Todeswand

[Marty Bonnar]

Or actually, Todeswand(en).

On our recent 'cultural' (read, BEER!) trip to Germany, we attended the utterly fabulous Oktoberfest. This celebration of the hop/yeast/water mix is simply the best fun you can have looking at the bottom of a litre beer glass from the inside.

Outside of the HUGE drinking marquees is an equally HUGE funfair.

Among the usual hair-raising wild yahoos, there are stalls of very varying interest. I saw a 'Mouse Circus', an old-style Boxing Booth and much other weirdness.

One of my good pals is a Bike-freak. He LOVES motorcycles. So much so that he found the best job in the world for him. He sells them for a living...

He has been going on at me for ages about 'The Wall of Death'. Insisting that I should see one before I die, he was delighted when we found out that they still exist in less Health and Safety-conscious circumstances such as those found at European Street Fairs.

We duly sought out the 'Todeswand', as it is called in the Deutsch, paid our Drei Euros and went inside. Amid the stench of unburned petrol, in the dim light and loud rumble of old 'Indian' engines, we witnessed a most beguiling, enchanting and downright SCARY sight.

Blokes whirred around this timber wall at 40mph or so on old motorbikes. So what? SO, they were standing, in reverse, waving to the crowd, three in a row, up and down around and around, even freaking BLINDFOLD! Brave, brave, crazy guys......I was gob-smacked.

So, what on earth is the Fat Boy going on about now?

Todeswanden....on golf courses, of course!

I couldn't help but think of wonderful, splendid walls of death which I have encountered with a golf ball. TOC 2nd green over there on the right hand side, the fifth, the front of the 17th and most especially, that MAD front of the tenth. What fun. Precise judgement required when the flag is just over the lip of the 'Todeswand', but if you get it right, what reward!

Todeswanden - I hope you enjoy them as much as I. A Great, great, great design element. Long live the Todeswand!

 
FBD.

[JESII]

Best I've seen is #2 on the C-nine at Huntingdon Vallet here in Philadelphia...the topper is that it's on the ass end of two shotter that askes for a 220 yard tee shot then a 200 yard approach...uphill!

Some of my local boys will surely chime in about this hole, but the deal is...from about 3 yards onto the green and shorter the ball filters back anywhere from 30 - 50 yards...I love it!

[JESII]

By the way...not sure if this is really what you were fishing for, but I figured I'd give it a shot...

[Marty Bonnar]

Jim,
I know sometimes I can be perhaps a little obtuse, but in this case you are right on the money!

Yours was a fine example. I could picture the shot. That exquisite moment of expectation as the ball is in the air.

Oh yes, I'm loving that shot. It's perfect. The ball lands. For a moment, it looks like it might just survive. Then you realise, you were just a little timid with the club. I should have hit it just a bit harder or maybe a smidgin over there to the right or a bit longer to be REALLY safe...

That element of slight indecision adds way more to the game than simple yes/no answers.

FBD.

[James Bennett]

Martin

Riviera's 6th (the par 3 with the bunker in the green) is a real 'circle of death'.  The ability to use the slope of the green  to get to the hole from the wrong spot has been described on GCA before.

JES II

I think the aspect of C-2 and A-7 (the par 5?) to bank the ball off the right side and letting it gather towards a left hand hole is more in keeping with FBD's idea.  

James B

[JESII]

JB,

I read "walls of death" as something a bit more dire than a feeder slope...

[JESII]

JB and Martin,

Maybe my example is too severe...I don't really know because I've never been to TOC and I've never been inside a building in which a bunch of crazies are using the wall as a road with their cycles...

If so, #14 at HVCC is pretty good...

[Marty Bonnar]

JB and Martin,

Maybe my example is too severe...I don't really know because I've never been to TOC and I've never been inside a building in which a bunch of crazies are using the wall as a road with their cycles...

If so, #14 at HVCC is pretty good...

Jim,
a situation I really hope you will amend in the nearest future...accom is always available in Fife for fellow GCAers...

You and JB are not too far apart here actually. I always see the best Todeswanden as being those which will repel either the timid or the indecisive, but not punish too severely the bold or inexact. Either play will still maybe cost you a shot, but it might still only be a short pitch or a long putt.

In other words, a SKILLFUL shot will be best rewarded.

FBD.

[Mark Bourgeois]

a little different, but what about the Dell Hole or 11 Alwoodley -- at least the right slope?

Also, if the pin is in a certain location on Yale 10, you literally roll the ball around the bowl!

[James Bennett]

Sully

you can 'die' on the front of HV C-2.  You can also die on Rolling Green #8 is a similar style.  Although St Andrew's Beach #9 is probably more severe again.

Re HVCC #14 (B-5 I presume) - is this it?  What was the key feature - I can't recall.  Too late in a long day for me to remember.



James B

[JESII]

JB,

Actually a fortuitous picture you've got there...

For others, this is the green on our #1 handicap hole...420 or so from the mens tees, and 475 from the tips...

That particular pin demands an extremely accurate approach with a long club. There is a false front on the right half of the green that greatly protects this particular hole. You can play to the left and gain a bit of depth to leave a reasoable putt, but to get anywhere near the hole you must hit a great, great shot.

In fact, this is the case for this pin no matter which shot you are hitting.

We host a nice regional amateur event each summer. In his amateur days Jay Sigel would play occassionally and as you would expect, contended most of those times.

He came to this hole well in contention (possibly in the lead, I don't remember) and hit a conservative second well past and left of the hole (probably 20 feet behind those three fat guys...). His first putt was looking right at that fall off so was understandably short. What he failed to pick up on was the fact that the ball actually broke a bit to the right despite the creek/valley being to his left.

He read his 7 footer for par a bit outside right and as it broke a bit to the right and refused to let friction effect it, the ball went cruising down off the front of the green leading to a 6 footer for double bogey and a near miss in the tournament.


In that image you can see that there is no ground visible to the left of the pin for a good 40 yards...although the ball only goes 10 - 15 feet off the green...

[Tony_Muldoon]

Martin I’ve posted these before and (I Believe) even used the wall of death analogy. Braid found this valley in an early municipal course (Hainault Forrest). The pictures give you little idea of how smoothly the fairway runs round to the right with a wall of grass to aim at.  If your tee shot gets too low on the wall then it will fall ssooo far your next shot will be obscured by trees.  Great thrills.  

If I had a Fazio budget then I’d build this hole in Vegas and Id become famous.

[James Bennett]

If I had a Fazio budget then I’d build this hole in Vegas and Id become famous.

Tony

you are already famous.  and in such a short time, despite only having 50% of meaningful posts (or is that 40%).

Of course, you might become RICH and famous if you build this hole in Las Vegas.  But, honestly now, how many of us really want to become rihc?

(not one of my top 10 posts)

James B

[Kyle Harris]

Huntingdon Valley CC, C-2, Approach

[Marty Bonnar]

Tony,
apologies for nicking your idea!

I am really enjoying seeing these various 'Wanden. What's becoming apparent is that there is a nice range of scales for them. From the big slopy rolling fairway ones to the teeny, but potentially deadly greenside. There is 'A Wand for all Seasons', indeed.

FBD.

[Kyle Harris]

Sully

you can 'die' on the front of HV C-2.  You can also die on Rolling Green #8 is a similar style.  Although St Andrew's Beach #9 is probably more severe again.

Re HVCC #14 (B-5 I presume) - is this it?  What was the key feature - I can't recall.  Too late in a long day for me to remember.



James B

HOLY LORD... I'm like half that size now.

[JohnV]

I remember going to one of these in Southend-on-Sea as a kid.  It was a permanent one as opposed to a traveling show.  Perhaps because I was a kid it seemed bigger than the videos I see on the net.

There are still a couple of them around and videos can be found by googling "wall of death motorcyles".  There is one that was at Bike Week in Daytona Beach this year.  There is even a physics paper from the Mahanakorn University of Technology in Bangkok which describes how it works and has a loop of frames showing a car.

I just noticed that you can go to E-Bay between now and 12:25 tomorrow and buy plans for building a Wall of Death Motorcycle show.
Plans


The 6th hole at Shannopin Country Club has a fairway that is very similar to the third picture that Tony posted, although they softened it a few years ago.

[Tony_Muldoon]

John proving it's a small, small workld. Hainault Forrest GC is in Essex about 25 miles from Southend.