Making a wide fairway course more interesting

[Jason Topp]

One of the primary things I seek to accomplish on this site is to understand and articulate why I like some golf courses and why I find other courses lacking by comparison.  One course is a good case study.

The course in many ways should be my ideal.  The fairways are wide and rough is only a significant hazard at the perimeter.  The course has interesting greens with wonderful surrounds cut at fairway height.  The course is exposed to the wind, making it play differently every day.  The course usually plays firm and fast.

I really like the members and staff at the club.  Nonetheless, I always find the course disappointing and a bit boring.  I have struggled to understand why.  In thinking about the course this week, I think I identified the problem.

On the first hole, the green is designed to reward placement of the tee shot on the left side of the fairway.  The fairway bunker is on the right.

On the second hole, the green is designed to reward placement of the tee shot on the right side of the fairway but the fairway bunkers are on the left. 

A similar, but in some cases more nuanced, analysis can be made on 11 of the 14 par fours and fives.  Bailing out off the tee (or on the 2nd shot on a par five) usually is rewarded with an easier approach shot (although sometimes the distance increase poses an interesting dilemma)

I have learned to play well on the course by taking a conservative line off the tee.  I like such a hole as a change up, but a repeated diet of such holes makes for unsatisfying golf.

I think a much better approach would be to place fairway hazards in locations that challenge the ideal line into the green.  A simple way of doing that would be to determine where players aim off the tee and move the fairway bunker to that location. 

[Bill_McBride]

On Mackenzie courses you always have to challenge the bunkers (or the ravines, etc) to have the best lines.  The course you describe is just the opposite.

[JESII]

Jason,

Do you think once the bunkers are moved to protect the ideal location you would you continue to be "conservative" off the tee and take your chances on the more difficult approach angle or would you flirt with the bunkers in hopes of an easier approach?

[Mike Nuzzo]

Bill_McBride
"On Mackenzie AND Nuzzo courses you always have to challenge the bunkers (or the ravines, etc) to have the best lines."

[Greg Chambers]

centerline bunkers

[Alex Miller]

Jason,

Do you think once the bunkers are moved to protect the ideal location you would you continue to be "conservative" off the tee and take your chances on the more difficult approach angle or would you flirt with the bunkers in hopes of an easier approach?

Frankly just the fact that there is an option makes it better. It's up to each individual as to how he approaches the hole.

[JESII]

I agree Alex...in a vacuum...but what I was really getting at was that when we play the same course frequently we figure out the best way to play the holes and they don't always match the "line of charm" concept.

So, while it's rating may go up because the first look risk/reward metric will climb, Jason may not actually end up enjoying it more...

[Jason Topp]

Jason,

Do you think once the bunkers are moved to protect the ideal location you would you continue to be "conservative" off the tee and take your chances on the more difficult approach angle or would you flirt with the bunkers in hopes of an easier approach?

We have a number of such bunkers on my course and my approach varies each day based on my swing, weather conditions and pin positions.  I think the definition of an interesting course off the tee is one where your decision varies in this manner.

[Jason Topp]

I agree Alex...in a vacuum...but what I was really getting at was that when we play the same course frequently we figure out the best way to play the holes and they don't always match the "line of charm" concept.

So, while it's rating may go up because the first look risk/reward metric will climb, Jason may not actually end up enjoying it more...

I am pretty confident I would enjoy it more for the reasons stated in my last post.

[JESII]

I might not have used "enjoy it more" correctly...I certainly wasn't implying you would enjoy it less.

I guess what I really believe is that interesting greens (complexes) with good firm maintenance are the keys to sustaining long term interest and that fairway bunkers almost always carry more risk than the reward of successfully flirting with them.

I'm going to think about where I would risk challenging a bunker to improve my position though.

[Neil_Crafter]

"Mackenzie and Nuzzo courses".

Mike, are you the long lost partner we have been searching for? 

[Tony_Muldoon]

Jason, I do think that the ideal of width as a way of adding interest, i.e. play it different depending on where the pin is that day, is largely outmoded in an age when we can all hit a high ball over the fronting hazards.  When Simpson was writing F&F was the norm and the ball as often as not had to be run onto the green, in that case then intelligent placement of the tee shot was paramount. Park wrote of the desirably of hitting the high ball so the it would stop, but he was referring to short iron play and holes played longer then. 

Wide fairways to often can be boring, case one for the prosecution is the front 9 at Waterville.  Castle Stuart sounds like it suffers from the same fault.

[Jason Topp]

Wide fairways to often can be boring, case one for the prosecution is the front 9 at Waterville.  Castle Stuart sounds like it suffers from the same fault.

Tony - I agree wide fairways can be boring.  The course I describe in post 1 is just one example.  There is a contingent of customers at that course that seek to narrow certain fairways to make them more interesting. 

I think a better solution is to keep the wide fairways but make them more interesting through better placement of fairway bunkers or other hazards.

[Jeff Shelman]

Jason,

I also think this course isn't aided by the fact that six of the first eight holes are par 4s and that five of of those six are long or very long.

I like a number of the holes on the other nine, but it is hard to get to that point without feeling kind of beaten up.

I am assuming I know which course you are talking about, of course.

[Bill_McBride]

Bill_McBride
"On Mackenzie AND Nuzzo courses you always have to challenge the bunkers (or the ravines, etc) to have the best lines."

What I meant!   

[Bill_McBride]

"Mackenzie and Nuzzo courses".

Mike, are you the long lost partner we have been searching for? 

Neil, get thee to Wolf Point, you won't be sorry.

http://www.mnuzzo.com/

[Mike Nuzzo]

Neil
It is good to be found again.
Do what Bill says.
Cheers

[Dan Kelly]

I also think this course isn't aided by the fact that six of the first eight holes are par 4s and that five of of those six are long or very long.

And getting longer!