In Florida, it is very common for courses to have cart paths or waste areas made up of an abundance of shells and coquina. You may also see coquina throughout other areas of the course when they may want to remove turf to save on maintenance costs or for scenic reasons. While the surfaces are normally fairly hard, players can usually play off them with ease although your golf club make incur a scratch or two.
In course rating, we can rate coquina and shells under two categories:
- Depending on the consistency, we could rate them as a waste bunker and count that as a fairway bunker under the bunker obstacle.
- Alternatively, we can also rate it as rough and recoverability and apply the Inconsistent (I) adjustment, as that area plays more of a severe rough recoverability in landing zones and around the green.
When our course rating team visits the club, the captain will discuss how often and how hard recoverability is with the club. Second, the team will make a decision on how the address all the holes so that it is consistent throughout the entire golf course.
Can you think of a course that has shells and coquina making recoverability difficult?
