9 Holers true to themselves

[jeffwarne]

Was having a conversation Mike Dutton last night re: 9 holers and our love for them.


In a conversation regarding King Island Bowling Club, I mentioned my only complaint was I wasn't enamored with alternate tees and greens trying to create 18 distinct holes-at King Island it felt forced (especially the extra greens), and while I thought they had a great 9 holer, the product suffered somewhat from the extra greens/ tees etc.


I've played other 9 hole courses such a Quogue Field Club where the tees change, as well as the pars in several cases.
I also find that cool but IMHO it is better done where the opportunity best presents itself, rather than trying to do it all 9 times.
This of course rarely results in a 9 or 18 hole routing of much length, as holes are mixed and matched so not all the long tees are played on one side.


My favorite 9 holers have one set of tees, putting their best 9 holes forward all at once.
Of course one could always create their own routing by mixing in use of forward tees as they go around.


Should a 9 holer try to be something it's not? an 18 holer?


What say the treehouse?

[Sean_A]

Jeff

As with any course, assuming it is affordable, I am all in favour of different tee grounds if they offer different angles or somehow reduce/lengthen the hole to better suit more players. I agree, that most of the time each hole will have one tee which is individually favoured. However, there are times when different tees offer equally compelling holes. The 5th at Alnmouth Village is one such example. The 1st and 3rd at Reigate are others. I also don't have an issues if alternate greens are built if the terrain is compelling.  What I don't like is a forced attempt at 18 different tees to 9 greens for the sake of an 18 hole scorecard...its a rubbish idea.

Happy Hockey 

[Tom_Doak]

I agree that it's not necessary for a 9-hole course to provide a full second set of tees.


On the other hand, nobody makes you play them, do they?

[Ken Fry]

There was a 9 hole private club in Niles, MI that unfortunately no longer exists.  It was a Robert Bruce Harris design that incorporated different teeing grounds to vary angles and distances for a distinct front nine and back nine.  Also, the greens were quite large and two cups would be cut in each green with a different colored flag to designate the front nine and back nine cups.

The course provided excellent variety and variation between the two nines to keep things interesting.  I enjoyed the concept and felt it worked very well with the design Harris put together.

Ken

[jeffwarne]

I agree that it's not necessary for a 9-hole course to provide a full second set of tees.


On the other hand, nobody makes you play them, do they?

That is a very fair point, and done cleverly, such tees could serve as forward tees for weaker players.
I do feel like many 9 holers don't get the credit they deserve(whatever that means )because the different setups create a situation where many will say-it's a cute little course-where the full yardages on each hole might produce more length variety and challenge for better players(but as Tom said that's there for the taking)
But a lot of that is an argument for another thread.


I think Sean kind've nailed it-a few alternates are great where expense and variety allow, but 18 sets often get a little redundant (and more expensive)
It's not as if even King Island with its extra greens can accommodate more than 9 holes worth of players-seems to me 2-3 extra holes would work better rather than alternate greens(with most of the expense being in the greens)
i.e. two loops of 6 holes rather than 12 greens on a 9 hole course-


I play most of my "home" recreational golf on a 9 holer, and I can't really say I wish the course had more sets of tees or variety. I' m usually ready to go right back to #1 after #9.
Maybe I have have 1/2 as much attention span as others.

[Peter Pallotta]

They don’t make 9 holers like they used to. The one I often played was built in 1910 — and the site was only just big enough for 9 holes, and the founders (and for the next 70 years, the members) were happy to play it as a 9 holer, ie true to itself. But when it went public/semi private, a 2nd set of tees were added so that they could ‘charge for 18 holes’ and attract more play as a ‘championship course’ — but with such a small site there was not a lot of room for the new tees to meaningfully or charmingly or interestingly change the way any of the holes played: to me they  just added visual clutter and confusing signage and a few little-used new paths through the trees. I only ever played 9 holes there, never 18 — and was perfectly happy and wished it had stayed true to itself. But today, with the new kind of 9 holers that are a part of huge sites/resorts and that might span 200-300 acres, I suppose another set of tees could make each of the holes play much differently the second time around. Maybe I’d like and appreciate that too.

[Thomas Dai]

A generalisation but 9-holers tend to have small teeing areas so if the same tee is used twice then the maintenance aspect is presumably a consideration especially on the par-3’s or any other holes where players are using irons from the tee. Mind, the same could be said of using 1 hole location on each green, ie more wear and tear when players go round twice.
An interesting course in this respect is St David’s City a cool clifftop but sand based 9-holer in West Wales which has double tees but also on some holes has 2 hole locations on each green.
Bottom line, most 9-holers are terrific, even more so the ones with small basic clubhouses. Only wish there were more of them .... St David’s City, Alnmouth, Portmahomac, Cruit Island, Mulranny. Splendid. A few crackers at bigger Clubss well like epic St Olaf at Cruden Bay, the Channel at Burnham & Berrow etc.
Atb

[MJohnson]

I will just say - Isle of Harris and Durness.

[Terry Lavin]

Dunes Club in New Buffalo MI (Keiser’s first) is an awesome 9-hoper with multiple tees but no tee markers. The person or team that won the preceding hole picks the tee-off spot, with some interesting length and angle changes. If you play early enough, they move hole locations for the back nine.

[Paul Rudovsky]

In June I did a tour of great New England/NY 9 hole courses in prep for the GOLF Mag Top 50 9 hole list.  I thought Edgartown made the best use of multiple tees and greens of any 9 holer I had ever played with the possible exception of The Dunes Club. 


I also concluded that a key to greatness in a 9 hole course is that it not have an inferiority complex about being 9 holes....too many of them have members or owners etc who say things like "we only have 9 holes" or "we are an outstanding course for a 9 holer".  At places like Royal Worlington, The Dunes, Whitinsville, Edgartown, and Saratoga Golf & Polo...you never hear phrases like that.


The first course I ever played was 9 holes...Honesdale Golf Club in Honesdale, PA...where 1959 Masters Champ Art Wall Jr. learned the game.  I was 10 years old and played it during the summer of 1955 (then again in '56).  Went back to play it about 5 years ago and was set up with two guys about my age who had been members for decades...but I was telling them about how the routing had changed.  So much fun that day.  My 4th course ever as I recall was also a 9 holer...Middlebury College's track (since expanded to 18).

[John Emerson]

In June I did a tour of great New England/NY 9 hole courses in prep for the GOLF Mag Top 50 9 hole list.  I thought Edgartown made the best use of multiple tees and greens of any 9 holer I had ever played with the possible exception of The Dunes Club. 


I also concluded that a key to greatness in a 9 hole course is that it not have an inferiority complex about being 9 holes....too many of them have members or owners etc who say things like "we only have 9 holes" or "we are an outstanding course for a 9 holer".  At places like Royal Worlington, The Dunes, Whitinsville, Edgartown, and Saratoga Golf & Polo...you never hear phrases like that.


The first course I ever played was 9 holes...Honesdale Golf Club in Honesdale, PA...where 1959 Masters Champ Art Wall Jr. learned the game.  I was 10 years old and played it during the summer of 1955 (then again in '56).  Went back to play it about 5 years ago and was set up with two guys about my age who had been members for decades...but I was telling them about how the routing had changed.  So much fun that day.  My 4th course ever as I recall was also a 9 holer...Middlebury College's track (since expanded to 18).

Paul,
My first thought was SG&PC when I read this thread.  They are the epitome of what this thread is asking.  Great group of members and an amazing track to that they are proud of it regardless of the number of holes.  No frills, no lipstick on the pig, just golf.  They embraced their Victorian style and ran with it.  Kudos to them

[Greg Hohman]

My “home” (I live in SoCal) nine in Mt. Lebanon PA started as a private in 1907, founded by elite chums, including two Mellons. It was called Castle Shannon Golf Club. Mt. Lebanon purchased it in 1947. Changes have been made, but I would have to look up the details. “Feels” mostly intact to this layperson. A muni that is not “just” a golf course. Community property for tobogganists, kite fliers, x-c skiers (including my mother, who, raised blocks away, returned into her 80s even after moving across town), smokers, lovers, dog walkers. I am an absentee member of the senior men’s club. My grandfather patrolled there as an air warden (I might have the title wrong) during WWII. Born in 1960, I was “released to the four winds” unsupervised in the morning and could reach the golf course or any number of places by nightfall (or later), incl. downtown Pittsburgh by trolley. Idyllic in retrospect, but a bubble of white suburbia.

[Jaeger Kovich]

In June I did a tour of great New England/NY 9 hole courses in prep for the GOLF Mag Top 50 9 hole list.  I thought Edgartown made the best use of multiple tees and greens of any 9 holer I had ever played with the possible exception of The Dunes

Thanks Paul! That’s a great compliment. There is room for 1 or 2 more greens at Edgartown, but I’ll keep dreaming for a while. Really glad you made it out to Edgartown to see the new #7.

[JohnVDB]

I played 2 9-holes that I really enjoyed this summer.


Durness which a many here have written about.  It does have alternate tees which substantially change a few of the holes, including one (6/15) which is a par 4 one time and a par 5 the other. That doesn’t change it’s nature as the course has amazing terrain and get better use of it with the alternate tees.


The other is Portmahomack, aka Tarbat, that sits across the firth from Dornoch.  Par 34 with no par 5s it is a lot of fun.  There are actually 10 holes as the 7th and 16th are par 3s completely different holes.  Some of the alternate tees change angles in interesting ways while others just change the length.  I loved playing it.

[Garland Bayley]

Tarbat is a really fun 10 hole course. Presumably there are alternative par 3s for 7 and 16. If you go around twice, I suggest playing the short 7 then hiking the not too long trip to 16 tee and playing it. Then after going around twice, you've played 20 holes.

[Ronald Montesano]

Attica's 10th Hole and Golf Course (formerly Attica Country Club) sits between Rochester and Buffalo. It lays on hilly terrain, and has multiple tee decks for different yardages, although par never changes.

The course owns land on the perimeter of the original nine, and has a plan for a second nine to the west, although it will never be built, for multiple financial reasons.

I find that it is easy to shorten a five or a four par into a four or a three par. The 5th and 8th holes are excellent par fours, that have canted greens that would receive tee shots well as par three holes.

If the current owner went into the woods on the third hole (currently a par three) and the seventh hole (also a par three) he could create tees for a pair of short par four holes. The sum would be a loss of 200 yards, but strategic gains could be made. I do agree that not all nine holes should have two sets of tees or two greens, and retrofitting a built course to add/subtract yardage/par is tricky.

It would be exciting to build out every hole for 3/4 and 4/5 potential. 

This is a piece I put together this summer, on Attica: http://buffalogolfer.com/wordpress/attica-and-the-unknown-harry-heit/

[Tim Gavrich]

The nine-hole Grand Beach GC in Michigan (couple miles from The Dunes Club) is one of the most comfortable-in-its-own-skin courses I've seen. It's this little summer village course that is just a perfect little diversion. 1912 Tom Bendelow that ends on consecutive blind par 3s, $13.50 to walk a loop, pay in the ice cream shop.