Should Tees Be Flat?
IN: Golf Architecture | by Tony Cashmore | 29 Nov 2004
An early question on the iseekgolf.com forums asked my thoughts about tees, and I've titled my response with tongue in cheek - because we know that the perfect teeing ground is - or seems to be, to our eyes and feet, flat. That's so, isn't it?
Well, I remember at least four courses, 2 in Ireland, 2 in France, where the tees on many holes were obviously not flat - they had distinct soft rises and falls, both in the line of the drive, but (particularly) across the tee. I recall Rorry O'Donnell saying at Baltray that the members preferred the tees that way, because peculiarities in many of their swings (a typically Irish trait, and let's not say anything about the French!) would be counteracted somewhat if they could set their feet or their ball on a particular slope to suit. And I overheard through the television microphones, Hole 16 at Augusta, 1997, Craig Stadler saying "...wish there was a bump up over this side", suggesting perhaps that the immaculate Masters' tee had some sort of slight mounding on the other side. (I've not seen it, however, despite close study).
Bear in mind that in the original rules of golf, you had to tee your ball within two club lengths of the actual hole just played - i.e. from on the green, and close to the "cup" too - imagine in passing what the surface of the greens must have been, with all players wearing nailed boots, and some deepish divots, (and a lot of sand too, because that's what you built your tees with!) - obviously our beloved game did not start out with the maxim that the teeing ground should be perfectly turfed - and flat.
But all architects today I guess work hard to make their tees just so perfect, and superintendents devote enormous hours to keeping them so.
There are, however, many aspects of setting tees which individual architects respond to differently, and here's a random sampling of some from my viewpoint anyway.
Shedding Water
Most modern tees have in fact a 1% or 1.5% fall over their surface, preferably from front to back, but the land character may dictate differently. This is to allow that surface to shed water positively, allowing then the sub-surface drainage system under the tees to absorb residual water slowly. Such a slight grade is virtually imperceptible to our eyes and feet.
Long Tees
Robert Trent Jones Snr in 1949 started the trend for very long, uninterrupted tees, sometimes 70 - 100 metres long, believing this gave ultimate flexibility in setting the examination for any golf hole. The trend has been discontinued. Sometimes, with such a tee elevated at its prow because of the nature of the terrain, one could not see the first 150 metres or so of the drive line, and anyway, such an 'aircraft carrier' approach was both boring and visually unsatisfying in the golfscape. Some of those tees built in the '50's and '60's have been mown into shapes and / or cut into freeform masses.
Pad Tees
The modern architect instead sets perhaps four or five 'pad' tees according to many things intrinsic in the individual golf hole - the length of it, sightlines to its drive zone or green setting, exploitation of the landforms from which the tees can be fashioned, the nature of macro-drainage potential around them, where the prevailing wind is, the differences between fine strong players and lesser mortals, the desired playline angle to strategic defences, the position of treestands, the need for both light and air movement to the tees for healthy turf. Or, the architect may address these matters with one or two widely-disturbed, amoeba-like teeforms moving down and across the available landscape. Those of us who know The Dunes will immediately think of the six pad tees accompanying the par-3 6th hole, set on both side hills of a shallow valley, and affording diverse angles and length of play down to that vast green, (about which many skillful players are can cantankerous, because they will not or cannot think carefully enough about how to hit their teeshots!) - or alternatively the par-3 Hole 13, where the whole teeing ground meanders broadly down and over the created landforms, set with low bushes and natural limestone outcrops.
Conceal The Tees
Talking about The Dunes, it was a considered decision to conceal the tees for any hole from the previous hole - that there was, wherever feasible, a short concealing walk and a sudden exposure of the full glory of the next hole, a 'vision splendid', only when you reached the tees. This is something I'm inclined to pursue, because at the end of a round, no matter how poorly you've played, there is perhaps a strong and satisfying visual memory of the course, absorbed almost by osmosis, and resulting largely from this simple approach to setting the tees and thus the views of the individual golf holes.
Women's Tees
Women's tees on most of our older courses, both club and public, were 'afterthoughts', placed just at the front of the men's tees, and generally far smaller pads which allow minimum flexibility of hole length (climate conditions or event requirements), but worse, do not comply with the women's codified requirement that from the mid-point of each tee the markers for the day should be able to be set 8 metres back or front of that line - i.e. a tee pad at least 20 metres long. Even today many fine club courses do not provide such tees for women. It is common thinking today, too, that the hole length for women should be about 80 - 84% of the length played by the men - this is certainly not being addressed as it should, and candidly women, and women's golfing authorities are their own worst enemies here: they will not accept having the length of their course reduced to, say, 4,950 metres (equivalent to a 6,200 metre men's course), even though most women would tackle such a shortened course with far more joy, satisfaction, and the handicap systems for both sexes might become unified, with far-reaching effects in combined events. I received terrible women's criticism initially in making the par-3 16th hole at the Beach Course at 13th Beach an 85 metre challenge - it's far more accepted now, and what's wrong, please, in having a woman hit a shortish iron into the green, (instead of one of their multifarious, constant woods) just as the men do from their tee?
Lateral Tees
Most architects today, where possible, set their tees somewhat laterally, the back tee such that the angle of play to the target zone examines the shot most exactingly, the forward tees then less and less so. But there's an opportunity sometimes to widely space the teeing grounds - perhaps over an arc of 150 metres or so, creating diverse strategic choices. This can only be really achieved if a golf hole is generally in the same alignment as the approach into the previous green, or that central access to those tees from the hole just played affords short walks to the extended arc of them. But it's a valuable thing to look for, and particularly important with the development of a 9-hole course with alternative tees, such that careful planning (and the strong articulation of large greens so that two flag positions can apply each hole) allows such a course to achieve something of the status of an 18-hole venue.
Rectilinear vs. Free-shaped Tees
Finally here, to the question of rectilinear teeing grounds versus free-shaped ones - there's a recommendation abroad (but probably rejected) to remake the tees at Royal Melbourne into squarely-mown elements, part of the reasoning being that Alister Mackenzie certainly embraced such thinking, especially in the era when RM was being created. And have another look at his careful drawing of 'An ideal 3-shot Hole'. The Capital Golf Course here in Melbourne has strongly rectilinear tees, accompanied by neatly trimmed hedges back and sides. And Nick Faldo, working with me at The Creek Course at 13th Beach, stated his desire (and won) for rectangular tees, the sides aimed squarely at the ideal driveline.
My attitude is vastly different, and I feel comfortable with RM's softly focused teeforms, distributed over the natural terrain character. At The Henley Course at The Heritage, I'm going further - the tees in couchgrass often embrace portions of surrounding hills and swales; they flow into the landscape in an utterly freedform visual statement, defined at their edges with wild fescues and other plantings. Hopefully it will all look as though mown out of the naturally-occurring grass types, wherever they were in nature.
But of course, not all of their extent will be flat.
