Fairway, junk and transition

[Philippe Binette]

After seeing Kingston Heath this week, it reminded me of how golf courses should be: wide fairway (although KH is not that wide) and junk, no boring 3 inch rough in between.

It is the essence of golf design, where fairway is not an entity on its own, but rather the result of whatever is not covered by tea trees or wild grasses. And then, to make a transition between the two, a brilliant set of bunkers located wherever it fits, not in a predetermined pattern 265 yards of the tee.

KH is really close from the Old Course by design... if you look at the aerial of the Old Course, you see a continuous fairway from the 1st tee to the 18th green... at Kingston Heath, basically the entire property is fairway too.

It's the way courses should be

[Tyler Kearns]

Philippe,

That was one thing I was struck with when I made the pilgrimage over to Australia. Most of the courses I played focused intently on maintaining green, tees & fairways to the highest standard possible, and let the rough areas be rough. While they grass was maintained at a reasonable level, it was patchy, not uniform, and yielded an immense variety of lies, everything from down-right awful to nearly perfect. It seemed ideal to me, easy to find a golf ball, and variety of shot selections for recovery.

TK

[Mike Bowline]

Regarding areas of play away from the fairway, I personally dislike conditions where irrigation water is allowed to spray on areas of vegatation that receive no mowing or other maintenance. Because these areas are usually close to the line of play, the result is lost balls and delays in pace of play.

Installing 180-degree heads would keep the water only where it is wanted: on the grass that is being mowed.

[Tom_Doak]

Mike:

Those 180-degree heads often spray into the native if you have a windy site.

The real way to handle that problem is to roll with the punches and mow the grass based on where the water is falling, instead of the other way around.  This is the one thing I can't get irrigation designers to understand ... that I would just as soon bring in the turf line 5-10 feet, instead of putting in ANOTHER head to water that last little bit.

[Philippe Binette]

Sometimes you wonder if the irrigation designer receive a check every time to add a sprinkler head somewhere...

[Sean_A]

Mike:

Those 180-degree heads often spray into the native if you have a windy site.

The real way to handle that problem is to roll with the punches and mow the grass based on where the water is falling, instead of the other way around.  This is the one thing I can't get irrigation designers to understand ... that I would just as soon bring in the turf line 5-10 feet, instead of putting in ANOTHER head to water that last little bit.

Tom

What is the system in place at Yeamans? It sounds strange, but I think my favourite part of that course is the rough.  The fairways seemed generous enough, yet the rough just seemed to be cut.  There didn't appear to be any attempt to make the rough full or lush - it was very unpredictable.

Ciao

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Philippe

I would love to see our North American golf courses with the fairway cut going right into the bunkers as at KH
instead of our seemingly 15 to 20 feet of intermediate rough, which prevents the ball from running into the bunker.

[Rob Rigg]

Philippe

I would love to see our North American golf courses with the fairway cut going right into the bunkers as at KH
instead of our seemingly 15 to 20 feet of intermediate rough, which prevents the ball from running into the bunker.

+1 - x's infinity! I love that look, and I think it can make a course much more strategic.

Also, would enjoy seeing more NA courses with bunkers within the fairways like you get at KH and many of the great classics.

[Emil Weber]

Philippe,

It's the way Royal Queensland is.