How would you make golf courses tougher?

McilroyFan

McilroyFan

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A lot of golf courses on the tours nowadays are making their courses longer by pushing back the tees to make the course tougher but this is not alwaysa good thing.

One of the suggestions on sky golf the other day was to dry out the greens so they don't play as soft.

What would you do to make courses tougher on the tour?
 
Grow the rough
Narrow the fairways
Don't rake bunkers
Don't cut the fairways so tight. Longer grass=less roll.

Hard to dry greens at this time of year but I know what they mean.
 
Deeper bunkers at driving distance. This would negate the need to make the course longer, which only benefits the long hitter anyway.
 
Imurg said:
Grow the rough
Narrow the fairways
Don't rake bunkers
Don't cut the fairways so tight. Longer grass=less roll.

Hard to dry greens at this time of year but I know what they mean.
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all of the above except the bunker thing, + a bit more length in first cut
 
grow the second cut to proper penalising rough
fairway bunkers (raked) but high lips so you HAVE to use loft

these two would make a big difference I feel
 
Fairway bunkers need to be proper hazards, at the moment the pros are better off in a hazard than in the rough. Make greens much smaller and so harder to hit. Watched some US golf yesterday, and someone hold from 110 feet on the green. If you miss the pin by 110 feet you should be in heavy rough. Greenside bunkers should be much smaller, so the ball doesn't gather into them. Much harder to chip from rough around the green,especially with the new grooves.

I think the USPGA make the courses for the US Open too difficult by letting the greens dry out, and having the rough too deep to even get the ball back in play. I like to see tournaments won with scores around 10 under par, not 20 + under par, or three over par (Unless the weather is bad for 4 days)
 
Imurg said:
Why Stevie?

Makes the bunkers a real hazard not just a smooth beach they can blast out of easily.
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stevie_r said:
Just so I know exactly what you mean here - are you saying leave the sand to compact more?
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Why not?
They're supposed to be a hazard after all.....

If you go into a fairway bunker there should be an effective 1 shot penalty - ie you have to hack out, same as if you put it in knee high bundu.
Make them uneven with sand, dodgy lies etc. Penalise them if they go in them.
 
We used to have greens keepers revenge every year in South Africa. He used to make it pretty intersting.

Tee markers on the side of the tee boxes so you were teeing off on a massive slope. Moved teeing areas to some crazy locations (we had a proper dog leg par 3). He didn't cut the fringes around the greens for a week (grass grows quickly down there), put pins on massive slopes and in the odd bunker. It was really fun. This game is difficult enough for us. No need to change too much about the courses. The answer lies with the equipment.
 
Hobbit said:
Deeper bunkers at driving distance. This would negate the need to make the course longer, which only benefits the long hitter anyway.
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I don't see why long hitters should be penalised?

There should be bunkers for both the short and the long hitters.

I like the idea of not raking bunkers.. that'll teach you to avoid them, but for great TV viewing purposes would it stop the pros from going for the green at long par4's and 5's, thereby making it more boring?
 
Bunkers should be hazards, granted, and not manicured like they are now, but surely the answer is more sand, not less. Bung 6" of sand in there, and the ball will plug, properly, just like they do at my course. Not so easy to finesse it out then.
 
I think narrowing the fairways between 280-320 makes the pro think about the accuracy v distance question especially if you put a few deep bunkers and rough in that area. Most are good enough to get home on 450+ par 4s but why not make them use a mid iron as they were designed for by forcing a few to lay up off the tee.

Sadly in the European climate you can't guarantee the greens will be dry and so making them more like upturned saucers as the majority are at places like Crans makes the player need to shape the ball and be creative if they miss. Penal rough in the fairways and especially around the greens to mkae getting up and down a challenge and some pot like bunkers. Sadly a lot of this is pie in the sky as courses can't afford to make wholesale changes and wouldn't be willing to make it so hard for the members that play 50 weeks of the year
 
murphthemog said:
Bunkers should be hazards, granted, and not manicured like they are now, but surely the answer is more sand, not less. Bung 6" of sand in there, and the ball will plug, properly, just like they do at my course. Not so easy to finesse it out then.
Click to expand...

Im all for this, played farleigh a few weeks back, and all the bunkers have just been refurbed. every bunker had a minimum of 6inchs of sand, even with a frost balls would still plug, but the key was they were all consistent.
 
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