What is an excellent golf course
In our blog we will evaluate the golf courses we chose to play.
One can discuss for hours what makes a golf course good and enjoyable to play. Besides what I have mentioned about authenticity and ambience, we will pay attention to and place great importance on aspects, including:
- That what you see in front of you is what you get. Blind strokes can be accepted, but then it must also, with some certainty, be predictable how the ball will bounce when it hits the fairway.
- That a hole is designed so you can see two possible ways to play it, including that the hole offers some risk-reward decisions.
- That greens are fair to play on, i.e. not unreasonably bumpy and that the ball rolls smoothly on the surface.
- That the rough close to the fairways is not so high that you can not find your ball.
- That the course is generally well maintained.
- That the course is possible to walk. I come from a place in the world where you WALK to play golf. The layout is made so you do not have to walk several hundred meters from the green to the next tee.
- Another aspect that dampens my desire to play a golf course is the noise from cars and aeroplanes. On a golf course, you should just hear the sounds of nature – the water, the wind whispering in the trees, the animals, the silence — nothing else.
- That the course is designed so it is easy to see where the next tee is when you walk towards the green. Meaning that you can easily see where to put your bag in order to get faster to the next hole. In any case, there must be clear and obvious signposting of the direction.
- I am also not keen on courses that start with a par 3-hole, especially if it is slightly difficult and/or long. A course should preferably begin with a medium difficulty or easy par 4 hole. In my experience, it is inappropriate if there is a tough par 3 hole after an easy par 4 hole. If there are many players on the course, it often ends up with a queue in front of the par 3 hole.
This then means that I like Jack Nicklaus’ design philosophy. Trend Jones Jr. has created many amazing courses, but on some of those that I have played the walk from greens to the next tee is very long. It seems to me that Jones Jr. is not making courses to walk like his father Jones Snr. did. A reason for this of course is that when Jones Snr. designed golf courses, there were no buggies or electrical trolleys.
