Architecture Glossary - Crossed Routing

Today’s term is ‘Crossed Routing’.

The most important skill for a golf course architect to possess can be argued, but few doubt that the best the game has ever seen are masterful routers foremost. Given a topographical map and a pair of boots, these visionaries look at the landscape to create the puzzle pieces, and then somehow connect them together so that players get from Point A to Point B, with nary a dull moment to be had.

There are, of course, many, many courses where the routing gets away from the architect and the final product suffers for it. Let’s have some sympathy for these designers, however. Sometimes the land is simply too little, or too severe, for even the best to get from here-to-there without taking some shortcuts.

Sometimes this simply means a lengthy walk from one green to the next tee box (hardly a “shortcut” at all). In more extreme examples, the designers opt to simply have one hole travel across another. This controversial mechanism is known, appropriately, as a “crossed routing.”

Before you cast judgment, consider whether you could really do better than an icon like Old Tom Morris. Because a crossed routing is one of the many memorable quirks on display at his Irish masterpiece, Lahinch Golf Club.

The tee shot from No. 18 at Lahinch crosses the fourth fairway and fifth tee shot, but Old Tom Morris had little choice unless he wanted to dramatically alter, and weaken, the famous fourth hole.

The No. 4 hole at Lahinch is well-known for its carry of Klondyke Hill, which crosses this short par five about 150 yards out from the putting surface. That massive dune isn’t the only thing that crosses No. 4, however: Players finishing up their round will also be hitting their tee shots across the final 50 yards of No. 4’s fairway in order to reach their own fairway on the other side.

An uncomfortable logistics problem, to be sure, but consider Morris’s options. If he had moved No. 18’s green forward so that No. 18’s tee shot was unencumbered, “Klondkye” goes from 475 yards down to 375. More problematic, this would require players not to simply hit their second shot as long as they can over the slope (the current strategy for most), but hit a perfect lob that carries the 25-foot dune and then drops immediately to a green on the other side. It makes the blind tee shot at the next hole, “Dell,” seem simple by comparison (for the record, the tee boxes of nos. 5 and 18 are neighbors, meaning these holes are more slight examples of a crossed routing).

And so Morris elected to run that green all the way back to the road. His routing resulted in one of the club’s other notable quirks: the forecaddie’s shack built into the side of the hill.

An even more iconic crossed routing exists among the olde Links, one which reminds the modern player that modern safety-centric routing concepts were less “necessary” prior to the 20th Century.

Players will cross directly over the Cockleshell when heading to the green at the Old Course's No. 7 hole (right green), and then cross that fairway on their way to the putting surface at No. 11 (left green). (Photo Credit: P.J. Koenig)

Many course architecture enthusiasts know, by name, the four hazards traditionally associated with the Eden template, which is based on the Old Course’s No. 11 par three, High (In). The foremost bunker is the Cockleshell, an epic sand pit that is far enough from the green that it shouldn’t cause any real issue but, at the same time, does put the fear of God into those on the tee. Its placement, however, is perhaps more coincidental than strategic.

“Shell” is actually the primary hazard on No. 7, a short dogleg-right that crosses under the tee shots of those playing No. 11. It can swallow the balls of those who drive a tee shot more than 300 yards, and it also muddies the view into the green for those who land too near. Its usefulness while playing No. 11 is nice, but perhaps not as planned as C.B. Macdonald may have asserted.

One could argue that the entirety of the Old Course is an example of crossed routing. There was a time when the entire course was wall-to-wall fairway, with no native areas. Does it make sense for a skilled player to hit their tee shot onto an opposing fairway for one of the many side-by-side holes at St. Andrews? Maybe not. But the setup certainly allowed for the mingling of foursomes during yesteryear.

Cross-routing is not a strictly British tradition, of course.

We can make some conjectures as to what Douglas Nickels was thinking a century ago when he laid out Sequoyah Country Club. The clubhouse, as well as a few holes sit on a high plateau above the rest of the property. On the front nine, Nickels covered the plateau, and then worked his way down the east side of the rise, having the rest of the front nine wrap along the property line, eventually back the most gradual way to the clubhouse.

The landscape provided an impossible climb from the No. 15 green back toward the clubhouse so the architect brought the No. 16 tee shot across the preceding fairway while traveling back toward more gradual slopes.

During the back nine, after 14 holes, he had two choices: One, create a second-consecutive par three that travels back toward where the now-No. 16 tee box would be — No. 16’s direction was strictly necessary in order to get back to the more gradual upslope that led back to the clubhouse. Or, he could route a par four across where No. 16’s tee shot would travel. Perhaps fearing critical feedback of back-to-back short holes, Nickels relied on a cross routing. Members have never seen fit to do it any other way.

In the more litigious modern era, cross routings won’t be welcome at many new designs, because ownership worries about the potential for injury. That said, another modern trend has led to several instances of cross routing on special occasions. Due to the increased distance of professional golfers, clubs have been forced to prove their championship caliber by installing ever-farther-back tee boxes, resulting in overlap.

An example of this was seen during the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. New tee boxes created headaches for impatient players.

First, those on the No. 3 tee needed to be aware that they were hitting across the tee shot of the par three No. 6, which heads in a perpendicular direction. Sure, even if there hadn’t been rules officials monitoring traffic, the odds of two balls colliding in midair is slim. Things got a bit more wonky at the No. 7 tee, where players hit their drives almost directly across the green they had just been putting on, and not from an elevated tee box. Naturally, putters needed to wait on those ahead to hit their tee shot, which offered potential for further slow play because those on the No. 6 tee were haggling with those on the No. 3 tee regarding who would hit first. A logistical nightmare, albeit only for the week that the tournament ran.

The northwest corner of the property created some logistical issues during the 2022 PGA Championship, as extended tee boxes meant long waits for pros who needed to hit over other holes.

Naturally, there are some instances where cross routing just gets out of hand, due to lack of land or lack of course design expertise, but generally both. Fernbank Golf Course, near Cincinnati, hosts what Golf Digest recently dubbed the worst opening hole in golf. Players on their way to the first green will have crossed no fewer than five other holes. Considering that the opener is a mere 250 yards, one realizes both how tight a parcel this course sits on, and how hazardous it can be during a busy day. As if to feed into the frenzy, nos. 7 and 9 run parallel to each other, have teeboxes that sit next to each other, and greens that sit 100 feet apart. The punchline is that the left teebox plays to the right green, and vice-versa.

An example of crossed routing taken to an absurd degree. You'll notice that the two holes crossing near the tee box also cross back across each other mid-hole.

Are crossed-routings ideal, as a concept? From a safety perspective, no. Can they still be utilized to create the best version of a golf course available? Yes, as several old-world examples have demonstrated.