left that are deep and greedy enough to swallow your ball, a small truck and your pride, without so much as a hiccup. The par-four fourteenth, meanwhile, demands a blind, uphill approach to a green protected by six bunkers.

And those are the easy holes.

Royal New Kent "is a monster," says Mike Sutera, taking a few practice putts before teeing off with buddy Robbie Rigsby on a sharp, sunny winter morning. "This is a course you think about the night before." Royal New Kent doesn’t really bare its teeth until springtime, Sutera adds. "That’s when the rough grows in."

Ask 100 golfers what makes for a great course and you’ll get 100 answers. Some would trade Royal New Kent’s conspicuous, artsy design for an old-fashioned course with long, narrow fairways and postage stamp greens. But however they take their punishment, most serious golfers share a finely tuned streak of masochism. A course just can’t be great unless it takes a bite out of your backside once in a while. "That’s what golf’s all about. Pressing yourself. Trying to get better," Sutera says.

Set among rolling hills a half hour east of Richmond, Royal New Kent has won plaudits from the major golf magazines since it opened in September 1996 for its Irish-links-style design and inventive challenges crafted by designer Mike Strantz. It’s open to the public, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart or short of club. With a "slope rating" of 147, Royal New Kent clocks in as the toughest course in Virginia.

The United States Golf Association and its Virginia affiliate, the Virginia State Golf Association, rank courses using two numbers to gauge difficulty. The first, the index, estimates the score that a scratch (par) golfer can expect. Anything over 72 means an expert will have trouble shooting his usual score. The second number, the slope, is for the rest of us, the great mass of average golfers. Slope ratings vary from 55 (add a windmill and you’d have Putt Putt) to 155 (throw your clubs in the lake, don’t even bother teeing off). The average is 115.

The rating process is intricate and complex, involving a dozen assessments for each hole, on length, width of fairways, difficulty of greens, and so forth. Still, USGA and VSGA officials say the process, while objective, isn’t absolute. In the end, course difficulty, like great cuisine, comes down to a matter of taste. "If you can’t carry water, a water course is going to be tougher for you," says Teddy Kidd, coordinator of handicap and course rating for the USGA in Far Hills, N.J. If standing on a fairway with a sidehill lie throws your game off, mountain courses may be your Waterloo.

Even on the toughest courses, golfers can give themselves a fighting chance by playing from intermediate, rather than back tees. Still, it’s safe to say that every course on Virginia’s toughest list has more than enough surprises in store for amateur and pro alike. "One thing that surprises me is how many really difficult courses we have in the state," says Sam Craft, manager of member services for the VSGA.

Not to mention difficult holes. Take Royal New Kent’s 18th. Please. This beautiful but evil par-four starts with a long carry over water and ends with another water shot to a near-island green. It’s a classic understatement when first assistant pro Robert Owens says, "A large percentage of the golfers are out there for a challenge."

One hallmark of a great course is that you never quite master it. Just ask Glenn Smickley, chief operating officer at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Centreville. The private club’s slope rating of 145 places it second on Virginia’s list of tough courses. Smickley knows the course so well, they’re practically related.

He signed on as superintendent in 1989, when the course was little more than muddy tracks and a lot of promise. Smickly nurtured the fairways, thickening the tender shoots of raw grass into some of the finest natural carpeting in the East. Since the course opened in 1991, it has hosted three President’s Cups and become a favorite hacking grounds for actual presidents and former presidents.

As well as he knows the course, Smickley’s never quite learned to deal with the "potato chip" greens — designer Jones’ innocuous sounding name for contoured, multi-level greens that "definitely separate the good putters from the bad." Smickley adds, "It’s the kind of course that will always challenge you."

Bill Moore, an excellent amateur golfer from Petersburg, doesn’t hesitate when asked for his nomination of most difficult course. "The very toughest, bar none, is Golden Horseshoe."

The venerable Williamsburg resort’s Gold Course carries a slope rating of 138. "The landing areas are very tight, very narrow," Moore says. "From the back tees, the course has the type of length that you have to hit a driver. You’re hitting to tight landing areas. From that point, you have to hit to very small greens. There’s not a hole on that golf course with margin for error."

The toughest hole? The par-four 18th, Moore says. "It’s long, it’s a dogleg, and you’ve gotta hit the ball 250, 260 yards just to see the green." Once you see the green, "You wish you couldn’t."

Tom Orr, an amateur standout from Midlothian, puts Golden Horseshoe in a five-way tie for toughest, along with the Danville Golf Club, The Homestead’s Cascades Course, the Farmington Country Club and the River Course at his home club, the Country Club of Virginia. The sleeper on Orr's list may be the Danville Golf Club whose slope rating of 120 belies its difficulty. "The greens have a lot of slope," Orr says. "You can three-putt a whole lot of holes."

Orr believes the old country club courses are tougher than newer, tricked-up designer courses. The reason? Old courses, built for less foot traffic, have much smaller greens. The new courses have huge greens, so superintendents can vary pin placements and reduce wear from heavy play. Also, on older courses, "The holes are mature. The trees have grown up to frame the course," Says Orr.

That’s certainly true of the Cascades, the Homestead’s flagship course and a regular fixture among "top-50" course ratings nationwide. Legendary golfer Sam Snead has called the Cascades, "The most complete course I have ever known."

Andrew Bell, public relations coordinator for the Homestead, learned to play golf on the Cascades, which is like taking introductory drawing classes from Picasso. "You’ve got long drives, long irons, woods, pitches over water, side hill, down hill, uphill lies," Bell says. The par-five fifth hole, 575 yards, much of them uphill, "should be a par 14." It's the type of course that diverts golfers from whatever else may be troubling them in life. "Every time you set foot on the course, you almost seem to lose yourself in the game of golf," Bell says.

Golfers don't have to empty their wallet at a resort course or wrangle an invite to a private club in order to put their game to the test. The municipal Belmont Golf Course in Henrico County has two famously hard holes. Even a perfect tee shot on the par-four fifth leaves a long iron to a small, protected green. And the narrow, par-four first may be the toughest way to start a round of golf in Virginia.

Strange way to have fun, non-golfers say. Work hard all week, then pay good money to spend your free day getting abused and scared silly on the links. But that, like judging the toughness of a course, may just be a matter of perspective. Orr has a healthy outlook. Asked which course scares him the most, he says with a laugh, "None of ’em scares me. It’s just a golf course."