Friday, June 26, 2009

Golf Course Design

One of our survey questions was - what most impacts the price a course can charge? 162 (54%) responded Design of the Course. Please help us understand what design of the course means to you? Is it the age of the course? Does the clubhouse matter?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Course design means several things to me. Does it have 18 unique holes? Does it have parallel, back-and-forth fairways? Does it take full advantage of all the NATURAL terrain variations, without resort to railroad ties, artifical moguls, and inappropriately placed hazards? Is the rough manageable? Is there room for some error just off the fairway? Are the greens fair (and by this I mean no gigantic tiers, or ultra-radical contours)? Are there any blind shots? Does the visual from the tee give the player a good sense of where to try to place his drive? Is the landing area suitably sized? I also like a course where yardages are clearly marked, preferably with at least some vertical indicators that can be seen from a distance. Other design features that affect my opinion: are tee boxes flat? Are bunkers reasonably placed? Are tee boxs far enough from preceding greens to minimize stray shots? Are fairways separated enough to avoid balls regularly crossing over and hazarding other players? Are distances to hazards marked from the tees? Is it fun to play? Is it fairly rated for slope and rating? Is it walkable (this is not a strong consideration, but one that is useful to know), in terms of distances from green to the next tee and uphill/downhill?

The above are the design considerations that I llok at. However, once a ocurse is built, then the issue becomes its condition. Fairways shouod be green, grassy, and not too thin. Rough can be brown, but the first cut should be no more than 3 to 4 inches to promote playability. Bunkers should be raked daily (nothing worse than a cement-hard bunker). Greens should be smooth and consistent: I'm not crazy about super-fast greens, but if they roll true, all is well. New holes should be cut at least three times weekly. Tee boxes should be level. Cart paths should not cross the fairway anywhere near the landing area. Water hazard boundaries should be clearly marked by posts visible from at least 200 yards back (nothing quite like the frustration after hitting a good shot only to find the ball in a poorly marked hazard!).

That's a start! Good luck...

Golfer Bob

Ricky said...

Posting Yardage to Pin

I feel one item that could help out in golf course design is to post yardage markers to the pin on a sign in the rough area. Currently, they are posted on a flat colored plat on the ground in the fairway. Unfortunately, for many of us non professional players, if your golf ball lands in the rough, it takes time to find these flat yardage markers which can’t be seen until your right on top of them. By posting them on the small sign outside the fairway in the rough would greatly improve the pace of play.

Ricky said...

Posting Yardage to Pin

I feel one item that could help out in golf course design is to post yardage markers to the pin on a sign in the rough area. Currently, they are posted on a flat colored plat on the ground in the fairway. Unfortunately, for many of us non professional players, if your golf ball lands in the rough, it takes time to find these flat yardage markers which can’t be seen until your right on top of them. By posting them on the small sign outside the fairway in the rough would greatly improve the pace of play.

Marc said...

to me it means:
1. conditions of greens

btw: people hate paying full price when greens have just been aerated.

2. conditions of bunkers

3. tee box options for all playing levels

4. difficulty level

5. club house/food

I agree yardage markers are very important. I don't equate that though with course design. Better yardage markers just make sense

Glenn said...

Your website trumpeted great prices for the 4th of July--yet, when I went to the online reservation system to book a tee time, the prices were substantially higher than you represented them to be.

Keith Miller, Executive Director said...

Glenn - We apologize for the confusion but the all of the prices were honored at the golf shops. We are not always able to change the online pricing when we post late specials but the prices emailed are always honored when you arrive at the golf shops.