When should you make a hole more difficult and how would you do it?

[Jerry Kluger]

I am a strong believer that golf should be fun and too often courses/holes are designed with the very best players in mind which results in holes being too difficult for the vast majority of players.  On the other hand, are there circumstances where a hole should be made more difficult in order to make it better?  And how would you do it?  Sure, you could dig a hole and put in a water hazard or a deep bunker but what else would you do and most importantly, why would you do it?


My home course has a short par 4 - not drivable, but short and straight with water left but can easily be avoided and it is quite uninteresting.  I have always thought that building a tee box to the left and cutting a chute through the trees would challenge the player to hit a draw off the tee but a pull would go into the water while a push would put you in deep rough.  I have to admit that this really isn't exactly what I had in mind for this topic because it would add challenge but not really make it that much more difficult.


Thoughts?

[Joe Hancock]

Jerry,


On your example hole, what does the green bring to the party?

[Jerry Kluger]

The green is elevated at about a 45 degree angle with a bunker on the left and a ridge about 2/3s of the way back creating a separate back left section.  It has a bit of a redan feel to it but is lacking the conditioning to allow for a shot to run up on to the green.

[Keith Grande]

Perhaps the answer is to condition the green and surrounds properly to allow for variety of approach shots and hole locations.

[Jason Topp]

In my view, the question should always be whether a proposed change makes the hole more interesting.  Usually that means it provides temptation in some form or another.