Finishing in front of Clubhouse

[Matt Gunter]

All --


Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before (I did a search and did not find anything). I'm curious folks' thoughts on how important it is for 18 to finish back at the clubhouse. At my home club, some members do not like the fact that there's a walk from 18 back to the clubhouse and are considering options to adjust this when we renovate beginning late in 2023.


My personal point of view is that optimizing the routing is more important than having 18 finish right in front of the clubhouse. Obviously would not want to finish on the other side of the property, but a football field's length does not seem crazy to me.


Curious others' thoughts here...and examples of great courses that have an 18th that does not finish back at the clubhouse?


Matt

[JohnVDB]

I think it is really nice.  Especially for a private course where the members might be sitting out watching their friends coming in.  One of the regrets I have about Royal Dornoch is how far the 18th green is fro the clubhouse.

[A.G._Crockett]

Here's the worst story of clubhouse location that I know of.
Settindown Creek, which is the "out of town" course for Ansley GC, is a VERY good Bob Cupp design that straddles the Fulton Co/Cherokee Co. line.  The course is good enough to have hosted the Nike Tour Championship, the USGA Women's Am, the GA State Open and GA State Match Play, and numerous state and national qualifiers.
When the course opened, it had a trailer that served as temporary clubhous, and the course began and ended with great par 4's.  However, the proposed clubhouse site was in Cherokee Co., which did NOT have liquor licenses at that time.  Fulton Co. did have liquor licenses, so after much dispute, the clubhouse was built in Fulton Co.  The entrance then had to be routed through a subdivision that has no connection to the course, instead of directly off of the main road.

In order for the course to begin and end at the clubhouse, the hole numbers were completely changed, with the course beginning on a rather difficult par 5, and ending on a short, downhill par 4; neither hole is especially well-suited for where it falls in the current order.  It's still a great golf course, and if you hadn't played the original sequence that Cupp laid out, it's fine.  But if you did, it's hard not to feel like the course is a bit diminished by the need to locate the clubhouse near #1 and #18.
This was all years ago, and of course now, Cherokee Co DOES issue liquor licenses.  Too bad for Settindown that it came too late.

[Sean_A]

All --

Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before (I did a search and did not find anything). I'm curious folks' thoughts on how important it is for 18 to finish back at the clubhouse. At my home club, some members do not like the fact that there's a walk from 18 back to the clubhouse and are considering options to adjust this when we renovate beginning late in 2023.

My personal point of view is that optimizing the routing is more important than having 18 finish right in front of the clubhouse. Obviously would not want to finish on the other side of the property, but a football field's length does not seem crazy to me.

Curious others' thoughts here...and examples of great courses that have an 18th that does not finish back at the clubhouse?

Matt

Lets put it this way, if I was the money behind a course the 18th green and 1st tee would be steps from the house. If an archie can't build two good holes near the house its time to find a new archie or a different property.

Ciao

[Lou_Duran]

I think it is really nice.  Especially for a private course where the members might be sitting out watching their friends coming in.  One of the regrets I have about Royal Dornoch is how far the 18th green is fro the clubhouse.

I don't like the walk to the clubhouse, but as badly as I usually play the hole, I am glad that it is in relative obscurity.  Besides, it gives me a bit of time to get my mind right before greeting friends in the clubhouse.


Personally, I think that way too much is made of the occasional longish walk to the next tee (or clubhouse in this case).  I'd much rather have a compelling hole than one which has been shoe-horned to meet some other criteria.  For example, finishing 18 at Harbour Town by the water is preferable than routing it inland (before the housing planning) back to the clubhouse. 


Though not the same thing, the long drives to the first tee at Sand Hills and Dismal River are a reasonable compromise for siting the clubhouse infrastructure as they did. 
 
I do find the proximity from the restaurant at Prairie Dunes to the 10th tee rather unsettling.  Having visited once after an annual burn and seeing hundreds of charred balls all around the green in the smoldering gunch, it was apparent that my unease was widely shared.


 

[Tim Martin]

Only a few outliers have been mentioned so far that don’t finish at or around the clubhouse. I’d be interested to hear of more good/great courses that don’t. Personally I don’t want a long walk from 18 green to the house.

[Kevin_Reilly]

I can't imagine an 18th that isn't close to the clubhouse.  Even Sand Hills finishes below Ben's Porch, which is as much of a "clubhouse" as many mentioned in this thread.

[Nate Oxman]

Moselem Springs GC in. Fleetwood, Pa., which used to be on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses and which hosted the U.S. Women's Open in 1968 (won by Susie Maxwell Berning, who just got into the World Golf Hall of Fame), finishes across the street and down the hill from the clubhouse. The clubhouse provides a pretty backdrop, but it's a decent walk across the street, past the range, the first tee, and then the driveway to get to the clubhouse.

[Ira Fishman]

Courses I have played:


Lahinch
RD (previously mentioned)
Streamsong Blue
Ballyneal
Waterville (although I think they may have extended the clubhouse)
Primland


Course I have not played:


ANGC


A great layout is worth the walk.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Harbortown is a long way and it is a good thing. 

[MCirba]

Wilkes Barre Muni finishes a fair distance from the clubhouse.  First one that comes to mind this morning.  The 18th green is the one on the left.




18 at Cobb's Creek finishes across busy Lansdowne Avenue but reasonably close before the clubhouse burned down.   Here's a photo from prior to the fire.

[Ian Mackenzie]

I think it is really nice.  Especially for a private course where the members might be sitting out watching their friends coming in.  One of the regrets I have about Royal Dornoch is how far the 18th green is fro the clubhouse.

Did you see the plans for the new clubhouse? (Sadly now on pause due to something about a pandemic.)
Would be MUCH closer to putting green and 18th green.

[Dave Esler]

Matt,
no idea where you are or the site conditions of the "football field" between your 18th Green and your Clubhouse, but I'm thinking two words:


BYE HOLE

[Tommy Williamsen]

Kinloch ends pretty far from the clubhouse but it has a bye hole that pretty much everyone plays that ends up by the clubhouse.


It seems to me that Forest Creek South has the same kind of finish.

[Tim Leahy]

DeLaveaga Golf Course in Santa Cruz, CA has a great 18th hole green that sits below a big outdoor deck with tables attached to the clubhouse where anyone finished can watch the incoming golfers. I made a 50 ft putt for an eagle with my back to the clubhouse and got a standing ovation I didn't expect. Don't know if they were betting on putts or mine was the first one made in a while but it was exciting to be acknowledged like that.

[Jeff Schley]

18th at PGA West Stadium doesn't finish in front of the clubhouse and a shame, several hundred yards away. The Nicklaus Tournament course takes 10 and 18 in front of the clubhouse and is a very cool setting by contrast.