What Relatively Common Golf Course Features Do You Dislike?

[stonehenge]

Is anyone tired of the 2 tier green yet? I swear that has been the most over used feature in golf course architecture in the last 25 years.

[mvmac]

Blind tee shots

[flopster]

False fronts

[DeadMan]

Blind tee shots

I was just coming to post this. Blind tee shots bug me for two reasons. (1) Most courses will not help you on where to aim, what distance to shoot, etc., etc. It comes down to a guessing game from the tee. And if you guess wrong, there's a good chance you'll be back on the tee hitting 3. (2) It just destroys pace of play. Nobody knows where their ball went and you have to search for it. God forbid your ball ended up in deep rough that you couldn't see from the tee. With forecaddies and a decent explanation, blind tee shots wouldn't bother me at all. But I hate them because those two things basically never happen.

[colin007]

believe it or not, this is a big problem around here -

Bunkers that either dont have sand, and are filled with dirt instead, or have some sand and many, many rocks.

[Archie Bunker]

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.

Agreed 100%!! I think most of this is done to maximize the "golf course views" for home developers. Big premium in price if your home looks out over a golf course.

Also, cart paths that come into play. Paved roads were never intended to be part of a golf course.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

I agree with blind tee shots(embarrassed to say I have hit into my fair share of people that way) and false fronts (so you are going to reward the guy who sculls his ball at the green but punish the guy who hits a nice shot and lands 1 yard too short, how nice)

I also hate any tree that is directly in front of the tee box. Usually about 20 yards or so up. Who are you to tell me what shot I should play? I don't want to slice. Not even this once. If you are going to do that make it a tunnel effect where you have to go straight.

[InTheRough]

Pin placements on (relatively) severe slopes on greens, especially on greens that are playing fast.  There is nothing more frustrating for me than having a 6 foot birdie/par put lip out and roll all the way to the edge of the green leaving a 30 footer for par/bogey.

[Ernest Jones]

F**king water! Screw that shit!

[dave s]

Overseeded, thick rough.  Doesn't even have to be long, just thick and dense.  Almost impossible for me to negotiate anything longer than an 8-iron from this type of rough.

My home course 'sports' this type of rough.  It's only 2-3" deep, but really difficult to get a club through it.

Our course also has that lost ball 'happy grass,' (what we call it) in many naturalized areas that grows up to about 3 feet then lays over on itself.  Looks beautiful, but when you find it, it's a lost ball at worst and an unplayable at best IF you can find it.

dave

[FarawayFairways]

So just recap, after one and half pages of suggestions, we'd remove the following

1: Trees

2: Water hazards

3: Long rough

4: Elevated greens

5: Two-tiered greens

6: Island greens

7: Turf islands in bunkers

8: Blind tee-shots

9: Fairway bunkers

10: Pin placements on severely contoured greens

11: Steep sided bunkers

12: and Jack Nicklaus

This is going to be the mother of all 'must play' courses, can't wait to get stuck into it!!!

All of a sudden I've come over all sympathetic for course designers

[PA Golf Info]

Yea sounds like we all want to lay some sod on the Utah salt flats and have all the holes be about 140 yards with 15 cups.... LOL

[Aguirre]

Taking driver out of my hand.  You can make it difficult, or even an unwise shot, but don't take it out of my hands.  Let me make the decision.

[lumpuckeroo]

I don't like courses that have native grass knee deep between holes.  I'm okay with the deep stuff around the outside of the course, I get that, it's like having OB without the stakes.  You hit a ball in that stuff and then spend time looking for, human nature, all that does is make the course play slow.

[skydog]

Taking driver out of my hand.  You can make it difficult, or even an unwise shot, but don't take it out of my hands.  Let me make the decision.

Ditto.

I play a couple courses that have dead spots off the tee from ~220-330 yards out so 99.9% of the population (besides maybe Bubba and DJ) can't even consider driver and have to lay up short of the hazard. To me that makes no sense because there is no choice and no risk/reward- it's just gimmicky. Have the dead spot from ~220-270 off the tee and I'd be happy because it gives the longer hitters the option of launching it over.

[LocoPatrick]

I don't mind one, maybe two tiered greens on a course. Any more than that is annoying. Nothing wrong with a little challenge, but reading greens is hard enough. Give us lousy novices a small chance for a par a couple of times on a course.

[Chilli Dipper]

There is such a thing as too many forced carries on a golf course.

[Royster1984]

I dislike holes where you can avoid hazards by playing the hole on another fairway etc. I wish they would just make a OOB to stop people playing unsportingly.