Your favorite course

[cary lichtenstein]

I am always asked, "what is your favorite course or the best course you have ever played" and I am unable to answer that question.

Am I alone or do others feel they are unable to answer those questions?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Cary,

I can usually narrow it down to three or so - Royal Melbourne, SFGC, and the last one I played, or last one I designed, depending on how the mood strikes me.

In truth, any gca fan should take the Bob Dylan mode and say there are no bad golf courses......

[Ed Tilley]

Best and favourite are two very different questions. Best implies test of golf, strategic merit and fairness. Favourite implies fun.

From my limited experience : Best - Royal County Down, Favourite - St Enodoc.

[Bill_McBride]

Or maybe best, favorite to play every day, and one you'd be most likely to travel some distance to play......... (too many options!)

Best -- Cypress Point

Favorite -- The Valley Club

Travel -- The Old Course, with North Berwick a close second.

[wsmorrison]

Bill,

I like your breakdown.  Here's mine:

Best:  Shinnecock Hills

Favorite:  Merion East, with Shinnecock Hills a close second

Travel:  The Old Course, with Royal Dornoch a close second

[Ted Kramer]

Definitely a tough question to answer.
But I can say Shinnecock without too much hesitation.

-Ted

[A.G._Crockett]

I am always asked, "what is your favorite course or the best course you have ever played" and I am unable to answer that question.

Am I alone or do others feel they are unable to answer those questions?

Cary,
I am absolutely with you.  Every course I think of under either heading is immediately followed by a mental "Yes, but..." thought.  

Additionally, so much of golf for me is tied up in trips with old friends, or my brother, or my son, or something similarly emotional that becomes so intertwined with the golf course that I can't separate them out very well.

The only other way to think about it otherwise is just a cold, architectural analysis that discounts one great course relative to another, and I just choose not to think that way very often.

[Tom Roewer]

How about:  Most difficult - Carnoustie
                   "   enjoyable - North Berwick

[Guy Corcoran, Jr]

Best: NGLA

Favorite: SFGC

Travel: Cabo Del Sol

[Tom Huckaby]

I think "favorite" necessarily requires some sentimentality, or let's just say reasons going beyond the quality of the golf course.  "Best" hopefully can just mean the course.

Favorite:  Studio City Golf & Tennis, par three course.

Best:  Sand Hills

And it's funny, I had no difficulty with either of these.  Maybe it's because we've discussed this many times before in here, and I've also been asked the question so many times outside of here in the cold hard world.  Gotta have an answer.

TH

[Brad Klein]

You'd think this question would be easier to answer since we all get asked it all of the time. I used to be stumped, but now my stock answer is "Whichever the next course I'm playing."

[Jim_Coleman]

    I ran into Robert Trent Jones making renovations at Dorado many years ago and asked him a question I'm sure he had never been asked: "What's your favorite course?"  His answer: "My next one."  So, Brad, you'e in good (or bad) company.  I'm often asked, "Which do you like batter, Scotland or Ireland."  My answer: "Wherever I'm at."  
    My favorites: Pine Valley and Teeth of the Dog.

[Mike Hendren]

The joy I experienced playing The Old Course has yet to be equalled.  

Mike

[Tom Huckaby]

The joy I experienced playing The Old Course has yet to be equalled.  

Mike

I'm sure it hasn't.

So is it both your favorite and the best?

Or is that to be inferred from your statement?

Just making sure.

 

[rgkeller]

Garden City in the fall when Bobby Raynum was the Superintendent.

Perfect.

[Joel_Stewart]

I'll add a twist, since I've played a few.

Nicest:  Fishers Island

Best:  Pine Valley

Favorite:  Pebble Beach

[Mike Hendren]

Tom,

The Old Course is my favorite.  

I don't have a best.  There are none better than The Old Course, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, National Golf Links of America, Shinnecock and Sand Hills in my experience.  

Funny,  I would not have included Sand Hills in that grouping had I not played Shinnecock and NGLA - but that's fodder for another thread.

Mike

[Tom Huckaby]

Bogey - understood, well said.

It's been postulated many times that there is a group of 10-20 number of courses, all of which can be called "the best", each of which would not require much defending.   I'd agree with each one you mention as being in this category.

I just like to make a final decision from time to time.  Of course that decision also does change with various whims.  But for the last few years, I've been pretty solidly behind Sand Hills as the best.

I'm very interested in your other-thread fodder, btw.  I think I get what you're saying - seeing those two LI greats made you appreciate just how great SH is - but that could be taken at least two different ways, also.

TH

[tlavin]

Best:  Sand Hills

Favorite: Olympic Club

Most Difficult: Butler National

[Brent Hutto]

For my part, once I was privileged to play Cypress Point the question of "the best" course became less interesting. Sort of like the person who was asked in the 1970's to name the best golfer in the world and "Do you mean the best other than Nicklaus?" was the response. I'll be well and truly dumbfounded if I ever play a course that surpasses Cypress Point Club in any meaningful criteria.

That said, my "favorite" course is generally the last course I played. There are some days when my (architecturally) modest 27-hole country club home course seems like the greatest place in the world to be. And when I first experience a brand-new course of quality (could be anywhere...Palmetto, Tobacco Road, Holston Hills, the Ocean Course, Cuscowilla, Athens CC) I honestly have trouble remembering any other course that I'd rather play. That probably makes me either a novelty addict or a person of remarkably short attention span.

[Tom Huckaby]

I'll be well and truly dumbfounded if I ever play a course that surpasses Cypress Point Club in any meaningful criteria.

Exactly what I thought.

Then I played Sand Hills.

I'm still dumbfounded.

 

[Dan Kelly]

You'd think this question would be easier to answer since we all get asked it all of the time. I used to be stumped, but now my stock answer is "Whichever the next course I'm playing."

So much for that conversation!

[Cory Lewis]

For me classifying the favorite also involves the experience, because my three "favorite" golf courses were all ones that I played with my father, this is probably not a coincendence, because playing them with him just enhanced the experience even more.  The best courses I have played are the ones that I remember the most about in terms of design, architecture, and flow of the course, days, weeks, and years after I have played them. So favorites would be Dornoch, County Down, Cypress.  Best would be NGLA, Fishers, San Fran.

[Mike_Cirba]

Strictly in the US..

Best - Sand Hills

Favorite - Merion

Most Fun - NGLA

Course to make you believe in God - Cypress Point

Toughest - who cares?

[nandoal]

Best: Riveria

Favorite: Fox Chapel GC

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