Greenside mounds covered in long grass/heather

[Thomas Dai]

Some links courses, and some healthlands too, have small mounds near the greens where the surrounds of the mound are cut to fairway height but the mounds themselves are covered in longer grass, much longer than a first cut of rough, or even heather.


What do folks reckon, are these mounds a good feature or a bad one?


Here's an example - botton right hand corner of photo - from a famous course -





atb

[Tom_Doak]

There are some mounds like that across the approach to the 7th at Pacific Dunes ... one of my favorite holes I've built.  The mounds were there all along, we just worked around them.


The reason you are more likely to see bunkers, rather than mounds, built on a new course is that the playability of the mounds is more likely to change away from what it was intended to be over time ... with bunkers, we know what we're going to get.

[Jason Way]

Tom does have great mounds (er, wait, that didn't come out quite right).


Anywho, here's a look back from behind the 8th at CommonGround.  One of my favorite holes there, and the mounds were part of the reason why.


Jon Cavalier has a great picture of the Redan hole at Greenbrier which features cool front mounds, in place of the traditional front bunker.  Jon?




I've also posted pics of the mounds that Drew Rogers and Dave Zinkand restored at Old Elm's 12th, which I think are fantastic.


Generally, I love them as a change of pace for hazards.  In some instances, they accentuate strategy to my eye even better than bunkers do.  They just have that "obstacle course" feel about them, which I find to be extremely fun.

[David_Tepper]

The right side of the green on the 16th at Royal Dornoch is guarded by 3 such mounds, the first of which is quite large, at least 4' high. Since the safe play when approaching that green is to miss to the right, the mounds do a nice job of protecting that side of the green. 

[Kalen Braley]

I've always thought Kidd makes some cool looking mounds.  Not sure how they play but he seems to have incorporated several of these into his earlier work...

[Thomas Dai]

and another, 11th hole on a well worth playing little sister course to very big brother -




Could it be mowed with a ride-on if necessary or is it too steep?

atb

[Tom_Doak]

Could it be mowed with a ride-on if necessary or is it too steep?

That doesn't look like something you could get with a riding mower.  Generally, you can only mow banks that are less steep than a 3:1 slope [three feet of base for 1 foot in rise].  That's the main reason mounds built by landscape architect-trained modern designers look so bad ... natural mounds usually have steeper portions than that.

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks Tom, that's what I was kinda getting at, when a grassy mound is left to remain grassy because it can't be machine mowed easily and the differential between 'natural' and man/machine made mounds.
atb

[Steve Lapper]

There are some mounds like that across the approach to the 7th at Pacific Dunes ... one of my favorite holes I've built.  The mounds were there all along, we just worked around them.


The reason you are more likely to see bunkers, rather than mounds, built on a new course is that the playability of the mounds is more likely to change away from what it was intended to be over time ... with bunkers, we know what we're going to get.

Tom,


    Was the bunker on the right of the SS #12 green original? If not, then why such a mound chosen over a bunker? Just wondering??

[Kalen Braley]

I am curious for anyone in the know....

Are the chocolate drop mounds found on old pre-equipment courses a result of either green grading or digging bunkers?  .  Would seem to make sense, why move it far away... just mound it up in a few spots and add some flavor to the hole.

Thanks in advance.

[Thomas Dai]

I am curious for anyone in the know....
Are the chocolate drop mounds found on old pre-equipment courses a result of either green grading or digging bunkers?  .  Would seem to make sense, why move it far away... just mound it up in a few spots and add some flavor to the hole.
Thanks in advance.

Ref also rocks shifted into piles and then covered with earth.
Atb

[Sean_A]

Some links courses, and some healthlands too, have small mounds near the greens where the surrounds of the mound are cut to fairway height but the mounds themselves are covered in longer grass, much longer than a first cut of rough, or even heather.


What do folks reckon, are these mounds a good feature or a bad one?


Here's an example - botton right hand corner of photo - from a famous course -





atb

ATB

To my eye the two grass knolls look odd with rough.  I would prefer to see them shaved down, but they do look a bit steep for a ride on.  Probably better to grade them down so they can be kept short or get some sheep. 

One of the main reasons Kington gets the aesthetic just about perfect is because they don't cut fairways so short.  Hence, when slightly longer grass on mounds or in hollows is encounterd it flows through beautifully...making what we know are artificial features seem far more natural and thus much easier on the eye and much easier to accept by avoiding stark cut contrasts.   


An example of how fairways bleed into rough so weird patches don't look out of place. Its incredible how good cut lines can improve the aesthetic of  course. 



Ciao

[Jon Wiggett]

Thomas,

I like this idea as an alternative to bunkers though must agree with Sean in that the two front ones would be better cut at fairway height. Unlike Sean, I think it would be possible to mow these with ride on mowers though the same cannot be said for the mound back left.

I have said in the past I am firmly of the belief that most courses would be become more interesting to play if many of their greenside bunkers were replaced by hollows and small mounds.

Jon

[Ally Mcintosh]

I too am not a fan of the mounds in the first picture and think they would be better served cut at approach height.


Given that they are on the 7th hole of my home course, I've thought about this quite a lot. Like Jon, I believe that they are soft enough to mow with a ride-on. Or very close to it at least.


Seeing as it is a relatively short, downhill par-3 with a green that gathers, the only answer I have is that the club think it adds to the difficulty.


Not one of my favourite features.

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for the thoughts.

These grassy mounds, reverse-donuts, mowed around but not on top seem very contrived to me. I'm certainly no fan of them. They also don't help encourage the ground game, which these days needs all the help it can get.

Over-maintenance or maintenance for maintenance's sake perhaps?


atb

[Mike Hendren]

Nobody, but nobody, does mounds better than The Old Man:

[Sean_A]

Not bad Bogey, but that mounding pales in comparison to











Ciao

[Jon Wiggett]

Michael, Sean,

great photos. It is a shame that no GCAs are doing this sort of mounding nowadays.

[Thomas Dai]

Kington for sure. Would the other course be Yelverton?


A question for those in the business, are humps akin to the ones pictured in the various responses above easy construction and maintenance and if not what kind of problems do they present?


atb

[Jon Wiggett]

Thomas,

they are fairly straight forward to construct. They usually require mowing by hand with a flymo or strimmer though Kington's will be perfectly maintained by the sheep I would imagine. If constructed out of poor quality earth then the growth rate should be quite slow. I have to mow mine every 3 weeks through the main part of the growing season.

Jon

[Marc Haring]

Kington for sure. Would the other course be Yelverton?


A question for those in the business, are humps akin to the ones pictured in the various responses above easy construction and maintenance and if not what kind of problems do they present?


atb

Yes Thomas. I thought Yelverton as soon as I saw them.