Architecture Glossary - Fringe Swale
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 ‘Fringe Swale’.
Take a look at renovation plans for any given golf course in the past decade and a number of trends appear. For one, trees disappear and fairways are widened into the area where trees once stood. Another is that the shaping of bunkers differs far from the curvilinear style that became popular during the second half of the 20th Century. Look at OCM Golf’s plans for Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 course and you’ll notice a third trend, albeit one that’s much more exaggerated here than elsewhere:
Nearly every green seems to feature, if the color scheme on the master plan is consistent, short grass around the putting surfaces, rather than traditional second cut.
Medinah Master Plan: A quick look at OCM Golf's master plan for Medinah Country Club's No. 3 course reveals a lot of short grass around the greens, a nod to the Australian firm's ancestral roots. (Photo Credit: OCM Golf)
Some context: “OCM” is the acronym for the architectural agency of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Meade, a trio of Australians who brought their homeland’s significant influence to Medinah, most noticeable perhaps in this excess of shortgrass surrounding the greens. And there's a good reason for the approach.
Those skeptical of the current “woke” movement in golf course architecture might bristle at such changes, lamenting the lack of penalty that comes with a lack of rough. This doesn’t accurately reflect the scoring tendencies between lower and higher handicap players, however. Looking at the numbers, the scores between a scratch golfer in greenside rough and a mid-handicapper vary widely; unless grown at an exhausting density, the better player will not struggle to control their spin and land a flop shot. The average player will do the opposite. Interestingly, if the greenside grass is cut at fairway height, the average player will perform significantly better than if he were in second cut, while the scoring ability of the scratch golfer actually decreases.
Royal Melbourne East No. 10: An aerial over the tenth green on Royal Melbourne's East course shows the runoff that awaits inaccurate approaches. Not as bad as a bunker, perhaps, but a trick to get back into prime putting position. (Photo Credit: Royal Melbourne Golf Club)
The rough-around-the-rosie approach to green-guarding occasionally reaches an unfortunate peak at professional events, where there is no buffer between green and ungodly rough. Nothing prompts a player’s ire like a ball that has been backstopped by a wall of rough, preventing a putt, yet the chip requires both a heavy hand (to cut through the stuff) and a light touch (to chip a ball that’s not actually sitting in that stuff).
The justification for shortgrass around the green isn’t strictly for equalization purposes, of course. Course architecture enthusiasts drooled while watching players at the 2019 Presidents Cup utilize any number of shots and any number of angles to get up-and-down around the green. Pitch, chip, putt…the only limit was the player’s imagination.
But back to Medinah: Not all of the shortgrass areas shown on Medinah’s master plan should be described in the same understanding. Some sit level with the putting surface. Others fall off the green and create collection areas for balls that flirt with the green’s edge, creating a mini-hazard of sorts that sits below the flag. Such shortgrass areas, beneath the putting surface, can be described as “fringe swale” (even if they are not a defined valley).
One example at Medinah is No. 7. During the previous round of work at the club, Rees Jones had left the green defended at the front by bunkers on both sides, and otherwise surrounded by rough — a style of fortification popularized by his father, Robert Trent Jones, and mimicked by others for decades.
Medinah No. 7: The bunkers will disappear when OCM puts the knife to Medinah No. 3's seventh hole, however new challenges will emerge. Those missing right will now face a tricky shot to get back at the flag, but the shortgrass will offer them the ability to choose the best option for finding their target...a flop? A bump-and-run? A putt? (Photo Credit: Medinah Country Club)
OCM isn’t abandoning greenside bunkering wholesale (there are plenty of sand hazards in Melbourne, after all). Here they’ll feature a pair of bunkers at the left edge of the green, which will reward the bold who attack left pins directly. Those who play too conservatively will end up in a large swath of short grass that wraps all around the green, from 12 o’clock to 7. Although they’ve been spared thick rough, they’ll also need to think carefully about how they can get back at that flag without running over the green. Flags that sit on the right side of the green’s plateau won’t be an easy get either…those who try to get aggressive from a short-sided lie may easily roll right back down to where they started.
The Melbourne Sandbelt might be most popular for this design factor, but it features elsewhere around the world. It is interesting to note, however, that it does seem particularly popular among the great “inland links” regions, such as the Carolina Sandhills (Pinehurst No. 2) or the London heathland.
No. 1 at St. George’s Hill (Red) owes several factors for its consideration among the world’s great opening holes. One is the green, which is due in its current iteration more to the vision of Tim Lobb than original designer Harry Colt. At some point, Colt’s original had been replaced with an unusually flat putting surface, set in a bowl. Lobb brought the hole putting surface back into line with the club’s personality by adding a run-off area, resulting in a fidgety pitch (or putt) for those who miss the green in almost any direction.
St. George's Hill No. 1: The tee shot at St. George's Hill sells itself to the spirit, but this hole has further improved following a green update from Tim Lobb, who added fringe swale fallaways around the putting surface, hidden behind the bowl. The change brings the hole more in line with the heath character seen elsewhere in Harry Colt's fine heathland portfolio. (Photo Credit: St. George's Hill Golf Club)
This defense concept made its way to the United States, inspired by both Australian and English greats. Andy Staples sought to redesign Detroit’s Meadowbrook Country Club in a manner consistent with the mindset of its original designer Willie Park Jr., and so he visited Park’s Huntercombe Golf Club for inspiration. The result is a wild set of greens and, yes, fringe swales.
No. 8 deserves highlight for its strategic consideration. Like many greens, the highest point is at the back of the putting surface, including a particularly daunting tier at the back left. As the green is fronted by water, cautious players may opt to air on the long side but, if they roll off the back, they’ll find that this tier provides a dramatic factor to be considered when solving the short game equation that the lie presents.
Meadowbrook No. 8: Water is the obvious danger at Meadowbrook Country Club's eighth hole, but the shortgrass gathering area behind the green requires more problem-solving to get home in par. No shot is easy, but those that end up behind the back-left tier will have the most "fun." (Photo Credit: Meadowbrook Country Club / Andy Johnson)
If one measures great golf course architecture in terms of the creativity it prompts, you’ll find few factors that accentuate this skill more than a fringe swale. If one measures great golf course architecture in how it tests the average golfer…you might not be a fan.
If you measure it in how it tests the best players, however, you’re probably going to like what you see.