Tricked Up?

[Jeff_Brauer]

On the plane the other night, I sat next to a golfer, who described his home course as "pretty solid, you know, not all tricked up."

I have heard this phrase before, but would enjoy your thoughts as to what his ideas of "tricked up" may  have been.  He said it like I, as a golf course architect, would absolutely know!

Can you define it, or, like obscenity (that's for you, Dan Kelly!) do you just know it when you see it?

[A_Clay_Man]

Jeff- Perhaps he meant penal? The term solid makes me think of heroic design. Bunker right bunker left, line of charm open unimpeded for the "real" average golfer.

It is an interesting excersise without knowing more of a profile on the gentleman. hint hint

[Mark_Fine]

Jeff,
Tricked up is a very subjective term and means very different things to different people.  To some golfers, center fairway hazards are "tricked up".  False fronts are tricked up.  Anything blind is tricked up.  You get the picture.

I think the bottom line is if the hole is "not straight forward" many golfers will view it as tricked up in some way.  Sad but true!
Mark

[TEPaul]

Jeff;

I have no idea what that guy may have meant by "tricked up". In an architectural context that's not a bad question at all and I can't think what it would mean. Maybe something like a golf course that architecturally has sort of super thin man-made looking margins for error and such or just way too much going on architecturally--far too much shaping everywhere and such.

But the description "tricked up" can be and is used all the time on any golf course if it's "set-up" to play sort of ridiculous. Even a golf course like Merion can be "tricked up" by the set-up as it was a few years ago for the Hugh Wilson. They say if the pros had played it like that in the Open they would have squealed like pigs on the way to the slaughterhouse.

The greens were apparently hard as Ardmore Ave and things like 3 putting from 3 feet was a real possibility.

But "tricked up" architecturally? That's a tough one. Maybe a good example would be an architect who tries to do way too much with his design--puts way too much architecture into it--if you know what I mean.

[Dan Kelly]

Can you define it, or, like obscenity (that's for you, Dan Kelly!) do you just know it when you see it?

I thank you. Justice Potter Stewart (no relation to Payne Stewart, or to Harry Potter, either) thanks you. Pornographers everywhere thank you!

[CHrisB]

When I hear the words "tricked up" being uttered, it is almost always centered around the concept of fairness.  I think many golfers are looking for "fair" golf courses, those which "punish" bad shots but much more importantly "reward" good shots.  Nothing gets the complaining going quite like a shot hit exactly as intended that doesn't get a good result because of a "bad" bounce, a misjudgment (brought on by deception or other means), or a target that does not set up well for the intended shot.  

It is the difference between seeing golf as a game of execution versus a game of strategy and chance (and execution).  I think a great number of golfers want the course to plainly tell them what shot is required, and their challenge as they see it is to execute that shot--if they do they should get rewarded, and if they don't they should be punished (though not too severely!).  It's like they want to know what's "on the test" before they take it--luck (good or bad) is to be removed if possible, as are any non-obvious defenses by the course/architect.

This sentiment may be more prevalent in the U.S., where the concept of fairness in golf seems to run a little stronger and where the mentality taken to the extreme can be seen in the setup of the U.S. Open.

And many golfers measure themselves by their score, and they want their score to reflect how well they play, so they don't have to explain to everyone that their 82 was caused by a tricked up course ("I didn't play that badly--I just got screwed")!  It's tough to accept quirky holes, funky bounces, and non-obvious strategy when you are overly concerned with score.  Maybe it's easier to accept having to say "I just didn't hit the shots" instead of "I couldn't figure out what to do"...

[TEPaul]

"Pornographers everywhere thank you!"

Dan Kelly (tm);

Hmmm--you are good. Etymologically speaking would "tricked up" be somewhat synonymous with "turning a trick"? In other words, anyway you look at it you're gonna get f.,---well you know.

[Jeff_Brauer]

The most common way I have heard the term is when the design or maintenance doesn't allow the golfer:

- a shot directly at the hole.
- to use his "standard" shot
- a makeable putt

I may have told the story of using a valley of sin.  More than one golfer called it  "goofy golf" or "tricked up."  When asked why, the most common response was, "I can't practice that recovery shot."

how many times have we heard of greens labeled as "goofy golf?"  Is that the same as tricked up?  A non-standard shot?

[TEPaul]

JeffB said;

"how many times have we heard of greens labeled as "goofy golf?"  Is that the same as tricked up?  A non-standard shot?"

Jeff;

Sure it is---because that's in the minds of too many American golfers. I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to but the 5-6 true "greens within a green" at NGLA, for instance--(one of the truly most sophisticated, and yes, strategic offerings in all of golf architecture) would piss them off beyond description.

The sad thing is today's American golf architects are listening to those people or being forced to! I can't really say I blame them--they're probably being forced to listen through their architectural clients to those benighted recreationalists who can't spot real fun if it slapped them in the face!

I mean this in the nicest way, I swear, but I find it kinda of depressing that architects like you and even Tom Doak ask the questions you do on here sometimes. I think I can sense how you really feel but it sort of tells me you're longing to break out of the box of some of the things that seems to be regular expectations today.

I wish you could--but if you can't, I do understand why.

[A_Clay_Man]

Jeff- Were you afraid to ask the guy some follow-up questions?  Where was his home course and what did he mean by tricked up?

He most likely meant everything we naturalistic melding minimalists have come to appreciate as the best of the art.

[Jeremy_Glenn.]

I hate the term.

In my mind, "Tricked up" either means that the course has strategic merit or has subtleties that do not reveal themselves to every hack playing it for the first time.

If someone told me one of my design was "tricked up", I'd thank them for the compliment.

[TEPaul]

Jeremy:

Then you must mean you love the term. You don't hate a compliment, do you?

[T_MacWood]

To me it is when an architect is forced to overcome a severe deficency of a site, usually a lack of acreage or usable acreage. You find yourself with an iron in your hand on a high percentage of par-4's (and perhaps par-5's). The Links at Nags Head comes to mind.

[Jeremy_Glenn.]

TEPaul,

Touché.  

[Michael Moore]

Playing with a real terse "Down East" guy in central Maine one day.

Me - "So, do you ever play down in Portland? Ever play Sable Oaks?"

Huge pause.

Him - "That's a foolish golf course."

[ForkaB]

As Tom Paul mentions rightly above, "tricking up" is an act of course set-up rather than architecture.  That being said, however, any course that cannot be "tricked up" probably has boring, if not medicore, architecture.

[David Wigler]

To me, "Tricked up" is a course that penalizes well-executed shots.  Play the new Weiskopf course at Reflections Bay for a perfect example of a tricked up golf course.  

The fairways are all crowned and fall off into the hazards.  Well-struck tee shots end up in the desert.  #17 is one of the single worst holes ever built.  It is a blind tee shot with a large tree on the horizon aligned with the center of the fairway.  A perfectly struck tee ball at the tree will hit an incorrectly sloped fairway and end up in a lake that is blind off the tee and in the middle of the landing area.  There are several other holes with blind hazards in the landing area.

Randomness is integral to golf.  Intentionally penalizing well-struck shots is poor design.

For a second point of reference, look at the Norman course at PGA West.  It has the same overexagerated penalties for well-executed golf shots.

That is tricked up to me.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Adam,

Was I afraid to ask the followup questions? No, but discretion is the better part of valor.  If I tire of a discussion here, I can turn off the computer and ignore y'all.  On a plane, I can't!

He was from Houston, and I can't remember the name of the course now.  It had two courses, including one called Cypress something.  Mike Nuzzo could help.

Given how flat Houston is, I can't imagine Tom MacWoods defintion applies here, although it is a good one that I can picture in other places.

The answers remind of some old golf architecture humor.....

A course has strategic merit when it fits your shot pattern, but it's tricked up when it favors your opponents.  And, "Never ask a golfer how he likes a course, just ask what he shot"

One architect I know plays a variation of the old childhood game of adding the words "in between the sheets" to any song title, which still gives you a, sometimes hilarious, song title.  When he hears a golfer complain, he mentally adds the words, "It doesn't fit my game" to the complaint, and it inevitably makes more sense.....

[Scott_Burroughs]

Jeff,

Wouldn't a two-course complex with a 'Cypress' Creek course be Champions, the SW home to single-digit golfers and run dictatorially (the right way) by Jack Burke?

[Tim_Weiman]

David Wigler:

I've never heard the term "incorrectly sloped fairway". What does that mean? How can a fairway be "incorrectly sloped" when the golfer always has the option of hitting a right to left or a left to right tee shot? Once the golfer understands which way the fairway is sloped, doesn't he just have to make the appropriate shot shape adjustment? Isn't golf more fun that way?

[David Wigler]

Tim,

A blind fairway sloped into a hazard is incorrectly sloped in my book.  There is no shot on the hole.  Perhaps a better term would have been stupidly sloped, clumsily sloped, brain dead in its sloping or simply "Tricked Up."  

[mike_malone]

When i think of "tricked up" i think of things added to a course after it has been constructed that attempt to make it harder.
  One small example i saw was at Edgmont outside of Philly.Trees were planted on the right side of the fairway to force teeshots left toward a creek.This is tricking up a course.
    Tricked up is usually not natural

[CHrisB]

Jeff,

Wouldn't a two-course complex with a 'Cypress' Creek course be Champions, the SW home to single-digit golfers and run dictatorially (the right way) by Jack Burke?

Champions is so well known, that I'd imagine JB would remember that.  Could be Cypresswood GC in north central Houston, a public complex with two courses named Cypress and Creek.  I can see someone calling them "pretty solid" and "not all tricked up"--not spectacular but very nice golf.

On second thought, I think Cypresswood now has 54 holes so it could actually be Sweetwater CC in Southwest Houston, former site of an LPGA event, with courses named Cypress and Pecan.  "Pretty solid" and "not all tricked up"?  I'd say so--again, not overly exciting but very nice golf there as well.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Chris B,

It was Sweetwater.  Thanks for helping this aging memory.....

Actually, it seems just about every course in Houston has a Cypress, or a Pine in its title.

David,

I think you are on to a good definition.  There has to be at least ONE way to play a hole to fair, no?  Building something that doesn't allow a chance at par is probably, in most minds, a good definiton of tricked up.  Now, some feel that building something where there is not a reasonable chance for birdie, or eagle, is tricked up.  

I would debate that!

[Tim_Weiman]

David:

Are you saying that a fairway that slopes into a hazard is okay but that when you add the blindness it cross a line to "tricked up"?