This is a big one for me. I mean it’s actually less work for the course to just let the rough grow a little longer in these spots.
1 Like
That’s a pet peeve of mine at my course as well. On most par 3’s the banks are shaved and most of our greens are not that big so you can land not that many paces from the flag but bounce and roll OB, in the water or just to a horrible spot in the woods. But in other cases just off the green we have US open rough. Or where a slope would kick your ball back towards the fairway or green the grass is so thick you may not find your ball. I don’t think the course was meant to play this way and it slows the pace as well. I would rather see them let rough grow everywhere so you’d at least get a break on the steep slopes away from the green.
2 Likes
Yes the 7th is the easiest hole on the course and the easiest hole to rack up a big score. A 270m par 4. You tee it up on the hill with a lake right and ob left. A slight dogleg left with fairway bunkers left and right. A two tier green with banking along the right side and ob left. A back bunker. I hit 7i then a 3/4 wedge. That keeps me short of the bunkers of the tee. All up the left side of the hole slopes into ob.
One of the older public golf courses in my area had more than 300 matured trees throughout the 18. One in particular "was"an old Madrona tree stood over 80 feet tall and covers 20% of the right side of the fairway on a short par 5. It died from poisoning 18 years ago, I guess someone really hated the overhanging branches; pour arsenic near the root and killed the tree.
President Eisenhower requested the “Ike Tree” to be removed on one of the holes at the Augusta National, tree was named after the President because he hit into it so often; ( failed attempt). Singer Celine Dion bought the golf course she frequent just so she could remove a couple of bunkers she often had trouble with ( success ).
I view those obstacles designed into a golf course as a challenge for us to get better of dealing with it. Either sharpen our golf skill or go around it. That is, if we don’t have the wealth to buy-out the place and redesign it.
someone said it already, but internal OB is ridiculous
1 Like
My first encounter of the internal O.B. was at a Palmer designed golf course in Asia. I teed off with the tee shot drifted to the adjacent fairway and started heading down the fairway while my caddy called me back because the adjacent fairway was marked as O.B.
Then years later played at a golf course 2 hours north from home with the same on course O.B. because they want to speed up the play, so someone changed the local rules.
My course has internal/infernal OB on #2 and #3. Supposedly to protect players on the adjacent fairways. Both are doglegs that big hitters can try to cut so it’s also risk/reward. Honestly I think the many tall thick trees offer enough protection, but I don’t quite have the firepower to go for it. I’ve never heard of anyone in the other fairway getting hit since the trees snag bad shots.
We’ve got too much OB I think and it does slow up tournament play as they don’t allow a drop and 2-stroke penalty. Players wind up making 14’s on holes while everyone waits. The old guard likes the course hard though.
2 Likes
Most the golf courses I had golf in Asia in the 70’s and the 80’s had the oncourse O.B. if you don’t want to check out the local rules on the score cards, ask the caddy before you tee off. Extra effort meant extra tips at the end of the round.
My course has three doglegs where the inside of the dogleg slopes down to a big gully and these areas have been marked ob to speed up play by not wasting time looking for balls.
They could remedy the sloped down to the O.B. area by put in traps to capture the golf balls. With a shot of penalty but not O.B. with shot and distance.
The banks are too steep and run from the tee all the way down to the fairway bunkers on 7, to about 165m out on 9 and past the landing area on 12. Our course is on top of a hill with lots of sloping lies with gullies all over the course. The course is on the highest point with all the land sloping away from there.
1 Like
I don’t know that I’d qualify that as “internal OB” since it doesn’t sound like playable space. When I think internal OB, I’m talking about playing up a different hole for a better angle/cutting a dogleg. Example - they were going to (maybe did) make #9 at sawgrass OB when playing #18 since they saw (or heard) Bryson was going to try that angle.
We have that too on a couple of doglegs, but I don’t consider it internal OB since even though it’s inside the course there’s just woods with no fairway nearby.
Not sure if it speeds up play or not. Many times you think your shot is fine, but it’s run down the slope OB or you think it’s gone and hit a provisional, but still have to search. As members we’ll hit a provisional if it’s anywhere near that side. You still need to spend time looking to see if you’re in.
Marking it Red lateral hazard might actually speed up play for non-members. A bunker would catch a lot of balls, but that adds a feature that needs to be maintained.
@openfacelefty These areas are ringed by white posts that can’t be moved to improve your lie. If you are really unlucky you might have nowhere to stand but unlikely. On 7 the rough slopes towards ob. And our club hasn’t adopted the new rule change to estimate where you went out and play 4. Here it is a stroke and distance penalty. If you are unsure you hit a provisional. It is usually pretty clear you are ob from the tee. A road snakes it’s way around the course down below the course with houses on the other side below the road. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=212164562984810 This is the 7th and also the left edge of the green is ob as well. An easy hole and an easy hole to rack up a big score all in one.
Overhanging trees by green suck. I also am not a fan of overhanging trees that block some line of flight on tee shots, either.
1 Like
I sort of like the challenge of that in some cases. We have that on a few holes. It does make 2 of our doglegs really difficult as you want to make sure you get a look around the corner, but 5 yards too far and you may be trying to go over or under a tree to get to the green. I still have just enough firepower to clear the trees, but they are getting taller and I am getting shorter.
I hate the trees that stick out over the fairway. We have a large one that sticks out over the right side of a par 5. Left is OB and the middle of the fairway has a huge hill so the right side is better for a flatter lie, but too far right and you need to hit a low stinger over a steep hill. The hole is hard enough and I really want to sneak out with my chainsaw and prune that thing.
Our 17th hole is a 370’ish par 4 that doglegs to the right at about the 300 yard mark. There is a green side bunker, left of an elevated green. On the inside corner of the dogleg is a rather large, mature maple tree. The hole is downwind on prevailing SW wind.
Any tee shot in right fairway, you chip back down the fairway. Tee shot in right half of fairway you can try to hit punch/run up under the tree limbs, bail out into bunker or try to cut something around tree.
Tee shot placement needs to be left of center, including rough to have a reasonable look.
I like flexibility in club/shot selection, but too often it’s forced.
At Mt Osmond there is a huge gum tree about 10m short of the green called Lawrences Folly. From the middle of the fairway it covers the left side of the green. Just as well I draw my irons.
This is a combination of architecture and maintenance, I dislike greens that have too much slope to be played fairly at the green speed which is maintained. Or greens that are maintained too fast considering the slopes on the greens. In many cases, courses were designed when a “fast” green might have been 8 on today’s Stimp, and played perfectly fine at that speed. Current agronomy and equipment makes it possible to get these to 10 or even 12, and they become completely unreasonable. Faster greens mean you need a much larger flat area around each hole position, which means the area available for fair hole placements decreases substantially.
I love fast true greens, and fast true greens are considered a requirement of a top-notch course. But the combination of speed and slopes does nothing but increase scores and increase the length of rounds.
3 Likes
Played a Nicklaus course near Austin over the weekend… It was fun, but man, does he love fairway trees!
I think my design preference is simple, with the occasional challenge thrown in. I don’t love blind shots off the tee and played some munis as well last week that had some BAD tee shots…
having goofy stuff like trees in the fairway is fine on occasion, but that needs to be a rare feature on not on every hole.
The goofiest part of Cimarron is that the 18th hole has a waterfall running over the cartpath on the way to the 18th green… it was very distracting… It took us a bit to commit to driving across it…
They actually had a cool 70 yard par 3 19th hole, which I think is an awesome feature… but then you had to drive back through the water to get to the clubhouse… it was weird.
1 Like