Coastal Beach courses

How a coastal course plays

A coastal day lays the nine along the shore. The sea and its inlets sit on one side of a hole — which side changes from hole to hole — so the trouble is often all on the left or all on the right. That gives every tee shot a natural bailout side, and it makes the wind direction matter more: a crosswind pushing you towards the water is a very different hole from one pushing you away from it.

Water follows the usual rule on every course type. Finding it costs a penalty stroke and a drop back on playable ground.

Island greens and crossings

Water-heavy holes can turn up on any course type, but beside the sea they feel most at home. An island green is all carry and no bailout: a green ringed by water with a thin collar you can just about hold, and a marked drop zone for when you cannot. A crossing, on roughly one round in six, is a whole hole played over open water from one island to the next, with no fairway and no rough at all.

The gull

On recent courses a local animal keeps a patch of a landing zone on a par 4 or longer. On the links it is a gull. If your ball stops inside its patch, it is carried off to the gull's spot in the rough, a little back down the hole. No penalty stroke, but you lose the lie and some yards. The patch is visible from the tee, so you can always play past it or short of it.

Scoring on a coastal day

Play to the safe side. When the water is on one side of the hole, aim your miss at the other and accept a slightly longer next shot. On the long holes, two fairway shots and a short approach almost always beat one hero carry. And on the island greens, take enough club for the middle of the green — short is wet.