Most golf courses have water hazards, and most golf courses have sand traps. But the vast majority of courses do not have bridges. Bridges are a rarity. And when a golf course does have a bridge, it’s going to be a spectacular hole.
Bridges are expensive to install and maintain, so they’re usually reserved only for the most scenic holes on the course. If you’re lucky enough to play a golf course with bridges, here’s why you should love them:
They’re challenging. Golfers love challenging holes, and nothing adds more challenge than water. When there’s water on a hole, it can be intimidating – but it also adds to the excitement!
They look great in photos. Golfers love taking photos of themselves on the tee box or with their caddies after they score a birdie or eagle. Bridges make great photo ops because they offer great scenery and unique backdrops that your friends will want to see.
They’re memorable. When it comes to truly memorable holes, very few things top a bridge over water or even over sand traps! Every golfer remembers their first time playing such an epic hole – and every golfer wants to play that same hole again
No matter how you look at it, a golf course is a beautiful thing. There are few areas of nature that are as carefully sculpted as golf courses. With each hole, there is a unique challenge to the golfer and an opportunity for the designer to showcase their creativity.
Some of these creative touches include water features like ponds and streams, which can affect play by changing the ball’s trajectory or endanger it entirely. But perhaps the most unique feature of a beautiful golf course is the bridges that cross over water hazards. What are some of the things that make bridges such an important aspect on the golf course?
Bridges Are Great Design Features: From an aesthetic perspective, bridges add a lot to the appearance of a golf course. Bridges give you something to look at while you are walking around, and they also allow you to see under them and over them to different parts of the course. They give your eye something to follow, and they draw attention to themselves, making them great photo opps!
Bridges Help Golfers Get Around: Perhaps most importantly, bridges help golfers get around on the course. They allow players to cross over ditches and streams without having to go out of their way or take unnecessary drops. Whether they are crossing water hazards
Golf course architects love to build bridges. They’re a statement of architectural power, and no matter how much you spend on them, your golf course always seems to look better with a bridge or two.
The best golf courses in the world have great bridges. The most famous bridge in golf is the Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews, in Scotland. It’s been around for hundreds of years, and was originally built just to help people cross over the River Swilcan, which sits between the 1st and 18th holes. Now it’s immortalized as one of the most iconic images on any golf course in history.
Here in the United States we have our own version of that bridge at Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament. The Hogan Bridge sits between the 10th and 11th holes, and is another image that has been etched into our collective memory over time.
I’m not sure where this fascination with bridges comes from, but something inside me loves to see one on a golf course. Maybe it’s because they make you feel important when you cross over them? Maybe it’s because they kind of remind us of royalty? Maybe it’s because they usually look so cool
The Bridges Golf Course at Hollywood Casino (Bay St. Louis, MS) is an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. The course opened in November 1998 and has been host to several PGA Tour and European PGA Tour events.
This month’s blog post will discuss a few of the benefits that players experience when playing on a golf course with bridges.
The Bridges Golf Course at Hollywood Casino – Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Photo Credit: Bridges Golf Course
1. They allow for increased maintenance capabilities for the golf course superintendents and their staff.
2. They can provide access to areas of the golf course that may not be accessible by any other means such as cart paths or service roads.
3. They can provide safety measures for golfers who might attempt to walk across ditches or streams without them. 4. They can enhance the overall beauty of a golf course by adding aesthetic appeal and value to the course. 5. They can provide access to areas on the golf course that are otherwise unreachable due to erosion or marshy areas that wouldn’t normally support walking traffic.”
A nice golf course can really be something special, and if you’re a golfer, few things will please you more than a well-constructed, beautifully landscaped golf course. We all know that the better the golf course is, the more fun it’ll be to play. However, you might not realize how much of an impact even a single bridge over a water hazard or rough can make on your overall experience.
Golf is often described as being “90% mental and 10% physical,” and nowhere is this truer than in the case of a long water hazard or a deep bunker. Even if your ball lands just short of these hazards, they can still be very intimidating, making it harder to focus on lining up your next shot optimally. A good golf course builder should always take this into account when creating a new hole or redesigning an old one.
Bridges are generally used to avoid hazards such as bunkers or water hazards by providing an alternative route for players to use if they don’t want to risk landing their ball in them. However, bridges don’t just provide an escape route – they also provide some much-needed psychological relief for players when they come across one of these tricky
Bridges are a staple of golf courses. They often add tension and excitement to the game and can make for a very memorable hole. They come in many different shapes and sizes and can be made from various materials. The most common is wood, but they are also made from steel and other materials. These structures serve a two-fold purpose: they allow golfers to cross over water hazards, bunkers, ravines, ponds, streams or other obstructions in the course; and they make for a visual focal point that adds beauty to the course.
Bridges have been around since ancient times (think Roman aqueducts) but didn’t become popular on golf courses until the early 1900s when golf architect Willie Park Jr. built several of them at his course Sunningdale Golf Club in England. His use of bridges was inspired by Scottish links courses like Prestwick Golf Club which had been using them since the mid 1800s.
Over time, the style and shape of bridges has evolved into the designs we see today; some classic and traditional, others more contemporary and modern. Some bridges are simple, while others are more intricate – many with stone masonry columns supporting massive wooden beams across small streams or larger bodies of water.
“The course is beautiful, it’s challenging, and each hole is different,” enthuses John Mohler. “It’s a great course for all levels of golfers, especially for those who have never played before.”
Mohler has been a Bridges Golf Club member since the club opened in 2001, and serves as the Assistant General Manager there. He should know — his father helped design and build the course.
Bridges Golf Club is unique among our local courses in that it was built around the landscape, rather than on it. The natural wetland habitat was preserved throughout construction, and many holes are connected by beautiful bridges over the canals that run throughout the course.