| My first two years of college, I was an architecture major and have somewhat vague ideas of designing golf courses. What I read and heard led me to believe that designing a golf course that was interesting and playable for all golfers was probably a bigger job than God took on building the universe in 6 days.
In no particular order...
1) A course should allow golfers of all levels to have a reasonable chance to enjoy their day on the links. It can't be too easy for the accomplished golfer, but it can't be too hard for the beginner. I guess the tee placement is the integral part of this.
2) A course should give the player options. There's a course in Miami Beach that has every green elevated and has either water or a trap in front. Personally, I feel it's a terible design. I believe a course should be open in front, letting someone play a running shot OR a flying shot to the green. At the least, there should be a variety on the course that lets you choose on some holes and maybe forces you to play to the green on some others.
3) Landing areas should be visable, particularly on courses where there are hillsides that might cause a bounce to stray from the fairway. There's nothing worse for slowing a course down than hitting a ball straight down the fairway and your ball not being where it should be when you get there.
4) The same goes for greens. If the green is elevated, it should tilt towards you to accept the shot and not away from you so that your ball has no chance but to go over.
5) Another course near here has crowned fairways on some holes and it's impossible to keep the ball in the fairway except on the wettest of days. Under circumstances like that, the banyan trees with their massive overhanging limbs are quite a penelty for what was momentarily a good drive. Thus, if you have to be so precise in landing the ball in the fairway, you shouldn't be penelized for the ground causing your ball to end in trouble. See #1 again... fun for all skill levels...
6) I know, he said 5, but I'm 6'7" and 285 lbs... wanna argue? The longer the shot into a green in regulation, the larger the green should be. There's nothing wrong with a very small green on a 120 yard postage stamp par 3 or on a par 5 when the 3rd shot should be short. On the other hand, when you have to hit a 200 yard second shot to a long par 4, the green shouldn't be a fly spec on the horizon.
7) The course should be reasonably maintained. Uncut rough is one thing... but losing your ball in long fairways is another. Unraked bunkers... GRRR!!!
8) The course should LOOK appealing. You should be able to escape your daily troubles in the beauty of your surroundings.
OK - back to work... two meetings tonight in different places at the same time... this should be a good trick!
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