Tillinghast's Great Hazard

[MCirba]

Interestingly, I was unable to find an instance of the Great Hazard on 7 at Pine Valley being called "Hell's Half Acre" until the 1960s in a search of old newspapers.

The same search led me to learn that the term itself often was used to refer to particularly notorious or rough sections of cities or burbs where crime and presumably poverty would flourish.

Even more interestingly related to golf, I learned that there was a "Hells' Half Acre" sandy hazard at a golf course in Hawaii at the Haleiwa Hotel as early in 1904.   

[Ed Brzezowski]

I thought the one at Baltimore CC is also the hole where you can drive the ball over the maintenance building which makes the hazard inconsequential although I may be wrong.  There is also one at Ridgewood which can definitely come into play.

That building ate my drive. But the hole does have a nasty bunker complex. A fellow competitor did fly the building but still had to deal with the bunkers in question.

[Matt Frey, PGA]

I was really impressed with the Great Hazard No. 14 at Baltimore's Five Farms East Course.

I thought its placement was perfect as it really makes golfers think about their layup shot. It is far enough back from the green that most people won't layup short of the Great Hazard, but far enough up that if the golfer is playing to a specific layup yardage, they will have to hit their shot square as not to end up in the Great Hazard.

[Andy Johnson]

Figured I would give everyone some teasers of my post that will go up on my site this afternoon. But here are some great shots of some great hazards across the country. Many thanks to Jon Cavalier for help with the photos.


Streamsong Blue



Somerset Hills





Old Sandwich 9th





Dormie Club 17th





Philly Cricket Club 7th

[Andy Johnson]

Here's the final work. Big time thank you to Jon, his photos make this thing look way better than I would ever be able to put together.


http://www.friedegg.co/golf-courses/great-hazard

[RDecker]

Could the Great Hazard be a stream/ditch bisecting a par 5?  It seems like that may be the concept he used on the par 5 15th at
Berkshire Hills.

[Andy Johnson]

Could the Great Hazard be a stream/ditch bisecting a par 5?  It seems like that may be the concept he used on the par 5 15th at
Berkshire Hills.

I am not positive but I think that it was intended to be either a trap/mounding rather than an actual water hazard.

[Tim Martin]

I love the one at Quaker Ridge. Anyone have a picture?

[V. Kmetz]

Damn, I forgot the hole at Bethpage!  That's the best of them by far.  That Burbeck guy was a genius.

This post has some pre-Christmas dust now, but I noticed it.


To me BB4  is the greatest of Great Hazards on a course/hole attributed to Tillinghast. I like the look and play of 14 QR too, but this one is the whole enchilada


It's definitely Burbeck's best hole at any rate...


cheers
vk

[MCirba]

Great hazard, sand mounds, next phase, new wave, anyways it's still Hell Bunker to me.   

[Andy Johnson]

Great hazard, sand mounds, next phase, new wave, anyways it's still Hell Bunker to me.   

I see what you did there.

[MCirba]

Nice article, Andy. 


I would note an extension and expansion of the form by Tillinghast from the 14th at TOC to various "Long" adaptations such as 9 at NGLA and 4 at Merion to the Yuge version Tillinghast  first suggested to Crump at PV and then did various iterations of on his own courses as your article demonstrates.  Thanks.

[Joey Chase]

Yesterday I took a tour of Somerset Hills with one of the greenkeepers and when we reached the 9th hole, my first impression of the hole, aptly name Westward Ho! reminded me of the large bunker there.  Even the gap in the middle felt like the nose running into the middle of the two bunkers on the 4th hole.  Although the hazard at Westward Ho! is much closer, it was interesting to me to know the name of the hole after having already felt the likeness. 

[Paul Rudovsky]

The 12th on the Composite/Championship course at Brookline is a great example.  Used to be a huge par 4 (prior to the 90's) and Gil Hanse extended it to 625 yards uphill par 5 for '13 US Am.  Restart of fairway at top of hill is a total of 525 yards from back tee, hill starts at about 470 from back tee.  Vertical rise of hill is 9 yards.  If you fall short of hilltop on 2nd, you are in deep trouble as hill is covered w thick fescue and deep bunkers.

[Tim Fitz]

I am slated to play The Hideout down in Naples in a little over a month.  As I dug back through Google Earth to take a look at the course again, I noticed two Great Hazards, which is interesting given that this is a modern, Florida course.

Numbers 2 and 17 each present a slightly different flavor of Great Hazard, but I think the fundamental elements are there.  Number 2 is a dog-leg left, with the waste bunker style of Great Hazard, while 17 is a hard dog-leg right, which strings a series of bunkers together to form a Great Hazard. 

Hideout, which is an underrated course, has a different feel as one moves through the course.  Most of the first 12 holes (including number 2)  have a Florida golf feel, while the remainder (including 17)  meander through the sandy pines that feels a bit like the low country. 

[Morgan Clawson]

It looks like a great hazard may be brewing  on the 7th hole of the Kidd course at Sand Valley.  The cross bunker in the middle of the photo in front of the dark spot extends all the way across the fairway.

[Dean DiBerardino]

At Winged Foot, they told Tillinghast to “build us a man-sized course”. He built two golf courses for them, and both the East and the West are without one of his most challenging holes, the Great Hazard. Click HERE for an aerial from 1953 that shows no Great Hazard at Winged Foot (The GH 14^th at Quaker Ridge is visible). Was there a reason he built a great hazard on many of his courses but not one on either course at Winged Foot? Any thoughts?

[Dean DiBerardino]

delete

[Mike Policano]

Andy,


Nicely done! The Great Hazard was also known as Hell’s Half Acre, at least in the Pine Valley iteration. It was named after a section of Philly where Crump and I believe AWT were living at the time. The story goes that this section of Philly was known as Hell’s Half Acre and no policeman would venture in. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Jim Hoak]

At Brook Hollow in Dallas, in the restoration just completed, Keith Foster added a Great Hazard to the 15th hole.  Tillinghast had built one there but it had been slowly destroyed over the years.  The course is due to open in a month.
Wish I had a good picture of this Great Hazard to share.