Is fairway width American laziness or UK laziness?

[Brian_Gracely]

Today's minimalists seem to be building more and more courses with extremely wide fairways, 60-100yds in places.  In some cases, this is justified as being the only way to allow play in windy locations, especially considering the surrounding native-grass roughs.

But when I look at many of the "great" UK links courses, they have similar windy conditions, but have always had narrowed fairways, on the order of 20-30yds.  They also have the native-grass roughs surrounding much of the area.  

Now the one major difference is that many of the UK courses are somewhat shorter (due to limited land).

But are the wider US courses indicative of a desire to make the game more fun than in the UK, or are today's designers just catering to the laziness of Americans to learn to hit the ball straight and a proper trajectory?  Or is it just UK greenskeepers that don't want to mow more grass?

[JESII]

I'd guess that in America it's a combination of:
1 - the desire to replicate the playing conditions in the UK without the "unfairness" of a "good" drive ending up in the cabbage.
 and
2 - the financial ability of the courses you are thinking about to maintain that acreage of fairway turf.

[Kyle Harris]

Brian,

Look at the fairway widths of earlier American designs... in many cases they were 70-100 yards wide in the 20s.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

It's difficult to generalise about British links course fairway widths and the severity of the rough.  It can often vary enormously from hole to hole - and I'd cite Royal County Down as a typical example.  We all know that TOC is a special case, but I played Elie on the Monday following the Open when the fairways were firm and fast in a breeze which at times reached 4-clubs and there was one torrential cloudburst (the rest of the round played in lovely sunshine).  The fairways were perfectly adequate for my inaccurate driving and even when the wind was at its strongest I didn't feel inhibited on the tee, yet perfect placement was required if the putting surface was to be found with the next shot.  To me, the wind made the approach shot (rather then the drive) so much harder to judge, especially with the several raised greens.  

At Conwy I should say that too many of the fairways are too generous in width, but the finish from the 16th is claustrophobic - possibly the narrowest I can think of.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Brian I am not sure it is either as well. I do find few examples in the UK links courses that do not have adequate fairways to account for the wind except a few championship links which keep their fairways tough all the time. Examples being Muirfield and Carnouste. I do find refreshing the courses in the US which have generous fairways to accomadate strategy and the wind. This is not a slap at the USGA either.

[Tom_Doak]

Brian:

I am always surprised when I go back overseas and see how narrow some of the fairways are.

Then again, with a few exceptions duly noted, the rough on those links is much thinner and it doesn't matter so much if you're out of the fairway.  In America, the rough is thicker and more uniform, and even they're cutting the bluegrass at two inches, it's harder to get your clubface on the ball than it is overseas.

One of the advantages that "classic" courses have over modern courses is many years of maturity and adjustment of the edges of the course.  The Brits have had 100 years to get the shrubbery cut back to make the course playable.  On new courses, we are likely to overcompensate and clear wider than we might, because if players are losing too many balls that first year, the course is branded as unfair and it will take a long time to overcome that reputation.

Of course it is easier to keep the fairways narrow if you have cool native plants to work with in the roughs, instead of trees.  Look at Bandon Trails ... the first and last few holes are fairly narrow because they knew people could find balls off the fairway.  The holes through the trees are probably twice as wide, partly because you need sunlight on the fairway and those trees were big, but also because it wouldn't be looked on too kindly if visitors were hacking their second shots out of the trees.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tom's remark about British rough is especially true of many courses with unwatered fairways, when it can be impossible to tell what is fairway and what is not during the summer months, standing on the tee.  But a desire to make courses look smarter (more like the tour venues, European and US, we see on TV weekly) is leading many clubs away from such vagueness, introducing fancy mowing patterns and all that stuff.  A great many links courses are following the example of the top ones and installing fairway watering and there is then no problem.

In general the grasses in seaside rough in the UK are longest and thickest in May and June.  They thin out a bit in July and in a dry summer may be all but disappeared by August.  Obviously, that does not apply to gorse and heather, which remain vicious at all times of the year.