Creating Strategic Tee Shots

By: Jeffrey D. Brauer

As already seen, strategery (sorry, but ever since that "Saturday Night Live" skit lampooning George W. Bush's ability to mangle language, I have trouble calling it anything else) starts with the tee shot.

In general, I believe every tee shot needs to have a good basic strategy.

Now, I have nothing against one - or even one per nine - with long holes merely being a test of accuracy, by virtue of narrow, tree-lined fairways bearing hazards on both sides of the landing zone. I doubt I will ever like that concept so much that I reproduce it 14 times a round, like Robert Trent Jones and Dick Wilson did in the 1950s while trying to out-compete each other in building tough courses.

In golf, as in other sports, playing defense first usually is a winning combination. Generally, we provide wide fairways for more and better play options. We locate hazards considering natural features, inherent difficulty and "temptation." Hazards should be "in play," but allow recovery to encourage bold shots over safer ones away from key hazards.

The strongest strategic hazards encroach upon the fairway slightly, requiring a combination of distance, carry and shot pattern to avoid. Generally, we place hazards either where they occur naturally or, if artificial, to provide a basic tee-shot challenge, including:

• Carry hazards, just short of the landing area;
• Flanking hazards in the normal landing area;
• Pinching hazards, in the longest portion of the landing area.

If target areas angle right, fades find them more easily. Golfers who can shape shots that follow the axis of the fairway to gain distance (usually) find fairways and avoid hazards. (Playing good defense wins championships in all sports!)

We try to make most holes strategic, with an emphasis on reward rather than penalty, as these play well for all golfers. We mix in old-fashioned "Penal" holes and dramatic "Heroic" holes for variety. All players like the occasional challenge of a difficult shot, provided it's not a steady diet.

We create these strategic tee-shot relationships with just a few basic concepts - even if using natural features and a variety of hazards, and there are infinite possibilities for the final unique designs. Most tee shots fall into the following basic categories.

The "Position Paradox" Tee Shot

A "damned if you do and damned if you don't"' situation, where you really, really want to hit a portion of the fairway, but that position is difficult and guarded by an equally difficult hazard that you (insert your own number of "reallys" here) don't want to be in!

Like a movie "bad guy," the architect tells the terrified victim, "Do what I say, or something bad happens later." The architect can spell out those bad things visually, or conceal them (perhaps dictating the best angle through varying receptivity of green contours), leaving the golfer (victim) to imagine the bad guy cutting off his fingers - or worse.

Often, these holes require a "heroic" tee shot, with a strategic carry hazard. While they are strong holes conceptually, they disproportionately reward length, so most balanced courses shouldn't overdo these. They work well in a prevailing downwind, tempting the golfer to carry the hazards more, and increasing the value of an open-front green, typically reducing backspin on the approach.

The "Variable Strategy" Tee Shot

Here, strategies vary daily - usually with wind and/or pin locations dictating play left off the tee one day, right the next, for maximum advantage. The design usually requires:

• Wide fairways;
• Double fairways;
• Staggered bunkering, intruding on both sides of the fairway at different distances and
• Large greens to create a variety of pin locations.

While not particularly difficult, they form the backbone of the course, and their strength is that they play slightly differently every day. These holes work well over a variety of wind directions and lengths, and staggered bunkering works especially well on par-5 holes, where play among differently skilled golfers tends to spread out.

The "Democratic" Tee Shot

These offer approximately equal choices, allowing players a way to play based on their relative strengths of power, finesse or accuracy, or on their preferred shot pattern. Like choosing between a light comedy or a drama, the choice depends on your mood, with no real consequences. Often, the fairway must have no hazards or hazards on both sides to create the democracy.

The "Diminishing Returns" Tee Shot

With gradually diminishing fairway width, the golfer must judge where the crossover point between the advantages of a shorter approach versus possibly missing the fairway occurs, and play accordingly. On long holes, the advantage of length is usually too strong, and on short holes many players prefer to be farther back for a full shot with maximum backspin, so these often work best on medium-length par-4s and, of course, possibly reachable par-5s. The spin question comes into play more for downwind holes than holes into the wind.

The "Dictator" Tee Shot

These penal tee shots actually come in three varieties:

1. The "Cut 'em off at the Pass"

Occasionally - and more frequently with current restrictions on stream use - a creek crosses the fairway just past the landing area, usually about 300 yards ouy, preventing a full tee shot. If the hole plays up- or downwind, or is severely downhill, complicating the club selection necessary to get as close to the stream, without actually going in.

2. The "Forced Carry"

A creek or manmade hazard may require a forced carry to attain the fairway, without any openings, or angles to provide strategic interest, if crossing between the tee and landing area. Most golfers dislike forced lay-ups and carries, making each of these sometimes necessary, but rarely intentional in design.

3. The "We're Surrounded"

These offer no choice but placing tee shots in a restricted area between:

• A narrow line of trees in the landing area;
• A narrow line of trees just off the tee, with a wide landing area;
• A "bottleneck" of bunkers pinching the landing area, or
• An "island fairway" virtually surrounded by sand or water.

Strategic considerations include picking shot patterns to avoid difficulty - hook or fade, height and roll control, etc. A less difficult approach shot may compensate for tee-shot difficulty.

The "Heroic" Tee Shot

Gives the option of driving well over a daring hazard, and is the true "action thriller" of golf design. Most courses should have at least one!

These occur as:

• "Cape Holes," with a diagonal carry over lake or similar hazard, or
• "Challenge Fairways," where an alternate fairway straightens/shortens the hole significantly, yielding distance advantage as the reward.

The "Open Field" Tee Shot

Seemingly, little strategy required, but sometimes creating a "delayed penalty" by virtue of design of the green. These holes work well early in the round or on holes with a difficult approach shot.

The "Fairway is its Own Hazard" Tee Shot

An open -field fairway, with a catch! Fairway grades - like cross-slope (dictating play to the high side) or moguls in selected areas can dictate play to limited areas.

The "Battlefield" Tee Shot

A battlefield-inspired fairway with randomly strewn hazards provides a change of pace, if used sparingly. Golfers can find these unnerving, as distances are often deceptive and fairways partially concealed.

The "Forced Curve" Tee Shot

Ground features suggest, but don't force, a curved shot. Well-placed trees can dictate a flight pattern. Golf shots reach maximum curvature - both horizontally and vertically - about two-thirds of the way through its flight. A fairway-encroaching tree 180-200 yards from the tee allows players to create shots around it to reach premium areas. These holes should have especially wide fairways, to allow all players a chance to hit some part of the fairway, regardless of shot pattern.

In Sum . . .

Of course, there are other nearly equal considerations in designing holes for strategic tee-shot variety, interest and challenge. Certainly, aesthetics plays a role, as does environmental and tree protection, safety, speed of play and the superintendents' maintenance concerns (which often lead to narrower fairways).

Most courses contain 14 long tee shots. There are many more distinct concepts and sub-concepts than there are tee shots on any one course. With other concepts - both broad and site-specific - and an infinite number of subtle variations, it seems a shame that so many courses have so many blandly repetitive tee shots. Courses can easily have no repetition, except perhaps mirror concepts to balance the requirements of shot patterns.

It will prove to be a more interesting course than one historic golfing constant in the desire for lower scores. To most, this means "buying a better game." For serious players, this also means playing strategically, which has obvious cost advantages over high-tech equipment, and probably better odds of success! We design strategic features for this perhaps small, but definitely appreciative, audience.

Hole strategies should usually be quickly obvious, and provide at least two tee-shot choices - to force decisions on the advantageous fairway position for the approach shot, and the best shot pattern to get there. Par-4s dominate because we can establish this architectural relationship in the highly efficient minimum of two shots!

Jeffrey D. Brauer began his career as an apprentice in the Chicago area in 1977. His first project was Kemper Lakes, which shortly after hosted the 1989 PGA Championship. He formed GolfScapes in Arlington, Texas, in 1984. In the last 29 years he has designed and consulted on a wide spectrum of projects, ranging from partial renovations to international resorts. His recent work includes teaming with the design team of Pascuzzo and Pate on a remodel of the world-famous La Costa Resort & Spa in California, and renovations at Superior National Golf Course in Lutsen, Minn., and Mesquite Municipal Golf Course in Mesquite, Texas.

He has been a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects since 1981, serving as President during its 50th Anniversary year in 1995-96. Jeff still studies the classic works - both old and new, and has played more than 75 of the best courses in the world.

Jeff gives many presentations and is a regular architecture columnist for many publications and websites, including Golf Course Industry and Cybergolf.com. He has also been a strong advocate for the "Tee it Forward" campaign and strives to make his courses fit the description of "fun to play every day."

Jeff's work has been spotlighted in most of the world's major golf magazines. Golf World ranked him as one of the top-20 golf course architects and Golf Inc. ranked him as the world's fourth-best value in golf architecture in 2010. Jeff's portfolio and reputation keep him at the forefront of desired designers for new courses, reconstruction and renovation projects. For more about Jeff, visit http://www.jeffreydbrauer.com/sites/courses/layout.asp?id=859&page=48451.

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