Worst run of forward and back holes?

[Ally Mcintosh]

In other words, cases of really bad routing where you get a sense that you're walking one way and then just heading immediately back to where you started from?

I'm asking the question because i was just thinking of St.Annes Golf Club (on the same island / nature reserve as Royal Dublin).

You stand on the eleventh tee and just sense straight away that you will be walking straight up and down the property for the next hour until you walk off the sixteenth green.

Some courses do this and hide it well. St.Anne's doesn't. To make it worse, it comes late in the round. I'd much rather see these kind of holes early in a round.

What do you reckon?

Any similar cases?

[jeffwarne]

Bude and North Cornwall.
at one point I played 4 holes without moving my bag more than 50 yards-laterally.

[JohnV]

The first course that came to my mind was Eligin Golf Club.  I haven't played there since 1988, but I still remember all the side-by-side fairways.  A quick look at a satellite photo confirms that there are as many as 7 or 8 holes parallel to each other.  I can't really remember if you go back and forth in order, but I remember it as a long slog.  Definitely my least favorite of all the courses I've played in Scotland.

[Doug Sobieski]

I'll suggest Warwick Hills (home of one of the PGA Tour Buick events). 14 holes run north/south, and 1, 9, 10, and 18 run east/west. If someone can find an aerial view, it's worth a good laugh. I'd bet that Bubba Watson could fly a ball over the width of the golf course  

[John Moore II]

A course I used to play in Raleigh, NC had numerous tee boxes from holes that came very close to each other. I got to the point that I would not carry my bag all the way around, just take 2 or 3 clubs I need and come back to the bag in 2 or 3 holes.

[John Moore II]

Warwick Hills is very interesting, it makes a big 7 from the overhead map. Got to wonder what they were thinking when they designed that one.

[tlavin]

I'll suggest Warwick Hills (home of one of the PGA Tour Buick events). 14 holes run north/south, and 1, 9, 10, and 18 run east/west. If someone can find an aerial view, it's worth a good laugh. I'd bet that Bubba Watson could fly a ball over the width of the golf course  

Great response, Doug.

This is an absolute finalist in the American division.  It's a truly appalling view from the blimp.

[JohnV]

Don't 17 of the holes at Firestone South basically run North/South next to each other?

[Scott_Burroughs]

Here's Firestone (South):



and Astoria, in Oregon (holes aren't quite as appeared, some dogleg from top of dunes):

[John Moore II]

Wow, both of those are just horrible designs, don't people have more imagination than that? I would think that nearly anyone could do better than those two courses above there.

[James Bennett]

Well, Huntingdale (Melbourne) has 16 north-south holes, with a par 3 on the southern boundary (#4) and a par 3 on the northern boundary (#15).  It hosts the Australian Masters.  The property would not be wider than perhaps 300 yards (apart from a small addition to the property in the SE corner)

You do get to play consecutive holes in the one direction on 1 and 2, then 8 and 9, then 11 and 12 (a par 3).  Otherwise, it is up, down, up, down.

James B

[John Nixon]

Firestone was the first that came to my mind.

[John Shimp]

One thing to remember though, is just because a bunch of holes are laid out parallel doesn't mean that they are necessarily plaid one after the other if there is a crossover hole that allows you to reenter the parallel holes later.  

My course in Charlotte has 8 holes laid out parallel in which four are played one after the other (not great) but when Ross laid it out originally only 2 of the 8 were played sequentially.  He figured out how to reaccess the parallel hole portion at different parts of the round which was neat.

[Matt_Cohn]

How about this effort on one of the courses at Mirasol?

[PThomas]

Wow, both of those are just horrible designs, don't people have more imagination than that? I would think that nearly anyone could do better than those two courses above there.

i'm surprised none of the Astoria lovers haven't weighed in yet Johnny....

[Matt_Cohn]

I think they just ignored it.

[mike_beene]

What about Inverness?

[Pete_Pittock]

I didn't ignore Astoria, just saw it in the last five minutes. You only play three holes (11-13) that are adjacent and at the same elevation. The unique North-south oriented dunes dictate the course layout. No design problems there, but the Portland area is replete with examples. It probably happens with many core golf courses.

[Jeff_Stettner]

The back nine at East Lake suffers a bit from this, especially after the front nine and its rather varied routing.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Inverness:



East Lake: