Golf courses with longest green to tee transitions (GB&I only)

[Ally Mcintosh]

To counter the shortest thread, I’ll start this one, limited to GB&I courses. Pointless everywhere else in the world where carts come before design... could say that the cart comes before the horse in fact.


In Ireland, the worst transition I can think of is a 500m trek between 9 green and 10 tee at Macreddin in Wicklow. Also about 300m from 18 green to the clubhouse. Plus the steepest dropshot Par-3 I know where you have to walk halfway back up the hill to the next tee. Painful.

[Ian Galbraith]

The longest I have come across in the UK is The Dukes in St Andrews, but I'd guess there are longer ones out there.

[Ryan Coles]

Rolls of Monmouth springs to mind.

[Michael Felton]

Hindhead in Surrey has some pretty long and irksome walks on it. In particular going up from 5 to 6. 16 to 17 is a decent hike too.

[Sean_A]

Rolls of Monmouth springs to mind.

Yep, the Rolls is bad news.

2010 has a horrific walk from 14 to 15 is it?

Kingsbarns has a few awkward walks.

Ciao

[David Jones]

The PGA Centenary at Gleneagles has some breathtaking walks/climbs between greens and tees. Surely the most buggied course in Scotland.

[David_Tepper]

I have heard the Spey Valley course near Aviemore has some long walks. I have not played it.

https://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/our-hotels/scotland/aviemore/macdonald-aviemore-resort/golf

[Mark Pearce]

The Manor House at Castle Combe has several hikes, including one serious hill climb

[Adam Lawrence]

Machrihanish Dunes is a very long walk, because of the quite large parts of the site that were ruled completely off-limits to golf.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Machrihanish Dunes is a very long walk, because of the quite large parts of the site that were ruled completely off-limits to golf.

I wonder if Mach Dunes has the longest aggregate walk for the 17 transitions out of any of the Top 100 GB&I courses? Have to say it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting from the previews.


Carne has a few lung busters due to elevation change primarily. Enniscrone has a few long walks. Often you find modern parklands can have fairly long walks just down to larger scale and safety. Actually, one of the reasons I think Adare rises above many other modern parklands is because of the natural flow and transitions.

[Niall C]

Are we looking at individual green to tee transitions or total green to tee transitions across the whole course ?  If you consider also what's involved in terms of the walk such as the climb then the worst individual one I've seen is easily the one at Castle Stuart (12th to 13th ?). There's a few other walks involved there but they are mostly on the level so don't have the same issue.


In comparison KB might be longer but the two main walks are between the main part of the course and the other side of the tree belt and the walk going both ways is downhill which seems to me to be a clever bit of routing. 


I've only played the old Dukes and many many times at that. After a number of plays I gave into the temptation of using a cart. And that was in the days when I was quite fit. I think they have resolved some of the issues by removing the long par 5 that was like tackling the north face of the Eiger but it's still a buggy course.


Spey Valley - it certainly gets off to a bad start as it was over 500m from the old clubhouse to the first tee ! I think they have sorted that by building a new clubhouse nearer the course. That was then followed by a 350m walk from the first green to the 2nd tee. That said, the course is well worth a play.


Mach Dunes - yes some long transitions but I didn't mind them so much because they were on the level.


Niall

[Tom_Doak]

Not in GB&I but one of the worst I have seen was at a development course outside Nairobi two years ago.  It was planned by someone from South Africa who didn't understand Kenyans are adamant about walking for golf.  There are some terrible transitions but they can't get anyone to take a cart, everyone just complains about how stupid the layout is and hardly anyone plays it.

[Thomas Dai]

Seems to be a pattern here.
Another example would be the Celtic Manor 2010 course. And on the latter holes they aren’t just long transitions but pretty severely uphill ones as well.
Atb

[Paul Dolton]

Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire has a couple of long walks.

[Adam Lawrence]

Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire has a couple of long walks.

Yeah, that's a good call. A pretty decent course; Tom Mackenzie did a very good job there. But the walk is horrific; that's why I didn't stay a member there for very long.

[Robin_Hiseman]

Stonehaven has a couple of really long ones, around the head of the valley under the railway viaduct, although they are technically tee to fairway walks.

[Sean_A]

Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire has a couple of long walks.

Yeah, that's a good call. A pretty decent course; Tom Mackenzie did a very good job there. But the walk is horrific; that's why I didn't stay a member there for very long.

It is a harsh walk! Among the few golfers we saw, many were in carts and none were remotely older people. Not a good sight.

Ciao

[Adrian_Stiff]

The Manor House at Castle Combe has several hikes, including one serious hill climb

It actually has FOUR serious hill climbs. The course is unwalkable for 90% of people. The one from 17 to 18 would make Mo Farrah puff like a choo choo train.

[James Reader]

The Manor House at Castle Combe has several hikes, including one serious hill climb

It actually has FOUR serious hill climbs. The course is unwalkable for 90% of people. The one from 17 to 18 would make Mo Farrah puff like a choo choo train.

It was the course that came immediately to mind for me.  Played it 10 years ago and the only impression I’m left with is the ridiculous green to tee walks.   

[JohnVDB]

Durness has some long walks.  2-3, 4-5, 5-6 and 7-8 are all substantial and a couple on the second time around are even longer.

[Adrian_Stiff]

The Manor House at Castle Combe has several hikes, including one serious hill climb

It actually has FOUR serious hill climbs. The course is unwalkable for 90% of people. The one from 17 to 18 would make Mo Farrah puff like a choo choo train.

It was the course that came immediately to mind for me.  Played it 10 years ago and the only impression I’m left with is the ridiculous green to tee walks.

Yes its a shame, the course itself is quite nice and the ambience of the place is first class.

[Tony_Muldoon]

The Wales National course at the Vale Resort.

The course is in several sections so you had frequent walks between holes from one bit of the course to the next.

It prides itself on being 7433 yards long, yet for us paying visitors it was set up up at least 1500 yards shorter.  That's nearly a mile of walking past redundant tee boxes.

It was so wet that carrying was banned!  Everyone had to hire a cart or use(hire) a trolley and stick to the paved path. This path was always on the outside of doglegs and outside an area of rough.

Worst day I've ever spent on a Golf Course.

[Sean_A]

The Wales National course at the Vale Resort.

The course is in several sections so you had frequent walks between holes from one bit of the course to the next.

It prides itself on being 7433 yards long, yet for us paying visitors it was set up up at least 1500 yards shorter.  That's nearly a mile of walking past redundant tee boxes.

It was so wet that carrying was banned!  Everyone had to hire a cart or use(hire) a trolley and stick to the paved path. This path was always on the outside of doglegs and outside an area of rough.

Worst day I've ever spent on a Golf Course.

This was exactly my point about the current fad if mega forward tees on the other thread. The archie doesn't seem to think it is an issue because that ground needs to be covered anyway. It strikes me as design that will encourage cart use and that is generally not top notch design work.

Ciao

[Ally Mcintosh]

The Wales National course at the Vale Resort.

The course is in several sections so you had frequent walks between holes from one bit of the course to the next.

It prides itself on being 7433 yards long, yet for us paying visitors it was set up up at least 1500 yards shorter.  That's nearly a mile of walking past redundant tee boxes.

It was so wet that carrying was banned!  Everyone had to hire a cart or use(hire) a trolley and stick to the paved path. This path was always on the outside of doglegs and outside an area of rough.

Worst day I've ever spent on a Golf Course.

This was exactly my point about the current fad if mega forward tees on the other thread. The archie doesn't seem to think it is an issue because that ground needs to be covered anyway. It strikes me as design that will encourage cart use and that is generally not top notch design work.

Ciao

Yes compact sites can have many benefits... but regardless of site size, I always think that trying to position the middle two sets of four tees (that see 90% of play) nearest the previous green is a decent generalisation when laying out a course.

[Sean_A]

The Wales National course at the Vale Resort.

The course is in several sections so you had frequent walks between holes from one bit of the course to the next.

It prides itself on being 7433 yards long, yet for us paying visitors it was set up up at least 1500 yards shorter.  That's nearly a mile of walking past redundant tee boxes.

It was so wet that carrying was banned!  Everyone had to hire a cart or use(hire) a trolley and stick to the paved path. This path was always on the outside of doglegs and outside an area of rough.

Worst day I've ever spent on a Golf Course.

This was exactly my point about the current fad if mega forward tees on the other thread. The archie doesn't seem to think it is an issue because that ground needs to be covered anyway. It strikes me as design that will encourage cart use and that is generally not top notch design work.

Ciao

Yes compact sites can have many benefits... but regardless of site size, I always think that trying to position the middle two sets of four tees (that see 90% of play) nearest the previous green is a decent generalisation when laying out a course.

Sure, it might be simple for new courses if we assume that something like 5000 to 6000 yards is the target length to locate tees near greens. It's the retrofitting on already built courses where there are issues. I think it an extreme rarity to make tees range from 7000 to 4500 and have sensible walk when adding tees after the course is built. To me it's a scam which archies fall back on because they know folks will ride. Not a clever approach. Somehow, archies have to admit the mega tee concept has serious flaws if walking is an important aspect of design.

Ciao