The message of great, strategic golf course architecture is clear. The actual words used to describe those golf courses, however, are many. The Architecture Glossary column will examine more precise terms and concepts that one will find when exploring golf course architecture. Hopefully understanding these terms, and why certain architects employed them, will help you to better understand the golf courses you play…and maybe even improve your scores!
Today’s term is ‘Feeder Slope’.
Golf, as you know, originated among the dunes of the Scottish coasts, where there was nary a flat lie to be found. It’s easy to imagine early players attempting to route a golf course among the humps and mounds, and quickly learning that those humps and mounds had other ideas on where the hole should go. Perhaps after firing enough futile shots at their first flag position, they instead decided to listen to the ground’s voice, and moved the flag toward where their balls had inevitably rolled.
Links golf, the original form, is celebrated for its emphasis on the ground game, using the topography to accomplish the placement of a shot. The concept of the “feeder slope” began as fact-on-the-ground, but it wouldn’t be too long before course designers began to use such slopes in a more strategic manner.
Understanding it from a strategic perspective, we’ll define a “feeder slope” as a piece of terrain that the player aims at with the intention of ending up somewhere else, without aiming directly at their intended final destination.
There are several reasons why an architect might use such a technique. The first instance is to enforce the most basic understanding of strategic course design, which is risk and reward.
Consider No. 6 at St. Enodoc’s Church course. More will recognize this hole for its iconic “Himalayas” bunker than for its feeder slope, but success on the hole may very well depend on the latter.
No. 6 at St. Enodoc: Most are more familiar with the frontward view of this hole's massive bunker, but a look from the back reveals that carrying one's approach over this bunker can catch a slope and roll down to the green. (Photo credit: St. Enodoc Golf Club)
If a player has laid up ahead of the entrenched dune, they’ll have two options upon approach. The first bet, seemingly safer, is to hit a ball left of the hazard. Ahead of the green, the left side of the fairway forms a valley, and those who bounce in it likely won’t run up to the putting surface. Those who chance lofting the ball directly across the signature dune will land on a higher platform of shortgrass, which in turn can flow down onto the putting surface. Take a risk, execute your shot, and be rewarded by the feeder slope.
A second reason why architects might employ feeder slopes is if landforms are simply too severe to allow anything else.
An example comes early at Rod Whitman’s Sagebrush Golf Club in the mountains of British Columbia. The severe slope of the second green almost demands the player aim left, even without the guidance of a sharp-eyed course architecture enthusiast. Whitman left a significant patch of fairway open on that side of the putting surface as an insurance policy. Such a shot may save balls from flying rightward down the mountain, but it also calls for a showcase of skill that separates the best from the rest — the difference in loft, spin and ball placement makes all the difference between whether a player walks up to a makeable birdie or to a 50-foot putt.
No. 2 at Sagebrush: Ending up right means rolling down a mountain, so the natural play is to aim at the fairway to left of the No. 2 green at Sagebrush, and rolling down onto the putting surface. (Photo Credit: Sagebrush Golf Club)
The third instance is a course designer using feeder slopes in order to demand a certain shot from the player.
Perhaps the most famous example of this is No. 15 at North Berwick Golf Club, a par three better known to course architecture enthusiasts as the “Redan.” The optimal play on this par three — and the hundreds of greens that it influenced — is to take aim at the front right of the green and let the slope feed the ball down to the hole as the putting surface slopes away and to the left. As with Sagebrush above, players can choose to attack the flag directly…but the degree of difficulty for such a shot is much higher.
No. 15 at North Berwick: Those who don't know better might take dead aim at the pin, but those familiar with North Berwick's Redan know a ball placed at the front of the green will feed down and back to the pin. Hence why feeder slopes are the architectural feature most associated with "local knowledge." (Photo credit: Larry Lambrecht)
Redan is as good a place as any to note that feeder slopes are not strictly for running a ball onto a green. Here, we see the feeder slope existing entirely within the green. This slope became more dramatic on the template iterations created stateside by C.B. Macdonald, such as that at the National Golf Links of America.
Furthermore, feeder slopes don’t necessarily need to interact with the green at all. In a frequent example, players realize they can gain more distance by hitting a tee shot to the upper portion of a sloped fairway and have the ball roll down as it moves forward. Wise architects recognize such potential and can make such shots more difficult.
No. 10 at Cherry Hills Country Club plays along the property’s back slope. The fairway angles aggressively downward from right to left, potentially offering a big boost in distance to those who find that side of the fairway, but also potentially feeds into the rough for those who stay in the middle. Flynn added risk by placing a lengthy fairway bunker in the landing area, forcing players to either hit a fade from the tee to fight the slope, or hit the tightest of draws and skirt the edge of the hazard in order to benefit from the feeder slope’s benefit.
No. 10 at Cherry Hills: If you want to maximize the distance from the tee at Cherry Hills's No. 10 slope, you'll need to contend with a strategically-placed bunker. (Photo: Rhys Richmond)
Such thinking has experienced a revival during the 21st Century. You may have noticed that all the courses referenced thus far (aside from Sagebrush) are more than a century old. The movement away from feeder slopes (see what we did there?) came about due to trends in both course design and agronomy during the latter half of the 20th Century.
The change in course design was more obvious, namely that water hazards and forced carries became ever more prevalent, rendering running shots into a green impossible. Furthermore, push-up greens added a gravitational challenge to the concept. The ideal championship shot was a flighted one, not a bouncing one.
Agronomic practices changed as well, including the introduction of turf types that didn’t necessarily allow as much bounce. More relevant, wetter irrigation practices tended to stop shots. All in all, slopes still existed on courses, but they didn’t necessarily feed.
Although the 21st Century movement back to sand-based terrain hasn’t hurt, a change in turf management at many parkland courses has re-emphasized the value of the feeder slope. Many architects have based the certain holes on the premise of a feeder slope.
The No. 7 green at Tom Doak’s Ballyneal Golf Club would seem ridiculous if dropped onto a flat canvas. If not aligned dead center to the green, threading this hair comb-shaped putting surface (and the bunkers to the right) straightaway is a challenge. Most players will benefit from using the shortgrass slopes at the left of the green as halfpipes, escorting the ball down toward respective pin positions along this 50-yard deep dancefloor.
No. 7 at Ballyneal: Consider the width, or lack thereof, and the placement of bunkers and you know Tom Doak was counting on players utilizing the feeder slopes to the left. (Photo Credit: P.J. Koenig)
Understanding the value of feeder slopes is important for both low and high-handicap golfers. The former can find themselves in line for a birdie, and the latter will generally find themselves in a safer space than if they had taken dead aim at the pin.
Perhaps the best thing about feeder slopes is that it can take a lifetime to discover them all on a rollicking piece of land. It continues to keep the course interesting for even a 50-year member at their local links. Should we all be so lucky!
