Is heather a good hazard?

[Sean_A]

Bob

Heathlands have to be managed.   That more or less means keeping trees and gorse out.  I am amazed when I see clubs planting gorse - its daft.  I don't really know how or what type of trees would grow there naturally, but we know that at one time these were forested areas.  The heaths only occurred after human intervention of deforesting.  Looking at heathland courses now it is easy to see how they can become parkland very quickly using poor management practices. Its basically the same story with links.  Once the meadow grass creeps in it takes years of hard graft to encourage proper grasses to grow.   

I probably lean more toward more heather than you do because I want to see more than what exists today.  Generally speaking, these courses are fairly wide and getting wider with the move toward clearing out trees and undergrowth.  This movement to encourage fine grasses may be the most exciting thing in UK architecture this past 10 or so years. 

Ciao

[Niall C]

Bob

I agree with most comments here about heather, its basically veryb hard to control. At Glasgow Gailes for example its like a carpet on both sides and its no way even a given that you will find your ball. More often than not a side ways hack back onto the fairway is the only play. The lack of recovery options gets old very quickly.

In contrast other courses, like Silloth, the strength and reach of the heather is more variable. This brings chance more into play, and why not if you've hit it off the fairway, but also allows aggressive recovery shots on a lot of occasion. I may also add that the patchiness of the heather is more attractive to the eye as well.

Niall