Connector holes?

[Tommy Williamsen]

When an architect routes a course, especially without moving tons of earth, he might find natural holes. Getting to them without requiring a long walk from green to tee, he might need to fit in a hole to connect two great holes. Tom Doak once described 17 at Crystal Downs as a connector hole. Nine could also be seen that way.
Could 13 at Merion qualify as a connector? Or 10 & 11 at Shinnecock?
Sometimes a connector hole is not so great and sometimes they turn out grand. Can the player tell what is a connector or is that something only the architect knows?

[Tim Gavrich]

The wonderful little uphill par-3 12th at Shennecossett GC in Groton, CT, seems to fit the definition, as it brings the golfer up and across a rise from the 11th green at a corner of the property to the 13th tee, which aims back into the heart of the main land of the back nine.

[David Wuthrich]

Tom, Good points.


Interested on Shinnecock 10 and 11.  Can you please share your thoughts there.

[Peter Pallotta]

Tommy -
it's interesting in pointing out the difference (and sometimes disconnect) between the architect's intentions and the golfer's experience.
I don't know what the intention was with the 17th at Crystal Downs, but if it was intended to function as 'connector hole' it also produced what for me was one of the best and most challenging-fun shots on the course, i.e. the short approach/pitch shot back up the hill to the raised/skyline green.
Peter

[Michael Wolf]

The 6th at Fishers has always been the example I've used when discussing connector holes.


Not to derail the thread, but aren't a lot of 1st and/or 18th holes mostly connectors?


Michael

[Neil White]

The 6th at Fishers has always been the example I've used when discussing connector holes.


Not to derail the thread, but aren't a lot of 1st and/or 18th holes mostly connectors?


Michael

18th Cypress Point?

[JC Jones]

The 6th at Fishers has always been the example I've used when discussing connector holes.


Not to derail the thread, but aren't a lot of 1st and/or 18th holes mostly connectors?


Michael

18th Cypress Point?

14 at Cypress Point?

[Mike Hendren]

I must have Glens Falls on the brain because I immediately thought of the par 3 12th which is a key to the entire routing.   The land it occupies doesn't even look suitable for a golf hole, yet the long uphill par three doesn't appear forced and is a rock solid hole.


Mike

[Peter Pallotta]

Tommy -
and re author's intention vs audience experience
A story I once read, a true one: a Minister has prepared what he thinks is a brilliant sermon, detailed and deep and moving. It is also quite long, so he divides it into Parts 1 and 2. Sunday comes and he gives his sermon and, sure enough, the members of his congregation love it -- he's very happy as one after another come up and compliment him for such a powerful & important lesson. Then one man approaches, hand extended in thanks. He says: "Thank you, so very much. That was brilliant, and it came at just the right time for me". The Minister is gratified, and he can't help but ask "Do you mind telling me what in particular helped you so much?". And the man answers "It's when you said 'That ends the first part of the sermon, and now we turn to the second part' -- and I suddenly realized that the first part of my life is over, and that I have to turn now to the second part! Thank you, thank you so much -- that's exactly what I needed to hear".

[JC Jones]

I've always interpreted "connector hole" as a justification/rationalization for a hole that doesn't live up to the rest of the course.  In the case of #17 at Crystal Downs, I feel rather sure that if Jack Nicklaus or Tom Fazio had done that hole, it would be widely regarded as one of the worst there is.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tom, Good points.


Interested on Shinnecock 10 and 11.  Can you please share your thoughts there.

Don't get me wrong I think 11 is a great little par three. It just felt as though they were designed to get the players away from the clubhouse to hole 12. I think connectors like 17 at CD can be brilliant. They just needed to be built to get the player somewhere else.

[Pete_Pittock]

Pacific Dunes has two par 5s which are connector holes - 12 and 15.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tommy -
and re author's intention vs audience experience
A story I once read, a true one: a Minister has prepared what he thinks is a brilliant sermon, detailed and deep and moving. It is also quite long, so he divides it into Parts 1 and 2. Sunday comes and he gives his sermon and, sure enough, the members of his congregation love it -- he's very happy as one after another come up and compliment him for such a powerful & important lesson. Then one man approaches, hand extended in thanks. He says: "Thank you, so very much. That was brilliant, and it came at just the right time for me". The Minister is gratified, and he can't help but ask "Do you mind telling me what in particular helped you so much?". And the man answers "It's when you said 'That ends the first part of the sermon, and now we turn to the second part' -- and I suddenly realized that the first part of my life is over, and that I have to turn now to the second part! Thank you, thank you so much -- that's exactly what I needed to hear".

Peter, I always know a few things about sermons. There are a bunch that just don't listen. There are some, like the last guy in the illustration, that kind of listen but write their own sermon, there are some who think, "I wish my husband could hear that sermon," and there are a few that actually tumble on to what is said. I hope that my sermons can be connectors to people's lives. Once in a while.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I've always interpreted "connector hole" as a justification/rationalization for a hole that doesn't live up to the rest of the course.  In the case of #17 at Crystal Downs, I feel rather sure that if Jack Nicklaus or Tom Fazio had done that hole, it would be widely regarded as one of the worst there is.

Jason, can you think of a connector at Ballyhack?

[JC Jones]

I've always interpreted "connector hole" as a justification/rationalization for a hole that doesn't live up to the rest of the course.  In the case of #17 at Crystal Downs, I feel rather sure that if Jack Nicklaus or Tom Fazio had done that hole, it would be widely regarded as one of the worst there is.

Jason, can you think of a connector at Ballyhack?

Tommy, I'd say #11 would fit that.  Its just a tough piece of property to navigate but I wouldn't give up 12 or 17 green to figure out a different solution.

[Peter Pallotta]

Tommy - thanks, I do appreciate hearing/learning things from those who know, first hand. I mention the 'last guy' because I often wonder about the actual mechanisms of 'communications', i.e. whether in poetry or music or sermons or golf courses. That fellow in the illustration drew some important 'meaning' from the sermon -- but that meaning was wholly personal, and had very little to do with what the Minister either actually said or intended; we might almost say he drew the 'wrong' meaning from that sermon -- just as an average golfer might (subjectively) like a 'worse' hole more than he does an (objectively) 'better' golf hole. And yet. And yet -- the feelings and the craft and the dedication and the skill of the poet or musician or architect aside, can't it be argued that the  most important part of the 'communication' is what the audience thinks & feels & likes? Or to put it too bluntly: in the end, why does it matter at all that Tom D (or any other expert practitioner) identifies a golf hole as a connector? Or: if an architect uses 3 connector holes but there is no on there to call them that, as they still merely connectors?

[Peter Pallotta]

One final thought/question:
it may be a reflection of my own limits (as a golfer and student of architecture), but I think most connector holes are only recognized as such in retrospect, i.e. after we've finished playing a round (and/or after several rounds at the same course) -- when we start reflecting back on which holes we thought best and which we thought as (relatively) weak.
But what does 'in retrospect' have to do with our actual playing experience? Isn't that type of reflection the product of the critic's mind instead of the golfer's mind?
Nothing at all wrong with the critic's mind, but it should have its proper place, no?

[Joe Zucker]

One final thought/question:
it may be a reflection of my own limits (as a golfer and student of architecture), but I think most connector holes are only recognized as such in retrospect, i.e. after we've finished playing a round (and/or after several rounds at the same course) -- when we start reflecting back on which holes we thought best and which we thought as (relatively) weak.
But what does 'in retrospect' have to do with our actual playing experience? Isn't that type of reflection the product of the critic's mind instead of the golfer's mind?
Nothing at all wrong with the critic's mind, but it should have its proper place, no?

I think that's an interesting thought Peter.  Similarly I was wondering if connector holes are only a thing on very good courses with good land.  On the average courses most rounds are played on,  you wouldn't be able to separate a connector from the many other average holes.  A connector seems to be a very narrow subset of holes and something that may not appear on every course.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I will say, I have seen a wide variation among gca's in how willing they are to accept a bad hole.  A few have said something to the effect of, "I allow 2-3 days for routing, and they get what I come up with at the end of that period.  It's not worth spending any more time on it."  I can guarantee you, I have never said that.

I can say I rarely have thought in terms of routing a connector hole.  The few of my own I can recall include the 3rd at Woodland Hills in Nebraska.  After the project stalled awhile, when we came back on line it was clear to me that if he bought a strip of land on the east side of the course, we could put a cul de sac of homes in, and simultaneously give the course some room it needed.  To get a few nice holes along a creek, the 3rd had to play up and over a hill to get there.  I rationalized that every course needs a hole to produce the cuts necessary to build features.  Especially that one, where we hardly move 100,000 CY of dirt, so we built the hole, and cut the hill to produce a valley and visibility.


Otherwise, I am sure it has happened somewhere else in my career, but I tend to think of the holes as a group, and fiddle with them until I get the best ones I can.  I can't recall having to have one hole so badly that I did a bad one somewhere else to get to it, but maybe I have.  Who knows what goes on in the mind of golf architects?


Also, another part of it is my style was to find 18 good holes.  If it meant a walk or cart ride, I generally am/was amenable to that over a bad hole to get the good holes I wanted.  So, my connectors tend to be of the cart path variety, not a hole.

[Wade Whitehead]

I've always interpreted "connector hole" as a justification/rationalization for a hole that doesn't live up to the rest of the course.  In the case of #17 at Crystal Downs, I feel rather sure that if Jack Nicklaus or Tom Fazio had done that hole, it would be widely regarded as one of the worst there is.

Jason, can you think of a connector at Ballyhack?

Tommy, I'd say #11 would fit that.  Its just a tough piece of property to navigate but I wouldn't give up 12 or 17 green to figure out a different solution.

#11 was iterated multiple times and was, I think, even changed while earth was being moved.

I think the [fortunate] issue was that #10 was such an all-world hole that the course wouldn't be itself without it.  It was on every routing as far as I know.

#12 was always there, too, I think.

That's what makes connectors important; on most sites, they allow the best holes to exist in their purest form.  They really just serve as enablers of the best design.

Tommy, I agree about #13 at Merion.  That's not any knock on the hole itself, though.  I think it's such a terrific par three.

WW

[Jeff_Brauer]

In the old Merion threads, it seemed CBM picked that hole out on his one day site visit before the project started, and specifically mentioned it in his letter. I doubt it is considered a connector. It is a good fit, because the length of land between the road and the existing farm house that would become the clubhouse only allowed a short par 3.  Today's 13th isn't the original, which was closer to the creek, but flooded.


I agree a connector is a difficult to build hole between two other holes, that probably fits the land less well than the other holes.  I didn't consider the 17th at CD to be a connector, either.  If the gca does a good enough job, you shouldn't be able to know if it is a connector or not!


What about the 17th at Oakmont, a short 4 sort of stuck in there?  And Fazio used over 50,000 CY to extend the tee back for the US Open there.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I've always interpreted "connector hole" as a justification/rationalization for a hole that doesn't live up to the rest of the course.  In the case of #17 at Crystal Downs, I feel rather sure that if Jack Nicklaus or Tom Fazio had done that hole, it would be widely regarded as one of the worst there is.

Jason, can you think of a connector at Ballyhack?

Tommy, I'd say #11 would fit that.  Its just a tough piece of property to navigate but I wouldn't give up 12 or 17 green to figure out a different solution.

#11 was iterated multiple times and was, I think, even changed while earth was being moved.

I think the [fortunate] issue was that #10 was such an all-world hole that the course wouldn't be itself without it.  It was on every routing as far as I know.

#12 was always there, too, I think.

WW

I also thought about 11. It is a bit awkward but you have to get from 10 to 12 somehow.

[Tommy Williamsen]

In the old Merion threads, it seemed CBM picked that hole out on his one day site visit before the project started, and specifically mentioned it in his letter. I doubt it is considered a connector. It is a good fit, because the length of land between the road and the existing farm house that would become the clubhouse only allowed a short par 3.  Today's 13th isn't the original, which was closer to the creek, but flooded.

Just what we need--a reason to resurrect the Merion threads.

[Tim Rooney]

Was always told during my Crystal Downs visits that #9 was the filler hole to complete the 18 and diagrammed on paper never visiting the site?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Was always told during my Crystal Downs visits that #9 was the filler hole to complete the 18 and diagrammed on paper never visiting the site?

I even heard that story when I was at Crystal Downs.