Are Hybrid Golf Courses a Fad or Here to Stay for Good?

Are Hybrid Golf Courses a Fad or Here to Stay for Good?

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Hybrid courses are not Par 3 courses, but they are not regular length par 72 courses either.  

As you may have guessed, hybrid courses combine plenty of par 3’s intertwined with a few fairly short par 4’s.  This makes for a fun, fast round.  This may just be what golf is looking for.  Something to get people started, and as their golf improves, they would move on to regular-length courses and test their skills there.  I see this helping the junior’s game in particular.  Kids who are starting out and feel intimidated because of the length of regular courses would be a perfect fit.

Thanks to Ron Whitten of Golf Digest for this interesting compilation of Hybrid Courses.

• Hybrid golf clubs make the game easier and more enjoyable. So do hybrid golf courses – that’s what golf architect Bill Coore calls them – because they’re designed to be fast and fun. Hybrids come in all shapes and sizes and can serve as a pre-game warm-up or a post-round wager or simply as a place to play an easy round in a little over an hour. Most hybrid courses are amenities at larger golf facilities, but many new ones are succeeding as stand-alone operations. Will hybrid golf courses ever gain the popularity of hybrid golf clubs? This could happen partly because proponents of the concept include Davis Love III, Tom Watson, Tom Lehman, and Tiger Woods. Here’s a sampling of the wide variety of hybrids on the market.

The Playgrounds at Bluejack National G.C., Montgomery, Texas

Let’s start with the hybrid most in the news. On March 2, Tiger Woods was in attendence at the opening of his 10-hole pitch & putt, dubbed The Playgrounds, at his Augusta National-inspired Bluejack National G.C. Tiger, whos design is a scale-down version of the main course, was upstaged at the event by 11-year-old Taylor Crozier, who made a hole-in-one on the first hole with his first swing. What a debut. Nothing could better emphasize a hybrid’s functions, which Woods described as “a relaxed setting for beginners and families as well as where good players can sharpen their skills.”

Here’s a granddaddy of hybrids. Oceans began in 1983 as a 12-hole par-3 layout encircling two high-rise condos. When one hole was shut down to create a new condo driveway, they had to add two new holes, so it’s now a 13-hole par 3. Oceans was the design of Bill Amick, a longtime advocate of the short-and-fun layouts he calls “Amicable Courses.” At 83, Amick has had four aces at Oceans, three of them using a modified-distance Cayman ball.

• Source: Ron Whitten   Golf Digest

  Pictures: Bluejack National GC     Bill Amick   Ron Whitten   The Prairie Club
   

Thanks for reading – Are Hybrid Golf Courses a Fad or Here to Stay for Good?

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