John, what are your thoughts about leaving numerous small trees in the middle of the fairway right before the basket on holes that are 320' plus? Particularly cases where the trees are within 5' of the basket or not visible from the tee.
Enos, I'm on the record as being very opposed to small trees as obstacles any time, unless they're working with other trees to create wider obstacles. (In other words, if they're placed right, 4-5 small trees can function the same as one big tree would.) The reason is that thin obstacles add to randomness, and two virtually identical shots can have very different outcomes. Plus the fact that a bad shot can miss the skinny obstacles and get rewarded.
Now you're adding 3 more potential design issues:
1. Being 300'+ from the tee. Anything closer to the basket requires greater skill to avoid off the tee -- obviously an obstacle 100' away is easier to avoid than the same obstacle would be 300' away. At some point it becomes more about luck than skill. You can certainly have a tree 300' from the tee, but you need to make sure it's fair.
2. Being 5' from the basket. I know a lot of people think you should never have a tree inside the circle, but I don't subscribe to that edict. I don't believe I've ever put a basket 5' from a tree, but I believe there are ways to do it and be fair. In addition to random results, my concern is always that anything near the basket can stop a bad shot and reward it with a short putt.
3. Being invisible from the tee. That just adds an additional layer of responsibility on the designer to keep it fair.
Bottom line for me is to keep it fair, reduce randomness, and reward good shots (and not bad shots) as much as possible. Here's one yardstick I find helpful: if it leaves your hand and you really feel like it's a good shot, but you have to hold your breath to find out what happens, it's probably not a great hole.
Hope that helps a little.
