I was trying for a real-life look with Long Lake Golf Club (just pub'd). I'm sure it fails the 'real maintenance' test, though ?
Well....since you asked. I played a round at Long Lake GC. I played from the middle deck with my usual Pro clubs and shot a -2. I was even on the back 9. Thanks for the great game. There are many creative elements and detail into things outside the line of play that show great effort!
I made a note of some things, that my Superintendent's eye noticed during my round. Don't think of things that are wrong - but think of them as things that I'd be looking at if I was hired as the superintendent at Long Lake GC and having to focus on maintenance challenges....
There were a few things that were common on all the holes. So I will start there:
- random grass clumps of grass in rough are not sustainable. In the rough there are only a few options: unkept with thick wild grass everywhere, cut and well kept, or clumps of decorative grass or plantings that could be maintained (as long as there are only a few on each hole) Grass/shrubs around bases of trees are good.
- Random wildflowers and tall grass around green surrounds are not feasible for maintenance reasons mentioned above.
- ball washers, garbage and bench often close together for servicing – these are line trimmer headaches when placed on grassed areas. Or these items need to be moved by hand to cut with a machine.
- short grass up to the tees and greens (these are often on slopes that would die from drought and traffic)When these areas are along fairways then they'd often be in areas with little to no irrigation coverage and would suffer even worse than those near greens and tees.
- Multiple cut heights around tee (tee, first rough, second rough, then heavy rough) would be heavy on maintenance
-Multiple locations of cart paths and short grass for traffic are not aligned to the natural flow of traffic. Golfers are like cow - they'll walk the most direct line.
-Cart paths along edges of fairway are sometimes in play - in fact on one hole I tried to do the DeChambeau-thing and get a 425 yard drive down a cart path
-Some greens are very big. One thing I see in many of the best courses on this site are greens that are too big. The USA average is 5000 sqft. Pebble Beach is 3600sqft. Augusta greens about 6500sqft and St. Andrews runs over 12000 sqft.
#1
- first fwy bunker right side – large tree on elevated hill above bunker likely to cause issues with roots in that bunker
- tree growing out of pro shop roof
#2
- Massive green size
- Line of sight hazard with #3 tee
- Fence causes traffic pinch-point onto turf that is shortage than the rough
- Fence on the opposite side of the cart path would allow traffic dispersion to #2G but focus people to path to #3T
#3
- Traffic wouldn’t follow paved path to path to tee – they’d cut from the fence opening to the back deck
- Short grass from cart path to fairway likely wouldn’t be used and be difficult to maintain in irrigation coverage for rough
#4
- Unless coming from washroom golfers would not use path to tee – instead coming straight from green to tee
- Storm shelter would likely not stand along on right side of fwy. Instead may be combined with washroom or at junction of multiple holes
- Cart path ridge on right side of approach cuts off drainage from the ditch to nearby pond. Ditch would likely hold water
#5
- Stairs not in areas that would facilitate traffic patterns.
- Stairs between middle deck and front deck a deadly shank hazard (could come back to the golfer or group)
#6
- Potential shade issues on green
- Huge green
#7
- Shade issues on fwy
- Tree in middle of fairway with no turf type adjustment underneath
#8
- Bushes in bunker nose – maintenance challenge
- Thin first rough between fwy bunker and fwy
- Traffic pinch point at green – right side between bunkers – will cause traffic wear issues
#9
- Errant long shots to green has the clubhouse directly in the line of danger
#10
- Trees in the line of play from tee will grow to block hole entirely
- Green is huge
#11
- Ditch between fairway fingers would likely collect water with irrigation needed for fairway turf
- Front of green would be tough to drain
#12
- Pond would need to be lined (clay/poly) else it would drain into nearby lower areas
- Right angle cart path from tee
will see cart traffic cutting corners
- Fence at back tee divides two areas that will have to be cut with reel mowers – needs to be moved back to rough
for trimmers to maintain
#13
- Water will collect on cart path near green with everything sloping that way
#14
- I’m sure golfers will love to try and hit the fence in from the teeas a bet to see who buys beers at the clubhouse
- Near vertical bunker face – front left of green
- likely wash out in the rain
- Unfair pin (#1) on slope
#16
- Fence blocks natural path to green along level terrain left of ditch
#17
- 3 heights of cut around the fairway bunker inside a couple feet
#18
- Clubhouse access road to nowhere