Most hated course design tricks

[BD57]

A lot of interesting comments.

I don't mind blind shots - one of my favorite "non-home" courses when I was growing up was East Aurora Country Club in East Aurora, New York, which was an amalgamation of somewhat goofy layups & blind shots. It took a while to figure out the shots, but it was a lot of fun.

I don't like being bored - do SOMETHING with the target area on every shot (bunkers here, a flat spot to play your second shot from there, etc.).

I don't like "score inflator" shots - - - - the hole that demands you hit driver because of its length & then gives you 10 yards between water hazards to hit it into. Generally speaking, I think the challenge should increase the closer you get to the hole.

Please, some variety - four par 3's playing from 180 - 200 yards is BORING. IMO, there should be one short iron par 3 on every course (I mean "short iron for us humans" here).

Likewise, there ought to be a couple of wedge par 4's and a couple of long iron / hybrid / fairway wood par 4's and at least one par 5 you don't have to be a gorilla to reach under the right conditions.

I've been fortunate enough to play Pebble 4 3/4 times (we got through 14 one time before we lost light). What I love most about Pebble is this - with the exception of one shot (2nd to #8), there isn't a shot there that scares the hell out of me, even though the vast majority of them are "difficult" to "very difficult."

I guess that's the key for me - I want a challenge, not "impossibility."

[Golf Yokel]

I think the only thing that irks me while playing is when courses aren't kept up properly.

I can understand a stray branch here and there in winter time, things die and fall... but if I go back two days later and see the same branch, or leaf pile... I feel inclined to say something.

Past that, I don't particularly have any design that I truly hate. I feel that the course was built to play the way it does... if you don't like that style, move on to the next one.

The only other thing I can think of that irritates me is when you have a hole that has absolutely no way to avoid obstacles. I believe if you are good enough to brave the hazards, you should be rewarded... but I also believe that every hole should have some form of shot available to new players.

The only reason that I say this is because at the course I regularly play, the sixth hole is a tee-shot where you are 100% forced to cross at least 50y of water from any angle. It's a short par 4, and to drive the green (or attempt to) you have to clear around 175y-200y of water in the air (and still carry another 80y-100y to the hole).

Now I agree with the concept of that if you are attempting to make an eagle or a birdie, that you have to take the risk of clearing the entire lake... but here is where I disagree with their lay-out...

Every tee box is set behind the lake. For people who are half-way decent at golf, it doesn't matter really. But I took a friend from the University to play one day, and he wound up losing 4 balls off the tee and eventually gave up the hole and the rest of his game that day suffered and you could tell.

I can fully understand courses that are meant to be hard. And by this I don't mean challenging... I mean those courses that are purpose-built to be frustatingly impossible. I'm sure most of you know and have suffered at the type I am refering to.

But on the other hand... every course that I see getting re-designed seems like they are following some new-found trend of trying to be the most difficult course around.

Without new players the game of golf will eventually die, and if every course is near-impossible to play... the game will only suffer from lack of interested new players. Designers need to keep an eye out for the newer players once in a while.

[ganjagolfer]

think alot of the o.b. markers are unnecessary, if i can find it, i want to hit it, i can see maybe if you're in someone's backyard it should be o.b.

[nandoal28]

golfclevelandohio.com

Isn't

www.golfclevelandohio.com the best location golf course website you've seen? I wish all cities/regions had a course review/map website as exstensive as this one.

[ctmurrray]

Like many others posting here I dislike many of the same things. I am a straight but short hitter, so I am often hitting up with a 3 wood on par 4s. If the all the greens are elevated or there is no opening at all to roll up to the green - the hole is just not fun.

[iWALK18]

I know I know I know... but I really hate tree-lined doglegs. I am a long hitter by most standards, so I am usually trying to cut the corner, but with giant trees, and a corner that is not reasonable to shape a shot around, I end up hitting a 6 or 7 Iron off the tee.... thats boring to me.

[ctmurrray]

You would like this hole. The trees are 10 ft pines except for two enormous poplars which are thin and tall. You can make a "field gold" on this hole if you want to get the maximum gain by cutting the corner. The trap I spoke of has no effect upon long hitters, so if you removed the trap I could at least not have to aim away from the hole and I would only be 180 yds out (a 3 wood for me). I bet I reach this green in regulation 1 time per year (7th hardest hole on this nine to boot!).

[iWALK18]

Ya the hole which i am thinking of is number 5 at browns mill in Atlanta. Dogleg left with a pine forest preventing you from cutting it. The tee is kind of left too so you really have no time to get up over unless you have a really high driver. I usually end up through the fairway in this crappy muddy ditch... i hate that hole.

[Monsieurgolf]

I love your course's home page, I think all new golfers should read it, especially the guide on how to repair ball marks. I can't tell you how irritating it is to see a green rutted up by white pitch marks or worse yet someone doing a half @#$ job trying to fix one.

I ditto the compliment of your Home Courses web page...especially the manor in repairing ball marks. My home course frequently gets very "bumpy" due to improper repair or ignoring ball marks completely.

I'm checking my golf bag right now to make sure I have the right tool for the job. As for golf design tricks...one which is completely avoidable...is pointing the tee box in another direction except for down the middle of the fairway. I know...I know...I need to set up properly...but I find myself getting sucked in once and a while. This could also just be poor tee box marker set up...but regardless...if I'm not careful...I hit it straight into the bunker that it is lined up for.

[duffer]

Trees in the fairway less than 75-100 yards from the green. I played a course here last year (Shadow Glen) where the first par 5 had trees surrounding the green almost completely. You had 3-4 windows between trees into which to punch through. Either that, or to hit a moon shot and drop it straight down.

[cpht]

I live in Northwest Ohio, and the waves on Lake Erie can get 6 feet high at times. In deep water, it doesn't matter because the waves are spaced out. In the shallow west end of Lake Erie these 6 foot crests are about 10 feet apart. Yeah, it's like riding a little roller coaster.

One of the courses near Vermillion OH must have had this in mind when they set up their #10(?) fairway. It was ridiculous. The "rolling hills" were about 4 feet high and about 10 feet from crest to crest. I may be exaggerating, it was 10 years ago, but that's how I remember it. I haven't been back to Thunderbird.

[Richie3Jack]

I detest par 3's longer than 220 yards. I hit the ball an average length for a low handicapper and if I'm having to use more than a 3 iron I just don't consider that a good par 3 as I've always felt that a true par 3 requires an iron shot into the green.

I also don't like any par 3's where you can't see the bottom of the flag from the tee. Hole in ones are probably the greatest feat in golf because anybody can accomplish them, yet it's so hard to do. So if you get a hole in one, you should be able to see the ball land in the cup.

I also don't care much for kidney shaped of figure 8 shaped greens just because of the prospect that you may be on the green putting, but you pretty much have to putt the ball through the fringe/rough to get it to the hole.




3JACK

[SirMilton]

I believe it is Star Pass TPC in Tucson that has a long par 4 or par 5 green located on a plateau straight up about 50 feet from the fairway like an island in the sky. If you are the slightest bit low or short on your approach you end up at the bottom of a cliff with a shot that makes a 10 foot deep pot bunker shot look like a straight in 2 foot putt.

Peak to peak par 3 shots in mountain courses aren't much better and might as well be island greens, in variably the green has to be sloped considerably from back to front and if you end up on the wrong side of the green with a low pin position your putt may have up to a 180 degree or more curve to it so that you have to putt the ball almost directly perpendicular to the left or right of the hole.

I also do not like trees completely blocking the fairway so that the approach shot must be over the trees.

Finally, I would probably give up golfing entirely if all courses were "target" golf courses with forced carries like you see in so many desert courses. I think that one should be able to play any hole with nothing other than a putter.

[hawkeye]

I played a par 3 on Sunday. The stroke saver said it was 182 to the centre of the green. And the pro's tip said "uphill, plays longer than it looks, take enough club for 20 yards more."

So I did. I hit 4 iron into the wind up hill 50 yards beyond the green. Ok i pulled it a fraction, it went longer than a normal 4 iron - but still!

Turns on, the hole measured 162 and not 182. Apparently it was a new teebox but at the time i thought it was a typo in the course guide!!!! grrrrr nasty

[jamesjay20]

I'd have to say tiered greens are my least favorite aspect of course design...I have absolutely no problem with slope or undulation, but when it's an obvious shelf, it irks me...I always feel like I'm playing Clown Mouth Mini-Putt when I have to come up or down one of these greens

[jstewart09]

Its all to make it harder. Take it as it is and if you cant dont play.

[jstewart09]

I lkie a challenge!!!!

[jamesjay20]

Any sort of fake "mounds" built up in fairways or near fairways. I'm a huge fan of courses that follow the natural terrain, where the terrain revealed the holes.