Glossary & Bibliography

Where this comes from: both lists are transcribed from pages 229–231 of the printed Pocket Guide. For the designer directory from the same section, see Designers of Rated Courses in the Irish Pocket Guide online; for how the course ratings themselves work, see How Our Ratings Work.

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Glossary of Golf Design Terms
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Glossary of Golf Design Terms

Aesthetics: The quality of the visual, sensual (and occasionally aural) impression provided during the experience of playing individual holes and the course as a whole.
Blind (or blind shot): Situation in which the player cannot see the target from any point on a hole where the player should be if playing the hole reasonably as intended by the designer.
Cape: A heroic feature: players are invited to shorten a hole by driving across the corner of a hazard — the more they attempt to cut off, the more the risk; many such holes have also tended to have greens that protrude out from the neighbouring land form, hence the name.
Dogleg: A golf hole which turns a distinct corner from the initial line of play, the turn normally being challenging enough to require a change of direction to reach the green.
Double dogleg: A golf hole which turns two distinct corners from the initial line of play — the second turn normally being in the opposite direction to the first.
Dunes Course: A course laid out generally over sand dunes (often smoothed over), using modern equipment.
Enhancement: Embellishment of an existing design, generally without re-routing, nor to the extent that the course is so changed as for the work to constitute remodelling (e.g. addition of bunkers and tees, or amendment).
Esker: A geological rather than golf term. See the article on Birr, page 55.
Fair: A course or a hole is fair when its features are openly presented to the player, so that playing errors are due to the player himself making such errors, rather than due to an aspect of the course of which the player is not given reasonable notice.
Greensite: The whole complex of a green and its immediate surroundings, including humps, swales, bunkers and other immediately adjoining features.
Hazard: A design feature (whose definition has widened with developments in design) which makes the playing of a hole more challenging — e.g. bunkers, water, trees, swales (especially when combined with short grass), humps, and long grass (i.e. longer than normal rough — undesirable because of ball searches).
Heroic design: A type of design which gives the player an opportunity to take on risks (e.g. cutting the corner of a dogleg by driving over bunkers, water or rough) resulting in a better chance of a lower score; success should render heroic satisfaction, failure a round in higher rough. There should always be room for an alternative, safer strategy. (A classic example of such a hole is "do I have a go for the green, or must I carry the water?" — p4:10 at The Brabazon Course, The Belfry, England.)
Holiday Course: Related to, and in some ways the forerunner of, the Resort Course, often shorter and less demanding than a traditional design, also intended to be fun and more relaxing; generally found in holiday locations.
Links: The original terrain of golf: ground which "links" the sea to the more cultivated land, also often used for common grazing. Its sandy soil gives a base for springy turf, generally formed by the sea, wind, and animals that lived there. The often uneven surfaces mean that links golf can seem a little unfair to the uninitiated.

Penal design: A type of design where the perfect shot is rewarded but anything else is severely punished; in such design, the player has no option but to take on risks (the do-or-die island green at p3:17, TPC Sawgrass, Florida, is a classic example).
Remodel: A golf course is remodelled when the work carried out significantly changes the design of holes, although not necessarily involving significant changes in appearance.
Re-routing: Adjustment to a course layout involving significant changes in the sites of tees and greens, so that the course (or parts of it) takes a different route around the land on which it is sited.
Renovation: Making good defects to the design and condition of a golf course — a process more of repair than change.
Restore: A golf course is restored if the work carried out is designed to return it to its design as originally designed (though increasingly with sensitive and sympathetic adjustments to allow for the extra distance achievable with modern equipment).
Resort Course: A golf course designed to be more user friendly than a traditional course, often without significant rough, generally found in lavish holiday locations and designed to be appealing, fun and bold in appearance.
Reverse camber: On a dogleg hole, land which slopes in the opposite direction to the turn in the hole and therefore does not help the ball go round the corner — generally an undesirable feature.
Routing: The way the holes are laid out over the land used for the golf course, and how the holes relate to the terrain and its opportunities or restrictions. The quality of the routing is crucial and generally closely related to the overall quality of the course, because of the strong influence it can have on both the golfing test and the aesthetic merits (or demerits).
Run offs: Short grass slopes on, and immediately adjoining, greens which cause misplaced shots to run off the green into nearby fairway, rough or hazards. The quality of short grass as a hazard should not be undervalued in golf design.
Semi-blind (or semi-blind shot): As for blind shot, except only part of the target (or relevant ground between the player and the target) can be seen.
Strategic design: The type of design which offers the player a choice of different ways to play a golf hole, ideally where risk and reward are balanced (i.e. the riskier option may result in fewer strokes where successfully executed).
Swales: Gentle depressions (often near greens) designed to catch or deflect the slightly errant shot, and sometimes also test a player's distance judgment.

Glossary of Golf Design Terms

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