[TEPaul]

I guess I would have to say after all this time that almost always my favorite types of golf holes and golf courses are when tee shots and other shots have some very DISTINCT  choices and when a hole might not even have a "middle", or a particularly "identifiable middle" for whatever reason!

Probably next come holes and courses where it doesn't take long to realize that the "middle" might definitely not be the place to be even if it is unencumbered.

Least favorite, I think, is when the "middle" is never a bad place to be!

There are certainly many instances of cross bunkers or other features that make even the "middle" a variable choice simply because of some distance consideration.

It probably sounds simplistic, and I guess it is, but it could be one of the reasons with tee shots and other shots I like NGLA so much!

And I'm thinking of all the holes I know on other courses anywhere where the "middle" either isn't or isn't always the place to be. I can't really think of a hole like that right now that I don't like.

The more I think about the concept the more I think Max Behr and his concept of "lines of charm" had to be on to something really valid and maybe quite simple in a general sense! In a way his concept sort of forced golfers to make choices--to practice strategies--there really wasn't any other way.

For those who aren't completely familiar with Behr, his idea was to create "lines of charm" (other routes) by placing something that needed to be avoided right in the very place that he called the "golfer's line of instinct", which in many cases was right in the "middle"!

[Dan Herrmann]

I think "Lines of Charm" is a very interesting concept that should be revisited.

Was Behr correct with the "lines of charm" idea?

I, for one, think he's made an excellent point.

[Tom_Doak]

Tom:

One of my favorite tee shots I've ever built, and one that more players seem to have trouble with than any other, is the third hole at High Pointe, a long par-4.  The fairway is down in a valley that runs slightly from left to right, and the green is back up on a hill so you can see it clearly from the tee down the right edge of the treeline. 

There are a couple of bunkers on the outside of the fairway on the left, which you don't want to aim at because you can go in them ... so most people just unconsciously aim at the flag and wind up in the right rough, because the fairway is offset from the beeline.

I have gone back on a couple of recent designs and tried to do more of this ... starting the fairway from the left or right, instead of having it run back toward the tee.  On open ground, you can just put the tee off-line to the fairway, but when you have to clear vegetation to make the fairway it's much harder to remember to start it at an angle, and I think that's why you don't see it very often.

[Bill_McBride]

This can be overdone, but I really like a hole where the fairway runs almost at right angles to the tee shot, like a cape hole in the generally accepted rather than correct Bahto definition.

A good example is the 12th hole at LaCumbre in Santa Barbara.  The tee is on a peninsula that sticks out into that big lake, and the fairway runs right to left in front of you.  The farther left you go, the closer you are to the green of this 530 yard par 5, but the more lake you have to carry.

You can play it too safe and play too far right, because the fairway narrows about 120 yards out with trees right and the lake left, so picking the right line off the tee - one you can carry safely! - is the critical decision on the hole.

#14 at Rustic Canyon is another example of this kind of hole.  In this case it's a big par 4 that can be a short iron second with a very bold tee shot or a 3-wood second if you bail out safely way right.

[Paul_Turner]

Tom

But there must be lots of great, straight, holes where being in the middle of the fairway is never a bad thing: Pine Valley 2nd...

I guess most straight away par 4/5 holes could be made more strategically interesting by adding center line bunkers but surely that could get over done.  And isn't there something appealing in having some holes that just ask you to hit two or three straight shots.

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