I feel like golf has moved towards this over emphasis on the driver. Holes used to be designed with obstacles in the way. To navigate these obstacles, it often required cunning and certainly less than driver. A hole could be 370 yards, and yet it still required a second shot of 160 yards. A strong player playing this hole, might hit 4 iron from tee and 7 iron into the green. Imagine a 330 yard hole with a similar cross obstacle at 200 yards out. A strong player might hit 6 iron from the tee and 8 iron in.
At this rate, I could design an entire course, that tests every club in your bag (I’ve already made you use 4 different clubs in two holes), has no par 4’s over 400 yards, sits on less acreage because the holes aren’t that long, takes less money to maintain because of the smaller footprint, costs less to play because the upkeep can be done in less time with less people…but this place will be criticized because you can’t rip driver 14 times. That is how I have arrived that driver is over emphasized.
Now think what happens when you have an “all driver” golf course. Every hole from 300 yards to 420 yards for a strong player is driver – wedge. Bash driver, slash wedge. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Your total game suffers…you never hit mid irons. Your interest might suffer… no variety. I suffer, much longer course to take care of. Your wallet suffers, I need to charge more because the place is huge so you can hit driver. Callaway is probably the only one who is not suffering, they can sell more drivers.
What would be so bad about shorter courses where driver was merely a choice not a FORE gone conclusion? Like dogs, golfers are domesticated to certain dogmas (pun intended). No matter how many good ideas that are concocted, it’s pretty much impossible to work against the tidal flow of golfer expectation you have been programmed to accept. You believe it’s always driver. But I guess everything has to start somewhere.
The fact that drivers have become the ‘easiest’ club for a lot of people to hit doesn’t help. Courses could be designed for driver to be a risky play only to see modern technology remove the sense of anxiety that should be accompanying the swing.
Besides obstacles determining the choice of club to play – I really like the idea of a delayed penalty. I think #5 at RSP is a hole where players just instinctively grab driver – lots of room, it can carry the middle fairway bunkers, and you have rough before the fescue if you push it right. But if you end up over there – you’ll have a blind shot with a front bunker, uphill from the rough that will be very tough to control on the green. I felt like I’ve been downwind frequently too which will only add to the trouble.
Of course, I’ll probably end up playing driver and dealing with a more difficult approach because a bad driver swing will still put me in a better place than a bad 3w or 4i swing, hah
You could design a course with a short par 3 on every hole, and it would it still take a driver and 8 to get there 😂😂