Diagonal Tee shots

[Cristian]

I am a lover of diagonal tee shots; bite off as much as you can chew, entice golfers to shape their shots, perhaps even beyond their talents. Examples? Machrihanish 1, Old Mac 9, Ballybunion 16, Noordwijk 15. Which are your favourites? Bonus points for pictures!

Emirates no. 8:

[Alex Miller]

It's not my picture, but pretty sure this is the granddaddy of them all....

[Mac Plumart]

I think this type of tee shot is one of Pete Dye's favorites.

[Cristian]

This one may look familiar?

I think the fun thing is the angle does not NEED to be 45 degrees to start to make you think...

[George Freeman]

Posted this earlier in another thread - Cassique #15 - great diagonal options from the tee

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mac,
What makes that kind of tee shot (the one in your photo) appealing to me is the tremendous latitude it affords a player. You need to take care in judging the distance to the scrub bordering the left side of the fairway, the carry over the water, and the hazard on the right, but the width created by the angle of the fairway allows for every type of tee shot to have a chance for success, and that allows the average player to see the obvious hazards as surmountable while still giving the better player a chance to test himself.
  
That's good stuff.  

[Jim Nugent]

This one may look familiar?

Which hole is this? 

[Harris Nepon]

Cristian,

I'm all over this. I don't have pictures to show, but I'm a big fan of the risk/reward tee shot. I love pulling off the huge drive that cuts off chunks of the hole.

The best I can think of relevant to this forum is #18 at Sand Hills from the back left tee deck. Hug the left side of the hole and cut off as much as you can. Pray you don't go in the blow outs on the left.

[Mike Cirba]

The Grand-daddy of them all in the US is the 4th hole at Myopia Hunt Club.

I have a very old vintage pic of it, but need to get it scanned.

As good as the diagonal first shot is, the challenge of the diagonal second shot might be even better...it's a superb hole.

[Jeff_Mingay]

I know I have a picture somewhere, but not enough time to search for it at the moment...

#1 at Sand Hills features a really cool diagonal tee shot.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

No 8 Royal West Norfolk. Someone posted photos of it recently.

[Matt Bosela]

Sand Hills has a bunch of them and in my opinion, the two best diagonal tee shots on that course haven't been mentioned yet: the par four 15th and the par five 16th.

The 15th gives you the option of bailing out left but it will leave you with a completely blind second shot over a large dune.  You really need to hug the right side and flirt with the huge bunker complex on the right to give yourself an open look at the flagstick.

Similar strategy abounds on the 16th tee.  The fairway is incredibly wide here and the easy play is to just hit the tee ball toward the fairway bunker on the right.  However, a bolder option exists if you hug the left side and flirt with the deep bunkers over there, as there is a significant kicker slope that will propel the ball perhaps an extra 50+ yards down the fairway if you land it in the right spot.

[archie_struthers]

#6 at Pine Valley is a great example , you can hit it from 125 to 245 in the air and clear the hazard , it's all about the angle here. Moreover , hitting it too far just might be worse than in the pit in front of the tee....no swing baby

[Kevin Lynch]

Bethpage Black is practically a case study in Diagonal landing areas.  I love that you have to consider more than just "how far left or right can I go", but also control your overall distances depending on the line chosen.

#5 - One of the best Par 4s in the World, with the reward for challenging the diagonal is clear on the second shot.  Playing safe left forces you to pull off a long draw on your second.



#4 - Angle comes into play on the Tee Shot, as well as the 2nd



#2 - Really need to shape the ball to take advantage of the angle here.  Many missed Draw Attempts leave either a hanging lie or punch out of trees:


#13 - If you want to get home in two, you need to play the angle down the right side - Long and Straight just puts you in the left rough.

From tee:


A little further up the fairway:



There are others like #6, #7, #9, and #12, (and 15-16 to a lesser extent) but I don't have any good pictures to illustrate.  I'm sure many in the Met Area could fill us in some more.

One of the unfortunate by-products of the "length obsession" is that the effects of these diagonal landing areas are reduced.  By moving tees back 40-60 yards, the possibility of driving "through" the landing area is almost removed, eliminating the need to shape your shot or challenge the insides of the angles.

[Bill Seitz]

The 14th at Rustic Canyon is a good one.  From the tips at 480 yards, there's not much of an option other than to go straight away at the fairway.  But if you move 40-50 yards up to the blue tees, you can either play right of the tree, which is a 220 yard carry leaving an approach of roughly 190 yards, or left of the tree, which brings the waste area into play.  It's a 245 yard carry to the fairway at that point, but leaves an approach of just over 110 yards or so.  I haven't played it in years, so I can't remember if you can go directly over the tree or not, but the carry there would be about 230 yards and would leave about 155 yards in. 

Ran's write-up and pictures of the whole describe it pretty well.  It looks like you could go over the trees when the picture was taken, and I doubt they've grown much since then.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/rustic-canyon-golf-course/rustic-canyon-golf-course-page-2/pg-3

[Mark McKeever]

My first thought when reading the title here was Bethpage Black.  Good explanations Kevin!  Especially holes 2,5,12,16. 

My reasoning for 16 is as follows.  Its not as much of an angle as say hole 12, but the downhill nature of the tee shot leads you to believe you can aim it up over the left rough and make the fairway relatively easily.  But, you better rip it if youre aiming up the left edge!

Mark

[Kyle Harris]

Unfortunately, the fairway widths maintained at Bethpage Black pretty much have eliminated any aspect of diagonal, left or right.

That picture of five just brings a tear to my eye. The fairway is missing a full ten to twenty steps on the left edge.

[Mark McKeever]

Kyle,

Regardless of how narrow, you still have the strategy of hitting a diagonal fairway.  Its just harder to hit.

Mark

[J Sadowsky]

The 14th at Rustic Canyon is a good one.  From the tips at 480 yards, there's not much of an option other than to go straight away at the fairway.  But if you move 40-50 yards up to the blue tees, you can either play right of the tree, which is a 220 yard carry leaving an approach of roughly 190 yards, or left of the tree, which brings the waste area into play.  It's a 245 yard carry to the fairway at that point, but leaves an approach of just over 110 yards or so.  I haven't played it in years, so I can't remember if you can go directly over the tree or not, but the carry there would be about 230 yards and would leave about 155 yards in. 

Ran's write-up and pictures of the whole describe it pretty well.  It looks like you could go over the trees when the picture was taken, and I doubt they've grown much since then.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/rustic-canyon-golf-course/rustic-canyon-golf-course-page-2/pg-3

This.

[Tom_Doak]

The first course that popped to mind for me was Shinnecock Hills.

[Matt_Ward]

Kyle:

You are spot on regarding BB -- not only is the 5th a mess with the width -- but the 12th is no better -- the desire to cut-off the hole has been lost with the rough grass cut that has been allowed to grow too far out.

One other thing -- the 4th is only a diagonal tee shot if you have plenty of pop in your tee game to challenge the bunker. For most mortals the only play is out to the right.

[Eric Smith]

Played quite a few of 'em this weekend. Two that stand out are #1 & #18 at Secession.

1.


18.

[Cristian]

This one may look familiar?

Which hole is this? 

Koninklijke Haagsche GC no. 15 (featured the last few weeks on the opening page of GCA.com...)

[Kyle Harris]

Kyle,

Regardless of how narrow, you still have the strategy of hitting a diagonal fairway.  Its just harder to hit.

Mark

Mark:

The rub with the original width is the golfer had the option to completely circumvent the diagonal hazard. Here, while there is the so-called oblique angle, the hazard MUST be confronted. There is no safe temptation with the narrower fairway. The only question posed is one of execution, not strategy.

[Joe Bausch]

This wasn't a bad one wouldn't you say TomD?

The tee shot on the par 5 7th at Beechtree (NLE):