One of the primary things I seek to accomplish on this site is to understand and articulate why I like some golf courses and why I find other courses lacking by comparison. One course is a good case study.
The course in many ways should be my ideal. The fairways are wide and rough is only a significant hazard at the perimeter. The course has interesting greens with wonderful surrounds cut at fairway height. The course is exposed to the wind, making it play differently every day. The course usually plays firm and fast.
I really like the members and staff at the club. Nonetheless, I always find the course disappointing and a bit boring. I have struggled to understand why. In thinking about the course this week, I think I identified the problem.
On the first hole, the green is designed to reward placement of the tee shot on the left side of the fairway. The fairway bunker is on the right.
On the second hole, the green is designed to reward placement of the tee shot on the right side of the fairway but the fairway bunkers are on the left.
A similar, but in some cases more nuanced, analysis can be made on 11 of the 14 par fours and fives. Bailing out off the tee (or on the 2nd shot on a par five) usually is rewarded with an easier approach shot (although sometimes the distance increase poses an interesting dilemma)
I have learned to play well on the course by taking a conservative line off the tee. I like such a hole as a change up, but a repeated diet of such holes makes for unsatisfying golf.
I think a much better approach would be to place fairway hazards in locations that challenge the ideal line into the green. A simple way of doing that would be to determine where players aim off the tee and move the fairway bunker to that location.