A Bottle Hole No More - The 7th

As the course routing was evolving the 7th hole always hovered around the same open cleared area - it didn't move much. My original idea was to create a short version of a bottle hole – the ground had a slight rise away from the tee and it would be fairly easy to accentuate the ground to make a line of cross bunkers. As the other holes were being developed I had a sense that I was overusing the diagonal feature. So I overlaid all the holes in the same orientation from tee to green and it was a lot easier to see the similarities.

It was some time later when we were getting ready to start on 7 and I said to Don I’m thinking about not making a diagonal cross bunker complex here… That was by far the shortest meeting we’ve had on site – he was in full agreement. I came back with a new sketch, Don was fully supportive from a construction perspective and encouraged us to make the greenside bunker larger.

The surrounding area was subdued and the new holes movement is too.
*For reference - I used an 800’ turning point in the above image.

Also while it looks like it is just a sketch - those features are all GPS'd data as are most of the trees.


The 7th previously when it was a Bottle Hole. You can see the natural tee landform in the contours too - it is the teeiest tee we have on the course. I also had a hell of a name for this version of the bottle...

Earlier Holes Featured: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 11.


An addendum on the definition of a Bottle Hole:
Here is the most famous bottle hole - click for aerial.
From George Bahato's great book: The Evangelist of Golf
Bottle Hole Origin: C.B. Macdonald modification of original 12th hole at Sunningdale's Old Course, Berkshire, England - No Longer Exists
Bunkering: Features a dramatic set of fairway bunkers placed on a diagonal to the line of play, separating a two-level fairway. Green site well bunkered with Principal's Nose complex beyond fairway bunkers.
Approach: The narrowere fairway segment (set on the upperfairway segment) offeres a less hazardous approach shot.
Final comments: Though many were built, most have been lost as club committees eliminated one of the optional fairways.