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What is your least favourite course feature?

Blind tee shots. While they're a sometimes fun way to make a hole play longer, they're so reliant on course knowledge they're no fun the first time you play a track and have no idea whether your tee ball was any good.

Also, as a single walker, playing your second after a blind tee shot is one of the most dangerous places to be on a golf course.
 
Scorpion12 said:
Blind shots. I can't stand them. I don't like trying to make them. I don't like being in the landing areas of them. I try to tell my son when we're playing that "we're in a bad area. We need to hurry up."
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I call it the "kill zone". Same as the area where you park your cart behind the green. If there's a group behind us I want to get out of that area as quickly as possible.
 
Space Bandito said:
I vote for blind shots as well. Especially on busy courses.

@Junkyard I've played a lot in Michigan, and elevated greens feel like a common theme. Michigan has rolling hills, and I'd wager most tracks are just cut into old farmland, etc vs being thoroughly designed, and graded.

I have a (second?) cousin in Michigan who is a course architect. I've never actually met the guy, but I know his wife fairly well. Maybe I'll write him and see whats up.
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It's kind of funny - I've played a fair number of courses in Michigan (we usually go for 8-9 rounds every summer) and I didn't really notice it until this year. I had two new guys with me and I know trying to describe St Ives to them ahead of time I said you'll be hitting down to the fairways and up to the greens. That was tiring, but Coyote Preserve really made me feel it. Blind, blind, blind - tee shots and approaches.

I'd be interested to know if it's dictated by the landscape, or just something the architects decide to do.
 
Par 3's that are 230 yards or more. No par 3 should an amateur, weekend hack, have to bring out a 3 wood or driver. :eek: Talk about slow play ... this adds to it bigtime.
Driveable par 4's. No weekend hack should ever be tempted by that type of hole. They usually will wait cause "I can get there, no problem" ... wait for the green to clear & proceed to either duff it or drive it in the trees. Mind you, there is a group behind you sitting in their carts wondering "WTH did he wait for ... to do that?" And ... now there is another backup on the hole.
 
I'll agree strongly with all those who said trees in the middle of the fairway. I mean, these are right dead centre....
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Blind shots, just eat me up. I know a lot of it is mental but i hate hitting a shot, I think, is down the middle and I get to the spot I think it is and I can't find it. Drives me nuts. I purposely do not play a couple of courses around me because of this.
 
I’m with those who don’t like blind shots.
 
I read about 10 blind shots as well and I agree. I also think fairways on side hills are a joke. I'm barely good enough to score on a nice easy straight hole let alone when the whole darn thing is slanted one way or another.
 
Duffer Waldorf said:
Trees or bunkers in the middle of a fairway.
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I don't mind bunkers in the middle, but trees are just stupid. One local course I play as a last resort has a double dogleg par "4", with trees, river, etc guarding the entire way. Unless one could get the ball 125' in the air 65 yards off the tee, then carry it 290 yards, or shape a 110 degree bend in a 185 yard low flying Mid iron, there is no way to reach the green in two. Just stupid......and some other gems there with tree limbs overhanging driving chutes on par 4s with no way to work the ball around them, either hit it too high, or hit it too low.
 
I'm gonna agree with @golfinnut here. Par 4s that make even the worst players think of attempting to drive the green are terrible. There is no need for a 275 yard par 4. Save the driveable par 4s for the guys who can hit it 320. Driveable to some, not all*

I'll even take it up a notch and say par 3s that over 200 from the middle tees. 90% of the guys I'm playing with aren't hitting any iron 200 yards. For the sake of pace, no one should be needing to take a 3w or driver into a par 3
 
Well I said grass bunkers already. I didn't want to whine a third time about longish thick rough... again. But since it seems to be a favorite here, I'll whine about it again.

Longish thick rough. Most people suck at golf and have an aversion to the fairway. This stuff makes the ball hard to find and makes rounds longer. Not only that, unless you're muscles, you have to hack out positioning shot with a lofted club followed by another "approach" attempt at best, or a duff and a long approach at worst which could end up on the other side in the rough (army golf), or further down in the rough on the same side... or even in the woods somewhere.

Course management: You want happy course marshals. Prepare the course for the 95%, not the 5%.
 
golfinnut said:
Driveable par 4's. No weekend hack should ever be tempted by that type of hole. They usually will wait cause "I can get there, no problem" ... wait for the green to clear & proceed to either duff it or drive it in the trees. Mind you, there is a group behind you sitting in their carts wondering "WTH did he wait for ... to do that?" And ... now there is another backup on the hole.
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We have one of those too. It’s a par 4 that’s right at 300 yards but it plays slightly downhill so the green is very drivable if you catch it on the screws. The catch is if you wait for the green to clear you’re sure to duff it, but if you go ahead and hit you’ll put it thru the green every time. Funny how that works.
 
Same clubs into greens, whether it be a Par 3 or approaches on 4’s or 5’s hate when it the same over and over again.
 
Space Bandito said:
I'm gonna agree with @golfinnut here. Par 4s that make even the worst players think of attempting to drive the green are terrible. There is no need for a 275 yard par 4. Save the driveable par 4s for the guys who can hit it 320. Driveable to some, not all*

I'll even take it up a notch and say par 3s that over 200 from the middle tees. 90% of the guys I'm playing with aren't hitting any iron 200 yards. For the sake of pace, no one should be needing to take a 3w or driver into a par 3
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Same course that had the blind tee shots and elevated greens had a 197 yard par 3 from the white tees. 100% carry over water of 182 yards. I only have one club in my bag that will meet that requirement: driver.

Prior to teeing off I would have bet a large sum of money that nobody in our group would have made par. Heck, I would have bet a large sum that nobody in our group would make the green, since we were all hitting driver. I almost hit a hybrid into a layup position but then decided against it. There was no real bailout area, but I figured it might be my best shot at not making double.
Anyway, I'm glad nobody was there to take the bet, because two of us hit the green and two-putted for pars; the third guy missed the green right but pitched it tight and made the putt. Three pars on a 200 yard par 3? Never have I ever :ROFLMAO:
 
PuffChippy said:
We have one of those too. It’s a par 4 that’s right at 300 yards but it plays slightly downhill so the green is very drivable if you catch it on the screws. The catch is if you wait for the green to clear you’re sure to duff it, but if you go ahead and hit you’ll put it thru the green every time. Funny how that works.
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What has to happen is the group on the green needs to waive up the group on the tee. Once the group has hit all of their balls on the green, stand all the way to the back of the green, waive up the next group. Problem solved ;) But that rarely happens, so everything backs up
 
Letting the Bermuda grow in the rough to 6-10” Your ball goes in, its not coming out without some loss of a stroke. If ya can’t see it, well you get the picture. As they say, Stay is the short grass. Easier said than done.
 
I find it quite funny about some of the things that trigger the annoyance in this thread

For me, the only thing I could think of was when I played a course with a blind par 3 - all you had to go on was a marker post at the back of the green, with no hole map on the card (or tee box) to give you any clue about what size or shape the green was, where the pin was or what hazards were around the green
 
Junkyard said:
I'll agree strongly with all those who said trees in the middle of the fairway. I mean, these are right dead centre....
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Wow that's a narrow window and a very likely spot anyone can be punished with just an unlucky outcome .. bring out the foot wedge
 
I don’t like it when you have to clear something for say 140- 150 yards. If I want to be able to layup nice and easy, I should be able to. Obviously I can hit it over 150, but when you have to it plays mind games.
 
A tree in the middle of the fairway. On a local course here on the 9th hole that is a pretty long par 4, there is a good sized tree right in the middle of the fairway at about 240 yards. If you go right of the tree a bit, a big bunker awaits you barely off the fairway. If you go left of the tree, deep rough awaits and you are blocked by trees along the left side of the fairway.


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Water. If it’s there I’m gonna hot into it. The only way for me to draw/hook a ball is to put water on the left.
 
Those bits between the tee box and green.

Hate those!
 
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I don't like courses that won't let you drive golf carts into the parking lot. Even if there's a bag drop, it's not as convenient as going straight from vehicle to cart.
 
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