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Bob Lively

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Hole 6 at Flossmoor CC
« on: January 12, 2021, 03:16:37 PM »
TOM DOAK
You are correct the decisions had to be unanimous 7 people on renovation committee including me and my green chair and golf pro. The one that didn't want to do #6 lived just off the 6th green and there was no changing his mind

Bob Lively

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Hole 6 at Flossmoor CC
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2021, 03:32:38 PM »
Tom Doak
The design called for us to move the fairway to the right which meant removing about 20 oak trees. The hole as it was and still is a dogleg par 4 from the tee you are aimed at houses on the left Ray just wanted to eliminate ob and houses from hole. and just past the 20 trees that would have removed stood a grove of oaks that would fit perfectly right of the fairway emulating the same look that the old hole. That was one of the designs that I wanted to really see guess it wasn't meant to be at that time.

Matthew Sander

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Hole 6 at Flossmoor CC
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2021, 04:29:13 PM »
Tom Doak
The design called for us to move the fairway to the right which meant removing about 20 oak trees. The hole as it was and still is a dogleg par 4 from the tee you are aimed at houses on the left Ray just wanted to eliminate ob and houses from hole. and just past the 20 trees that would have removed stood a grove of oaks that would fit perfectly right of the fairway emulating the same look that the old hole. That was one of the designs that I wanted to really see guess it wasn't meant to be at that time.


Hi Bob! Big fan of Flossmoor here. One of the better finishing stretches I’ve played and so visually stunning after the tree clearing in the 15-18 corridor.

I find it strange that the homeowner/board member wasn’t interested in moving play away from the property lines.

Steve Kohler

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Hole 6 at Flossmoor CC
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2021, 10:18:55 AM »
I've played Flossmoor once, and I thought it had several strong stretches and a couple awkward holes.  I don't recall much about #6 specifically besides the stretch of homes up the left side. 


The par 3 #7 and tee shot on #8 felt like a different course, back in a wooded, secluded corner.  While fine holes on their own, they felt out of character with the rest of the course.


The largest question mark for me though was the large tree in the middle of #14's fairway.  Smack dab in the middle maybe 150 yds from the tee, with additional trees standing guard in the rough on both sides.  I'm not sure how the membership usually plays their tee shot here, but it seemed like too much of a hit and pray shot for my taste.


I agree with Matthew above - #15-18 is a strong closing stretch.

Anthony Fowler

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Hole 6 at Flossmoor CC
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2021, 11:02:48 AM »
Bob, welcome to GolfClubAtlas! It's great to have you here. I've been a member at Flossmoor since 2014, and we miss you!

In my opinion, the 6th hole is the worst hole on the course--probably by a wide margin. It's a ~430 yard dogleg right. The fairway is relatively narrow, and there are large oak trees that overhanging the right side of the hole. So much so that you'd typically rather be in the left rough than anywhere on the right half of the fairway. But you can't go too far left because the out of bounds line is 10-15 paces away from the left edge of the fairway.


It's just a very awkward hole with very little margin for error and not much strategy of interest. When I play the hole in competition, I typically hit a three wood off the tee. If I'm lucky enough to end up on the left side of the fairway, I might have an interesting mid-iron shot into the green (although the fairway slopes right to left so you might still have to play a hold-off cut to avoid the oak trees). If I'm in the right side of the fairway, I might have to hit a big slice with another three wood to try to get it close to the green in two shots.


The green and the surrounding bunkers are interesting, so it could be a good hole, but we would have to tear down those trees and reconfigure the fairway somewhat. The new owners have some good changes in the works, and the 6th is surely one of the places where they'll get the biggest bang for their buck. I'm eager to see what they do with it.


Steve, it's great to hear your thoughts. I agree that the wooded area around 6, 7, and 8 has a different feel than the rest of the course. Old drawings and aerials suggest that a lot of those trees were there from the beginning, so that part of the course always had a somewhat distinct feel. One thing that made that section feel even more disjointed was the decision to move the tee on 7. That hole was built by Harry Collis in the 1910s, and throughout Flossmoor's heyday, it played as a ~115 yard hole (from where the front tees are now). Much later, in an effort to add length, the club moved the tee to where it is now, requiring a long walk out of the way and further into the woods.

That's an interesting point about the tree on 14. I typically hit a driver over the tree, and it's not in play, so I don't think about it much. For those who can't do that, the tree likely makes that tee shot very awkward and demanding. It would probably be a better hole if they removed the tree altogether. My understanding is that this tree in question that currently looks like it's in the middle of the fairway used to mark the left side of the tree line (although that was before my time and before the Hearn renovation). So Hearn opened it up quite a bit by clearing out all those trees, but he did leave that one for aesthetic/strategic purposes. However, the original tee was well to the left of where it is today, so most of those trees wouldn't have been in play.

Terry Lavin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Hole 6 at Flossmoor CC
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2021, 03:07:28 PM »
IMHO, 6 would be a better hole if tree removal allowed another thirty feet of fairway. In its current form it’s overly punitive and one-dimensional. The tree on 14 needs to go. It’s a joke to have a 40 foot oak tree in the middle of the fairway about 100 yards from the tee. I hope they cut it down. A good nominee for the Flossmoor Memorial Tree program.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.  H.L. Mencken

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