Lie of the Land

It’s my view that ground contours are the most underused golf feature today, which is alarming given what they bring to the party at a fraction the cost of any other feature.

If designed intelligently ground contours can be very effective in guiding water off the play surfaces as well. This can negate the need to add sub-surface drainage - another hefty cost. Good drainage is essential and grading the ground to help achieve this end is of paramount importance. Mounds are typically always well drained and surface swales help move water off the play zones.

Golden Age golf architect Dr Alister MacKenzie, the mastermind behind such classics as Augusta National and Cypress Point, once wrote that "Undulating ground consisting of hillocks and hollows is of enormous interest", yet rarely do we see much undulation on our modern courses. This is hard to fathom given how interesting the game becomes when having to contend with the ball below or above the feet – from time to time. Certainly the game becomes so much more fun to play when the golfer is asked to invent shots which ground undulation demands. You could even argue that difficult stances extract the very best ability out of a golfer. Past Open champion Harold once wrote, "It is these unequal stances which bring out the true ability of the golfer. It is not at all difficult to hit a ball when the stance is what may be termed plumb and the lie a good one: this is the A B C of golf; but it is a very different thing to hit a ball when it is lying at an awkward angle and you have to take stance with one foot placed inches above the other. The playing of such shots requires a good deal of the knowledge of the game and the application thereof."

Ground contours are an essential golf feature, they always have been, so why are we not making more of an effort to utilize them much more in the play areas: it is almost as if today they are seen as taboo. A golfer will never bore - nor tire - playing shots from varied lies and the cost of creating - and then maintaining - these features is minimal in comparison to the "standard" features we get fed from day to day. Let the ground dictate the play and there is every chance your course would be better for it.