What's Your Favorite Course? And Why?

[Phil Benedict]

This may be a bland thread and has probably been done on this site before.  But it's pretty slow at the office so I thought I'd throw this out anyway.

I have only played a handful of top 100 courses (eg, Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Pinehurst #2) and have never played in Scotland or Ireland.  So my experience is limited.  From what I've played, however, Yale is my clear favorite, particularly now that it's rounding into shape.  I love the up and down nature of the site and the huge greens with tons of contour.  Plenty of room to drive your golf ball.  

I played there for the fourth time a week ago today. Just looking down from the tee on the second hole was a thrill for me, seeing that rolly-polly fairway leading to that huge green and yawning bunker on the left.  

Despite my love for the course I still played for crap, laying the sod over a 9-iron on the 17th and hitting into the Principal's Nose hazard.  My leg is still cut up from trying to find my ball in that briar patch!

[Glenn Spencer]

Old Equipment? Canterbury

New Equipment? Crooked Stick or The Ocean Course

[Tom Huckaby]

I find it fun to have a clear #1.

Mine is this, and as for why, hopefully this speaks at least 1000 words.

[Jason Topp]

Sand Hills

Its been discussed at length but the things that stand out for me

- I love having a 90 yard wide fairway but if you risk the edge of that fairway, your drive can gain an additional 75 yards.

-  The greens are fabulous with a zillion little contours that really test your ability to read greens and execute

- The setting

- not a single indifferent hole on the course

[Mark_Rowlinson]

If I define my favourite course as being the one I should chose if condemned to play only one course for the rest of my life I think it might well be Delamere Forest.  I don't know Swinley Forest anything like as well, otherwise that might be the one.  When I was younger I might have opted for Royal County Down but it's too hard for me now.  And if The Old Course were as quiet as it use to be when first I knew it....but,then, it isn't any more.

[Jon Wiggett]

Kilspindie for me. Its fun, quirky, plays different every time I play it and will still be so when I am 90 and patting the ball 120 yards

[Jack_Marr]

Probably Lahinch. Because it's links and it's fun. You feel great when your shots to dificult holes come off.

[Daryl David]

Right now for me it is Pacific Dunes however I have a feeling it will be replaced by Ballyneal as soon as I have played it often enough to form a full judgement.  

[wsmorrison]

Shinneock Hills GC.  It is a golf course with enjoyable difficulty that anyone can play...maybe not as well as they like but it is playable for everyone.  While not a links course, it is on sandy soil and is natural in appearance.  The bunkering, though modified from original is outstanding in look, placement and strategic intent.  The greens are typical Flynn--not a lot of internal contour but with nice interplays of slope and as fine a set of falloffs around the greens as I have ever seen.  Now that green expansion is complete, or almost complete, it has gotten even better, though it has always been my favorite course.  The closest thing to perfection.  Put back the Flynn tee on 7 (to go along with the Flynn green, Bill V) and it is as good a golf course in America gets.  Sand Hills and two suburban Philadelphia courses are a tied for a close second.  If we're talking about golf clubs, my favorite is Merion.

As for the UK, I do love Swinley Forest, but for me, there is a tie between The Old Course and Royal Dornoch for favorite courses outside the US.

[Phil Benedict]

NGLA, Machrihanish, Muirfield (not Village, GOD forbid!), The Old Course, Boston Golf Club, etc

Why choose?

If you had one round left to play, where would you play it?  Not to be morbid.

[Sean Leary]

US

Pebble Beach if I only one round to play
SFGC if I could only play one course the rest of my life


Overseas
Ballybunion if I only had one round to play
Dornoch if I could only play one course the rest of my life

[Doug Wright]

Funny how difficult it is for us on threads like this to name just ONE course...

Mine=Pacific Dunes

Why?

Variety on every level: routing, topography, greens and greensites, the effects of Mother Nature
Challenge
Beauty
FUN

[Tom Huckaby]

Funny how difficult it is for us on threads like this to name just ONE course...

You will note that some of us had no such difficulty.  But when I saw this Topic, I too expected laundry lists.  Nothing wrong with that... it is just kinda fun - I think - to pick one and stick with it until proven otherwise.

 

[Larry_Keltto]

That's easy -- Ballyneal.

Why? It has my favorite set of greens, my favorite fairways, superb variety.

[Doug Wright]

Funny how difficult it is for us on threads like this to name just ONE course...

You will note that some of us had no such difficulty.  But when I saw this Topic, I too expected laundry lists.  Nothing wrong with that... it is just kinda fun - I think - to pick one and stick with it until proven otherwise.

 

TH,

Yeah you limited it to one, but what does that photo say about the "why" part other than that Sand Hills is juicy eye candy...  

[Gerry B]

merion east  - 18 great chapters in a book - with the 5 hole cliff hanger ending aka the best finish in golf. how hugh wilson designed that gem on such a small piece of property is astonishing

[Tom Huckaby]

Doug:

I can't possibly give a why better than what
that picture shows, which of course is way way way
more than "eye candy."  Look at that hole, think
about how you would play it - that's all one needs
to know.

[Phil_the_Author]

Why it would surprise anyone to hear that for me it is Bethpage Black is understood. But the reason is what is the more important question.

The first time I went to Bethpage was in 1960. My oldest brother would sleep in the car overnight and get the tee times for himself, my father, uncle and aunt for their Saturday morning round.

We would get awakened with a phone call about 5am telling my father what course and the tee time and I would usually be th child picked to accompany my mother as she would drop off my father to play so that she wouldn't drive back home alone.

Our ritual included a breakfast of a buttered roll and orange juice in the grill. I would sit and listen to the family talk about the course that round would be played on and listen to conversations by many of the others present.

We would stay and watch them tee of and then go back home. When they would come back in the afternoon, often they would sit and disect how they played hole-b y-hole and even by shot and always they spoke of how fabulous the Black Course was. It became an almost magical place that I wanted to play when I was older.

When that day finally came, I, like so many others before and since, was awed by the view of the fourth hole from the third green. It stuns every first time player today and most of them have seen photographs of it. Back then I only had the picture painted through their words in the recesses of my imagination; that first look made what I thought I would see insignificant.

I have been in love with the place ever since and would gladly enjoy my final round there more than any other course in the world.

Romantic and maudlin maybe, but, what the hell. It is a very special place.

[Jim Colton]

Before Aug. 2nd, it was the Old Course.  Until it was supplanted by Pacific Dunes after I finally made the pilgrimage.  I just judge on which would I rather play if given to choice.  Both have the same attribute of a great course that once you finished playing a round, all you can think about is when you can get back out again.

From the pictures, it looks like if and when I ever get out to sand hills, i'll be inserting a row at the top of my spreadsheet.  to whom on this board to i have to send my right arm?

[David Panzarasa]

 Merion was my most favorite place I visited and very hard for me to say it is not my favorite course...but since I played so bad that day it gets axed as the top, PLainfield is right up there as well. Pine Valley really is not in the top 5 or 7 for me. LACC was a great time but too many weak holes in my opinion.
 Wilshire was the greatest surprise to me and in my opinion the best par 3's on one course and a great finishing hole.
 BUT Riviera is my favorite. My favorite holes are on that course and I could play it over and over and over. It is beautiful, play all year round with the weather, and the course is looks perfect in my eyes.  

[Doug Wright]

Doug:

I can't possibly give a why better than what
that picture shows, which of course is way way way
more than "eye candy."  Look at that hole, think
about how you would play it - that's all one needs
to know.

TH,

I'm shocked   that you think Sand Hills is anything more than eye candy...

I'll blame it on your impending latest fatherhood    

Plus that hole is just a straightforward 3 shotter, right?  

[Tom Huckaby]

Now I know you're messing with me.

That's as much a straightforward three-shot hole as
my wife is comfortable right now.

 

[A.G._Crockett]

Hillandale in Durham, NC.  It's where I grew up, hunted for balls in Ellerbe Creek, played my first round, went sledding, went parking with my girlfriend, just a couple of blocks from where my parents still live.  When I drive into town the few precious times a year that I get there, I pass it on the way to "home", and I know I've arrived.  And when I play there, I feel like a kid again, without a care in the world.

I'd love to play Sand Hills, and NGLA, and Shinnecock and a million others.  I'd love to play TOC and The Ocean Course again, along with a million others that I've been blessed to play so far.  But if I've got one round left in my life, I'm at the 'Dale with my brother and Gary and Chuck, playing 'til dark on a summer night.

[PThomas]

Hillandale in Durham, NC.  It's where I grew up, hunted for balls in Ellerbe Creek, played my first round, went sledding, went parking with my girlfriend, just a couple of blocks from where my parents still live.  When I drive into town the few precious times a year that I get there, I pass it on the way to "home", and I know I've arrived.  And when I play there, I feel like a kid again, without a care in the world.

I'd love to play Sand Hills, and NGLA, and Shinnecock and a million others.  I'd love to play TOC and The Ocean Course again, along with a million others that I've been blessed to play so far.  But if I've got one round left in my life, I'm at the 'Dale with my brother and Gary and Chuck, playing 'til dark on a summer night.

 a great post A.G.!

[Tom Huckaby]

Hmmm....

AGC's post is intriguing.

I'm just not sure that for me favorite course equals course I'd want to play if I had one round left.  My favorite course remains Sand Hills.  But if I have one round left, I don't want it to take place in Nebraska - that's way too far from home.

I too have a sentimental course like AGC's - the beautiful and unchallenging Studio City Golf and Tennis, Studio City, CA.  Too many things have occurred there, and decorum prohibits listing most of them here.  But dare I call that my favorite course?  Nah.  It has deep meaning to me for sure... but in the end it's a barely 1000 yard 9-hole par 3.  I love it, and when I go back I too feel like a kid again...  but it ain't Sand Hills.

That being said, if I had one round left, two turns around that would be pretty cool.  But hell the quality of that last round is going to turn on the playing partners, not the venue.  It could occur anywhere if the right people are with me.

Thus for me "favorite course" means the course from which I have derived the most joy... and have zero doubts that each return trip would only increase that joy... and for that, there's no place like Mullen.

TH