The importance of hazardous elements

[Tommy Williamsen]

Greens give the golf course its soul, but hazardous elements give it personality: Bunkers at Woodhall Spa and Sand Hills, the sleepers at The European Club, water at TPC Sawgrass, lava on the Big Island,  rock outcroppings at Bull Bay in Wales, the great sea rushes at Westward Ho!, gorse at many links courses, and heather at Sunningdale. We know famous hazards: Hell bunker, Road Bunker and the road, and the Principal’s Nose at TOC, the quarry on 16 at Merion, the bunker at four at Royal St. George, Hell's half acre at Pine Valley, The Himalaya bunker at St, Enodoc, and Oakmont’s Church Pews. It seems that great holes are defined by the hazards even more than the greens. People know about those hazards who haven’t even played the course.

I remember reading somewhere that Bill Coore said, “The three most important things when it comes to a great golf course are the routing, the green complexes, and the hazards.”

Hazardous elements help define the ”line of charm’ and strategy for each hole.
Dr. Mac wrote about bunkers, “No hazard is unfair wherever it is placed. A hazard placed in the exact position where a player should naturally go is frequently the most interesting, situation, as then a special effort is needed to get over or avoid it.”
Are hazardous elements on a course its most important feature?

[Thomas Dai]

... and the relationship between hazards and temptation! How much dare I bite off?
That’s a damn fine set of examples you’ve highlighted Tommy. Shame the hazardous nature of hazards has been gradually dumbed down over the decades.
Atb

[Mark_Fine]

Tommy,
Guess what, I totally agree with you!  Hazards are the essence of golf.  When the game was first played, they didn’t find a flat featureless plot of ground and say let’s invent a new game.  They played around buildings, over all kinds of obstacles, and of course through the dunes.  “Hazards” can take the form of many things both formal and informal.  But as I have said here many times before, there are NO great and/or truly memorable golf holes that aren’t in some way defined by a hazard.  Yes some here will argue that a great green can define a hole.  It can, but if there are no distinctive hazards on that same hole, I can assure you that great green is not flat and is probably hazardous in its own way. 

[Peter Pallotta]

Sometimes I think: golf is like life, that's what make it so great. But here's a case where golf is not like life: in life I can nick myself shaving or I can crush my foot with my car trying to change a flat tire. Both are 'hazards' of every day life -- but in life I'm very eager to limit/minimize the hazards as best I can. When I go play golf, on the other hand, the game is much more fun when the hazards are maximized, because that's the advantage of a *game* (as opposed to real life), ie nothing really matters much at all; it's just a round of golf. Which is to say (and noting some of the famously penalizing hazards that Tommy notes, and his previous thread on deep bunkers): sure, we all say there are no formulas and no rules and there must be variety etc etc -- but the only reason I can see for not having dangerously hazardous hazards on the golf course is so architects don't risk having the petulant and entitled among us running off with complaints to 'senior management'.   

[Tommy Williamsen]

Peter, I hear what you are saying and agree. Life like golf is trying to avoid the hazards of the world and if felled by a catastrophic hazard overcoming the disaster. I wonder if there is a correlation between courageous people in life and courageous people who play golf. Do both live life and play with abandon?

[Peter Pallotta]

Tommy,
that's a wonderful question.
For me I know that, with each passing year, I'm trying to become more and more child-like (and I hope less and less childish).
In many a happy child, there seems to be an innate trust and an innate courage and the ability to bounce back from unexpected and unwanted events/changes/hazards --- maybe that's why there are so many instances in sports (including golf) of the youngsters who explode onto the scene and do so well, i.e. they don't let set backs get them down. (Like Tiger in 97 -- going out in 40 and then coming in with 30!). 
I'd sure like to bring this child-like resilience/courage to my golf game; and that does, it seems to me, include accepting and being undaunted by very dangerous hazards.       

[jeffwarne]

Natural hazards can provide beauty and a sense of place.
I've often wondered why courses with limited hazards didn't perhaps have an area of fescue/taller grass in very limited use as heroic or strategic hazards(penalty areas now), and marked as such-providing an element of strategy and texture.
Plenty of opportunity to create a cape hole or even a hole as intricately hazarded as 13 at ANGC with a little mowing creativity and penalty area markers. Worst case you are dropping-not reteeing.


So many course have lost ball score wrecking gunch lining both sides eliminating strategy and encouraging boring play or simply hnting for a lot of balls.

[Tommy Williamsen]

So many course have lost ball score wrecking gunch lining both sides eliminating strategy and encouraging boring play or simply hnting for a lot of balls.

I don't think any of us like hazards of any sort on both sides of fairway. It makes the hole artificially difficult and doesn't allow for any kind of miss.

[Tom_Doak]

Sometimes the only hazard you need is a bank of short grass next to the green, a la the 6th at Ballybunion.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Sometimes the only hazard you need is a bank of short grass next to the green, a la the 6th at Ballybunion.

One of the better things supers have done in the past decade is to cut grass on the green surrounds. There are few shots harder than a downhill lie on short grass a few yards from the green. It brings all sorts of possibilities in play: putt, chip, lob wedge if you Phil, hybrid etc. It's more fun than just hitting a sand wedge out of the rough.

[Mark_Fine]

Just like short grass, some of the best hazards are sometimes the ones that aren’t officially defined as hazards (at least in the rules of golf).

[Tommy Williamsen]

Just like short grass, some of the best hazards are sometimes the ones that aren’t officially defined as hazards (at least in the rules of golf).

I went hunting for your book before I began this thread but couldn't come up with it. It is not where it was supposed to be. I figured you would comment.

[Thomas Dai]

Just like short grass, some of the best hazards are sometimes the ones that aren’t officially defined as hazards (at least in the rules of golf).

I went hunting for your book before I began this thread but couldn't come up with it. It is not where it was supposed to be. I figured you would comment.

A couple or so years ago there was a thread about short grass as a hazard. Unfortunately I can't find it through the search engine.
atb

[Mark_Fine]

Tom Doak did an interview for our book and he specifically commented about short grass being a great hazard and I totally agree.  He is not hung up on the “rules” that define what a hazard has to be.   

[Thomas Dai]

One aspect of courses grazed by sheep is that the ball will often roll into places where man and machine either can't or wouldn't normally venture which can make for some exciting recovery shots.
atb