Chocolate drop mounds

[Rob Miller]

Doing some of my 'required reading' for these boards, and am going through Geoff Shackelford's, The Golden Age of Golf Design.  In the opening pages he refers to the earliest US design as "primitive and sometimes downright freakish with...chocolate drop mounds and grave-shaped hazards."

As delicious as it sounds, looking at the old photos, large mounds coming out of the bunker look comically bad.  Just curious if anyone knows if it was an American invention or imported from across the pond.  Are there any still in existence? 

[Bill_McBride]

Jack Nicklaus has designed a lot of chocolate drop mounds.    Grand Cypress near Orlando and Loxahatchee in Jupiter, FL come to mind.

I just looked at web sites for those clubs and there are no photos of such mounds.  Wonder if they've been removed?

[Pete Lavallee]

Many New England courses piled the rocks that littered their sites and covered them with earth; very efficient and effective if done right. Check out the pictures in the Kittansett profile. If Rees built mounds like those he would be worshipped and not villifed.

[Jaeger Kovich]

Quaker Ridge has a few of them, but I dont believe they are original. The members absolutely despise them!

[Paul OConnor]

Olympia Fields South course was just redone with lots of chocolate drops.  Not really my favorite feature, but they do make for some interesting shots if you get tangled up in them.

[Tim Gavrich]

Many of Geoffrey Cornish's courses have them.  They're alright by me.  Lester George's "Dragon's Teeth" at Old White are pretty cool as well.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tilly employed mounding on many of his early works beginning with Shawnee. Some of these were of the "chocolate drop" variety and he referred to them that way. This didn't last for long as by about 1915 he stopped using this TYPE of mound design. In 1917, in his advertising booklet "Planning a Golf Course" he included a drawing of "Types of closely cropped and glaringly artificial mounds; now generally referred to as "Chocolate Drops" in ridicule."



Tilly would emply the use of various types and styles of moundings throughout his career.

 

[Derek Dirksen]

They certainly don't look very natural.

[Kyle Harris]

They're wonderful when used correctly.

Bunkers don't look natural either.

[Pete_Pittock]

Front right of TPC Sawgrass 18th.
The 18th at Old Macdonald provide punch to the bowl.

[Greg Holland]

Mimosa Hills in Morganton, NC has some that are very cool.  Maybe Kris Spence can add some commentary about them. 

[PCCraig]

They are a major feature of TCC in brookline. Gil Hanse did his best to imitate them in his redesign/new england-ification of TPC - boston.

[Wade Whitehead]

The drops on the Redan (#8) at the Old White are lovely.

WW

[Patrick Hodgdon]

Ross used them at Interlachen on a few holes. He had 5-6 between the 6th and 10th fairways that have now been removed.

There are two prominent ones remaining both on the front right side of greens, one on the par-5 4th hole and one on the par-5 9th hole. (#18 at the '08 Women's Open)

I'll see if I have any pictures of them somewhere.

[Sean_A]

I used to hate the idea of chocolate drops.  Now, when used well and sparingly - meaning more in the middle of the park rather than framing from the wings - I really like them.  Of course, its nice if they are bit varied in their appearance as well.  A more rugged alpinization look often looks okay. 

Ciao

[Gary Slatter]

Panmure has two huge ones which are fun.  McBroom did some in his Nicklaus phase in Collingwood on Monterra Course. 
I dislike chocolate drop mounds that are covered with dense grass which eats golf balls with no shot options.  I'd like to think they were created to hide rocks or debris but with a flare.

[Emil Weber]

To be honest - I don't know how anyone who's a fan of "natural" courses can be so in love with chocolate drop mounds. In most landscapes they look absolutely unnatural and contrived, in my opinion. Just not my cup of tea 

One exception is when they're placed where the make sense - like Sean described. but they still look ugly