Best College Courses

[Craig Rokke]

Anyone know anything about the St Lawrence Univ. G.C., a 1936 Dev Emmet course in upstate N.Y.?

[Mike_Sweeney]

I have mentioned before that College Courses/Clubs is the "other" list that I am working on besides the standard Top 100 list. As a graduate of Cornell, I still dream back to those days of paying something like $200 per semester for greens fees. I go up to Yale frequently and love the "college golf" atmosphere where you frequently pair up with professors and grad students taking courses in topics that I just don't get time to think about between kids and career.

Of all the couses mentioned above that I know, Colgate is the real sleeper. Not many people see the course because of its location, but I put it way ahead of Cornell and slightly ahead of Duke which are all RTJ courses. Obviously the RTJ name , brings out lots of opinions on this site, but I would love to see a Tom Doak do an upgrade at his alma mater

[Will E]

John,
We didn't mention Ekana either, home of the Rollins Tars. Maybe if Joe Lee would have done better I'd have spent less time at the pool.

[higkgins]

play away boys .... here's T&L Golf's Top Collegiate
http://www.travelandleisuregolf.com/playaway/0901college.html

Orchards should be elevated to Top 10 after 2004 Women's Open

[JMD]

The Orchards belongs on this list already.  The Open will let the world see how good a course it is.

[Matt_Cohn]

I'm on the golf team at the University of Oklahoma, so this topic caught my eye. We have our own course (the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course), but I can understand why it isn't on anyone's list. It's fun, but a little wide-open and not engaging enough around the greens to excite most of the people who read these posts. (That is not the case at our home-away-from-home, Oak Tree Golf Club!) A few of my thoughts and questions:

1) I was surprised that Oklahoma State's course, Karsten Creek, wasn't on more lists. Have people simply not played it? I think Golfweek last year rated it the #1 college course in the U.S. I don't think it's #1 but it is really good.

2) I don't think I would have put UNM on my list. It's nice, but there are a lot of long, straight par-4's with big greens that are tough to distinguish from each other.

3) We played nationals at Duke last year, and it will be at Ohio State this spring. I can understand the disagreement over which is better. I guess I would lean towards Duke? But, it's hard to go against McKenzie, bentgrass fairways, and Nicklaus's one-time home course. I think the Scarlet will benefit from the restoration project (how do people feel about that?), and I think it might be better than Duke when that project is finished.

4) If we're talking about courses that teams have access too, that's a whole other category! In that case, I like our group, including 3 courses that have hosted majors - Oak Tree, Twin Hills (one of the early PGA's), and Southern Hills on occasion. Also add in Dornick Hills, Perry Maxwell's first design, and 3 or 4 other high-quality Maxwell works. Arizona and ASU, Southern Cal, Georgia Tech, and UNLV are some other schools that have access to awesome courses, but I think the people who visit this site might really like OU's rotation.

[Craig Van Egmond]

Here's one vote for Karsten Creek, the Oklahoma State course. Its one of my favorite courses and is always in immaculant condition. The NCAA's will be there next year.

It was the first course I played with zoysia fairways, pretty cool stuff.

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

Does anyone know what the exact situation/ownership is with the University Club down here in Columbia, SC it is somehow affiliated with USC (the real USC) but I am not sure if it is owned by the university itself or not.

Anyone know anything about the course?  It is actually one that I havent played.  It was built a couple years ago during that breif time frame when I was transferred away from this part of the country so I never heard alot about it when it was being built.

[Solario]

Isn't Doak designing a course for Texas Tech?

Back to Answer Paul Richards question earlier about Purdue's Kampen Course.  It's a great course.  Long and tough, some holes are great thinking holes( the 7th fairway is split by a 250 yd plus waste area). The bunkering is a lot of waste areas.  Kinf of reminds you of the Straits. One of my favorite courses in Indiana.  If your in the state and want to see some of Dye's better work, I definetly choose this course over the Brickyard.  Definetly deserves to be a top 10 college course.

The Warren is solid too.  It's not a flashy course by any means.  Good designed set of greens (horseshoe green), and some solid risk reward holes. I'd put it in the list of top 10 college courses.

[johnk]

How about expanding the playing field a bit?

Didn't Bernard Darwin call Rye the unofficial home of the Cambridge and Oxford golf teams?

I think I might choose to enroll at the University of St. Andrews.  A few nice courses close by...

Others in the UK, Austrailia, Ireland or NZ?

[nandoal]

The UCLA golf team practices at Bel-Air Country Club in LA across the street from there campus.

[John_Conley]

University Club is or was part of a REIT.  It may have been proposed for the Presidio REIT that never went public, but could have been GTA or TEE.

Ekana was built by a private developer on land from a donor to Rollins College.  It is not a "College Course" just because the golf team can use it.  They use several others around town as well.  Their own tournament is contested at Forest Lake.

Many of the courses mentioned are not college courses at all, but courses where a college team can go practice.  Two different things, but I don't want to be a killjoy.

Bel-Air?  Yeah, those UCLA students have a lot of access to it.

Mr. Cohn:  Keep posting!  So few of today's players are interested in golf course design.  In many ways, it may be advantageous NOT to be, considering you are expected to shoot low scores wherever you are playing.  Lots of luck!

[David Wigler]

As much as I am inclined to say University of Michigan #1 and Radrick #2, I think there are several better.  I hope the alumnus association doesn't revoke me, but Notre Dame has a special golf course and is probably the best I have seen (Haven't been to Yale).  

Last time I was at Shadow Creek, I was told that UNLV's golf team uses it as their home course.  If that didn't change with the MGM acquisition of Mirage, than Shadow Creek would have to be the best.

[SPDB]

Has anyone played Birdwood, at UVA? I'd like to get some color on that course.

[ChipOat]

It's NOT a college top 10, but Dartmouth's course, Hanover CC, is a quirky, fun little track.

If anybody knows it, please add to my thread on "Really Short Par 3's".  I can't believe I'm the only one who's played it and I didn't go to Dartmouth.

[John Foley]

Mike Sweeney

Colgate ahead of Duke? I really gotta get to hamilton, nY this summer to see it. Thanks for the opinion.

Paul Richards

I meant Karsten Creek (and thanks Craig for the post) It's one of those courses that most of us will never get to or see, but has a good level of positive buzz about it. Did play Karsten Course @ ASU and was somewhat underwhelmed.

Craig Rokke

Good call on Gil Hanse's Capstone Club. I seem to remeber he posted on it awhile back and it looked very promising.

I have played St. Lawrence, but it was a swamp when we played it and couldn't tell you the difference between good architecture and bad if my life depended on it at that time. Sr year of college and it was the only course open at the time.

Any comments on Fazio's work at Finley?

[Doug Wright]

I played at Hamilton College in upstate NY, which had the distinction of having the worst college course, a 9 hole track that was generally unmaintained, greens mowed by regular mowers, and an opening hole that played over the baseball field, so we could use it only when there were no games or practices going on. But we did have an appreciable home course advantage... Plus as a result I got to play some pretty decent college courses elsewhere, including Taconic, Seven Oaks just down the road at Colgate, Cornell and others.
For me, Taconic was head and shoulders above the rest, with great shortish par 4s, excellent bunkering and wonderful sloped greens. Seven Oaks is a solid course, requiring strong driving and a good short game. I know Cornell best because I spent three years in Ithaca. I actually like it very much. It's vintage RTJ, with many strong and long par 3s and 4s and large greens. There are a handful of holes that don't work very well, including the indifferent par 5s. I played at St. Lawrence once, but like John F my recollection is blurred due to the horrible conditions under which we played.

All The Best,

[Craig Van Egmond]

Chipoat,

         I have actually played Hanover CC and you are correct that it is a fun quirky little golf course with a cool old club house.  I remember the greens being very sloped and some weird fairway crossovers buts that's about it. I wasn't much into golf architecture then, so I didn't really pay attention.

[Dick Sayer]

I haven't seen anyone mention the University of Virginia couse called Birdwood.  It's been ranked in the top ten college courses by "Golf Digest" and others.  It's owned by the University, and it has some great golf holes on both nines.

[Mike (Guest)]

COLGATE UNIVERSITY's Seven Oaks Golf Club is an awesome track. So much of RTJ's signature design features are here. penalizing bunkers, rolling huge greens, and freeway-long tees. turf conditions here are impeccable. it's so cozy, and it's worth the trip to play. stern driving is required on some of the pretty-long holes. it plays 6,915 yards.

[Peter_Herreid]

In honor of the women's and men's NCAA championships at Washington National last week, and OSU-Scarlet this week, respectively, I've pulled this thread back up.  This is the view from the 11th tee at Stanford.  

I'll start another thread on this, but Stanford seems to inpsire little discussion here, despite its apparent pedigree in terms of "Golden Age" architecture.  Has anyone attended the NCAA's at OSU this week?

[BCrosby]

I'll be playing Birdwood (UVA) in about two weeks.  I'll report to the group.  Having walked it, hit practice balls there and sloshed down a couple of beers there, I'm guessing it will live up to its reputation.

Bob

[schoeller]

Seven Oaks at Colgate.  One of RTJones' best and much better than the more widely known RTJ course at Cornell.

[Rob Hallford]

I am a bit biased as an alum, but I always enjoyed Furman University's course (especially at $8 student greens fees!).  Richard Webel   designed it and, of course, it has hosted a ton of LPGA pro-am type events (as alumi include Betsy King, Dottie Pepper, and Beth Daniel as well as Brad Faxon).  Probably not top 10, but a solid course if you're ever in Greenville, SC.

indy

[Jim H]

Couple items about the NCAA's at OSU Scarlet this week.  I went out for a couple hours yesterday.  College kids hit the ball a ton!  We saw some great finesse and recovery shots too.  These guys are good.

The course looks great, but there's been too much rain in the past week.  There is standing water in a couple bunkers, and there were areas in the rough that were watersoaked and muddy.  The course plays much better when there's good roll in the fairways.  There is no roll out there this week.  The Scarlet greens drain great, however they were slower and bumpy yesterday, because of the rain.

Regaring the renovation project at Scarlet.  An announcement was put out by the athletic department recently that the project has been placed on "permanent hold."  Into the near-term future the greens will not be touched.  If the renovation project is resurrected, the plan would be to start out first with bunker repair and redesign.