What Relatively Common Golf Course Features Do You Dislike?

[bkuehn1952]

I do not like trees or a large tree in the middle of fairways or fronting greens.  Most of us are not PGA caliber players.  Attempting to work a ball off the tee around or over a large tree smack in the middle of the fairway can be frustrating.  I can do it but I don't like a steady diet of this.  Worse are the greens protected by a large tree that require an extremely high ball flight (and often long distance) in order to clear the tree and hit the green.  Give me some options, like leaving 1/2 the green open.

Any feature the rest of you prefer not to see frequently?

[caniac6]

I don't like greens that don't give shot options. I like old style courses that give the choices of either flying the ball on to the green or playing a low runner to the green.

[LocoPatrick]

More of a layout/rules than shotmaking complaint. I don't like tees so far from the hole that the course uses that as an excuse to make you ride instead of walk.

[saevel25]

Anything Jack Nicklaus has designed.

[dbrock504]

I have only encountered this 2 times. Tour 18 in Houston replica hole of Bay HIll #6, and a course I played in Destin, FL. LONG sweeping, narrow par 5 with a lake to the left of it. Talk about hard. Holy cow

[Golfingdad]

Stakes.  I don't like stakes.  Red ones, yellow ones, and especially white ones.

Steaks, on the other hand ...

[bkuehn1952]

I don't like stakes.

So you prefer the painted line approach for designating hazards and OB.

[phan52]

I hate courses where half the holes are defined by adjacent water hazards. Zero room for error. I usually donate at least a sleeve on those type of courses.

[mcanadiens]

How bout electrical lines running through the middle of the course and knocking down my better tee shots.

Oh wait. You said common. Not the goofy places that  I sometimes play.

[dnaygs]

I played at a course with a power line over a par 3.  There was a course rule that if your tee shot hit the power line, you should take a mulligan.  One day I hit the power line 3 times in a row.  It didn't really bother me as it didn't happen often most days, but it was a little silly.

I do like water though.  The more the better.  I say make every fairway an island fairway and every green an island green, fun!

[Golfingdad]

So you prefer the painted line approach for designating hazards and OB.

Ha!!!  Very funny. I would prefer a course that has no water, no OB and no trees.  And, while we're at it, no rough.  I can score really well on courses like that.

I played at a course with a power line over a par 3.  There was a course rule that if your tee shot hit the power line, you should take a mulligan.  One day I hit the power line 3 times in a row.  It didn't really bother me as it didn't happen often most days, but it was a little silly.

I do like water though.  The more the better.  I say make every fairway an island fairway and every green an island green, fun!

Most courses I know of have a more stringent rule when it comes to power lines.  You MUST replay the shot.  Pretty frustrating when your ball just nicks one and ends up in a decent position, yet you have to give it another go anyway.

[Hammer 4]

Elevated greens, meaning about 6' off the fairway.

[PA Golf Info]

Island greens.  I do not know why but I always toss one in the water on the first shot.  I think they just play head games with me a first.

[RH31]

Hazzards that are blind from the tee

[David in FL]

Random bumps, moguls, and such in the middle of fairways that can turn otherwise well played shots into poor results.

[Golfingdad]

I thought of one ... I'm not a big fan of fairway bunkers with big lips.  It's punishment enough for most of us to have to play from the sand, but to also have to get it up quickly in the air is asking a lot.

[SavvySwede]

1. Any large bunker with only one decent access point. I don't feel like raking 30 yards of footprints because the architect was too lazy to put a tongue in an oversized trap.

2. Crooked tee boxes.

3. Dumb sidehill lies in the middle of the fairway.

[FarawayFairways]

Patches of playable grass in the middle of a bunker. Effectively an island within a bunker. What's that about?

Turnberry and Muirfield both have them.

It's either a bunker or it isn't, albeit you could argue that this is the residue of a natural landscape feature from the old links sand dune which was never always a perfectly uniform dune anyway

Not a massive fan of artifical water hazards. Make use of the natural landscape, but I can equally accept that some holes (particularly matchplay holes) are given a dramatic edge for having a lake. Need to be careful though about over doing the use of water hazards as the lazy architects response to creating a challenge