Cops are dead?

[ward peyronnin]

Listening to a Fried Egg podcast several words/concepts struck. One host misspoke combining ground and contours into grountours(sic). I just felt immediately attracted and hope to work it into the lexicon.
Then the host began discussing ditches as a poorly appreciated but effective drainage method that , done well, can be an exciting design feature.
I then recalled the lovely little cops I can only recall seeing at Hoylake and Panmure. They are a  perfect half shot penalty especially on flattish land with few groundtours!  But has anyone noticeably included cops in designs done even in my whole( sadly long now) lifetime?
 Do GCA's consider them worthy half hazards or a vestige of Victorian geometric hazard ravings or when courses folded in preexisiting feature like the "Ancient Roman Tract" at Deal or Bronze Age forts or threshing grounds?
How would the practitioners of the art use them if worthy?

[Bruce Katona]

A cops is a dry ditch?

[Kyle Harris]

Several of the spoil piles left over at Streamsong may qualify especially as found on Blue #2. They're a bit more aesthetically organic than the cops at Hoylake but they present a similar barrier/situation.

[Thomas Dai]

This article on the evolution of bunkering by JH Taylor is worth reading - https://golfchronicle.wordpress.com/
atb

[Kye Goalby]

Ward,


I used cops (primitive style mounding) and also ditches, with the help of  superintendent, and primo ditch digger, Steven Aspinall, as design features while working at Saratoga Golf and Polo Club in Saratoga Springs NY over  the past 14 months.  If I had any clue how to post photos of it I would.


Brian Schneider of Renaissance Design is utilizing some of these features ( and more!)  at a redo of Llnanerch in Philadelphia at the moment as well. 

[David Harshbarger]

Damnation, I really need to get over to Saratoga Golf and Polo, then!


Battenkill, over in Greenwich, has 2 cops in play.  1 is in the middle of the approach to the 7th green, about 40 yards out.  The other is in the 9th rough. 


Good golfers should never really be near either.  But the rest of us experience enough weird bounces and contortioned stances to make them memorable!

[Eric Smith]

Ward,

Brian Schneider of Renaissance Design is utilizing some of these features ( and more!)  at a redo of Llnanerch in Philadelphia at the moment as well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4qDr2CFgJH/?igshid=147uf4acxz00t

[Kye Goalby]

To expand on my previous post, the ditch added to the fifth hole at Saratoga was inspired by  places like Royal Worlington  and Swinley Forest   and  created an interesting "hazard" that gets in players heads,  but as a grass ditch,  can also be  be played out of.  The great part was,  within  days of its creation,  it  dried up a green area that had been a quagmire for as long as anyone could remember,  and it is  way cooler than any catch basin and pipe will ever be! 

As a bonus, beyond improving the turf conditions by drying up that area,   it allowed an unsightly and annoying cart path to be removed near the green,  as the area is now dry enough for cart traffic without the the path.

The mounds we created were primarily  built with old dirty bunker sand we removed while redoing the bunkers.  Among other things, it  allowed us to create extremely  economical,  period appropriate and  textured  hazards ( course was originally built in 1897) with virtually no maintenance  cost, while  providing/ keeping  separation between holes after removing a bunch of trees that destroyed views and created uninteresting one dimensional golf.

[ward peyronnin]

Interesting interpretation by JH Taylor Thomas.

Begs the question of what exactly is a cop. They exist at Hoylake, from my unverified info, where the margins of the former racecourse ran and dirt was thrown up from that activity. As such these, and the ones i mention at Panmure, are low and long narrow ridges. At Panmure they snake moreso than at Hoylake.

Taylor's version is much bigger and really presents a somewhat different problem which includes stance and lie. The aforementioned primarily restrict the path the clubhead can take  or possibly the stance but not often both. And I wouldn't think a cop should include chocolate drop type mounds

[Thomas Dai]

Ward,
I know the cops at Hoylake but even though I've played the course I can't recall the Panmure ones. I have though seen various similar structures, not just golfing ones, around the UK, especially in rural areas.
Taylor's article is pretty interesting generally.
Whilst Taylor doesn't mention the word 'cop' he does write quite specifically about building-up earth banks 4-5 ft high and laying sand on one side, presumably suggesting this type of thing -
Below - Stanmore GC, West London

Below - Ashley Park GC, Walton-on-Thames

Below - Even early Shinnecock had something similar -

Below - for reference purposes, the layout of RLGC/Hoylake highlighting the 'cops'.

For what it's worth I happen to reckon that 'cops' like the ones we know at the likes of Hoylake were once animal enclosures with the height perhaps dependent on the size of the animal being contained (cattle, sheep), but this could be incorrect. And the depressions/gully's at the sides of the cop/earth bank (where the material to build them was probably taken from) would not only have made the banks effectively higher, helpful for enclosing animals, but also provided a nice depression to fill with 'bunker' sand for golfing purposes.
atb

[Tom_Doak]

Ward:


I'm guessing you might have gotten yourself added to a watch list somewhere with this subject title.

[Mark_Fine]

We used some cop mounds and cop bunkers at Copake CC in NY.  It is an old throwback course (Emmet) with squared off greens which we restored (they had turned into round circles when we first saw it) but they are very cool now.  Google Earth it.  It’s a fun golf course that we have slowly been working away implementing at the Master Plan. 

[Tim Gallant]

To expand on my previous post, the ditch added to the fifth hole at Saratoga was inspired by  places like Royal Worlington  and Swinley Forest   and  created an interesting "hazard" that gets in players heads,  but as a grass ditch,  can also be  be played out of.  The great part was,  within  days of its creation,  it  dried up a green area that had been a quagmire for as long as anyone could remember,  and it is  way cooler than any catch basin and pipe will ever be! 

As a bonus, beyond improving the turf conditions by drying up that area,   it allowed an unsightly and annoying cart path to be removed near the green,  as the area is now dry enough for cart traffic without the the path.

The mounds we created were primarily  built with old dirty bunker sand we removed while redoing the bunkers.  Among other things, it  allowed us to create extremely  economical,  period appropriate and  textured  hazards ( course was originally built in 1897) with virtually no maintenance  cost, while  providing/ keeping  separation between holes after removing a bunch of trees that destroyed views and created uninteresting one dimensional golf.

Thanks Kye! Really interesting, especially on the help with drainage.


I always thought ditches like the ones found at Oakmont are some of the best features in testing a golfer's pride. It seems so easy to hit a ball out of a ditch, and yet! With the ball possibly a foot below your stance, with a shortened backswing, it can be challenging to dislodge. It's not a shot many experience, and therefore, one thinks it should be rather easy.