Designing Harder “GREENS”

[bholy08]

I like it. Designs like this make people think about their game, decide between several viable options and then execute their intended shot with precision. An entire course with this kind of thinking and design (obviously we are limited by the land) would be amazing!

[Questatement]

One interesting hole at La Mirada, Ca is #6 on the back 18. It has a wide, snaking concrete curb (level with the grass) separating left and right sides of the fairway and R is OB so you have to gauge your L/R line based on estimated distance. Then, the L side of the curb ends 50' from a basket 'island' (again using curbs) on the R with trees on the R blocking anything more than a 75' approach so the approach becomes interestingly risky based on your intial drive.

A rather cheap way to spice up an otherwise average hole.

[Questatement]

Now for complicated and costly

Hole #12 (I think) at Turner park, Grand Prarie, Tx has a river snaking back and forth 4x in front of the island green and once behind it. It's about 280'? with a slight need to turn right and a 30' drop overall. Then, in 'front' of the basket, via a slight RHBH fade, is a tree with a 4' wide trunk to block. I was only able to birdie it by skipping off the strip of land prior to the island, skipping over the last leg of the river, and landing without too much force on the island so as to not go into the river behind it.

Now that's a signature hole!

[mhulkman]

I just got approval to install 27 holes at my local park and since we will be throwing thru sagebrush foothills with no trees Im definately NOT going to be concerned about "no objects inside of 10m" rule. I have no choice but to make the greens as hard as possible but fair. There are plenty of 5-8ft tall sage to hide baskets. There is a dry wash and canyon so I will have a couple holes near a 5-10ft ledge, I will use the severe slope on some downhill throws to where if you go for it on your tee shot n miss you will most likely be putting back uphill from 60+ft or if you lay up to short and miss ur long birdie putt you will have a long par putt. There are two natural mounds on the course I intend to use. There is one large boulder Id like to put a basket on that has an uphill approach to it. Plus I have a few severe slope uphill shots with the basket 8-12ft behind a 6ft sage but because of the slope it plays like a small tree in front of the basket,so dont miss front right. Dont get me wrong, good shots on the correct side of the basket can still get u a look at birdie, but miss on the wrong side or get over aggresive on a downhill tee or approach shot and bogey comes into play. I do plan on using wood chips around the 2 or 3 baskets that will be on severe slopes to help with rollars. The wind will be a huge factor at times on this course but with no wind the only way to challenge drives is by taking away access and or agressiveness on certain sides or areas around the basket. Im going to give it my best effort to make a treeless course challenging. I happened to be at New Hogan reservoir in CA two wkends ago and they have 36 holes there. A club held a 36 hole tourney and the winner was -16. I would like to cut that # in half for a 36 hole event at my course.