What makes an interesting course design / not teeing off with driver 14 times?
Starting off by assuming players will play the right tees for themselves , I’m curious if there’s a general rule to course design covering the general length and layout of the collection of holes. I love courses that present a serious benefit (if not an advantage) to tee shots other than driver over and over. Has this been formally set out by any designers at some point?
Example, breaking up 18 holes, you might have:
4 x Par 3: shouldn’t ever require a driver. One shot onto the green.
4 x Par 5: driver is always an option and longer is always better.
4 x Long Par 4: executing a good drive is a must, but the challenge is the hole length rather than its design/features
2 x Curvy Par 4: hole curves meaningfully. A perfect drive following the curve makes for a good birdie chance, a bad drive is in trouble, and a conservative tee shot plays like a Long Par 4 (or easier) from approach in.
2 x Tricky Par 4: hole design makes for risk/reward choices. Maybe a sloped fairway, or water off the tee , or a blind tee shot, or a big elevation change, etc, but driver is a questionable choice for almost everyone.
2 x Wild Cards: could be a drivable par 4, an easy vanilla par 4 with a great view, a short-ish par 4 with a really challenging/protected green, or some twist on the other par 4 choices. Could also just be plain vanilla easy P4s if the others are tough.
Again assuming I’m playing the tees that fit me best, I’d expect to be hitting driver 7-10times on this course. At least 3 of the P5’s, at least 3 of the long 4’s, maybe 1 Curvy 4 if it rewards my particular shape/length, and hopefully 1-2 of the tricky 4’s and Wild Cards.
That means 4-7 non-driver tee shots, not including par 3s. This feels like great balance to me - whereas I grew up being taught the Bomb and Gouge way of golf, where the only real reason to not hit driver was water I couldn’t clear and most of the time I’d hit driver 12-14 times in a round. Setting aside whether I SHOULD have been hitting driver, my question is whether there is some secret sauce to designing a collection of holes?
Posted May 25, 2026, 2:43 AM UTC