What makes for an ideal test of driving?

[Jason Thurman]

TD writes: 

"It's only the best drivers of the ball who want you to be punished immediately... so that your superior iron play or short game can't bail you out."

Interesting observation. Could it be expanded as another way to think of the distinction between penal and strategic gca?

With penal architecture the organizing principle is to punish missed shots immediately. With strategic architecture the organizing principle is to defer punishments for missed shots.

I don't buy this distinction. Plenty of strategic courses also punish missed shots immediately.


Take, for instance, The Trophy Club in Lebanon, IN. It's an excellent Tim Liddy design that offers as much interest off the tee as any course I've ever played thanks to its strategic principles. It's chock-full of holes that offer wide corridors, but also meaningful angles of approach to be gained by the player who drives closest to the bunkers, broken ground, and water hazards that encroach into the preferred sides of fairways. If you want to reach the 2nd green in two, you'll need to hug the stream off the tee. A tee shot up the gut of the 9th risks finding the centerline hazard if it's not hammered. There's plenty of room up the middle on 15, but if you can challenge the bunker guarding the dogleg you'll be left with just a flip-wedge. On each hole, plenty of width exists to accommodate the guy who doesn't want to risk the hazard or lacks the length to carry it - the architecture is undeniably strategic rather than penal. But each of these holes (and many others on the course) offer a very exciting tee shot for the player who wants to take on the challenge, and immediate punishment for the player who overestimates his ability.


It's interesting to hear Tom Doak's thoughts on this, as I don't find a course like Ballyneal to be as exciting from the tee as it is from the second shot onwards. Finding "position A" may take a lot of savvy and local knowledge, but "position C" is usually good enough and there aren't many tee shots where I watch in suspense as the ball skirts danger. 13 is easily my favorite tee shot on the course, just because of the excitement of watching a well-struck ball head toward the bunkers in the distance where a gentle fade or odd bounce can either spell disaster or leave a 50 yard pitch to the flag. I love the idea of accommodating weaker players while demanding intelligence from the better player, but damn if I don't also love when the danger is readily apparent but still irresistible to flirt with.

[BCrosby]

"To that I agree...but the bunker shifted from strategic on the drive to penal on the approach, no?"

Sure, but that unpleasantness was a consequence of the way you played your previous shot. It was not required by the design of the hole.

One of the paradoxes of strategic hazards is that because it is possible to avoid them with a well played prior shot, they can be made much more punishing. They function as a more or less self-inflicted wound. It follows that there is less concern with making them too "hard".

That does not apply to hazards on penal golf courses. Because such hazards must be negotiated by all players at all times, concerns about making them too "hard" make sense.   

Bob

[BCrosby]

Jason writes -

"But each of these holes (and many others on the course) offer a very exciting tee shot for the player who wants to take on the challenge, and immediate punishment for the player who overestimates his ability."

I'm not sure why you think I would disagree with you. It is of course true that you can be punished by a missed drive on a strategic hole if you are overly aggressive with your line or simply miss-hit it.

John Low made an interesting observation. A good strategic hazard is one placed to catch not a fozzle, but "a not quite good enough shot". That is how the stationmaster's garden functions on the Road Hole. It is how the creek functions on the 13th at ANGC. Trying to play strategically is to position yourself in the most advantageous way possible for the next shot. But the best positioning requires you to take risks and sometimes that doesn't work out so good.

Bob

[JESII]

Bob,


I played the prior shot as well as possible. My impression is that the Road Hole Bunker has to be confronted, or at least considered, on each shot until the player is on the green and above the plateau at the front...


There really aren't many hazards that cannot be avoided at all costs. The lake on #17 at Sawgrass...how many others?

[BCrosby]

Jim -


The 17th at Sawgrass is a good working definition of a penal hole. Not much to debate there, no?


As for the RH bunker, it scares everyone from whatever angle they approach the hole. But it scares most those players who bail out left from the tee. They are forced to carry the RH bunker and then stop their ball on a very shallow green guarded at the back by an asphalt road.


Bob