Speed slots

[Tommy Williamsen]

A bunch of years ago a friend, Don, and I spent the day playing all the courses at Firestone. When we got to the 16^th tee of the South course we both hit good solid drives. Don normally hits his tee shot longer than I do. Yet, when we got to our balls mine was about twenty yards ahead of his. I hit mine down the left side of the fairway while Don’s tee shot was to the right. We went back and hit about four drives each trying to hit the little “speed slot.” It was fun.
Last year I played Philly Cricket for the second time. On 18 my first time around I hit my drive a bit to the right and had a long second shot in. This time I hit a pretty good hook and it tumbled way down the hill. I’m not sure it qualifies as a speed shot since all I did was catch a hill.
What qualifies as a speed slot?
Do you as architects make them on purpose or do most of them happen accidentally during the shaping?
How do you plan for one? At what distance do you put a kick plate?They’re fun but my guess is that creating one is no easy feat.

[Tom_Doak]

Tommy:


It's not hard at all to create a speed slot, but there are two inherent problems:


1.  Because one side falls away from the tee and the other, not so much, they are blind from the tee and therefore not easily recognized.


2.  They exaggerate the advantage of long hitters which is already too much.




My favorite type of speed slot is the one that helps the senior guy catch up to the younger guys -- one that is, say 220 yards from the tee.  But, on those the landing area for the long hitter is going to be blind, and he's going to complain about that.

[Kyle Harris]

Tommy:


It's not hard at all to create a speed slot, but there are two inherent problems:


1.  Because one side falls away from the tee and the other, not so much, they are blind from the tee and therefore not easily recognized.


2.  They exaggerate the advantage of long hitters which is already too much.




My favorite type of speed slot is the one that helps the senior guy catch up to the younger guys -- one that is, say 220 yards from the tee.  But, on those the landing area for the long hitter is going to be blind, and he's going to complain about that.

People are often shocked when I hit 2-iron from Streamsong Red #10 tee and my ball is right next to theirs in the fairway... if they found the fairway. 


A carry of about 210-220 will bound down to 260 or so from the tee, but just beyond is an upslope that kills the rollout on long carries.

[Tommy Williamsen]

If I remember correctly 17 at Ballyneal has a great speed slot and although I have not been to ANGC number ten seems to have one of the best in the business.

[Bernie Bell]

There's one at my home course that some of the women call the G spot.

[David_Tepper]

Isn't the most famous speed slot the left side of the fairway on #10 at Augusta National? From watching the tournament on TV for the past 50 years, it seems like drives down the right side of the fairway get hung up while drives down the left side bounce/roll for another 20-40 yards.

[Alex Miller]

Tommy:


It's not hard at all to create a speed slot, but there are two inherent problems:


1.  Because one side falls away from the tee and the other, not so much, they are blind from the tee and therefore not easily recognized.


2.  They exaggerate the advantage of long hitters which is already too much.




My favorite type of speed slot is the one that helps the senior guy catch up to the younger guys -- one that is, say 220 yards from the tee.  But, on those the landing area for the long hitter is going to be blind, and he's going to complain about that.

1. Why is blindness inherently a problem? Also I don't believe speedslots are necessarily overwhelmingly blind - if you can see where a fairway starts to disappear then isn't it identifiable?


2. Do they? Doesn't that depend on where the speed slot is placed in relation to the tee and where it spits the ball out? If anything it would seem speed slots give advantage to the golfer who can most accurately place their drive within the fairway to take advantage of the contours - therefore speedslots put a premium on accuracy and not distance.

[archie_struthers]

 




Built a few at Twisted Dune notably on the 7th and 18th holes. Works best then fairways are really fast and firm. My idea is to have the bombers hit into the slopes and the shorter hitters carry it into the turbo-chargers in an attempt to level the playing field.


I think building them at 210-240 carry works well. The other option is to have areas that propel the ball into the rough or a bunker if you hit it past the perfect landing area, not to0 penal though, but enough to cause one to ponder.

[Tal Oz]

Isn't the most famous speed slot the left side of the fairway on #10 at Augusta National? From watching the tournament on TV for the past 50 years, it seems like drives down the right side of the fairway get hung up while drives down the left side bounce/roll for another 20-40 yards.

David, that's an immediate one. Just yesterday I was rewatching the 2019 final round where the shorter hitting Molinari out drove Finau and Tiger by taking the left speed slot.

Tom D, Chicago Golf came up for me as a place where the shorter hitter gets more boosts than the bomber. 1,5 kinda, 8, 9, 12 kinda, and 14.

[Colin Sheehan]

At the Yale course, the shorter/straighter/savvy players can use down slope or the back side of a number of knolls, hills, shoulders and saddles to propel the ball forward. The most obvious examples are holes holes 3 (tee shot and second shot), 8 (tee shot), 10 (tee shot), 11 (tee shot), 12 (tee shot), 16 (second shot) and 18 (tee shot)


The original notes from 1925 has all these references to "roll overs" like this, regarding hole 8 for example: "The first shot of this hole is 180 yards to a saddle crossing the fairway. A roll up or carry of the knoll gives a roll down to the other side of the saddle into a broad level basin making 220 yards not difficult."


Hole 18: "..by carrying the brow of this shoulder and making a roll over, the ball is brought to a smooth level area of playing ground for the second.

[James Reader]

I used to be a member of Pleasington in Lancashire.  The flyover in the link below gives you an idea of what must be one of the most outrageous speed slots in golf.  To the earlier comments, it doesn’t necessarily favour the longest hitters as it’s possible to drive too far and miss the huge drop down to the lower fairway.


https://www.pleasington-golf.co.uk/hole_7

[Jason Topp]

16 at Sand Hills is my favorite even though I have only hit it once.  It is worth at least 50 yards.

[Ian Mackenzie]

There was a thread about this last year that focused on the "speed slots at Mammoth Dunes"...I think.
Mammoth has several.



Speed slots - also knows as...uh...hills, right..?..;-)...as the resulting advantage is created courtesy of gravity.


Shouldnt a good speed slot also open up a more ideal angle to the green?


Should there be a "risk" in attempting to find/hit the speed slot? Such as a big or tricky bunker, perhaps adjacent OB (ugh)or a hazard?


Otherwise, why wouldn't any and all golfers aim for that spot?

[Eric LeFante]

Isn't the most famous speed slot the left side of the fairway on #10 at Augusta National? From watching the tournament on TV for the past 50 years, it seems like drives down the right side of the fairway get hung up while drives down the left side bounce/roll for another 20-40 yards.

David,


I love this feature on the hole. It's a perfect example of how you can reward a well played drive and penalize a less than ideal drive without a hazard or rough. Over the years we've seen plenty of players who don't hit the draw off the tee and are stuck with a very long second shot on a downhill/sidehill lie.

[Tom_Doak]

Isn't the most famous speed slot the left side of the fairway on #10 at Augusta National? From watching the tournament on TV for the past 50 years, it seems like drives down the right side of the fairway get hung up while drives down the left side bounce/roll for another 20-40 yards.

David,


I love this feature on the hole. It's a perfect example of how you can reward a well played drive and penalize a less than ideal drive without a hazard or rough. Over the years we've seen plenty of players who don't hit the draw off the tee and are stuck with a very long second shot on a downhill/sidehill lie.

The funny thing about the slope on 10 at Augusta is that it was NOT intended as such originally.  If it was thought to come into play it would have been a negative, like the bowl on the right of 12 at Ballyneal, with the original green position where it was.  No telling if Perry Maxwell thought of it in a different light when he moved the green, since Mr. Maxwell didn't write much about what he was doing.

[Tommy Williamsen]

ne of my favorite speed slot is on 14 at Hidden Creek. It is a dogleg left. Hit it a tad wide and you have an awkward and longer shot into the green. Hit it towrad the left side of the dogleg and you get a ten to fifteen yard boost.

[Thomas Dai]

An issue with speed slots is the often vast number of divots that accumulate at the end of the slot as so many balls finish in the same area. Seems like drainage can often be poor in such areas too.
atb

[archie_struthers]

 


Thomas it's why collection areas in general are such a bad feature. Hate em. If you build the speed bump or turbo booster right it will not deposit balls at the bottom of a hill. It's more than that. You have to push the ball to different spots and indeed they might gradually end. An abrupt ending rarely is pleasurable!

[Tommy Williamsen]

Ballyhack has a few speed slots that really give the ball a boost. My favorite might be number four although I never know if I caught it correctly until I get to my ball.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Had a memorable flight with Lanny Wadkins years ago, where he described playing Riviera shot by shot.  I specifically recall his delight (when playing well) of using what he described as a speed slot on the 5th, but only when playing well.


I have found or built a few, but if Lanny, at one time a top golfer, would only aim for it when HE was at the top of his game, I have wondered ever since whether it was worth trying to build one for every day play.  According to the slope system, only 2/3 of average players hit just 32 yards wide fw.  Not that the reward has to be that broad, maybe as low as 10% chance might be even better.


For those who know it, the 15th at the Quarry was planned as a really dramatic speed slot, but out in the field, we started to wonder how we could ever get grass established on that steep a slope and turned it into a forced layup shot.

[Pete Lavallee]

I distinctly remember reading Dr. Mackenzies description of the original version of the 10th hole. He indicated you needed to hug the right side of the fairway to gain the best angle into the green, which of course was right of famous MacKenzie bunker. Catching the speed slot on the left would propel your ball into a very unfavorable position as the MacKenzie bunker was now directly in your path to the hole. Not sure if the original green sloped left to right away from the bunker but that would have really complicated matters.


The left hand speed slot certainly works well for the more distant green. Plus Tour Pros have a hard time, on the whole, hitting a draw with modern equipment to find it.

[Matt_Cohn]

I used to be a member of Pleasington in Lancashire.  The flyover in the link below gives you an idea of what must be one of the most outrageous speed slots in golf.  To the earlier comments, it doesn’t necessarily favour the longest hitters as it’s possible to drive too far and miss the huge drop down to the lower fairway.


https://www.pleasington-golf.co.uk/hole_7

Oh my goodness. Is that like an extra 100 hards of roll plus an infinitely better angle? That's wild.

[James Reader]

I used to be a member of Pleasington in Lancashire.  The flyover in the link below gives you an idea of what must be one of the most outrageous speed slots in golf.  To the earlier comments, it doesn’t necessarily favour the longest hitters as it’s possible to drive too far and miss the huge drop down to the lower fairway.


https://www.pleasington-golf.co.uk/hole_7

Oh my goodness. Is that like an extra 100 hards of roll plus an infinitely better angle? That's wild.

Something like that, but the roll is largely sideways rather than forwards.  Hit the slot and it’s a c.6 iron on the level to a green you can see; miss it (and you can hit it too far) and it’s a 200+ yard blind shot over trees dropping maybe 50 feet.  Chipping it 10 yards backwards into the slot isn’t the worst option if you drive it a bit too far.