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Here is a rule of golf architecture: out-of-bounds stakes should only define the boundary of the course facility. Hit it off the property, get penalized.
Makes logical sense, right?
Almost. 2023 Open Championship host Royal Liverpool Golf Club (a.k.a. "Hoylake") has an oblong expanse of internal OB hard against the right edges of two holes: the par-4 3rd and the par-5 18th. Ringed by abrupt, linear fescue-covered "cop" mounding, this flat field inside the links is the exception that proves the above rule.
Why does Hoylake get a pass where other courses would get a major demerit? Two reasons.
First, it serves a functional purpose. In the vast majority of cases, in-course out-of-bounds is an artificial measure meant to prevent golfers from playing down an adjacent hole. It flies in direct conflict with one of design's great maxims, attributed to legendary architect Donald Ross: "Here is the golf hole. Play it any way you please."
At Hoylake, the internal OB is typically the club's practice facility; for Open weeks, it's a main "tented village" hospitality and staging area. In both cases, diverting play away by levying a stiff penalty for transgressions (stroke-and-distance certainly qualifies) makes things safer for all.
Secondly, and most brilliantly, Hoylake's internal O.B. actually makes both the 3rd and 18th holes more interesting. At number 3 (typically the first for members), it presents a classic risk/reward proposition: delay confrontation by laying back off the tee to the widest part of the fairway, leaving a longer approach, or hit alongside it at the corner of the dogleg-right and face a more straightforward approach to a gentle green.
On the final hole, the white stakes complicate the tee shot and make potential attempts to reach the par 5 in two considerably more fraught. It could spell true doom or glory come Sunday, a tantalizingly rare phenomenon at The Open well worth embracing.
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