Internal OOB

[Ethan]

I once read a well respected golf architect who argued that internal OOB was a tacit admission of a failure of golf course design. I agree, and I will point out that my course has recently introduced internal OOB, due to a new water feature posing a challenge to some players from the tee that they chose to deal with by playing down an adjacent fairway instead.

Anyone have examples of internal OOB that they think are OK?

 

[Deleted member 3432]

I once read a well respected golf architect who argued that internal OOB was a tacit admission of a failure of golf course design. I agree, and I will point out that my course has recently introduced internal OOB, due to a new water feature posing a challenge to some players from the tee that they chose to deal with by playing down an adjacent fairway instead.

Anyone have examples of internal OOB that they think are OK?

We had an internal OOB at my old club. There was an OOB on the other side of the hole so it was totally Mickey Mouse....

 

[Imurg]

We have none..
Often the excuse when installing IOOB is that it's needed to protect players from others playing down their hole.
OK, it stops people deliberately aiming down there but it doesn't stop misshits going there so it's not really protecting anything.

 

[Backache]

No internal OOB as such unless you count going from one part of the course to the other as internal But you are going over a road to do so, which is pretty common as the road is very close to some of the greens. It is fortunately very quiet.

 

[srixon 1]

It’s never OK in my opinion. The ones that I have come across are usually to stop folks from gaining a distance advantage as going down the adjacent fairway/hole is a shorter distance to play the hole. Just as Ethan says, initial bad design of the course.

 

[jim8flog]

We had internal OB on one hole on each course for a while for the same reason. It was got rid of when the trees planted to stop players from doing it grew tall enough.

Obviously if it is a newly constructed course it may be necessary until, like ours, the architect planned trees grow up.

 

[sunshine]

I tend to agree with this.

My course has internal OOB on the right side of a left to right dogleg. It is poor design that OOB is required to prevent golfers cutting the corner by playing to the adjacent fairway. It is not an original hole and I imagine a genius like MacKenzie would not have built it. To be fair it's a great hole.

 

[sunshine]

The internal OOB at Royal Liverpool is rubbish, especially the 1st.

 

[Maninblack4612]

The only acceptable internal OOB is, in my view, the practice ground. Rather curious on my course, the tiny practice ground is OOB on holes 16 & 18 but not on the first. No great advantage being there on 1 & 18, but, depending on where the pin is, the best shot in at 16 was from the practice ground.

 

[Orikoru]

Off our 8th tee, the 7th fairway (on the right) is out of bounds. I don't know the official reason, but I have always presumed it was for safety to make people a bit more careful about not going over there. Because when you're walking up the 7th fairway, you can't see the 8th tee at all.

The 8th tee shot plays as a fade around a pond that sits between the two holes, but as the white tee is much further back, changing the angle, it's all too easy to over-fade/slice it the wrong side of the pond and onto the 7th.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

I tend to agree with this.

My course has internal OOB on the right side of a left to right dogleg. It is poor design that OOB is required to prevent golfers cutting the corner by playing to the adjacent fairway. It is not an original hole and I imagine a genius like MacKenzie would not have built it. To be fair it's a great hole.

intrigued as to where you are a member...as there is a MacKenzie design with exactly this relatively near to me. Left to right dogleg, par 5....and the hole coming back the other way is internal OOB to stop whacking one down it, and having a shorter shot in....albeit over a load of tall trees.

 

[pendodave]

We've got ioob to protect players. It's a shame, but the layout/topography means that there are no sighting lines in either direction, so it really would be quite scary.
The shape of the hole means that no one really goes there accidentally.

It's all very well, golf architects getting sniffy, but our course is in a slightly odd shaped piece of land that makes getting 18 holes into it challenging enough as it is. There are many other architectural bits and bobs that are vaguely irritating - the ioob is by no means the most egregious.

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

Times change though don't they with technology, player approach, numbers and perhaps housing round golf courses (there is an IOB at Hearsall I think to stop people taking driver over a corner and missing EOB right with a slice). So not necessarily bad design but always annoying especially playing new courses when you aren't aware of it.

 

[nickjdavis]

We used to have a number of internal OOBs....between 1/18, 5/4, 13/17 but they have all gone over the years as the course matured.

TBH we have enough external OOB (comes into play on 12 holes) without worrying about internal OOB's!!!

 

[patricks148]

The old Torvean made the pond by the 8th into an internal oob, just because most of the member s had no clue how or where to drop when they hit it in there off the tee. Some of the drops I'd seen and heard of on this hole made it clear it was a good decision.

 

[Neilds]

I'm interested to hear people's reasons for not liking (hating?) internal OOB. We have one on the 9th, a dog leg right par 5 which wraps around the 8th coming the other way. As others have mentioned it is there to stop you deliberately going over the trees to the 8th fairway and having a much shorter 2nd shot to the green - which would be straight over the 8th tee!

To me it makes sense to stop anyone trying this route but accept it won't stop the extreme slice going onto the 8th but you can never legislate for the bad shot.

 

[IanM]

Bowood had one where the dog leg tempted people to go up the adjoining fairway. It may have gone now as the trees have grown sufficiently to block the shot.

It doesn't annoy me any more than an external OOB....

 

[Foxholer]

It’s never OK in my opinion. The ones that I have come across are usually to stop folks from gaining a distance advantage as going down the adjacent fairway/hole is a shorter distance to play the hole. Just as Ethan says, initial bad design of the course.

Wasn't it as a consequence of 'a change of design'?
Given my (albeit limited) understanding of how this particular course is pretty constantly 'evolving', I believe this particularly 'tweak' won't last long - and the internal OB is only a temporary mod required for player safety that other players using to 'counter' the bailout reply to the excessive challenge of the modified hole - equivalent to a 1 or 2 finger salute to the design change!

 

[Bratty]

We have one between our 5th and 6th, but only OOB playing down the 6th.
It was put in when the course was built to prevent people from firing down the 5th making the 6th shorter. This was when the trees were low and they are far from that now.
However, I feel safer walking up 5th knowing people won't be deliberately playing down it! Especially as some club golfers call "fore" fewer times than the pros!!

 

[cliveb]

Off our 8th tee, the 7th fairway (on the right) is out of bounds. I don't know the official reason, but I have always presumed it was for safety to make people a bit more careful about not going over there. Because when you're walking up the 7th fairway, you can't see the 8th tee at all.

The internal OOB was introduced a long time ago (before my time, but the reason was explained to me by an old member).
Big hitters used to deliberately go down the 7th fairway when playing the 8th, because it gave them a better shot into the 8th green.
Since you can't see who's on the 7th fairway from the 8th tee, it was stupidly dangerous, so the OOB was introduced to stop them doing it.