Firm and Fast conditions get a lot of love on this site, but have you ever played a course that was too firm? Friends of mine played Timber Point over the weekend. I am sure most know the story of Timber Point, but it is a public course on the water on Long Island. My friend said he hit several 7 irons that landed short of the green and bounced 15 feet in the air and landed past the green without ever touching it. He also said the course looked good i.e. it wasnt just a dead parking lot. Should he have adjusted? Was this too firm?
I made one of my semi-annual trips to the UK last week and Ganton GC in Yorkshire was playing at least that firm. Notts GC Hollinwell was maybe a notch less bouncy but still nearly comparable to what your friend is describing. Without being too cute about it, I've got to say playing in that kind of conditions is a major reason I endure a day of airline misery each way and spend several thousand dollars making those trips.
That said, it depends greatly on whether the course and especially the green surroundings are laid out in a way that makes firm playing surfaces fun. You can certainly design a course in which the only practical way to approach the greens is by landing a ball all the way onto the green and then stopping it there. To build that type of course then firm it up severely takes all the fun out of the experience.
There was one hole at Ganton that played with slight variations on the theme of "straight downwind approach" all six times I played it (over three days). Sometimes the wind was quartering slightly from the left and sometimes slightly from the right but basically downwind anywhere from a 8mph-12mph breeze (except one windy round of 18 gusting 20+). A 5-iron approach from just inside 200 yards would land 20-30 yards short of the front of the green and bounce 6-8 feet high, either landing on the green (if aimed well) or in the greenside rough on the third or fourth hop. If it hit the green it would roll off the back every time. One time I was hitting my third shot (Par 4) from a "flyer" lie in the rough. I choked down on an 8-iron which is my 125 yard club even though I was 165 yards from the front edge of the green. The ball ended up 10 yards beyond the green and 3 yards into the rough.
I thought playing in breezy conditions with that kind of firmness was pure fun. On another hole I perfectly executed a shot from nearly 200 yards out with a 4-hybrid that had to land 15 yards right of the line to the flag and 20 yards short of the green in order to end up hole high on the far left fringe. I can't ever, ever play a shot like that at my home course. It's more fun than any possible shot involving hitting the ball as close as I can to the hole and stopping it two feet from its ball mark, in other words the shot I play a hundred times a month at my home course.