Notable 9-hole courses (modern)?

[Jeff_Mingay]

I recently finished reading Tony Pioppi's book - To The Nines.

The chapter on Mike Keiser's Dunes Club in Michigan is fascinating. The concept is very appealing to me. A great 9-hole course attached to a private club with very simple amenities. It's about golf.

Anyway, I can't think of another notable 9-hole course designed and constructed in the modern era. Are there any, besides the Dunes Club?  

[Brad Tufts]

I don't know about nationally notable, but the latest intriguing 9-hole course built in the Boston area is called the Harmon Club, and was built in about 2003.

The club, located in Rockland on the So. Shore, is a "championship 9" that stretches close to 7000 for two loops from the tips.  It's owned or managed by the Harmon brothers, and I imagine there may be others in other cities in the Northeast.  The facility is private, though generally affordable (minimal initiation, something like $5K, yearly dues are something like $1-2K), and has a full-scale practice area with launch monitors, a teaching staff, a restaurant, and a full service locker room.  I have not played the course myself, but I have heard it isn't bad.

This is the only one that currently comes to mind up here in the Northeast.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Thanks Brad.

Yours is the type of example I want to hear about. Interesting.

Any others? (Thanks in advance.)

[Adam Clayman]

I've played Baxter's "Great 28" in Santa Fe. It's an intimate, extremely fun, nine holer that accentuates the toned down Marty Sanchez.

Headwaters in Cashiers N.C. has a very good chance to qualify for your query, Jeff.

[dsilk]

I have played the Harmon 9 a few times.. it is very, very difficult- tight landing areas etc.. they also have a GREAT 9 hole pitch and putt with good greens etc..
all in all, the practice facility is a great concept- indoor heated bays for instruction, enclosed and heated facility for hitting off the mats in the winter and plenty of grass for the summer months- good pub/ restaurant and a hi quality fitness facility as added niceties..

[Greg Murphy]

May I suggest Katepwa Beach Golf Club as a modern nine-hole course worthy of mention. Unlike courses profiled by Pioppi in “To the Nines”, such as Prairie Dunes and Rolling Rock, which started out as nine-holers but graduated to eighteen-holers, I have the (dubious?) distinction of finding nine holes on property that had been home to eighteen holes since before the first world war. The merits of the course are for others to judge, but as Jeff noted in reference to the Dunes Club concept, the Katepwa story is similarly not about the food (which sucks) or the real estate (development prohibited) or the clubhouse (we started out of a borrowed ATCO trailer) or the shaving accoutrements in the locker rooms (we don’t have locker rooms). It’s about the golf.

Another nine-holer worthy of mention, also in Saskatchewan, is called Riverbreaks. It’s a relatively short, hilly course but with plenty of interesting holes and natural vegetation (especially the dense and colorful sage).

[Mike_Sweeney]

http://www.orangetown.com/departments/parksrec/20051227121051.218

Jeff,

Here is a Powerpoint of Broadacres GC which is 9 holes in Rockland County, NY west of the Hudson. It sits in the middle of a psychiatric center and just makes the modern cut being from 1962. It is actually a pretty good course that needs the standard "lose a few trees and expand the greens."

[Jeff_Mingay]

Thanks Mike.

I've been reading about a Stanley Thompson designed 9-hole course in Jamaica, at Manchester Country Club, in the town of Mandeville, west of Kingston.

Apparently, Manchester is the oldest golf club in Jamaica. Set over 55 acres, the course is 2,000 feet above sea level. It features 9 greens and 18 tee boxes.

Green fee = $14; Caddie = $5!

Other than that, I don't know much about the layout. Anyone?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Jeff,
Pine Valley's Fazio?

[Bill_McBride]

I've been reading about a Stanley Thompson designed 9-hole course in Jamaica, at Manchester Country Club, in the town of Mandeville, west of Kingston.

Apparently, Manchester is the oldest golf club in Jamaica. Set over 55 acres, the course is 2,000 feet above sea level. It features 9 greens and 18 tee boxes.

I really like that idea of 9 greens and 18 tee boxes.  The original nine-holer at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, north of San Francisco, was built like that.

The tees weren't just front and back, they were also mostly offset so you could really play 18 different holes.

I would love to see somebody do that today, perhaps in a small community where the cost could be kept to a reasonable level.  If a hole's corridor allowed a tee at 380 yards from the left offset, and another at 300 yards from a right offset, it would really play like two different holes.  

I was also thinking about the 12-hole course in Scotland somewhere, thinking that we are so committed to the 18-hole, 7000+ yard par 72 golf course, but how much fun it is to play something different.   A brisk 2 hour 12 hole round would be a blast on a shortish, quirky course playing match play.  

It's a warm day here on the Gulf Coast, the Saints are in the NFL playoffs tonight    and I'm just kind of ruminating about how golf could be.

[Chris Parker]

Thanks Mike.

I've been reading about a Stanley Thompson designed 9-hole course in Jamaica, at Manchester Country Club, in the town of Mandeville, west of Kingston.

Apparently, Manchester is the oldest golf club in Jamaica. Set over 55 acres, the course is 2,000 feet above sea level. It features 9 greens and 18 tee boxes.

Green fee = $14; Caddie = $5!

Other than that, I don't know much about the layout. Anyone?

Jeff,

I don't know how much work Thompson actually did on Manchester.  He may have visited it while he was working on Constant Spring.  He definitely didn't do the routing, since that was reportedly done way back in 1868.  

The Toronto Terror states that,

"As late as 1951, when Bob Moote played the course with him, Stanley Thompson hoped to add another nine holes."

From the Mandeville entry on Wikipedia "Its golf club, founded as the Manchester Golf Club in 1868, was the first golf course in the Caribbean."

[Brian Phillips]

Jeff,

The nine holer we designed and built in Egersund, Norway (see website) is pretty awesome.  Not just because the design is pretty good   but also the location is pretty spectacular.

Most of our design work in Norway are nine hole courses.  We will be finishing a course in a town called Sauda in April.  There are only 5000 people that live there.  The local council has taken over control of the course so things are looking good for the future for that course.

Nine hole courses are the breeding ground of good golfers in Norway.

[Brian Phillips]

My home course Borregaard Golf Course is a nine hole course with 2 sets of tees for each nine hole round.  It has produced more touring pros in Norway than any other 18 hole golf course.

Tight course, tree lined and tiny, tiny greens.  About 3500 sq.ft.  This produces a bunch of juniors that have amazing touch around the greens. My best mate in Norway is the Pro there and he is from Scotland and give the kids a free reign on the course.  There is junior training nearly everyday and they are allowed on the course whenever they want.

During the summer the course and clubhouse is just full of young kids from 0900 until 2300....it is such a great sight.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Very interesting, Brian... that a majority of courses in Norway are 9-holes.

Sounds like the makings of an article to me... Golf Architecture journal? Or Golf Course Archtiecture magazine?

Go for it!  

[Jeff_Mingay]

Bill:

I'm obsessed with this concept right now: 9- or 12-hole courses. (Look for something at my blog on this subject shortly... with reference to Pioppi's book, of course!)

I would love to be a member of a club, like the Dunes Club for example, with an excellent 9-hole layout featuring alternate 18-hole tees and a quaint clubhouse.

Sounds like a dream.

Needless to say, I look forward to an opportunity to design and build such a course as well. Hopefully the day will come.

[Chris Parker]

Bill:

I'm obsessed with this concept right now: 9- or 12-hole courses. (Look for something at my blog on this subject shortly... with reference to Pioppi's book, of course!)

I would love to be a member of a club, like the Dunes Club for example, with an excellent 9-hole layout featuring alternate 18-hole tees and a quaint clubhouse.

Sounds like a dream.

Needless to say, I look forward to an opportunity to design and build such a course as well. Hopefully the day will come.

Jeff,

Weren't six-hole private "estate" courses in vogue at one time?  What about one of those with three alternating tee boxes?

[paul cowley]

Mark Love and myself built a 9 hole course in Verdi, Nevada which opened [?] maybe last year.....the course is in a beautiful natural setting on the Truckee river....three holes play along side the river with another par three being on an island. All and all a very sporty and exciting nine holes.....although some what compromised by transmission lines. The owner was very hands on concerning what he felt was good design.....Aspen trees left growing 6yds to the side of a 240 yd par three....not wanting to trim the limbs of the trees on both sides of a Sahallee like par three, necessitating a knock down five iron as the club of choice on the 130 yd hole etc., all of which eventually led to a breakdown in communication between the two of us. Mark still enjoys the high road, which is good.

...just curious...has anyone here played this lost gem?
I think it can be found at   riverpines.verdi.us

[Evan_Green]

How about Olympic Club - Cliffs (Weiskopf/Morrish)? I'm sure you can find pictures if you do a search.

[Mike Benham]

How about Olympic Club - Cliffs (Weiskopf/Morrish)? I'm sure you can find pictures if you do a search.

Olympic Cliffs

[Jari Rasinkangas]

I have a project under planning with Ron Fream of Golfplan in ski resort Ukkohalla in northern Finland.

The concept is one of a kind.  The first tee is on top of the hill and last green down by the lake and club.  It is a nine hole course with double tees and double greens.  Elevation change from top to bottom is 140 meters.

Golfplan has done several of nine holers with this concept.

Jari

[paul cowley]

...that's very interesting Jari as I was half mindedly going to propose something similar to a client in the Catskill Mts who had some ski slopes available that had little summer use.


Maybe I ought to get back to him on that....ski lifts can carry clubs too!....great idea....thank you...the views would be incredible and there is already irrigation water there for the snow making ....bless you... we might just be able to create a new alternate season for little dollars and big impact...thank you again!

[Greg Murphy]

Brian,

The dearth of modern North American nines deserves a theory. Might the situation in Norway help provide an explanation?

Is broad interest in golf in Norway a later development than in North America?

Is golf in Norway fixated on the posting of a score, like it has become in North America? Or is match play still popular in Norway?

Do players playing on the nine-holers in Norway typically tend to play 9 or 18 hole rounds?

Who is driving the construction of golf courses in Norway? Player organized clubs? Government? Real estate developers? Resort owners?

Greg

[Brad Tufts]

Can't speak for Norway, even though I remember one of the Niblick GD courses being 9-holes, rocky, and cool-looking...

I just came across a newish 9 holer called Wild Wings between Sacramento and SF in Woodland, CA by Todd Eckenrode, that doesn't look half bad:

www.wildwingsgolfclub.com

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Brad,

I'll be interested in your comments. It has 3 3s, 4s and 5s.

If I have a sequel, maybe it will be in the running.

Anthony

[Brad Tufts]

Oops, didn't clearly preface my comments by saying that I have neither been to Norway or to Wild Wings....

Both assertions above are based on website and web photo gallery views...