The Best Smallish Features

[James Brown]

The previous thread on "flat" courses got me thinking about the most significant smallish features on the courses I have seen.  By smallish, I mean features with a small amount of movement or scale, but that have made a large impact on design and play.  The impact of such features can override a relatively flat site. 

The mound before #4 green at TOC comes to mind.  The "little" central fairway bunker at Woking.  There is a very small fairway bunker in the layup area on #11 at the Kiawah Ocean Course that really makes the hole.  The Valley of Sin is quite small compared to Hell's Half Acre.

[Thomas Dai]

I did a thread a few months ago, which I shall try to search out, about the effect of small low mounds at the front of greens and how they effect the way the hole plays. Nice subtle feature.
Atb

[Wade Whitehead]

My favorite "small" feature is the front right bunker on #12 at Ballyhack.

I call it "the hemorrhoid."

WW

[Benjamin Litman]

Does the small dune at the front right of 7 green on Streamsong Red count as a smallish feature? It's certainly been getting (appropriately) a fair bit of play here on GCA.

[Mac Plumart]

"Pimple" in the middle of the 4th green at Rivermont.

Plateau on 9th green at Rivermont.

New greenside bunker on 5 at The Golf Club.

18 inch ridge fronting green on 10 at The Golf Club.

Back shelf on 4th green on Dismal Doak.

Feeding area left on 8th green on Dismal Doak.

Lower right portion of 11th green on Dismal Doak.

[Thomas Dai]

Here's the GCA thread I mentioned above - "The impact on the play of a hole of a single small, low, well postioned mound" -

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,59775.0.html

atb

[Ed Brzezowski]

There is this rather smallish bunker to the left of 14 at HarbourTown Links. Beautiful par three over water where the water also guards the right side of the green. I seem to recall someone saying it was the smallest bunker on the PGA tour. It collects any ball landing just long and left of the middle of the green, well it got mine a few times.

[Mac Plumart]

Never played it, but would the Devil's Asshole at Pine Valley qualify as "smallish"?

[Ed Brzezowski]

Never played it, but would the Devil's Asshole at Pine Valley qualify as "smallish"?

In width yes, depth is an entirly different subject. It earns its name.

[Daniel Jones]

Does the small dune at the front right of 7 green on Streamsong Red count as a smallish feature? It's certainly been getting (appropriately) a fair bit of play here on GCA.

Counts in my book (whatever that's worth)..

[Joe Zucker]

I would certainly agree about Streamsong Red #7.  I had a 50 yard pitch that was completely blind because of that dune.  It definitely forces you to think about your layup, which makes for an interesting Par 5.

[Benjamin Litman]

Although it's long, it's small in scale, so the stone wall in front of the 13th green at North Berwick has to be near the top of the list, no?

[JLahrman]

A few years back there was a fun picture thread on tiny bunkers. They weren't necessarily the most relevant bunkers from a strategic standpoint, but the pictures were really cool. I have searched for that thread a few times but have never been able to locate it.

[James Brown]

@Benjamin Litman:  I would call that wall at North Berwick too big to be called smallish.  There is a similar one on 14 or 15? at Royal Aberdeen.  And another at 17? at Western Gailes.  All three are totally defining features, and I think pretty darn extreme even if they are interesting and fun. 

[Ian Andrew]

I think anything "in the way" - where you could still run it over or through - near a green is an excellent example of subtle but impactful


The front roll on the 14th at St. Andrew's remains a favourite architectural element for me

[John McCarthy]

#5 The Warren Course at ND.  There is a very small pot bunker dead  center.  It is an otherwise short par 5.  It looks bigger from the fairway, but I know it is 2 yards wide and really not hard to get out of.  But it changes the whole  hole .  Very clever.  Made me bail out every time through. 

[James Brown]

Does the small dune at the front right of 7 green on Streamsong Red count as a smallish feature? It's certainly been getting (appropriately) a fair bit of play here on GCA.

Counts in my book (whatever that's worth)..

That's a great feature for sure.  The one time I played Red the pin was back rightish and I laid up just to the right of it and even though it wasn't really even in play then, it was an obviously interesting feature that made you ask yourself what it would mean for other pin locations. 

This makes me wonder how long ago the  mounds in front of #11 at ANCC would have been considered a really significant feature on approaches, which seems to have been the intention at some point, even before the fairways got so fast.  Was their original intent to give you a play to the front right of the green from way back or was it something else?  I've never played there, but it seems they would be almost always out of play from the proper tees (hitting a long iron) for just about everyone nowadays.  Is that true? 

[Sean_A]

I think anything "in the way" - where you could still run it over or through - near a green is an excellent example of subtle but impactful


The front roll on the 14th at St. Andrew's remains a favourite architectural element for me

Ian

For me, that front roll dictates play all the way back to the tee.

Ciao
 

[Ally Mcintosh]

Yes, relating to the other subtle / memorable / flat courses threads at the moment, I think it is features such as this (the 14th at TOC) that first timers miss.. In other words, generally features that are mown as short grass so are not immediately visually obvious....

Bunkers and walls and a little marram covered dune oasis usually stand out visually... It may take a few plays to work out how they influence shots but they are always apparent in the mind and therefore always memorable...

[Sean_A]

One aspect of features which is not often talked about is the blurred lines between fairway/rough.  Kington excells in this area.  Because the fairways are mowed maybe twice a year and the club relies on sheep to do the job, the rough bleeds into fairways (or vice versa) creating situations where small patches of nasty stuff can cause grief.   People talk about random features in a rather fake manner because most of the time randomness has nothing to do with it, but these truly are random features.



Ciao

[jeffwarne]

One aspect of features which is not often talked about is the blurred lines between fairway/rough.  Kington excells in this area.  Because the fairways are mowed maybe twice a year and the club relies on sheep to do the job, the rough bleeds into fairways (or vice versa) creating situations where small patches of nasty stuff can cause grief.   People talk about random features in a rather fake manner because most of the time randomness has nothing to do with it, but these truly are random features.



Ciao

To say nothing of that smallish random feature just off the left fringe

[JC Urbina]

I find that Coore, Crenshaw and design team are some of the best at the little features, the front bump on the 5th green at Friars Head being one example.  Also the tiny bunkers to the right of # 2 green or the solo bunker right of the 11th green as other examples of very small features creating interest and directing strategy.

[Charlie Ray]

Although not physical, aren't half par holes the best small features?

[Pete_Pittock]

The bumpers at Rye.

I am probably in a distinct minority here, but I enjoyed the eyebrows on Kidd's Tehterow. These sage and lava hazards were surely small, cheap to produce, easy to maintain, and frustrated more golfers than can be counted. The equal of pot bunkers as they each  extract one stroke. Smaller cousin of the island in the 5th fairway at Bandon Dunes, it seems to me they drew the most wrath from insecure golfers, or at least those who sought fairness in all the wrong places

[Mark Chaplin]

The ring and furrow at Alwoodley, little swale in front of the 5th at Worplesdon, bunker/rough/heather combo front right on 12th at New Zealand.