pingi14
Caddy
Posts: 43
TGCT Name: Stephen Daff
Tour: CC-Am
|
Post by pingi14 on Feb 21, 2019 16:16:36 GMT -5
Question to Everyone....
What is the average/acceptable width for a fairway (in yards)?
In course design I am weary on whether fairway is either too wide, or too skinny
Cheers,
Pingi
|
|
reebdoog
TGCT Design Competition Directors
Posts: 2,742
TGCT Name: Brian Jeffords
Tour: CC-Pro
|
Post by reebdoog on Feb 21, 2019 16:29:20 GMT -5
I don’t think there is such a thing. If it looks and plays the way you want...who cares? Besides it’s not the measurable width that matters but the playable width which is different. Angle, slope, and elevation all play a part.
|
|
|
Post by rjwils30 on Feb 21, 2019 23:40:14 GMT -5
I don’t think there is such a thing. If it looks and plays the way you want...who cares? Besides it’s not the measurable width that matters but the playable width which is different. Angle, slope, and elevation all play a part. Totally agree. It’s up to you. Rules of thumb golf architecture are mostly nonsense. That being said I tend to avoid long narrow fairways. Wider fairways give you more options with slopes. Narrow sloped fairways can be pretty penal. The key to width is to introduce varying angles on the approach shots into the greens. If you do a wide fairway but the green is angled towards one side of it, it will create a favourable shot from one side over the other. See the 14th hole at Bandon Trails or the 6th hole at pacific dunes. I often like to try and create holes that don’t rely on the rough at all to make them challenging. Relying on rough results in some pretty simplistic golf architecture. If you can make a hole challenging yet still provide width then you’ve got something interesting. Width can also vary in a hole. I often like to provide a lot of width short and tighten things up for the more aggressive player. Varying the width gives options. A ribbon of narrow fairway gives only one option.
|
|
|
Post by linkslover on Feb 22, 2019 2:54:10 GMT -5
There is no hard and fast 'rule' as the others have said, but a very loose guide is that 30 yards wide is a decent starting point. There are so many other factors to consider though which results you should never take this width as gospel.
One such example on my current project is I have a hole on my course which features a massive drop off the tee, means the tee shots go much further. To compensate, I've made the fairway around 50 yards wide at landing range as slightly mishit shots would miss by more than they would on a regular tee shot.
|
|
|
Post by ErixonStone on Feb 22, 2019 10:23:25 GMT -5
30 yards wide is wide. This is good for the safe areas.
15 yards wide is narrow. This is good for risky shots.
These are general guides. Sometimes, you want a fairway to be extremely wide, and the hole is about placement of the drive within the fairway to set up an easier approach.
Also, "width" is about more than the fairway. On some courses, the fairways themselves are wide, but the course feels narrow because the tree line is tight.
|
|
|
Post by gforce41 on Feb 23, 2019 20:33:10 GMT -5
Right.... I tend to mark off 25-30 yds with the measuring tool for frame of reference before laying down fairway, but width varies with other variables as mentioned above. It just helps me with perspective
|
|
Kermit_418
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 248
Tour: Challenge Circuit
|
Post by Kermit_418 on Mar 5, 2019 8:09:19 GMT -5
I don’t think there is such a thing. If it looks and plays the way you want...who cares? Besides it’s not the measurable width that matters but the playable width which is different. Angle, slope, and elevation all play a part. Canuck addresses this in his reviews. Give some of his videos a watch
|
|