Playability, width, options, strategy.

These buzzwords get thrown around a lot in golf course design talk, but there is substance behind them. Today’s leading architects—as well as the past masters who inspired them—draw on the principles of playability, width, options, and strategy to make their courses more fun and interesting. To grasp why one golf hole might be more compelling than another, it’s vital to understand these principles, which are all interconnected.

Playability

The designer of a course should start off on his work in a sympathetic frame of mind for the weak, and at the same time be as severe as he likes with the first-class player. –Harry Colt

Ninety-nine percent of golfers play the game as a recreational activity. So it stands to reason that the vast majority of courses should be playable for all. Here are a few ways an architect can accomplish that goal:

Limit forced carries, allowing beginners to chop their way around the course without facing an unrelenting series of penalties Create alternate paths for those who want to take the wide route around a hazard Accommodate all shot shapes, though obviously holes that give an advantage to (as opposed to absolutely requiring) a cut or a draw can be strategically compelling

Width

Narrow fairways bordered by long grass make bad golfers. They do so by destroying the harmony and continuity of the game, and in causing a stilted and cramped style by destroying all freedom of play. –Alister MacKenzie

Generally speaking, the wider the playing corridor of a hole, the more playable it is. Width allows golfers to play their own games and hit their own shot shapes.

At the same time, even if wide corridors keep the ball more in play, they don’t automatically result in easy courses. Rather, width allows architects to create different options for playing the same hole. Some of these options will be relatively risk-free and lead to predictable over-par (but not too over-par) outcomes; other options will be fraught with danger, having the potential to produce either very low or very high scores. With width, architects can construct these kinds of strategic scenarios; without it, strategy will be limited because the player’s only option will be to hit the ball straight and down the middle.

Options and strategy

The strategy of the golf course is the soul of the game. -George C. Thomas

If a hole has substantial width, a good architect can create a hole that is both playable and challenging by, on the one hand, forgiving the unskilled player while, on the other hand, forcing the skilled player to make tough decisions and execute precise shots in order to score low. Choosing among the different options that a wide course presents is the soul of strategy in golf course design.

The beginning golfer tends to focus simply on keeping the ball in play and finishing each hole without disaster. The architect might as well throw a bone to this kind of player by providing plenty of short grass.

The advanced player wants to make birdies. Some architects assume that the best way to challenge such a player is to make the fairways narrow, the greens small, the rough long, and the hazards severe. But all this type of design does is give excellent golfers a free pass not to think. Strategic golf course architecture, in contrast, forces the player who wants to shoot a low number to choose from an array of potential shots and make a series of difficult decisions. In this way, the game becomes far more challenging and interesting.

A strategy-rich hole presents different options, each with a different degree of risk and reward. On a par 4, for instance, the safest option off the tee might be a spot on the fairway where 1) it’s very tough or risky to hit the green with your next shot or 2) it’s relatively easy or safe to lay up and reach the green in three. In contrast, the riskiest option off the tee, when executed well, might lead to an easy approach.

To create these options and risk-reward questions, architects use not only wide playing corridors but also cleverly designed angles, contours, and hazards.

Principles in action: The Golf Club of Houston

To understand how width can create options and strategy, consider the 11th and 12th holes at the Golf Club of Houston, host of the Shell Houston Open. (Ed. update: as of 2020, the Houston Open has moved to the Tom Doak-renovated Memorial Park.)