Unpleasant ways to discover Pleasant Architectural Surprises

[Tim Bert]

I'll give you my example, and then I'd like to hear about yours.  Looking for examples of courses that you've played before that snuck up and bit you with a feature you didn't know existed in previous rounds.

A couple of weeks ago, I played 36 holes at the Yale Course (the 2nd and 3rd times I played the course.)  I had played the course one other time two years ago.  We walked the first two times we played the course.  We carted it for the third round, since we were pressed for daylight (and a little tired from the hike over #18 mountain in the afternoon.)

Both times I walked and played #8, I missed the green either short or left.  Extreme left is not a good place to be.  Lost ball, unplayable lie, or extremely tough recovery shot are all possibilities from the pit of despair.  Normally I do a decent job of looking around and inspecting the architecture for future rounds.  The first two times I played this hole I did a poor job of fully assessing the situation for future rounds for a few reasons:
1) I struggled on the hole both times and it drained me mentally
2) The direct line from the green to the next hole takes the walking golfer off the back left of the green
3) The presence of the 9th looming in the near distance

Enter my third trip around the course.  We tee off on #8 and I miss wide right and also pop the tee shot up a bit.  I've got about 200 yards to the green, which is a hybrid for me.  I tend to fade (I'm a lefty) my hybrid when there's trouble looming in that direction.  I tell my playing partners, "There's no way I'm missing this one on the left side."  I proceed to hit a shot long and to the right, and I'm mentally high-fiving myself.

Well, Mr. "excited about #9, so I never stopped to look around" has now discovered a new part of the course that he didn't know existed.  I guess I should have realized there was something hiding behind the green that is so severely banked right to left, but it never dawned on me to take a peek.  I find my ball in a massive bunker, facing a delicate shot over a high grass wall to a green that runs away from me.  It was wonderful and horrifying all at once.

I flubbed the bunker shot, but got out of the sand.  Hit the next one up on the green and it ran just off.  Two-putted from just off the green and took my double bogey 6.  It was still better than the disastrous 9 I made earlier that same day, but it was bad enough to spend a good amount of time thinking about where I'm going to miss next time I play that hole.  I'll probably bump one up and leave it short.

Here's a few photos, though they don't fully capture what I've described

A view of the green through the dogleg.  You can see the steep decline down to left side bunker.  What you can't see is that left of the left bunker is an absolute disaster.  My experiences over here are what drove me to the surprise bunker behind the right side of the green.


Here's another view of the approach from the fairway


Here's a shot of the hidden bunker and the wall of grass confronting the recovery shot.  The green completely runs away from this shot


Here's a view of the green looking back on the hole.  You can get a idea of how the green runs right to left (left to right in this photo) though I assure you all the greens at Yale are more severe than an amateur photographer can capture


 

[Bill_McBride]

Here's an example from the recent Kings Putter.  I was having one of my increasingly rare good rounds of golf, at MPCC Shore, and was 4 over on the 17th tee.  I drove the ball up the right side and managed to get about 12" into the second cut, which was maybe 8" deep.  The hosel grabbed on the chop out and I pulled the shot well left into the first cut over there.  The pin was cut in the middle of the green behind a bunker, so I took an extra club to be sure I carried the bunker.  Hit the ball very solidly right at the pin.....

When I got up there, I was shocked    to see my ball had run through the green into a creek cleverly concealed behind the green.  Dropped, chipped, two putt triple, now +7, good round gone away.

When I was whining later, somebody asked me why I didn't take note of that hidden creek as we walked down from the 3rd green to the 4th tee, passing right by the 17th green.

Does this fit your criteria, Tim? 

[Dave_Miller]

[ 
When I was whining later, somebody asked me why I didn't take note of that hidden creek as we walked down from the 3rd green to the 4th tee, passing right by the 17th green.

Does this fit your criteria, Tim? 
[/quote]

Bill:
Sounds like you got it.  This type of thing happens to me all the time  
Best
Dave

[Tim Bert]

Here's an example from the recent Kings Putter.  I was having one of my increasingly rare good rounds of golf, at MPCC Shore, and was 4 over on the 17th tee.  I drove the ball up the right side and managed to get about 12" into the second cut, which was maybe 8" deep.  The hosel grabbed on the chop out and I pulled the shot well left into the first cut over there.  The pin was cut in the middle of the green behind a bunker, so I took an extra club to be sure I carried the bunker.  Hit the ball very solidly right at the pin.....

When I got up there, I was shocked    to see my ball had run through the green into a creek cleverly concealed behind the green.  Dropped, chipped, two putt triple, now +7, good round gone away.

When I was whining later, somebody asked me why I didn't take note of that hidden creek as we walked down from the 3rd green to the 4th tee, passing right by the 17th green.

Does this fit your criteria, Tim? 

Yes, this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about.  Mine is the much bigger offense since I had played the hole in question twice before, whereas you just didn't take advantage of a preview.  But this is definitely the kind of situation I'm interested in hearing about.