What Makes a Course "Fun to Play"

[Bill_McBride]

JES, it's been 20+ years since I last played Jacaranda, so don't remember the waterfall.  But I do rememeber all those RTJ-type holes!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

With a 15 handicap that I rarely play to I personally may not always have fun on a course yet I can still see that the course I am playing is fun.  I don't think I have ever played worse than at Painswick, but I never ceased to enjoy the course (not only because of the wonderful GCA company).  I played pretty badly at Yale last year, but I was thoroughly entertained by the course, which is surely fun.  I think Royal Worlington is fun because of the challenges thrown down by trying to approach those greens.  I think Pennard is fun, even though I am likely to make some awful errors of judgement approaching those exposed skyline greens.  I played Elie again last summer and had a lot of fun.  But I think the greatest fun I've ever had has been each and every time I've played TOC - however badly you play, there is always some hole during the round when you do better than Professional X or Professional Y who in the last Open got an 8 here or a 7 there and I can claim to have got up and down from the Road Bunker in 2 (albeit for a 6) on one occasion.

But a great deal of the fun, whatever the course, is because of the company.  GCAers in my experience help to make every round fun because they are a lovely bunch of people.  

[Jim Thompson]

Fun comes from having to think.

Ian,

Having never met, you I feel obliged to let you know that you have just gained significant credibility in my personal little book of Golf Course Architects.

Well said.

JT

[Doug Siebert]

I agree with just about all Sean said (although there is not a huge number of courses out there that meet all his criteria...).

I'd also add:

--seamlessness (tees flowing into fairways into greens into tees into fairways, etc. etc.)
--moments of uncertainty (shots which you never quite know where they are going to end up until they do!)
--greens that are subtle and true

I'm sure there are more.

I love the "moments of uncertainty" response.

-Ted

Ted,

I remember last year someone equated fun with the length of time you watch a shot before you know how it is going to turn out.  I can't remember who said it, but the more I thought about it the more I came to conclusion that that is the one and only formula for fun in golf that is required.

- it explains why the ground game is so much more fun

- why a wedge that covers the flag is fun to watch but an equally perfectly struck wedge that is flying at a spot 15 feet left of the cup isn't

- it explains why penal courses aren't fun (because you often know you are dead from the moment of impact)

- it explains why wild greens and/or fast greens are so much more fun than slow or flat greens

If you hit a shot and it takes 20 seconds before you know whether it was a fair shot, a good shot, or a great shot, can it get any better than that?

[James Bennett]

Doug

from memory, it was John Kirk.  I keep thinking about that 'long time watching' line as well.

Ties in with firm and fast, and definitely not with hit and stick, doesn't it?

James B

[TEPaul]

JeffB:

To me a course is fun to play if it offers situations where the seemingly unexpected can happen. By this I don't mean total randomness of result but that there are all kinds of little unobvious factors and nuances about the course one can use through an analysis of concentrated observation. And if one really thinks about it and is honest a very large amount of this is not only how much but how the ball, once it hits the ground proceeds along the ground at any and all parts of the golf course.

To me that is what fun is all about. I think a number of golf courses have this architecturally in lots of interesting ways but to experience it fully maintenance practices have to be effectively and ideally plugged in.

[Ted Kramer]

Doug

from memory, it was John Kirk.  I keep thinking about that 'long time watching' line as well.

Ties in with firm and fast, and definitely not with hit and stick, doesn't it?

James B

I remember that conversation/post.
I think about that idea all the time, I think it is right on the money. . .and you're right, it does tie into firm and fast very nicely.

-Ted

[Mike_DeVries]

"The most fun I had playing golf in 2002 was at The Kingsley Club"  Ron Whitten's first line in his online review of Kingsley at http://www.golfdigest.com/courses/critic/index.ssf?/courses/critic/kingsley.html

That might be the best compliment I have ever received about my work and speaks to the real reason to play the game: it should be fun!

Mike

[Nick_Christopher]

When I bring a group of college buddies up every fall to Kingsley, invariably someone remarks at the end of the round how much fun the golf course is.  Bear in mind that none of these guys are interested in architecure, and don't point to specific reasons of what made the course fun.  Rather it is a general sense of the round, and I hear it repeatedly from a variety of different types of players.  It is a great compliment to the course and the designer!

[Tim Gavrich]

When I bring a group of college buddies up every fall to Kingsley, invariably someone remarks at the end of the round how much fun the golf course is.  Bear in mind that none of these guys are interested in architecure, and don't point to specific reasons of what made the course fun.  Rather it is a general sense of the round, and I hear it repeatedly from a variety of different types of players.  It is a great compliment to the course and the designer!

Nick makes a very good point.  One major contributing factor to the fun one has on a golf course is atmosphere.  This is where Mike Strantz's courses (the ones I've played, at least) take the title in terms of the Fun Index.  Who can't get excited about playing Caledonia?  All the old trees, the chowdre stand near the Starter's post, the seemingly-hidden tee boxes (especially the backmost tees on 7 and 14).  All of that contributes to the memorability of the place.  At Tot Hill Farm, one gets the feeling that he/she is playing golf in a 19th century mining town.  All the rocks around the holes look like they were dropped by dynamite blasts (kind of an odd parallel, but it fit the setting).  Tobacco Road had a similar feel.

Another fun part of golf is when one hits a shot that narrowly escapes a harsh penalty.  Strantz was a master of creating hazards that are very severe but are not really in play, as well as hazards that look far more dire that they really are.  But, the real masters were Raynor and company.  I'll cite the eighth and ninth holes at Yale.  Eight has two of the deepest greenside bunkers you'll ever encounter, and number nine really needs no explanation.  There are few better feelings that having scooted your ball through the swale towards a back pin.

[Andy Troeger]

"Fun" courses have:

(1) Strategic design--generally, a course should be big enough, with large enough greens to offer different playing challenges every time you play it.

(2) Options--safe and risk/reward routes to the holes should be  present on several holes.

(3) Demanding Shotmaking--an examination of the entire bag of 14 clubs always makes you hit a few shots imperfectly enough to make you want to try them again.

(4) Beauty/Conditioning--I've never enjoyed a round on an ugly or poorly conditioned course.

(5) Good pace of play--long waits between shots limit enjoyment, no matter what #s 1-4 are.

Having read through all the responses I think this is the one that's closest to my beliefs. Being a list-lover, I rank all the courses I've played on an excel spreadsheet, and "FUN" is one of my most-heavily weighted criteria!

[Paul Payne]

My idea of a "fun" course to play is probably best captured by Sand Hills.

First you have the visual appeal, Vistas, raw bunkering, contrasts between fairways and rough.

Most importantly however it is a very challenging course with multiple strategic opportunities but is not severely punishing. I'll explain what I mean.  

The par 3's are the most exacting holes on the course and are the most punishing for a missed shot.

Most of the par 4 and par 5 holes have very wide and generous fairways. There is always an A position which you should hit to in order to play the hole well, but their are always options for a shorter hitter too. This means that a poor tee shot usually still has somewhere safe to land. The challenges increase as you get closer to the green, however with a shorter club in hand it is less likely that you will hit a foozler off into the prarie.

The bottom line is that this creates a course where you have a smart and challenging shot from every poisition from the tee in, but if you miss, you will likely have a decent  recovery shot.

I could play that course every day forever, it is like a playground.