Tees on buildings

[Thomas Dai]

At the recent Turkish Open on the European Tour, one hole was played from a tee on the roof of an adjacent building - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1qgRzZOdSwQ


Are there examples of tees on top of buildings at other courses, even just occasional, special event type tees?


Atb

[Brad Tufts]

There was one on top of the clubhouse on the old Grenelefe East Course #1 I believe...it is/was turf.

I think this course still exists?

[BCrosby]

I have a drawing of an early St Augustine municipal course that had tees on the parapets of the old Spanish fort. The holes looped around the outer wall. The moat served as a parallel water hazard.

A use of urban landforms that remains unsurpassed.

Bob

[BCrosby]

Last time I was there, the 4th tee at The Country Club was set on a metal scaffold.


Bob

[Brad Tufts]

Last time I was there, the 4th tee at The Country Club was set on a metal scaffold.


Bob

Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard of that...

The original first tee at Castine GC in Maine was atop a ruin of a revolutionary war-era Fort George.  The ruins still remain, but the first tee has been moved about 50 yards across the street to its current position next to the clubhouse.  If you look at Castine, ME on google maps aerial view, it works out perfectly that the tee was on one of the star points of the fort!

[Anthony Gholz]

I confirm Bob's recollections of ST Augustine regarding the tee on ramparts.  Same for Niagara GC where I played within the last 5 years and they still used the rampart tee.  I'll see if I can find pics

[Scott Warren]

The back tee for the 1st at Royal Sydney is on top of the section of the clubhouse that houses the gym and indoor pool etc. though the way the area is landscaped it's not obvious like some other examples.

[Doug Siebert]

Once in a while I have dreams involving golf, and often I'm trying to hit off a teebox located in an inconvenient spot. Maybe it is astroturf over concrete meaning it is hard to get the tee into, maybe there is a wall right behind making it difficult to get a proper backswing, maybe it is inside an open patio with a roof so I have to keep the shot really low. Usually in those dreams I never actually get the shot off.

Not sure what this says about my psyche, but count me out from actually playing one in real life! 

[Greg Gilson]

I was just about to post #1 at Royal Sydney but Scott beat me to the punch!

[David_Tepper]

Isn't the 1st tee at Riviera on the ledge/roof above a lower level of the clubhouse?

[Peter Galea]

Years ago (1980's) at Pasatiempo, the member's tee on #1 was atop the cart barn.
Behind where the present putting green is.

It was mowed at green height with several holes cut in it.
If I remember correctly there was a white steel fence around it,
with a panel removed in front of the tee markers.

[Adam Lawrence]

On the original course at Hardelot in France the first tee was located on a tower of the old chateau

[Tim Leahy]

At Indian Valley north of SF the driving range tees were on the roof of the proshop and clubhouse.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

One of the tees at Nefyn is built on the stump of an old lighthouse.

[MCirba]

Once in a while I have dreams involving golf, and often I'm trying to hit off a teebox located in an inconvenient spot. Maybe it is astroturf over concrete meaning it is hard to get the tee into, maybe there is a wall right behind making it difficult to get a proper backswing, maybe it is inside an open patio with a roof so I have to keep the shot really low. Usually in those dreams I never actually get the shot off.

Not sure what this says about my psyche, but count me out from actually playing one in real life! 

Doug,

I have the exact same dreams.   I've come to the conclusion that I most often have them when I haven't been able to get out and play in awhile and the whole inability to swing, or sense the target or tee the ball are symbols of the real-life restrictions (career and family demands) preventing me from playing.

All,

Ron Prichard built a tee inside the standing 3 walls of an old farmhouse at Hickory Valley GC (PA) on a cool par three hole that benefits from that ambiance.

If the original first tee at Castle Harbor in Bermuda wasn't on an artificial structure, it was sure close.   Does anyone recall?

[David_Tepper]

"I have the exact same dreams."

Yes, I know that dream as well!

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

Once in a while I have dreams involving golf, and often I'm trying to hit off a teebox located in an inconvenient spot. Maybe it is astroturf over concrete meaning it is hard to get the tee into, maybe there is a wall right behind making it difficult to get a proper backswing, maybe it is inside an open patio with a roof so I have to keep the shot really low. Usually in those dreams I never actually get the shot off.

Not sure what this says about my psyche, but count me out from actually playing one in real life! 

That is amazing, I have the same dreams - I thought I was nuts. Another one is I have chance to play a course like Augusta National, but every time I try to tee it up I can never get comfortable, somethings always interfering. Then it turns dark and I missed the opportunity to play.

[MCirba]

Ryan,

I've had that variation on the dream, as well.   Most recently it was Oakmont. 

[Joey Chase]

I recently played Dinard Golf Club and there is a tee on an old WWII era bunker.   I believe it is the 14th or 15th hole, a small very uphill par 3.  A very quirky old course, to say the least.

[Jay Mickle]

All of the courses I have recently played have had teess on buildings.


Oh no, wait that was Top Golf.

[Guy Nicholson]

Once in a while I have dreams involving golf, and often I'm trying to hit off a teebox located in an inconvenient spot. Maybe it is astroturf over concrete meaning it is hard to get the tee into, maybe there is a wall right behind making it difficult to get a proper backswing, maybe it is inside an open patio with a roof so I have to keep the shot really low. Usually in those dreams I never actually get the shot off.

Not sure what this says about my psyche, but count me out from actually playing one in real life! 

This is supposedly a common dream among golfers. I have had it too, and my understanding is that it's not necessarily about golf, but a stand-in for something that's obstructing things you want to do in life.

[Doug Siebert]

Once in a while I have dreams involving golf, and often I'm trying to hit off a teebox located in an inconvenient spot. Maybe it is astroturf over concrete meaning it is hard to get the tee into, maybe there is a wall right behind making it difficult to get a proper backswing, maybe it is inside an open patio with a roof so I have to keep the shot really low. Usually in those dreams I never actually get the shot off.

Not sure what this says about my psyche, but count me out from actually playing one in real life! 

This is supposedly a common dream among golfers. I have had it too, and my understanding is that it's not necessarily about golf, but a stand-in for something that's obstructing things you want to do in life.

Hmmm, I wonder if that's why I haven't had that dream since I broke up with my girlfriend? 

[Kalen Braley]

I've had similar type of dreams too, and it almost always seems to happen when I finally get to play one of those once-in-a-lifetime courses like Pine valley or ANGC.


The other variation on this I have, is halfway during my round the course starts turning into an urban golf course where you have to play down alleys, and into large rooms like gyms and auditoriums...

[Neil Regan]

I have a drawing of an early St Augustine municipal course that had tees on the parapets of the old Spanish fort. The holes looped around the outer wall. The moat served as a parallel water hazard.


A use of urban landforms that remains unsurpassed.


Bob

Bob,


   I have long been intrigued by this and similar postcards from that first age of American golf.
There is a sense of adventure and a lack of expectations that is very appealing.


(I'm sure the photo was the source for the postcard. I assume they hired artists to more than colorize.)

[Carl Johnson]

Not an official tee, but see the underscored passage in the second paragraph of the excerpt below regarding Charlotte's Eastwood Golf Course (NLE).  I should think this is relevant to the topic.  The excerpt is from a chapter of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties something website.  http://cmhpf.org/educationgreenspace3.htm

"One of the many public courses that opened in these slow years was Eastwood Golf Course. Eastwood is a particularly interesting subject to study since it represents a finished chapter in this city's evolving green space. The 18-hole course opened in 1947 on its site near the intersection of the Plaza and Eastway Drive and closed just recently on January 15, 2000. The history of Eastwood not only shows the personal and impersonal forces involved in the evolution of a golf course but also the ways in which a space can have different meaning to so many people.

"If it can be said that up to this point, this paper has had a monochromatic tinge, Eastwood Golf Course brings a splash of color. The course was always well known for attracting a diverse, golf-loving clientele. Above all the folks were middle-class Charlotteans. The clubhouse was not paneled in oak or mahogany but fake wood. The grill room didn't serve pork tenderloin, it served hot dogs. Celebrities like Willie Nelson, Reba McIntyre and Morganna Robert the athlete-kissing stripper visited Eastwood. For years the course earned a reputation as being a gamblers' paradise. Golfers tried all kinds of stunts at Eastwood to win bets, such as playing shots off the roof of the clubhouse, playing the 18-holes with a lacrosse stick, and playing the course in nothing but a pair of swimming trunks. Ron Green, Jr., son of the aforementioned Green and writer for the Observer, described it as a "P. T. Barnum history" and it was this reputation that made Eastwood appreciated.

"The land that was Eastwood Golf Course changed over the years and these changes would partially contribute to the course's ultimate demise. The course sat on approximately 110 acres in east Charlotte that between 1947 and 1999 became dense with middle-class apartments and housing as well as commercial areas. Soon train whistles and car horns replaced whippoorwills and thrushes as the golfers' prime distractions. By the time the course closed . . . . "

Now this may simply mean that they stood on the ground and bounced shots off the roof.  However, I prefer the image of them standing on the roof to hit shots.  In any case, Eastwood was supposed to have been a cool place.