The Raynor horseshoe/thumbprint green has been called the toilet seat.  

Has anyone ever seen a tractor seat green complex?



If not, it's time has come.  Imagine a nice lion's mouth bunker front center.

Mike

Bogey

This was a favorite complex design for Wilf Reid and William Connellan.  The first two holes of Bald Mountain (1928), Lake Orion Mi, are tractor seat complexes.  The first hole is approx 480 yds and the green complex sits on a rise.  I have often thought that a bunker in front of the green ( a lion's mouth) would alter the strategy in playing this hole.  

When the pin is to the side of the green, your approach shot is to the other side.  A daunting putt is over the crotch mound to the depression before the edge rises away.  

Tam O' Shanter C.C. in West Bloomfield, Mi has some tracter seat complexes on a larger scale than Bald Mt.

For those luckly enough to have played the Old Course at Indianwood, you could affirm if Reid and Connellan used this pattern on that design.

Petey

Searching for tractor seats on ebay again, huh Mike?

There's a reason this man calls shots for the hillbilly tour.

Mike,

That looks like some California version to me.  Is it the short course at Olympic?

Seems like a true tractor seat would have slight false fronts on either side of the center hump.  The most difficult pin would be front on either side as to miss on the wrong side would yield a difficult putt across the hump that would first break toward the rear of the green and then back toward the front.  To sling a putt off the rear bank would be dicey at higher green speeds given the false front and possibility that the ball runs off the green.  

Petey, I'd love to see some photographs of the greens you mentioned.  

Jeff, I first thought of the 8th at Sand Hills but it lacks the hump in the crotch.  Maybe the 13th at Rustic?

Mike

Jeff was being humble.  He built a very neat "tractor seat" green on I believe the 14th hole at The Wilderness in Lake Jackson, Texas.  I have only played it once while visiting my wife's family during the Holidays.

The back nine in particular deserves more attention than it gets.  Those nine holes alone feature a: "Tractor Seat" green, a "Punch Bowl", a "Biarritz" and a green with a "Valley of Sin" fronting its' left side.  Check it out if your travels ever bring you to south Texas.

Mike Benham,

I believe that is in fact a rare example of the Haight-Asbury green complex, so named because from above it brings to mind a bad drug trip from a by-gone era.

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=san+francisco&safe=on&ie=UTF8&z=19&ll=37.710428,-122.499506&spn=0.00084,0.002599&t=k&om=1&iwloc=addr

Peace.

Bogey - did you happen to notice that complete utter stud and man among men crossing the green Mike pictured?  
TH

Scott Hoch, right?

Got you covered Bogey...the new 12th green at Ricefields has one, repleat with the lions mouth bunker too.

[it doesn't have those little drain hole lines though it and it will be green, not that funky yellowish color].

I would have to say this one fits the bill:

How about the 5th at Dismal River