Variation in fairway widths

[Matt_Cohn]

Looking through a bunch of satellite pictures, I keep noticing that on any given golf course, the fairways are almost always all about the same width. They might be all narrow, or all wide, but pretty much never a mix of the two.

It makes sense, but surely there are some great courses whose fairways are a mix of wide and narrow? Where one fairway is 25 yards wide, and the next one is 50 yards wide? Are there?

[Paul Gray]

You say it makes sense but I'm not so sure. Regulation width has always struck me as a particularly stupid trend.

[Ken Moum]

I have a more pointed question.

Can a golf course be great if all the fairways are the same width?

I don't think so.

K

[Jeff_Brauer]

Matt,

I always try for a variation of fw widths, even so far as to start the design with a goal of 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, ad 55 yards wide on each nine.  Hardly ever works out quite that way.

The idea that fairways should be the same width is a tough nut to crack.  Did some grass lines last month and when I tried to go wider on one they wondered why.  Also, one wide line brought back in after I left to "keep in line" with the other fairways that are about 35 yards wide.  (BTW, the wide one was on an uphill 490 yard par 4 from the tips, so I felt justified)

And, in this day and age of cost consciousness, at least some of the objection is based on the cost to maintain "extra" fairway that isn't "really necessary."

Sometimes, its a matter of the clearing (or lack thereof, to keep a corridor to 2 row sprinklers) or even just the scale of the golf course.  If a course has 4-5000 SF greens, sometimes ultra wide fairways just look out of scale.

[Matt_Cohn]

Nowadays, are standardized irrigation plans a factor? I.e., "We're doing, left, middle, and right sprinklers on each fairway"?

[Tom_Doak]

Nowadays, are standardized irrigation plans a factor? I.e., "We're doing, left, middle, and right sprinklers on each fairway"?

It has always been a function of irrigation design ... when the first systems were put in, fairways were narrowed to whatever the system covered effectively.

Nowadays the irrigation designs are more sophisticated -- the mains usually do not run parallel down the fairway -- so they can be more easily adjusted to different widths.  But, usually someone comes in with a "standard" for width, whether it's the USGA's 25 yards or someone else's 40, and everything gravitates toward that.  It is pretty rare to see a course with a couple of very narrow fairways and a couple of very wide ones.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Matt,

TD is right, and one of my frustrations is we pay irrigation designers to field stake their designs to field conditions.  Most do, but some just go straight rows down the fw, which to me, isn't exactly earning their money......Most designs have some zig and zag, and it takes a bit of work to stake a design of mostly straight line irrigation pipes to fit the proposed design.  Sometimes, we see the irrigation staking, and then go back and tweak our edge lines (usually not fairways( to where the sprinklers come out.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Looking through a bunch of satellite pictures, I keep noticing that on any given golf course, the fairways are almost always all about the same width. They might be all narrow, or all wide, but pretty much never a mix of the two.

It makes sense, but surely there are some great courses whose fairways are a mix of wide and narrow? Where one fairway is 25 yards wide, and the next one is 50 yards wide? Are there?

Matt,

I think you have to differentiate between older courses, those built prior to automated irrigation systems and courses built post automated irrigation systems.

On the older courses, fairway widths were often altered to uniform dimensions by the introduction of the automated systems.
The additional cost to deviate from universal widths is also a factor.
Remember, automated irrigations systems were sold on the basis of saving money.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Royal Dublin:

Outward 9 = incredibly narrow
Inward 9 = much wider

Club say because of prevailing wind and length.

[Tom_Doak]

Royal Dublin:

Outward 9 = incredibly narrow
Inward 9 = much wider

Club say because of prevailing wind and length.

Worth noting that one place you are more likely to see variation of width is in Great Britain and Ireland because there is little or no fairway irrigation on many courses, and they certainly don't let it dictate the design.  However, they do tend to keep their fairways narrow to save money.

[Jonathan Mallard]

Nowadays, are standardized irrigation plans a factor? I.e., "We're doing, left, middle, and right sprinklers on each fairway"?

It has always been a function of irrigation design ... when the first systems were put in, fairways were narrowed to whatever the system covered effectively.

Tom,

Has the size of detention ponds crept into this area of design?

If not, do you foresee a day when it will encroach?