What are you a sucker for?

[Terry Lavin]

Centerline bunkers, short par-3's and hot beer cart girls.  Sounds like a country song...

[Jud_T]

I'm a sucker for virtually any golf wager.  I love nothing better than getting 10-1 that I won't be able to pull off some rediculous up and down, even if the real odds are much higher, only to somehow get 'er done...

I'm also a sucker for virtually any of the classic Mac/Raynor/Banks template holes.   

[Bill Spence]

-a good short par 3
-central bunkers
-dog legs that offer a heroic option
-downhill tee shot (who doesn't like to watch their ball just hang in the air)...Banff old first hole being a favorite

[Brent Hutto]

Oh yeah, someone just reminded me. Give me acres and acres of short grass. You can take your "lack of definition" and sell that line somewhere else. The more short grass the more I'm a sucker for the course.

[Michael Huber]

Courses that have 18 holes and 18 different sorts of challenge on each hole.

A creek that is utilitzed well. 

[Terry Lavin]

I'll echo Jud, I'm a template lover from way back...

[Ben Sims]

Tees close to the previous green. 

Blind tees shots to forgiving (see, wide) fairways. 

Centerline hazards within 50 yards of the green. 

Melting slopes into green surfaces that help the ball onto the surface.  (See 3rd green at Ballyneal, 10th green at Colorado GC.)

[Michael Huber]

This picture reminded me of another thing I like:

Holes that look like the fairway and green are just blankets that someone laid down on top the ground. 

[jonathan_becker]

I a sucker for situations that bring out the 'we didn't come here to lay-up' mentality in players.

I'm a sucker for this as well....and most times it ends in disaster!

[Tom Ferrell]

I got one that no one has mentioned - SHARED TEE COMPLEXES.  I love them.  But I'm a fan of intimate routings in general (think back 9 at Pasatiempo).  I don't want to be on a course where "you won't see another group all day."  I like seeing other groups and the social chatter of the golf course, and a shared tee complex is the ultimate for this.

[Niall C]

faux bunkering

timber sleepers

caddies in boiler suits

.........oh wait a minute, wrong thread, thought I was on Golf Nightmares

[Rory Connaughton]

Any feature that distorts my depth perception
Center line bunkers and
Short par 4's like 13 at Enniscrone that allow about 5 different ways to play the hole including the blind tee shot over the dunes to glory or oblivion

[Ted Cahill]

I love greens that connect to the next tee, like 16 green to 17 tee at Bandon Trails.  I love tee shots that have to carry waste to a left to right angled fairway- something I see most often on Pete Dye courses.

[Tim Leahy]

Oak trees
Elevated tees especially on par 3's
Ocean views
Cliff holes

[Mac Plumart]

I think I am a sucker for Ross courses.  I just discovered it right now. 

[John Pflum]

That well placed tree in the fairway, with all those options it presents.

Doug

Doug,

That is exactly what I was going to say!  :-)

[Mike_Trenham]

Elm Trees not in the middle of a fairway

[Kevin Pallier]

Short P4's that can be played a variety of ways

A real short P3

Quirk

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

!. Great pro shops
2. interesting green complexes
3. greens which allow for many shot game options including be able to move ball left or right 10 plus yards

[V. Kmetz]

 - any hole between 225 - 325 yards (call par whatever you like)***

-  any hole between 75 - 125 yards with a scary hazard somewhere on one point of the compass

-  the tee and fairway turf at National Golf Links of America (the tee turf almost crunches under foot)

-  a cowbell or tall, turnable sign that indicates to players that the blind shot ahead is clear

-  holes with a name that is either merited by its features, a real historical point or an extant irony (like calling a 115 yard par 3 - "Brute")

 - a course with a blend of massive greens (like Yale) and tiny targets (like Ross' Wanamoisett and Siwanoy)

-  a "long" or three shot hole where the second shot requires the most concentration and execution (as if it is a portal you pass  through during the hole)

***
***#1 (a 280 yard par 4) #6 (a 235 yard par 3) and #15 (a 290 yard par 4) are some of the rare saving graces for me regarding Tillinghast's Fenway design.  The skyline second shot on #2 is nice, the par 3 4th is amusing, and the uphill 5th is a fair and frank long two-shot hole There's variety in the appearance of the downhill 16th .  The rest of it?  I don't want to play there.  Fenway has - for a Tillinghast course - some of the most god awful unfun holes there could ever be, the stretch from 11 - 14 is putrid...scawling up, down and around the same unfriendly slope, blind greens of fierce contours encircled by bunkers.  It's terrible golfing ground and only when you get to 15 and 16 does Tillinghast use the poor ground to any good effect.  7, 8 and 9 don't make me excited either but my recollection is that those have seen significant alteration including the digging of an irrigation pond and tree plantings

cheers

vk

[Tim Gavrich]

- a course with a blend of massive greens (like Yale) and tiny targets (like Ross' Wanamoisett and Siwanoy)

VK--

Have you played Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Charlestown, Rhode Island?  It possesses this virtue in spades; perhaps the best collection of 18 greens I have putted.

~

These responses have been great!  I guess I can add one more of my own:

- The sound of running water (stream, creek, river) nearby on a golf course, preferably near enough to be involved in the hole I am playing.

[Garland Bayley]

Discounted green fees.

[Bruce Wellmon]

I'm a sucker for..................short walks between greens and the next tee
                                        Golf clubs with really small signs out front (the smaller the sign the better the golf club)
                                        dunes
                                        oceanfront golf courses

[Jud_T]

Clubs that put the golf first, simple food and drink second, and tennis, pool and massive clubhouse a distant third....

Courses that beguile and confound you without a tree or a body of water in sight...

Courses that piss off the cocky scratch player yet let the 15 capper with the right attitude cackle with glee....

[JNC Lyon]

Huntercombe!  Sorry I missed that brief discussion a page back.

I, too, love center-line hazards.  The 4th at Woking, 9th at North Berwick, 16 at Prestwick, half the holes at Huntercombe; they are all great in my book.  It often surprises me how much the average golfer hates these types of hazards.  Classic quote: "why do you get penalized for hitting it right down the middle?!"  

I also love:

Short Par Threes
Short Par Fours
The MacDonald/Raynor/Banks style of architecture
Backboards and sideboards on and around greens
Bunkerless holes with wild ground contours.
Wild greens
Tiny greens
Courses with no sprinkler systems.  I've played two in my life: Addington, and Monroe CC (Wm. Flynn nine-holer in Orange County, NY).
Really old golf courses.  I'm playing two tomorrow on a trip to Cooperstown.

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