[Tim Bert]

I have seen plenty of photos and television of TOC, but I've never been there and I can't claim to be an expert on the course.

Can anyone confirm that there is neither water nor trees in play on the course?

Are there any courses that rank amongst the best in the world that can lay claim to only having one (or none for bouns points) of the three - sand, water, and trees - in play?  If TOC does indeed only have sand, then are there any others?  

[Chris Parker]

No water?  What about the Swilcan Burn?  Or do you mean ponds?

[Tim Bert]

Doh!  Pardon me for overlooking the obvious.  I was so focused on thinking whether the coast ever came into play that I didn't think about the Burn right in front of the very first green!

My question stands for other courses...

[Doug Siebert]

Well, it depends on your opinion of where a plant stops being a bush and starts being a tree.  Some of those gorse bushes especially those to the left of #10 are pretty damn big, and a hell of a lot worse than just about any trees of any size.

TOC may not have any true trees, but its got a wider variety of hazards that just about anything else.  You've got the burn, bunkers galore, a fair bit of gorse, OB that includes multi-acre putting greens populated by children and old ladies, driving ranges, hotels, rows of parked cars and city streets.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I was going to chime in with Royal Liverpool until I remembered the trees pn the left of the 6th which are a significant factor in play.  Then there's Royal St George's which is spoiled by the 14th which has the Suez Canal.  There are trees at Lytham, ditches at Birkdale, even the odd tree or two.  Bother, there's a pond on Royal County Down, trees at Muirfield, ditches at Saunton, the sea behind the 5th green at Portrush, Gyaws Burn at Troon, the sea at Turnberry.... I'm sure I'll think of one, but maybe not today.

[TEPaul]

Listen fellows, when it comes to hazards, in the old days I was delighted while reading some of the very old rules of golf to see the mention in one set of rules of "wash tubs and drying clothes". Now there was an interesting hazard. Just think how adjustable it could be during tournament day. But I was disappointed to see that in some burst of leniency they made those wash tubs sand drying clothes obstacles from which free relief could be taken. That must have been when golf began to be a game for whimps. Before free relief can't you just see Lord Playfair taking out his his implement for the purpose and whacking the left sleeve off someone's shirt during a great recovery shot?  

[Tony_Muldoon]

Tom I think it was an early example of concern for the players Health and Safety turning golf into "a game for wimps".  In those days animals used to keep the grass short and occasionally ye olde feathery would land in the s%&@.  When this was close to the linen flaping in the breeze one of the washer women would appear and say "Play that as it lies and I'll break your  *)"($!!! neck".

Hence some fop came up with the idea of free relief.

[Tony_Muldoon]

This is very close to something I've been wondering for some time.  If all the golf courses in Scotland were originally only played in winter after the animals had eaten off the grass and the farming and fishing life was dormant, when did the first rough appear on a golf course?  The only hazards would have been walls, roads, dunes, burns, whins, rabbit holes, sand and boggy bits - but no rough?

(I accept marram grasses on dunes were unplayable) but when was rough first seen as a hazard on a golfing ground?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tony, Remember those old challenge matches when one golfer would challenge another to playing between one pub and another (perhaps 5 miles distant) with all ditches, hedges and whatever else in play?  They played a few of these in Wodehouse's stories, but they were clearly based on real challenges.

[Paul Payne]

Sand Hills,

No trees, no water.

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