Safari

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Just after Christmas at Conwy we used to play a 9-hole 'Safari'.  4th tee to 11th green, 18th tee to 13th green and so on.  I suggested a similar thing to my son to be played at Wilmslow.  We thought about it and realised it was impossible, such is the orientation of the holes, trees, river and so on.  

Which 18-hole course in your experience offers the most options for such an event?  Does this represent a weakness in its design?  Or is it a benefit to be able to approach greens, hazards etc from a multitude of different angles?

[Brian_Gracely]

Mark,

Couple of Thanksgivings ago, I went as far as to layout a "cross-country" course at Raleigh CC.  It's a Ross course and has alot of run off areas around the greens, and most slope back to front.  We actually found that while the "routing" often required hitting shots over, under and through trees, the approaches were really interesting because we often never saw the greens from those angles.  Tons of fun and highly recommended if you can find an open course somewhere.





Score card really isn't necessary, but I had some time to kill one day.  Cross-country is definitely a match-play event.

[img]

[JohnV]

With the trees gone, Oakmont has lots of possibilities, but the turnpike would be a serious hazard.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I agree, you see your course in a very different way.  Avenues of trees make this largely impossible but clumps of trees or gorse add to the interest.  You also get a very different sense of distance, and you have to use your eyes - there are no yardage charts or measured sprinkler heads and you are not allowed range finders in competition.

[Bill_McBride]

Brian, the only problem with your course there is that you don't have any 1500 yd par 11s or 65 yd par 3s with a pitch from an impossible lie to a fallaway green one fairway over!  That scorecard you've got there looks like a fairly normal course.

My favorite crosscountry golf story is Dan Jenkins' Ft Worth muni story where the last hole was in a shoe in somebody's closet!  Now that's a tough shot!

[Bill Gayne]

This thread reminds me of David Feherty's book "A Nasty Bit of Rough." If you haven't read the book it's very funny. It describes a classic fictional "safari" golf match. From the preface:

"The following is the story of the Scrought's Wood Golf Club and its longstanding rivalry with the McGregor clan, of the Tay Club, who claim it was their ancestors who invented the game many centuries ago. The McGregors have a three hole golf course that stretches for four and a half miles along the northern shore of the Firth of Tay, and twice every century, armed with the tools of the game, both ancient and modern, they do battle with Scrought's wood. The prize is the oldest trophy in golf, the petrified middle finger of St. Andrew, known simply as "The Digit""

The three hole course plays to a par of 72.

[Brad Tufts]

All-

I had the opportunity to help set up and play the cross-country course for Myopia Hunt Club's "Turkey Shoot" tournament.  We played a fivesome scramble over 9-holes with a par of about 45.  It was great fun during one of the last nice days of the fall (60 degrees up here in MA) and everyone went home happy with a fresh turkey to cook.

Holes were as follows:

1.  Bushes behind 1st green to 17th green, about 430y.
2.  Behind 17th green to 15th green, about 560 on a straight line through the Driving Range and a neighbor's yard (luckily a member).
3.  End of 15th fairway to 13th green, about 270, big fall-off behind green.
4.  13th green to 8th green, about 370 over the trees.
5.  10th middle tee to 11th green, about 220 as the crow flies, an original Leeds "Alps" hole before the trees grew.
6.  12th tee to 5th green, about 600y over two banks of fescue and some wetlands.
7.  6th tee to 3rd green, about 800 yards playing down the 5th/4th, add 150 if playing down 6th/7th.
8.  4th middle tee to 1st green, about 650-700y.  Choices off the tee to fire over the narrow opening at the 3rd tee, or to bail out up the wide 4th, thus lengthening the hole to about 800.
9.  Near 1st righthand fairway bunker over pines and tennis shop to lower tier of the putting green, about 220.  This area of the green is surrounded by not only the tennis shop, but tennis courts, and the men and womens' locker rooms.  A fun hole, but I heard several tee shots banking off the clubhouse.

When setting up the course, I thought the way to play it was to be ultra-conservative.  I forgot that a scramble was to be the order of the day, so this created many wild carry attempts over woods and fields of hay.  Events like this make you really think outside of your normal game, and certainly gets you away from needing to know your exact yardage for every shot.

-Brad

[Donnie Beck]

Can't say that I have any experience, but rumor has it that it is a good solid 4 iron from the back the 12th green over the wetland to the 14th green at Fishers.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Brad,

That sounds terrific!  I bet the members noticed many aspects of the course for the very first time, things they'd not even considered before.

[Tags:]

Tags: