Do you intentionally play adjacent fairways?

[Fat Slice]

If there's no internal OB and you can get a significant advantage from playing on/through an adjacent fairway, do you? Of course, you'd have to make sure you weren't beaning the people in that fairway or slowing down play by having to wait to hit your shot, but...if it was 'all clear', do you?

[iacas]

I've never seen a golf course where this makes sense. So gimme an "incomplete."

[lobsterzilla]

I've never seen a golf course where this makes sense. So gimme an "incomplete."

there's a course near me with a "gimmicky" par 5 in that the fairway takes almost a direct 90 degree right turn about 410 from the tee box. too far to challenge the corner.

If you can fade a high tee shot over the trees you can cut the corner into the adjacent fairway, take your second shot to the left hand of the other holes tee box which is treeless, and turn the par 5 into a 330 yard hole at the most.

[Fat Slice]

I've never seen a golf course where this makes sense. So gimme an "incomplete."

OK, fair enough - it would be only if there was a poor course design to start with or internal OBs were removed without thinking too much about it.

Anyway, here's the par 5 2nd hole at Delta View (Pittsburg, CA). I put arrows on how to reach in 2 if you use the adjacent fairway:

[Dub]

I have been known to hit a wayward drive and punch out to an adjacent fairway and play up.

On my home course there is a par 5 (number 7, Island View nine) that is bordored on the right by a lake for the entire length and a par 4 on the right. It is one of my favorite driving holes on the course...unless you hook it into the lake .

I typically try to hit it hard with a slight fade (my "normal" hard swing). I have overdone it at times and been in trouble. One of the most recent occasions my tee ball actually made into an open spot where I could swing fully and advance the ball down this adjacent fairway. It actually provided a safer angle to go at the green for my third (green is bordered in center-to-left by water and well bunkered). Approach found the green and I felt like Walter Hagan as I lined up my birdie putt......missed it....but it was hilarious to find a putt for birdie after the adventure to get there.

There are a couple of other holes on my home track that you can do such things....if you must....but you have to be in great peril to even conjure up the strategy.

The current state of my game finds me courting great peril at every step. It's quite exciting this way.

[Fourputt]

I can't recall any course I've ever played where this would be any kind of advantage, so I'd have to answer no. I've never deliberately played to the wrong fairway unless I was already in a position (usually after a bad tee shot) where I had no shot to the correct fairway.

[Cussin hacker]

I play a course that has two holes like yours Fat Slice, but on both holes it tells you the the ajoining fairway is OB.

How far is the second shot on your shortcut? Looks like trouble with trees and water.

[Fat Slice]

I play a course that has two holes like yours Fat Slice, but on both holes it tells you the the ajoining fairway is OB.

I'll play over there next time and take a rangefinder measurement. I play around the long way. I'm curious, though!

[Shorty]

I have done it, on holes where driving onto an adjacent fairway slightly shortens the hole with a slight dogleg but I generally consider it to be bad form, not to mention potentially dangerous. Most courses will plant a few trees to stop it happening, but invariably they put them in the wrong place, or will have to wait until 2049 before they are big enough.

[kris]

I played a few unintentionally yesterday...

[iturn463]

At one of my home courses the first hole is a 410 yard par 4. The tee shot is straight away but there is a lake 300 yards down the fairway (The water comes in closer to that on the right side). Occasionally I'll hit a 3 wood straight down that fairway and have 140-150 to the green (over the water), or if you take a driver left, to the fairway of another course (the holes are separated by bunkers, a few trees, and a cart path) you can have 100-110 in with a pretty good angle.

[bogeyhitter25]

There's a hole at a course I just recently played where it's a slight dogleg right with a smallish pond guarding the front of the green. I accidentally hit a wicked slice into the tenth fairway. I had a much better angle to hit at the pin, though since the pin was tucked in the back left.

[bcp]

I've never done it intentionally, but always check my options when my ball ends up in less than ideal position (which is quite often).

My course does actually have one hole where an adjacent fairway was declared OB to prevent 'shortcutting' across the teebox.

[billysandy]

It can be done on the second hole on my home course but it isn't worth it as your tee shot has to be long, high and right and your second shot has to be a 180 yard high draw over some bunkers and tree lined adjacent fairway

[Zeph]

No, never do that. I play the course as it is designed. Could of course be done for fun once in a while, but not to make the hole easier. Don't want to do something I can't do every time I'm at the course. Playing on different fairways when the course is crowded is not an option.

[iacas]

No, never do that. I play the course as it is designed. Could of course be done for fun once in a while, but not to make the hole easier. Don't want to do something I can't do every time I'm at the course. Playing on different fairways when the course is crowded is not an option.

Of course it is. If you accidentally hit the ball in another fairway and it's crowded, what do you do - pick it up?

Most courses don't provide an alternative that works well like this question asks, but on times you can accidentally play up another hole.

[Zeph]

Of course it is. If you accidentally hit the ball in another fairway and it's crowded, what do you do - pick it up?

The question was whether you intentionally play adjacent fairways, which I don't. Of course I play from it if I hit a bad shot and it happens to land on the wrong fairway.

[AmenCorner]

Remember Caddyshack ?

That course is now called Grande Oaks (formerly Rolling Hills) in Davie, FL. I played in a Member-Guest there years ago. The course was redesigned by Ray Floyd in the late 90's.

Anyways in the shootout, there were 8-9 teams or so teeing off from the 18th hole. Every single team played the hole down the adjacent 4th fairway which was the oddest thing I'd ever seen. The 18th wraps around a big lake, dogleg left. The 4th is on the other side, dogleg right (played opposite way).

I thought it was really a terrible decision, and a great example of herd mentality. The tee shot was about equally as difficult, and the approach to the green was actually harder. You had to play over a big oak tree, and the green sloped towards water rather than back to front if you had played normally. It was like watching a train wreck. Very few pars were made if I recall. Maybe 1-2 out of 8 teams and 16 players.