Fairways Widening vs Fairways Tightening

[Ally Mcintosh]

Taking the "Why do we have wide fairways?" thread a step further, I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on this topic....

In other words, are you for fairways getting wider the further the distance from the tee, peaking with the longer hitters?

Or are you for fairways constricting in to necks as you get towards the long hitters distance?

Or are you for a mix of these two... with fairways widening to a maximum at the average hitter's distance before constricting for the longer hitters?

Although we are all agreed that variety is the spice of life, which of these three design styles would you favour most regularly?... And why?

Thanks,
Ally

[Troy Alderson]

Taking the "Why do we have wide fairways?" thread a step further, I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on this topic....

In other words, are you for fairways getting wider the further the distance from the tee, peaking with the longer hitters?

Or are you for fairways constricting in to necks as you get towards the long hitters distance?

Or are you for a mix of these two... with fairways widening to a maximum at the average hitter's distance before constricting for the longer hitters?

Although we are all agreed that variety is the spice of life, which of these three design styles would you favour most regularly?... And why?

Thanks,
Ally

Ally,

I like the idea of as wide of fairways as possible through the constraints of the property. I also like to have a mix of widths but feel the land should determine the widths with mounding and native plants areas dictating the fairway cut. Mounding is a great equalizer with wide fairways.

Troy

[Ben Sims]

Troy,

This brings up a GREAT point and one I think we tend to forget about on this site.  I'll caveat the question by saying:  I'm tired of hearing about the short straight hitter that just keeps it in play.  My dad (non-golfer) in his best Georgia drawl will say about a co-worker, "Well he just pokes it out there about 200 hundred and makes his pars and bogeys.  He's so accurate, he could probably beat you."  I always reply, "On which set of tees and on which course?" 

So the question is this:  Is it forgotten that the long hitter must be more accurate with his tee shot to stay in play?  Now I'm all for shortening a certain tee shots. Doglegs, fairway bunkers, tightened landing areas all do this.  However, making a general rule as an architect that the long hitter be penalized for being long, or forced to hit the club that the architect desires is akin to being fascist.

I'll use a term now called strategic width.  Choking the fairway down isn't necessary to stop the long ball.  My personal opinion is that undulation (that is, imperfect lies and stances), and hazards that don't involve losing a ball (sand and swales) are much more effective than rough at controlling the long hitter.  This accomplishes two things 1) It keeps the long hitter in play where a miraculous shot may save the hole for him 2) It lets the short hitter know that if he continues to position his tee shots better than the long hitter, he will be competitive.  Strategic width, for me, is a recipe for fun and interesting golf.  TOC is considered wide by today's standards, but the proper positioning and angle remains small. 

Wait until you guys see Old Mac.  I banged away at a few holes with the driver and quickly realized that positioning my approach was the key.  Length only matters if you are accurate.  That is why I don't believe that fairways should be choked repetitively.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Ben,

I'm glad you came in with your contribution there. I obviously asked the question with my own thoughts and wanted to see what other people thought first.

It seems to me that the older strategically thinking architects actually widened their fairways the further from the tee, reasoning that the longer hitters need wider fairways to stray at the same permissable angles as the shorter hitters... They wanted to create strategic holes from the wrong angle in to an interesting green complex (we all know that of course)...

However, it seems that much of the thinking nowadays is that choking the long hitters driving area is the modern day equivalent of strategic golf... when in fact it is quite penal as it says to the long hitter "If you want to go this far, I need you to keep it dead straight as well". It is about distance control rather than angles. It obviously offers choices but not in the same way that classic strategic golf does.

So to answer my own question, I like to see fairways widening and when I see choke points I prefer them to be done with centreline bunkers or diagonal runs of bunkers (or natural hazards) that tend to give choices other than "the longer you are, the straighter down the middle you have to hit"...

As Philippe said on the other thread though, it only works these days if the green complex challenges the better players...

[Carl Nichols]

What's wrong with having a few holes where the longer player has to make a choice -- hit driver but risk missing the fairway, or hit something else and be left with a longer second?  We're all for variety and choices; why not have a *few* holes that present this particular choice? 

[Ben Sims]

Carl,

I agree completely.  But I feel that the long hitter shouldn't have to contend with ribbon after ribbon of bottled up fairway at 290+ just because they're long. Like I mentioned above, a wide fairway with bunkers IN the fairway or combined with contours is, IMO, enough to make the long hitter think.  After seeing doglegs and fairways go from 70 yards to 25 yards at certain ranges from the tee, I jut clam up and start hitting 3 wood.  Sometimes an architect should take certain options away from me, but not as a practice. 

[John Moore II]

This can work both ways but I don't like the idea of drastically shrinking down the fairway width at longer distances. Perhaps it could be made to where a better angle to the green can be found at a shorter distance off the tee or a flatter lie. But tightening does work so well. What about the old men, ladies and kids who will hit a second shot into that pinched off area? The shorter hitters are the ones who play the course more often than the big hitters. I'd rather see things done to make the pace faster rather then the course tougher.