The Par Fours

 

One of the fours being conceptualized on site

 

 

The final installment will be the collection of par fours.

 

The par fours are the backbone of any golf course. It’s the collection of par fours that usually play the most significant role in determining how well you play. While the short ones do present an opportunity to score, the majority represent the place in the round where the player generally looks to hang on.

 

There is no such thing as a par 5½. For the better player a par five will always be an opportunity. There are definitely par 3½’s which are made up of short fours and very long and tough par threes. Architects work to hard to create variety in the threes, so there is little likelihood of there being more than one per round from the par threes. In fact there is a greater chance that there will be more 3½’s made up by par fours than by par threes. This leaves the par fours to do most of the work to create difficulty within the round.

 

When Mike and I design we always look for a couple of shorter fours to create balance, but when you consider the average number or fours is eleven, that leaves nine more that are not short. So let’s assume that two are of the shorter variety and then add two more in the early 400 yard range and call them mid-length. That leaves us with seven long par fours of varying distances. Well let’s once again take away two holes, but this time we are going to remove two very long and arduous par fours of exceptional difficulty. They are the dominant fours which are designed to test the player’s mental toughness and game. That still leaves five long par fours.

 

The Road Hole - the greatest dominant par four I know 

 

 

So that’s seven holes where the scoring average is expected to be above par for the scratch player. That also means that we are looking at five to seven holes of similar length that must be differentiated through either landforms or by architectural decisions.

 

One side note: If you want to make the course more fun, you simply add in more short fours like a course such as Pacific Dunes where the addition of more short fours adds to the fun and the ability to score. If you want to increase the challenge, you simply remove almost all the short ones and in essence create anywhere from seven to eleven par 4½’s.

 

 

Here’s our basic breakdown for a course with 11 par fours:

 

One drivable par four

One drive and pitch par four

 

Two mid-length par fours where accuracy is rewarded over strength

They should reward the ability to think and work the ball

 

Two very long and tough dominant fours

These should play either uphill, into the wind, or involve a testing long approach.

 

Five holes will all be of the longer variety

They should balance out the player’s ability to work the ball in both directions

They should each have a different setting and different task from the last one

 

 Tomorrow I’ll begin presenting the par fours.

 

 

The Third Par Five

 

There were not a lot of options for long holes on this property. The first two fives fell on the two natural locations, the last one was another matter. There were a number of locations that were ideal for long dominant par fours where we could have stretched the hole into a decent short reachable five, but each made much better par fours. So we kept each one in its more natural form as a par four since we feel that quality long fours are vital to a great golf course. This left us looking to find the final five.

 

We found our hole by simply extending a mid range par four back to a distant tree line. The length and location worked well and fit into the flow of the routing. It was now up to us to decide how to yield an interesting hole out of this setting. The green and second landing can be seen from the tee. The tee shot is either to the top of the hill leaving a great view of the entire hole from above or down into the valley with a second shot played over the lower rise to the second landing area. Players playing to the bottom will have clear designs on getting close to the green in two.

 

We had two potential locations for a green. The green on the right removed the prominent knoll, but finished at a fairly mundane green site. The green location on the left made the knoll a key feature because you needed to play over it to get to the green. This creates more blindness for the second shot, but the hole would finish at a far more interesting green site.

 

The key to our selection was embracing the blind aspect of the second shot and using the 8^th at Augusta National as our guide. The knoll became the key point to the design, since most shots would be played at that position, particularly since most tee shots will end up on the left side of the fairway or rough due to the strong cross-slope in the fairway. The similarity to Augusta lies in the need to play further left than you perceive.

 To reinforce the importance of the knoll we added bunkers. We also need to provide a reason for taking the bunkers on. The key was coming up with an approach shot that was complicated enough to encourage players to want to be left on their second shots. Since we really couldn’t get any descent depth in our bunkers that idea wasn’t going to have the impact, Mike and instead borrowed an idea from the 14^th at St. Andrews and brought a prominent mound into play on the front right of the green. It’s really hard to approach the 14^th at St. Andrews because of the knoll.

 

We supplemented the idea by turning the green to the right 15 degrees since a green on a subtle angle is hard to hit since it plays essentially narrow to the approach. The 17^th at Commonwealth is a marvelous example of this technique and the green plays on that idea. Mike and I then added a false front and roll-offs on all sides so that only the very best approach would stay on the green. The fall off is not a great so recovery shots should be fairly routine. Although we did add more internal contour to the green to create a very hard hole to hit a pitch close and this may complicate some of the recovery shots.

 

The idea for the hole is for everything to get tougher as you go unless you take on the knoll and its bunkers. The knoll became the key to everything we did before and after. The image is taken from the top of the hill.

 

 

Ian Andrew

 

January 25^th, 2010

 

The Second Par Five

 

The second par five has the best land of the three fives. The hole will play down into a valley from an elevated tee and then back up to an elevated green location out on a point. The green site falls off steeply to the left and back making it a dangerous green to be aggressive with. The entire hole is surrounded by really large mature trees which are very pretty in the fall. The key to this hole is the cross-slopes that are used to help feed shots and to direct shots away.

 

The tee shot is an opportunity for the player to use the slope and prevailing wind to get down to the bottom of the hill. If they can accomplish this they are rewarded with an opportunity to reach the green in two. The only major complication is the landing falls from right to left and the tee shot will need a little cut designed to hold the slope and avoid sliding into the left rough. The second shot is where the fun begins because the player can use the cross fall from right to left to feed the ball back towrards the green.

 

The green will be set on the same angle as the existing drop which will make the running approach a more appealing option. By adding a couple of deep bunkers into the steep green side slope reinforces the angle of the green and penalizes a player that gets on the wrong side of the slopes. I added a big red dot to indicate the ideal line of approach. This also becomes the ideal location for a central hazard designed to test the nerve and decision making of the player.

 

By adding the bunker, the player must make a decision. They can lay short and face a tougher approach. They can try flying the trouble and risk coming up short. They can plan to skirt the bunker and use the feeding slopes to direct the ball towards the green. It’s all up to them. The reason there is not a line of bunkers is we wanted to make the option of flirting with the bunker more appealing since there appears to be room either side. The reality is the slope between the bunkers is quite strong and will most likely feed the ball into a tough position to come in from.

 

You can see with the plan that the slopes in the second landing are the key to the design. The outside bank is there to help you whereas the slope in the centre is there to defend the hole. The slope of the green was the toughest decision because if we built a redan style green the ball could easily run out the back and far away because of the steep slope behind. We felt that it might be wise to slope the green back towards play, but we will have to look very hard at this in the field and decide what would be the most interesting answer.

 

 

Here is an image of what we expect the hole to look like from the landing.

 

 

 

Some holes have inspiration or ideas from other, this one is a reaction to the land. 

 

Ian Andrew

 

January 20^th, 2010

 

 

The First Par Five

 

The first five has been routed up an existing corridor. On both sides of the hole from tee to green there is a stand of large mature trees. The land falls from left to right from the tee to the landing area and then flattens out through to the green site which occurs on a slight rise.

 

Mike has always loved holes that have a long slow curve in the corridor. What they do is place a premium on accuracy for a longer hitter. The short hitter can play straight out, whereas the long the hitter attempts to go the more they need to turn the ball around the corner to keep the ball in the fairway. In our case the fairway falls gently from left to right in the landing area which places an even larger premium on shaping the shot if you want to remain in the fairway and have the opportunity to reach the green in two. We both felt that landing areas like this don’t need bunkers, which increases the playability for the average member.

 

The second shot is wide open unless you want to get the approach inside 100 yards. To do so you will have to avoid the large Willow and pond on the right and the tree line on the left. Essentially what happens is we get a natural squeeze through the trees in the second landing area that demands a little more precision out of the aggressive approach. The green is placed on the small natural rise at the end of the corridor.

 

As I said before the key to good par fives is having a decision on the second shot. The simplest idea is to bunker the green on the right to create a desired angle of approach and then reinforced the strategy by adding a fairway bunker on the left to create a strategy for the second shot since taking on the bunker creates the ideal angle of approach.

 

In our case we saw something different. Both of us love the way the opener at Pinehurst #2 works. The large hollow on the right at Pinehurst is a generous bail area, particularly since there is a bunker flanking the left side. The problem you discover once in the hollow is that the green falls away from the bail area and getting the ball up and down is really tough. What we have done is created the same concept by adding that hollow on the left and by sloping the green straight right. We think a lot of recovery shots will find the hollow on the other side. The front bunker was pulled away from the green to make sure the entire right and front of the green could droop at the edges and run the ball into the hollows. The danger of this hole is the green.

 

The hole is all about the green and the green will feature a series of interior contours and roll offs all used to emphasize precision on the approach and recovery shots.

 

Here is an image of what we expect the hole to look like from the landing.

 

 

Ian Andrew

 

January 19^th, 2010