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Post by Q on Dec 12, 2020 22:46:19 GMT -5
I'm looking for more inspiration at the moment for courses in real life or courses in the game that do a bunker-less hole really well! Very familiar with sheep ranches' layout so Im hoping for some other cool or uniquely designed bunkerless holes. I know there are some good ones in the dream team contest and I'm down to ogle any well made, strategic bunker free golf holes!
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Post by b101 on Dec 13, 2020 6:40:55 GMT -5
I’ll give this more thought today but most of what comes to mind is from links courses. From my home course, three of the strongest holes have zero bunkers and work off the natural landforms perfectly as a result. 1st - a deceptively tricky opener. Narrows down right between the dunes where you’d want to hit driver or three wood. Lots of space out right if you want to bail out but for every inch right, you’re more blind into the green - and the fairway also cambers left to right to exaggerate an errant shot. The green contours are brilliant, too, with hollows to the right of the green and short left again emphasising that need to be on the left of the fairway. 4th - a relatively easy birdie hole which tempts you to cut off as much of the corner as possible, but missing right in the dunes is a lost ball waiting to happen. The more conservative (out left) your shot is, the longer the approach in. Sounds basic until you combine it with the green, which is pitched sharply back to front and has a big fall off behind if you go long. With that in mind, distance control is paramount, particularly if the pin is on the front/middle, as you can easily three putt, so you want as short a club in as possible. If not going for the green, you have so much room for layups but can leave an awkward uphill pitch if you don’t think about it. A classic case of no bunkers and clever green contouring leading to more options than if you put bunkers in. 14th - great par three that makes the absolute most of a stunning greensite with a huge fall off on the left. The contouring allows you to run the ball in from short right but the tier at the back demands nothing but a straight shot to get close if the pin is at the back. Love how you have different ways to get the ball close on a one-shotter. www.burnhamandberrowgolfclub.co.uk/course/the-championship-course/
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Post by scottish67 on Dec 13, 2020 7:05:28 GMT -5
That’s your home course......I’m jealous. Beautiful!
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Post by cd06 on Dec 13, 2020 9:33:03 GMT -5
Burnham and Berrow is not far from where some relatives of mine live. You're lucky to be a member there... I'm a member of a fairly flat parkland that's gonna be a mudbath for a few months. There's a par three at a course called Painswick I played a couple years back (I think it was no. 6?) that's got a really cool setting on top of an Iron Age fort. I'd also say 4 at Huntercombe, at least 12 holes at Royal Ashdown Forest and 12 and 16 at The Addington are worth a look for their quirks alone. A bunkerless course is a very bold idea, can't wait to see how it comes out!
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Post by SteelVike on Dec 13, 2020 9:53:14 GMT -5
IRL bunkerless holes are very common, but in the game to have a stretch of 8 holes without bunkers is almost unfathomable. You would need other areas like water and native areas to distract from the fact that they do not have bunkers. Golf holes just look so naked without bunkers IMO.
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Post by Q on Dec 13, 2020 13:27:35 GMT -5
I’ll give this more thought today but most of what comes to mind is from links courses. From my home course, three of the strongest holes have zero bunkers and work off the natural landforms perfectly as a result. 1st - a deceptively tricky opener. Narrows down right between the dunes where you’d want to hit driver or three wood. Lots of space out right if you want to bail out but for every inch right, you’re more blind into the green - and the fairway also cambers left to right to exaggerate an errant shot. The green contours are brilliant, too, with hollows to the right of the green and short left again emphasising that need to be on the left of the fairway. 4th - a relatively easy birdie hole which tempts you to cut off as much of the corner as possible, but missing right in the dunes is a lost ball waiting to happen. The more conservative (out left) your shot is, the longer the approach in. Sounds basic until you combine it with the green, which is pitched sharply back to front and has a big fall off behind if you go long. With that in mind, distance control is paramount, particularly if the pin is on the front/middle, as you can easily three putt, so you want as short a club in as possible. If not going for the green, you have so much room for layups but can leave an awkward uphill pitch if you don’t think about it. A classic case of no bunkers and clever green contouring leading to more options than if you put bunkers in. 14th - great par three that makes the absolute most of a stunning greensite with a huge fall off on the left. The contouring allows you to run the ball in from short right but the tier at the back demands nothing but a straight shot to get close if the pin is at the back. Love how you have different ways to get the ball close on a one-shotter. www.burnhamandberrowgolfclub.co.uk/course/the-championship-course/This is actually great reference because the course I'm working on is going for that completely grass covered dune look, though I was looking to do some partially wooded interior holes as well
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Post by tpetro on Dec 13, 2020 20:32:28 GMT -5
4th hole at my home course, the Quogue Field Club, is quite possibly my favorite hole ever. Half redan, half biarritz, water on both sides, and baked out turf year-round. Just a perfect hole for creativity.
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Post by bmoregolfpro on Dec 14, 2020 10:02:23 GMT -5
There is a course in Maryland that is currently under a massive overhaul called the Preserve at Eisenhower Golf Club. It has been closed for a little over a year and has gotten the works, redesigned, lengthened, new everything. Last I heard they are reopening in the spring. The course will not have a single bunker..anywhere. They have done a great job posting pics on Facebook as the renovations are happening and it looks pretty cool. It was a pretty solid layout before, but the "new" track looks awesome.
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 14, 2020 13:01:45 GMT -5
4th hole at my home course, the Quogue Field Club, is quite possibly my favorite hole ever. Half redan, half biarritz, water on both sides, and baked out turf year-round. Just a perfect hole for creativity. That is all I needed to see to decide I'm building one of these holes on a future course. Very Nice.
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Post by Q on Dec 14, 2020 17:37:49 GMT -5
4th hole at my home course, the Quogue Field Club, is quite possibly my favorite hole ever. Half redan, half biarritz, water on both sides, and baked out turf year-round. Just a perfect hole for creativity. That is all I needed to see to decide I'm building one of these holes on a future course. Very Nice. Something like this would also be wildly fun on a two shot par 5 where hitting near the pin requires a lot of use of the ground
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Post by cd06 on Dec 15, 2020 6:58:27 GMT -5
Good lord, the places you guys are members at (at least it seems) astound me. There's a few heathlands within an hour and a half of where I live (London) but that's about it. Ground game is incredibly important if you don't have bunkers - the land's contours need to make sense and make the hole challenging but fun. But I have a lot of faith in you Q, especially after Bohemian.
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Post by SkinniePost on Dec 15, 2020 9:42:30 GMT -5
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Post by Q on Dec 15, 2020 19:01:55 GMT -5
thanks for that post SkinniePost ! I just want to reiterate that I think your bunkerless course is the best one in the entire game and I hope to learn a lot from it! I am always a bit afraid of adding extreme dunes and pock marks to my course so I might do a beta of my course to see if I'm going too extreme with some of the land features but these pictures really enforce the idea of starkness in the design. As long as I manage to make it fit the surroundings I think it'll work! Funnily enough Bohemian Club was inspired by Muir Woods so it's funny my second club will also have some inspirations from one of your courses.
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Post by mctrees02 on Dec 16, 2020 13:28:28 GMT -5
This is really more of a dick punch hole than anything else...but it's the 16th hole at Las Colinas CC and has swung many matches over the years and is a hole that I always look forward to playing (even when my lefty pull cut leaves a drive on the right side of the fairway and I'm having to skirt the tree line to get a long iron approach on the green. Long par 4 that's straight off the tee but then doglegs right for the approach. he fairway runs into you from right to left and the green is about 25' above the landing area in the fairway. Then you get to a green that is perfectly tilted front to back in a way that makes putts go against what your eyes see. The slope of the property is long left to front right and the green appears to do the same thing...but rarely do you have a putt on that green that breaks towards the front right. Instead, most of them break to the back of the green and occasionally to the back left. During renovation last year, (which is why the picture looks rough), a new tee was added on the other side of the road for those poor souls who want to play a 475yd par 4 with 35' of elevation climb from tee to green. Please don't confuse this course with the soulless TPC Las Colinas across the street where the PGA Tour played for many years. Las Colinas CC has as much/more elevation change than any other course in the area and Joe Finger put together a solid, if unspectacular, routing up, down and across the rolling hills before the homes developed out around the course years later.
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Post by mctrees02 on Dec 16, 2020 13:32:02 GMT -5
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