What’s With That Crazy Hole Locations?
Dear Molly: I’m starting to wonder if I should send a fruit basket or a cooler of beer to our course grounds crew in hopes that they’ll go a little easier on the hole locations when my club plays. A couple of their favorite spots are automatic four-putts! Why are they so mean? Is this typical?
On many a Saturday morning in my years with one Colorado club, I suspected that the grounds crew had a weekly Friday night poker game and came to work fuzzy the next morning, or simply did not like our members! What was with that hole in the back left corner of the 17th green, which slopes downhill into the adjacent bunker and penalty area?!?! And was there a camera somewhere, filming our misadventures for the grounds crew’s giggles?
Obviously, I was as confounded by this as you are. So I turned to Mitch Savage, the award-winning Director of Agronomy at the CGA’s acclaimed CommonGround Golf Course. Here’s what Mitch said:
“There certainly are some people that work in the industry who think it’s kind of funny and kind of fun to cut tough hole locations. But my philosophy has always been this: For the majority of people that come out to public golf courses, the game is already hard enough. We don’t need to be killing ’em out there! So let’s put them in fun, easy spots. Every once in a while I’ll put one out that’s a little more challenging just for variety, but certainly not more than a couple. Usually, I’m trying to look for the easiest spot.
“Even for special events, I still try to go easy to moderately difficult. I don’t ever cut ’em really, really hard. I just don’t need that extra stress of people hunting me down and complaining about the hole locations. That’s something that is easy to avoid, if you ask me. I’m not out there trying to tuck every flagstick, hiding behind the trees to watch people four-putt every green.”
Clearly, Mitch Savage is not your superintendent. But I can tell you from having spoken to men and women of his ilk, they tend to be far from mean! They want their courses to be as beautifully manicured as possible so that their golfers enjoy their rounds.
So you could indeed try the fruit basket/beer cooler tactic with a plea for kinder pin placements. Or, maybe your problem is a different one: Could it be that your club officers have requested these hole locations?
“Sometimes the men’s club will ask if the president or somebody from the board can go out and just dot some hole locations,” says Mitch. “Then they’ll do a hole location sheet for the players. Sometimes I appreciate that, because if they want hard ones and then there are complaints, well, I didn’t pick them, I just put them where the dots were. I can say OK, well, you guys picked the holes.”
Then he can hide behind a tree watching four-putts free of all guilt.
Seriously, explore the topic with fellow club members and officers to see if a dialog should be opened with the superintendent. If no one else shares your complaint, try to appreciate the fact that the hole stays in the same place all day for every other player.
Do you have a question about golf etiquette, golf relationships or the culture of golf in Colorado? Email it to Molly McMulligan, the CGA’s on-the-course advisor on how to have more fun on the golf course, and follow @MollyMcMulligan on Instagram. Her creator, researcher and writer is golf journalist and CGA member Susan Fornoff.
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