Golf Course Pet Peeves

[immacook]

Whats yoursWhat is your biggest pet peeve on a golf courses design/lay

What is your biggest pet peeve on a golf courses design/layout. Mine is uneven tee boxes. I hate teeing off with the ball below or above my feet. IMO, all tee boxes should be LEVEL!

[IIdiceII]

there was already a thread like this recently but i do agree...I cant stand really uneven tee boxes. its really really hard to get them perfectly level but some of them are a joke. hate spending over 100 bucks on a round to play a new course and the tee boxes are s***

[PJ0721]

I hate blind shots where there is nothing to aim at behind the green.

PJ

[bigred90gt]

I really think that if a course wants a USGA slope and rating, that the USGA should mandate that the tee boxes be level. I understand that divots on par 3 tee boxes will gouge them out a bit and make them bumpy, but there are tons of courses that basically have dome shaped tee boxes where you cannot get a level stance anywhere on them. That is just ridiculous.

Of course, it doesnt bother me enough to stop playing those courses, but it is a bit annoying.

[kyldo]

Tee boxes are actually supposed to be built with a slight upward slope (I think 2-3 degrees) from back to front. But yeah, when the ball is above or below your feet on a tee box it is very annoying!

[gxDD]

Yes...there was a thread like this already...maybe 6-8 months old, or more. Yet it remains a great topic to discuss.

My 3 biggest pet peeves, in no particular order:

(1) "In course" out of bounds.
(2) Holes that are ridiculously up-hill...or down...to the point that you can deliberate for hours and still have no idea what club to hit.
(3) Uneven/poorly maintained tee boxes.

[jorgesgolf1]

I love the courses that have holes where the architect said " I have to fit SOMETHING in here". What you are left with is 450 yard par fives with a 90* turn or 75 yard par 3s.

[SpinMill75]

I hate a design where you get punished for hitting a great shot. For example, there is a course in my area that has an uphill par 3, about 165 yards, to a very small green. If you don't hit the green in the summer, your ball is going to roll down the hill about 20 yards ( they keep the rough a little taller). However, the green is a two-tier green with a huge sloping shelf that creates a back to front slope. The upper shelf is huge and the lower is super small. A few days a week, they will set the pin on the lower shelf. If you hit the upper side of the green, giving you a 5-10' putt and you have to putt to the lower shelf - forget it - The ball is going to roll off the green. Its an impossible putt. It forces you to hit short of the green and hit a wedge to the lower shelf.......Probably the worst hole in my state.

I would rather they dig out the fron lower shelf and put in a bunker. It would make the hole soooo much more fun.

[OrangeCrush]

Course layouts: Courses that don't have yardage markers in other places other then 100,150,200,&250yds. I think EVERY yardage marker should be every 10yds down the middle and both sides of the fairway with a F-M-B distance. I know the GPS companies may disagree but being able to walk off 2-3 steps from a marker is faster then getting a GPS from your bag. NONE of us except for the rare +3 hdcp can hit the irons to an EXACT yardage, we all have a 2-3yd variance most days. I believe it was Ben Hogan's caddy who used to give him yardages in 5yd increments because he said "you are not good enough for the exact number"

People at the course issue:
1 word: JEANS!!!

Dude you are not in a freakin dart league! Leave the jeans at home!

[596]

Par 4 holes where you are forced to tee off with a mid iron and leaving a long iron to the green.

17th hole on local course......tee off with a 6 iron and have at least a 6 to a 4 iron to the green, depending on where the flag is set.

[Dantastic]

Slow play, ignorance of slow play, and rangers who do nothing.

I dont care how far you hit it or where you hit it, just play quickly and be ready to hit your next shot when it is your turn. And, if need be, pick your ball up and move it down the fairway. Its quite simple, I dont understand where there is a need or desire to play slow.

Dan

[schu]

Ignorance by maintenence/grounds crew that results in uneven tee boxes or unplayable pins is the worst. One course I play, it is a public course but fairly nice. There is one hole where there is a championship tee, then a slope down to the back tee. So when I'm playing the back tees with friends, sometimes the course will have the tee so far back on the back tee box that your stance is on the slope that leads up to the championship tee box! Totally unnecessary since the back tee box is probably 15 yards long, and by moving the tee 3 feet forward, your stance wouldn't be on a slope. Arrrggghhhh.

Another thing is borderline unplayable pin positions. I don't know if it was some grounds crew guy's first day on the job, but at another course the pin was right on the slope between tiers. You could putt, miss, and have it roll right back to you, which I did 3 times before finally making the putt.. Just plain ignorant and something that could be avoided.

[I_HATE_SNOW]

I like being able to see most of my drives land, so much easier to find them.

[Mags]

Before today, my answer would have been courses where there are more than 2 holes that have near 90 degree doglegs, even more so if most go the same way. Even though I don't always hit it great, I do like ripping my driver on holes where there isn't any real trouble.

After today though, I'd say it's having hazards that aren't visible off the tee (and the scorecard doesn't have hole layouts). I got really lucky playing today on a couple of holes where I hit good drives, dead straight, that if I had hit another 5-10 yards I'd have been in water. So I guess in simpler terms, like someone said above, being punished for hitting good shots, especially when there is no indication of possible trouble.

[CornOnTheCoby]

[quote name='JTYP726' timestamp='1305991140' post='3251859']
(1) "In course" out of bounds.
(2) Holes that are ridiculously up-hill...or down...to the point that you can deliberate for hours and still have no idea what club to hit.
[/quote]

I actually really like courses/holes with massive elevation changes. It makes it really challenging but really fun too.

One of my rival schools in high school played on a course that was built on the side of a mountain, and a few of the holes had elevation changes of 100-150'. It was nuts being able to almost drive the green on a 400yard Par-4.

[meroj]

I know this is petty, but I hate circular tee boxes ( or ones with rounded edges). I am sure it's harder to manicure square or rectangular tee boxes, but I just think they look better. My second pet peeve is when a course doesn't paint the inside edge of the cup white. I'm mid forties now and eye sight isn't what it used to be, throw me a bone here.

[LUMA]

I only have 2. Bad tee boxes and bag greens. Nothing worse than teeing in sandy divots or putting on an unkept, dead, bouncy, untrue to break green.

[teejaywhy]

Just an FYI, tees have to be slightly crowned or off-level for drainage because they have to be irrigated regularly. If they were perfectly level, they would pool water and then everyone would complain about that.

[putterzz]

Grass as long as the rough in the fairway...and for that matter, grass longer than my tee on the tee box

[k5kumma]

Courses that are built to inhibit fast play, yet still try to push players thru.

My biggest peeve is cart paths on one side of the holes only, really slows play down on rainy and wet course. I know you all walk and carry your bag but I cant . Blind shots anywhere, if you want me to play fast let me see whats going on. Fairway, four feet of rough, then OB, really how about some options to save a shot. I like tough courses but dont set it up to test me and then get on me about slow play, space out your tee times a few minutes.

Lee Trevino said on WWG if its course property it not OB, what do some courses think.

[Pit_Man]

Course I played regularly in high school had a double dogleg par 5 w/extremely tall trees and no option to cut either corner. 200yd tee shot max, then 170-180 to get a clear shot and abt 140 to the green for shot 3. Hated that hole.
Also HATE uneven tee boxes like everyone else...

[richard t]

I hate sorry, inconsiderate, selfish people. !00+ or sub par. Example frpm the other day. Guy is in the bushes off the tee. Group looks for the ball, no luck, he drops, and yes, he pulls out the range finder. hits into the trap, flails away, one in, three out, goes over the green two more and he's on. Now the guy is lining up his 25 footer. Three times he looked back to the tee box. No way did he not see a twosome soon to be a five some ( next group is also now at the tee). Guy two or three putts, whose counting, waves to us and goes on. If I had been playing with him I would have had some stern words. Hey, we all have bad holes but this was ALL DAY. Go out when the course isn't busy or at least pick up after a point in courtesy to others. By the way, Ranger Rick comes by, we tell him about' MR. I Own the Course'. He says, " well, he paid his money too." Well great. I hope he plays there a lot to make up for five people who won't be going there for a looooong time. Good news in all of this. I made some new friends to play with.

[Don W]

Used to live in Minnesota where there are a bunch of courses designed by Joel Goldstrand. He gets too excessive with blind shots for an enjoyable round IMO.

First one I played in Northern Wisconsin hit perfect drive early in the round get out to the blind landing area and no ball, slopes steeply to left rough no biggy still playable get over to the rough and there is a huge sink hole where there are hundreds of balls at the bottom. It was so steep and deep you would need rapelling gear to retrieve your ball. This course set the all time record for blind shots, combine this with a tight narrow track cut through deep woods and I threw the scorecard away on 7th hole and played garbage balls the rest of the round. No fun!

Played another of his courses in Northern Minnesota, this one is links and wide open. Problem was anything more than ten yards off fairway was declared wildflower prairie and could not be entered for any reason. They would race out from starter shack and threaten to throw you out if they saw you in the prairie. Okay can deal with that but two greens on one hole, both are behind a artificial hill just high enough to hide pin and nothing on card to let you know there are two greens. Hit perfect yardage to green and come to find my ball dead center but pin is on second green another 30 yards to go, now what do I do chip off green to second or? I just putted out to old hole cut and called it good rather than damage green chipping off it. Overall was a nice course but why the gimmicks with double greens and no notes on card as to which one has pin placement for the day?

Third and last course I will ever play has U shaped par 4, I'm sure you could play it to par with two perfect hooks/draws once you learned the distances well but otherwise it is a par five with all shots being blind. My cousins son simply hit straight to the green from the teebox as he knew the course, I don't mind an occasional blind shot but he seems to resort to them at every chance turning the course into a joke.

[I_HATE_SNOW]

[quote name='Don W' timestamp='1306090425' post='3254046']
Used to live in Minnesota where there are a bunch of courses designed by Joel Goldstrand. He gets too excessive with blind shots for an enjoyable round IMO.

First one I played in Northern Wisconsin hit perfect drive early in the round get out to the blind landing area and no ball, slopes steeply to left rough no biggy still playable get over to the rough and there is a huge sink hole where there are hundreds of balls at the bottom. It was so steep and deep you would need rapelling gear to retrieve your ball. This course set the all time record for blind shots, combine this with a tight narrow track cut through deep woods and I threw the scorecard away on 7th hole and played garbage balls the rest of the round. No fun!

Played another of his courses in Northern Minnesota, this one is links and wide open. Problem was anything more than ten yards off fairway was declared wildflower prairie and could not be entered for any reason. They would race out from starter shack and threaten to throw you out if they saw you in the prairie. Okay can deal with that but two greens on one hole, both are behind a artificial hill just high enough to hide pin and nothing on card to let you know there are two greens. Hit perfect yardage to green and come to find my ball dead center but pin is on second green another 30 yards to go, now what do I do chip off green to second or? I just putted out to old hole cut and called it good rather than damage green chipping off it. Overall was a nice course but why the gimmicks with double greens and no notes on card as to which one has pin placement for the day?

Third and last course I will ever play has U shaped par 4, I'm sure you could play it to par with two perfect hooks/draws once you learned the distances well but otherwise it is a par five with all shots being blind. My cousins son simply hit straight to the green from the teebox as he knew the course, I don't mind an occasional blind shot but he seems to resort to them at every chance turning the course into a joke.
[/quote]

Rules let you drop and hit from the fringe, no penalty. I remember one course that I actually hit to the wrong green! Very poor design.

[easyhobbs]

I hate courses that over water the greens. I understand that greens need water to live but when walking on the green you shouldn't have a squishy sound coming from your feet, nor should you need a shovel to dig your ball out after you hit the green from 150 out.

[jewofgolf]

1) Tee Boxes that are not level. I don't care if I have to tee off away from where the markers are...if there is not one single flat place, that's no good. It happens wayyyy tooo often from the tips on NICE courses...makes me wonder why I would ever pay $50-$60 for a round of golf when I can't start on a flat spot!

2) Overwatered fairways. In an attempt to make the course pretty, I get zero roll....LMAO.

[RedSide]

My pet peeve would be showing up to the course ready to play only to find out they just aerated the greens.

[bigred90gt]

[quote name='RedSide' timestamp='1306120407' post='3255043']
My pet peeve would be showing up to the course ready to play only to find out they just aerated the greens.
[/quote]

I think the only time that really bothers me is when they dont tell you about it, and you find out when you get to the #1 green to putt out, after paying full price for the round.

[SadTrombone]

[quote name='bigred90gt' timestamp='1306156151' post='3255583']
[quote name='RedSide' timestamp='1306120407' post='3255043']
My pet peeve would be showing up to the course ready to play only to find out they just aerated the greens.
[/quote]

I think the only time that really bothers me is when they dont tell you about it, and you find out when you get to the #1 green to putt out, after paying full price for the round.
[/quote]
They should really tell you when you make your tee time. These things are scheduled weeks if not months in advance. They know.

-mini

[jswaykos]

Blind tee shots with VERY small landing areas. There's a course by me with lots of these - not only can you not see where your ball lands (or rolls - lots of elevation changes), but you've got such a small window to hit that you lose perfectly good drives. Also, some of these holes require teeing off with a six iron just to make sure you don't lose your ball. Not a whole lot of fun.