News:

Welcome to the Golf Club Atlas Discussion Group!

Each user is approved by the Golf Club Atlas editorial staff. For any new inquiries, please contact us.


Jeff Schley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« on: February 01, 2018, 02:36:35 PM »
Not talking clubhouse, but actually on the course. What is the weirdest of most unique feature you recall existing?

For me I was playing in the Philippines and they added an electric fence to one of the holes to keep the monkeys out of the course as they would come onto the fairway and steal your ball after hitting it.  One of our caddies, which were all ladies, went out onto the edge of the fairway before we hit as well.

I didn't see any monkeys actually, but after I hit I saw a couple 8-9 year old's run onto the course and pick up my playing partners ball.  The caddie tried to chase them but oh well this is what they meant about monkeys I guess. They entered the course from another location apparently as I didn't test the electric fence needless to say.

A friend from Texas said he played a course that had an old junk car in the middle of the fairway for years.  Not sure where that was, but I guess it was a poor mans tree that didn't need water or maintenance.
"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice your gifts."
- Steve Prefontaine

John Kavanaugh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2018, 02:52:20 PM »
I loved Fossil Trace in Denver. Stupid fun with the emphasis on stupid. You'd love it because it feels like home on Illinois street.


https://www.fossiltrace.com

Ira Fishman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2018, 02:56:18 PM »
http://www.whiskeycreekgolf.com/golfcourse

Not a bad course.  Ridiculous idea for an 18th hole.

Ira

Kalen Braley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2018, 03:03:08 PM »
Antler Springs near Spokane, WA.


Wish I still had my photobucket account... but they have a short par 4 with a crescent moon shaped green surrounded by sand.  Tiny target, and certainly very unusual.  More quirk than I ever seen on a golf course.  It was a home built job by a local guy...


http://www.antlersprings.com/

Tim Leahy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2018, 04:19:21 PM »
I loved Fossil Trace in Denver. Stupid fun with the emphasis on stupid. You'd love it because it feels like home on Illinois street.


https://www.fossiltrace.com


Chimney in the middle of the fairway just for starters. LOL.


Bing Maloney muni here in Sacto has airport lights cutting down a faiway.
In Socal several courses have oil wells in play.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2018, 04:24:49 PM by Tim Leahy »
I love golf, the fightin irish, and beautiful women depending on the season and availability.

Nate Oxman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2018, 05:37:13 PM »
There is, or at least was, a public course in Virginia, I think, that had a bunch of unique holes. I remember from the website that one was a baseball diamond.

V. Kmetz

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2018, 06:27:39 PM »
It's not a design thing, but the few bits of statuary in the bunkers at Morefar (Back o Beyond) as well as C.V Starr's grave behind the 15th tee (and the story of what they did to bury him there) give that sense of Goth horror to a place straight out of mythic secret.


cheers   vk
"The tee shot must first be hit straight and long between a vast bunker on the left which whispers 'slice' in the player's ear, and a wilderness on the right which induces a hurried hook." -

Bret Lawrence

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2018, 07:06:25 PM »
Across the reservoir from Morefar is Richter Park in Danbury, CT which has hazards on the 15th and 16th holes made of quick humus, similar to quicksand. Not a good place to look for lost balls! :)




Matt Wharton

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2018, 08:08:45 PM »
There is, or at least was, a public course in Virginia, I think, that had a bunch of unique holes. I remember from the website that one was a baseball diamond.
The course is Meadows Farms and it's 27 holes just west of Fredericksburg, VA.  There are three sets of 9's and each possess unique characteristics with one being gimmicky holes (a la the baseball diamond par 3).  Played there once around 2001 or 2002 but did not play that particular nine.  I did play the nine that boasts the longest hole in the United States, a par 6 of 841 yards http://www.meadowsfarmsgolfcourse.com/-about-golf-course.


However, the weirdest feature on a golf course that I recall was at Scott County Park Golf Course, a 9-hole course just outside Gate City, VA. The course sat on top of a ridge and the fairways were severely crowned.  Along the edge of the woods adjoining the holes was a short fence (about 2-3 feet in height) made of chicken wire.  The fence was there to prevent balls from rolling into the woods and out of bounds.  The local rule was you took relief from the chicken wire fence within two club lengths without penalty.  A ball not stopped by the fence was OB and stroke and distance was the penalty.  Lots of divots and very little turf within about a carts width within the chicken wire fence. Different.


Cheers,



Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG
Idle Hour CC
Lexington, KY

Sean_A

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2018, 08:23:58 PM »
I think the weirdest thing I have seen on (above!) a golf course is a par 5 on Swansea Bay (the 12th?) which plays under an exit ramp of the M4. 

Ciao
New plays planned for 2024: Nothing

Greg Gilson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2018, 09:00:30 PM »

The Hills in Queenstown NZ. Course is littered with a hundreds of the owner (Jeweller, Michael Hill)'s outdoor sculptures.


Cannot decide if the sculptures ruin the course or the other way around.

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2018, 09:46:22 PM »



Red Course at Dar Es Salam in Rabat, Morocco
Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2018, 09:55:03 PM »
The great sea rushes at Westward Ho! don't seem to exist on any other course I ever seen. Can't find my picture.
Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2018, 10:21:56 AM »
Otway
2 fairways


9 holes
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Dave Doxey

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2018, 10:35:03 AM »
18th at Whiskey Creek in MD has the ruins of a stone house in the middle of the fairway, about where most drives end up.  Play the second shot to the par 5 to the left or right of the ruins (or through the window opening).

Joe Zucker

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #15 on: February 02, 2018, 12:02:36 PM »
There is, or at least was, a public course in Virginia, I think, that had a bunch of unique holes. I remember from the website that one was a baseball diamond.
The course is Meadows Farms and it's 27 holes just west of Fredericksburg, VA.  There are three sets of 9's and each possess unique characteristics with one being gimmicky holes (a la the baseball diamond par 3).  Played there once around 2001 or 2002 but did not play that particular nine.  I did play the nine that boasts the longest hole in the United States, a par 6 of 841 yards http://www.meadowsfarmsgolfcourse.com/-about-golf-course.


However, the weirdest feature on a golf course that I recall was at Scott County Park Golf Course, a 9-hole course just outside Gate City, VA. The course sat on top of a ridge and the fairways were severely crowned.  Along the edge of the woods adjoining the holes was a short fence (about 2-3 feet in height) made of chicken wire.  The fence was there to prevent balls from rolling into the woods and out of bounds.  The local rule was you took relief from the chicken wire fence within two club lengths without penalty.  A ball not stopped by the fence was OB and stroke and distance was the penalty.  Lots of divots and very little turf within about a carts width within the chicken wire fence. Different.


Cheers,


The pictures of that hole are incredible.  If I were designing it, I would have put the green on the other side of the fence so I could feel like I'm hitting a home run!

Wade Whitehead

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2018, 05:27:17 PM »
I didn't know about the ruins before I played Spring Island's Old Tabby Links.  Walking up on them was a surprise.

WW

Pete_Pittock

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2018, 10:33:30 PM »

there is some course in eastlowthiun that had a freakin wall beween the fairway and the green. And that wasn't the only thing I saw there. But it's been more than 40 years and my mind is a fadin.


There is metal statue of something in the middle of #8? at John Day GC. Gotta research and get back on.

Chris Mavros

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2018, 10:40:08 PM »
Scotland Run in NJ, which has an airplane in one of its bunkers.


Cal Seifert

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2018, 10:50:20 PM »
Useppa Island Club once had a tee box on a boat that sat a few yards off the shore.  There's a picture of it but I could not find it on google search.

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #20 on: February 03, 2018, 09:40:07 AM »
Manufacturers in Philly


Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #21 on: February 03, 2018, 10:40:44 AM »


 the fairways were severely crowned.  Along the edge of the woods adjoining the holes was a short fence (about 2-3 feet in height) made of chicken wire.  The fence was there to prevent balls from rolling into the woods and out of bounds.  The local rule was you took relief from the chicken wire fence within two club lengths without penalty.  A ball not stopped by the fence was OB and stroke and distance was the penalty.  Lots of divots and very little turf within about a carts width within the chicken wire fence. Different.


Cheers,
[/quote


#7 at Goat Hill has this exact feature-in summer the "fairways" get so fast there's nothing to stop the ball so any ball center to right of center will roll against the saving fence.
There are holes in the fense those and along hitter can go past it and roll OB.
Previously you could still play the hole by driving left toward 8 fairway and the ball would finish center to right center(ideal position for a peek at the blind green) Alas defined rough has ruined that option
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

BCrosby

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #22 on: February 03, 2018, 10:47:32 AM »
The ski ramp (NLE) that once ran down the middle of the 18th fairway on the Dartmouth College course.


Another: The Stationmaster's Garden.


Bob

Terry Lavin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #23 on: February 03, 2018, 11:51:28 AM »
I didn't know about the ruins before I played Spring Island's Old Tabby Links.  Walking up on them was a surprise.

WW


I was forewarned but I still think it’s one of the most surprising and enjoyable relic I’ve ever seen on a golf course. It really helps emphasize a sense of history, wholly unrelated to the game.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.  H.L. Mencken

JLahrman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Weirdest feature on a golf course?
« Reply #24 on: February 03, 2018, 12:00:04 PM »
I don't know that it's that weird but there have to be courses that have electric transmission or distribution lines in play. Hickory Woods outside Cincinnati has a transmission tower in play on the fifth hole if you push your tee shot.

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back