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Ken Moum

  • Karma: +0/-0
Worst "architectural" feature?
« on: March 21, 2008, 02:49:21 PM »
???

Okay, we've had people try to come up with the worst course. But how about the worst golf course "architectural" feature.

1) Three different courses that have "foul poles" on dogleg holes. On two of them, if your ball passes the pole on the wrong side, it's OB--even though there are no stakes or boundary. On the third, you MUST play around the pole, so if you cut too much off, you have to play backwards to get around the pole, like a sailboat that misses a mark.

2) A course with gravel cart paths down the middle of every fairway.

3) Two courses where the greens were built over existing sand greens based on advice to "crown them so they'll drain." They look like the top of someone's head.

4) The course where I made my first hole-in-one, which includes a short, easily driveable par four that has a long screen down the left side of the tee to prevent players from aiming at the green.

5) A course that has a driveable par four with the end of the local high school's football field impinging on the fairway, including the end zone, goalposts and part of the cinder track.

6) A pair of courses that have an abandoned barn/house in play. There's nothing like a blind lob wedge over an old farmhouse.

7) ALL of the courses that use interior OB to force players to go around a dogleg.

8 ) Two courses with a  "water bunker" -- actually just a bunker-sized hole in the ground with water in it. The smallest water hazards I ever saw. One of them was a greenside bunker that always had water in it, so the owners let it grow up in cattails.

9) A sand-green course built around the local grass-strip airport, because that was the only place in town with gang mowers. (This also meant that every part of the course had to be dead flat.

10) A par three, where the green is virtually invisible from the tee, due to several large trees in the way. (The first time I played it, we had an argument about where the green actually was.)

Ken
« Last Edit: March 21, 2008, 05:19:24 PM by kmoum »
Over time, the guy in the ideal position derives an advantage, and delivering him further  advantage is not worth making the rest of the players suffer at the expense of fun, variety, and ultimately cost -- Jeff Warne, 12-08-2010

Steve_Lovett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst "architectural" feature?
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2008, 04:28:45 PM »
Ken -

Interesting list - would you attribute these infamous features to specific golf courses?

Ken Moum

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst "architectural" feature?
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2008, 05:18:13 PM »
Ken -

Interesting list - would you attribute these infamous features to specific golf courses?

Most of them are nine-hole courses in South Dakota.

 * The foul poles are in Wessington Springs, Milbank (I think), and Ft. Pierre

* The centerline cart paths are in Presho

* The crowned greens were in Presho, S.D.m and Stephen, Minn. The both may have been changed by now.

* The football field is also at Wessington Springs.

* The abandoned buildings were at Presho and (I think) Ada, Minn.

* One "water bunker" was in Eudora, Kan., and the location of other one escapes me.

* The sand-green course at the airport I believe is NLE, but it was in Rolla, N.D.

* The par three through the trees is in Eudora, Kan.

I played in golf tournaments on nine-hole courses 5 to 15 times a year from about 1965 to 1998. Over that time, I saw a lot of interesting golf courses and people.

Over time, the guy in the ideal position derives an advantage, and delivering him further  advantage is not worth making the rest of the players suffer at the expense of fun, variety, and ultimately cost -- Jeff Warne, 12-08-2010

Lester George

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst "architectural" feature?
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2008, 05:19:39 PM »
Last week I saw a par three with water in front of the green and there were two bunkers in the pond (connected to the land with tiny walkiing strips of land).  In the two bunkers there was Pampass Grass growing.  Essentially, if you hit short, you could land in one of the "Island Bunkers" but advancing to the hole would be difficult because you would have to hit a sand shot over the Pampass and CARRY the water to reach the green. 

Worst thing I have ever seen.  Don't ask me who designed it, I won't say.

Lester

cary lichtenstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst "architectural" feature?
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2008, 05:20:52 PM »
Interesting question: I know I have commented a number of times that I thought a particular feature was poor architectural design. I'll start with a controversial one:

1. St Andrews: 17th the Road Hole-between hitting over a hotel and then dealing with a stone wall, I'd say it qualifies

2. Cypress Point: 18th hole. I'd say the fact that there is no fairway qualifies

3. Pine Valley: 10th hole bunker affectionally named the devils asshole, totally unfair

4. Oakmont: The rough, no fun, no fun, no fun

5. PGA West: The whole thing

6. Excessive use of turtle back greens with extremely closely mown collection areas that collection divots as well

7. Front pin placements on uphill greens that fallaway where the prevailing wind in behind you.

8. Downhill greenside bunkers that face the water with less than 20 feet of green.

9. Portions of greens that if you putt, you can't putt towards the hole, you really have to chip.

10. Old courses with doglegs at 190 to 200 yards off the tee with giant trees

11. Trees that overhang the right side of nearly every fairway.

12. Traps where the sand that is spec'd is way too soft.

13. Par 5's that give you nowhere to lay up your 2nd shot except some strip of narrow land,

14. Flat greens...boring

Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

Doug Ralston

Re: Worst "architectural" feature?
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2008, 05:23:50 PM »
I still have to go with Fernbank, in Cincy, with it's fairways that literally cross in X. I guess perhaps whomever did that thought it was efficient use of land ...........  :-\

Doug

Ken Moum

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst "architectural" feature?
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2008, 05:25:44 PM »
I still have to go with Fernbank, in Cincy, with it's fairways that literally cross in X. I guess perhaps whomever did that thought it was efficient use of land ...........  :-\

Doug

I suppose Carey could also have included the 7 and 11 fairways at TOC. 

K
Over time, the guy in the ideal position derives an advantage, and delivering him further  advantage is not worth making the rest of the players suffer at the expense of fun, variety, and ultimately cost -- Jeff Warne, 12-08-2010