Your favorite intimate features

[Mark Fedeli]

The Kingsbarns thread got me thinking about my favorite feature on that course:


Immediately behind the 6th green there's a narrow burn that runs amongst gorse. Short grass leads right up to a small portion of it, so it can easily grab shots that roll just a bit long, but otherwise you might not even notice it. It's a wonderfully intimate little feature that really stands out on a course as big and broad as KB. I like how understated, and almost hidden it is, and I imagine it took some willpower not clear everything out and call more attention to it.


What are some other intimate features that have left a big impact on you?





Here's the view from overhead:





Here's the view from the approach:

[Peter Pallotta]

Not so much an intimate 'feature', but the absolute simplicity of the Par 3s at Crystal Downs never ceases to amaze me when I think back to them - in particular the uphill 14th and 9th holes (the latter supposedly a 'throwaway' /routing necessity). In one sense, 'there's nothing to them', architecturally speaking -- and yet they are both all the golf hole I'd ever need, just the way the greens sit and are tilted/shaped in relation to the uphill tee shots. And I think the very fact that they seem so 'un-designed' or 'manufactured' makes me like them even more -- and more than many of the famous 'architecture-rich' Par 4s, that in comparison seem to me too 'busy'.
P 

[Ira Fishman]

I am not sure that they qualify as intimate, but I am drawn to undulations which at least do not scream that they are dramatic. The mounding leading to the green at Number 5 at The Island Club and the 16th at Pacific Dunes. The bowls in front of the green at Number 17 at Golspie and Number 15 at Nairn. And the knob on Number 7 at Pasatiempo. If they do not affect your shot, perhaps you do not even pay much attention, but they are there and very much in play.


Ira

[Thomas Dai]

Modest and subtle features are a particular favourite. Mild humps and hollows with occasional moguls are nice just about everywhere, particularly in front of greens. Streams, gully's and ridges that diagonally cross or semi-cross holes are nice as well.
atb

[Sean_A]

Generally speaking I like the following

front to back greens are often almost imperceptible

combo of slight tilt of greens away from "minor" trouble on the high side

slightly raised (maybe 18 inches) green front to compound the ground game/chip approach...Hoylake features this sort of thing quite a bit

on rumbling terrain, one larger dip which takes a good shot to get past and is hard to see properly...if the fairway turns slightly just beyond this dip its even better

bunkers in no man's and thus usually completely ignored until a strong contrary wind turns up

A very cool feature which I don't think I have seen anywhere else is the rear funnel at Palmetto's 11th.  It isn't noticeable on the tee, but when chipping it looms in the background.


Not at all visible from the fairway, the 6th at St Georges Hill has a cool dip shy of the green.


Huntercombe has a lot of in your face features, but the swale shy of the 9th green is blind and sublime.


I am a big fan of odd looking earthworks on courses, especially around greens.  A really cool feature is when ramps are created whereby the lucky golfer can use them for a ground game play. The idea fits in wonderfully with the concept golf and luck....Kington's 12th.


I like it when an archie's work is utilized in the course presentation.  Often times, course presentation alters architecture for the worse.  If a green is meant to roll over a hump, then the greens should be slow enough to allow this to be the case.  Its a small detail with a potentially large impact on playability.  Leckford Old's 4th.


Ciao
 

[jeffwarne]

Sean,
That picture of 11 at Palmetto really threw me.
Amazing how a camera can flatten out what is anything but a flat piece of property-the terrain in the background(#5)looks like the Low Country, yet #5 is a hole on very rolling terrain and 11 green is at the bottom of a 70 foot drop and the green is tough to chip/pitch to from any angle


Agreed about the earthworks at places like Kington-love them

[Mark Pearce]

The small rough covered mound short left of the 12th green at Dornoch.


The small "pimple" in the middle of the 10th green at Crail Craighead.

[Tyler Kearns]

A couple features from a recent trip to White Bear Yacht Club;

Trench bunker guarding #3


<a href='https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNxf-oyOo_GcGsfoTvvz2SGdznM1WGCv-kE3GW8AmTErxHyuHjX_f9_W6_AtQKOxg?key=MmFGXzNjNjVqSDJhUkZPT0lCSjZsSVlvRzI0clV3&source=ctrlq.org'><img src='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/u03xcFgZ8G3w5ePcw_mkf8qDfn5TyvY7e5q0MYvf3By6DEaibj67lhArkQyhZLHiactqgDekJeRdp8G4RCEcW6ZNB1jOnlKv5tM0VhaHeLwxlndwnbNXNWg8a6x-1J122mEGv2AMVQ=w2400' /></a>

Wee back tee on #12, crammed between back bunker of #11 & O.O.B. road

<a href='https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMmB-wdKZWE8_BBok2qnNk5LfVVSdMNPlvUHzb_LWIaxrrURdV9HQDaJ8G0IGueLA?key=UmRuNWJTU19aQWctSkozM1BqSEU4OWQzU2F1Skpn&source=ctrlq.org'><img src='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oqDFJG1Ra6Yf89hUSYb9W9yDCcmaJHRDqpfj5xnqmTzAUnNJqAc1KGSzPKiOMmcIrj0BrgIWLmLpLez-l7JQSrKA6jyIdktkYZrRPWtxWZsQNbJ94h4vfdzD2GwfW8TxVw_F9qENdA=w2400' /></a>

Not sure how to get the actual images onto GCA rather than just a link to Google Photo Account. Help?

Tyler

[Tom_Doak]

That little swale between the right bunker and the 16th green at Carnoustie was always a favorite of mine.


The mound in front of the 4th green at St Andrews is my all time favorite.

[Tim Gallant]

I love the small path that crosses right in front of the 17th green at Goswick. It comes right up against the front of the green and gives the place a quaint feel that I love.

[David_Tepper]

Golspie has a couple that I like:

1) The swale in the 7th green, which adds challenge to a short par-4.
2) The small hollows (the "tattie pits") down the left side of the 15th fairway.

 

[Mark Pearce]

I love the small path that crosses right in front of the 17th green at Goswick. It comes right up against the front of the green and gives the place a quaint feel that I love.

That's s good one.

[Tim Gavrich]

The sod covered boundary wall at the Klondyke hole at Lahinch.


The little trench right of the green at the second hole at Wilshire.


The little subtle breaks on the greens at Yale, which are dwarfed by all the big, bold features on the course.

[Joe Hellrung]

The mount that forms a crescent around the first green at Inverness is my favorite.  such a simple architectural feature that adds all kinds of complexity to the hole.

[Sean_A]

I love the small path that crosses right in front of the 17th green at Goswick. It comes right up against the front of the green and gives the place a quaint feel that I love.

That's s good one.

+2, although while the bloody thing can't be seen for the approach, it is fairly large!  Mind you, it is very intimate with the green in terms of proximity.



Ciao

[Pete Lavallee]

The mound in front of the 4th green at St Andrews is my all time favorite.

An excellent example. I’ve often wondered if this is a natural or man made feature; anybody know the answer?

[Steve_ Shaffer]

The hidden creek at C&C's Hidden Creek in New Jersey. Very intimate. 

[Richard Fisher]

I very much like the low sleepering used in small slopes at Rye (e.g. the 14th) to prevent a straightforward putt from off the green. These are small, subtle and utterly determinate hazards: I think that Brancaster used to have some too (at e.g. the old short 13th) and I know that Harlech are considering same in place of one or two sand bunkers that are now below the water table (e.g. at the 2nd). These very low sleepers are also (importantly) safe, with almost zero risk of a dangerous rebound.

[Kalen Braley]

I'm not sure if it counts, but 16 green at PasaTiempo.


That entire green complex with fronting bunkers, barranca, elevation differential from front of green to back, etc.  The whole thing is just awesome. 

[Peter Pallotta]

Keep staring at that photo of the path at Goswick. Can't explain why it is so lovely and appealing. I think maybe (to borrow from another thread and Tom D's comments) it's the epitome of "good enough" instead of "better/best". We need a green, we need a hazard, we need a path, we put the path near the green and have a couple of pots guarding the front -- simplicity itself, and yet the 'game is on' just as surely and meaningfully as if you'd moved a thousand tons of earth and created ponds and green contours and bunkers that mirrored the shape of the clouds in September. Indeed, all there *is* is the game itself, the architect's ego and ambition nowhere to be seen. I feel more peaceful just looking at it.
P

[Sean_A]

Keep staring at that photo of the path at Goswick. Can't explain why it is so lovely and appealing. I think maybe (to borrow from another thread and Tom D's comments) it's the epitome of "good enough" instead of "better/best". We need a green, we need a hazard, we need a path, we put the path near the green and have a couple of pots guarding the front -- simplicity itself, and yet the 'game is on' just as surely and meaningfully as if you'd moved a thousand tons of earth and created ponds and green contours and bunkers that mirrored the shape of the clouds in September. Indeed, all there *is* is the game itself, the architect's ego and ambition nowhere to be seen. I feel more peaceful just looking at it.
P

I bet the path was there before the green. I wish they would replace the old path markers...that would be cool. You can just see one at the other end of the path.

Ciao

[Wayne_Kozun]

Does this count as an intimate feature:

[Doug Wright]

A couple Pacific Dunes favorites of mine that can have opposite effects: The small mound just in front of the 10th green that can maddingly repel shots, and the mounding to the right of the 8th green that one can use to feed the ball to a right side hole location.