How many good courses are there??

[Tim Weiman]

Chipoat:

Like most people here I've spent a good part of my life seeking out the very best golf architecture has to offer. I will continue to do so.

But, I also believe we lose sight of reality sometimes. If a course brings challenge and aesthetic pleasure to 95% of the people playing it, in my book it is "good". Nothing more, but nothing less.

Golf, after all, is a game. If a course brings a balance of challenge and pleasure to the vast majority who play it, why isn't it "good"?

Calling a course "good" is a long way from recommending it to a serious student of golf architecture. People who take up an interest in golf architecture are, in my opinion, a very small minority. Understandably, their standard of what constitutes a "good" golf course is much higher. That's fine. But, there is a whole different perspective out there.

[TEPaul]

There are 2478 "good" courses in America but only 23 "great" ones!! And that is of course as of Sept 14 2002!

And there is absolutely no question of this!! The only question is whether or not those 23 are exactly where they should be on the top 100 ranking lists which of course would be the top 23!

[D. Kilfara]

<lurk mode off>

Tom Paul - you crack me up sometimes.

Mike - to address your original post, I'm quite sure that many more than 400 courses have ever been mentioned on this website. Must be well into the thousands by now, maybe even the ten thousands, although I'll leave it to Tom to tell me the exact figure. People do mention mediocre and even bad courses now and again. I've even heard the name "Tom Fazio" once or twice, although I could never figure out whether people thought his courses to be great, good, mediocre or bad.

The real answer this question asked by this thread will vary between individuals. There are plenty of people for whom every golf course is a good course, because there are many worse things to be doing with one's life than being out on a golf course. There are probably a few people so spoiled by constant exposure to great courses that simply "good" isn't good enough. The rest of us (probably most people in this discussion group) lie at various points between these two extremes; and this group is great for allowing people to share their impressions on what is great, good, mediocre and bad.

Cheers,
Darren

<lurk mode on>

[Mark_Fine]

Mike,
There are lots of "good" courses but how many, I don't know.  I can tell you this though, I'm still trying to personally find out by seeing as many as I can

So many courses, so little time!
Mark

[Steve Lang]

OK there's 2000-4000 goodies... and while someday (after I win the lottery) I will actually try to play all those great 23 of TEP's in a summer... there's no real value to these media  listings... beyond sales ...

So we have great, good, ordinary, bad, mediocre as our categories?

[Jim_Kennedy]

TXSeve,

So we have great, good, ordinary, bad, mediocre as our categories?

....and "beats a day at work"  

[Michael Whitaker]

Mike Young - thanks for the link to your web site. I live in Greenville, SC and travel 65 miles to Hartwell to play Cateechee about once every month or two... a challenge and LOTS of fun! I can't think of a course with a collection of holes that I enjoy playing more. I just wish it were closer to Greenville so we could play it on a more regular basis.

One question: Why was the decision made to convert #1 from a par 4 to a 5?

I'm looking forward to playing some of your other courses.

[Mike_Young]

Clemnet,
Thanks for the remarks re: Cateechee.  #1 was changed to a par five because the owner was convinced he had to have 7000 yards in order to attract some of the State tourneys.(they told him that)  Anyway, we assesed all of the holes and added 290 yards with 80 of those yards being number 1.  
Mike

[Steve Lang]

I also played Cateechee with a friend from Greeneville this May and thoroughly enjoyed it... except for watching folks slice their first drives onto the right hillside and hold up play!!!

Next in line in theat region would have been the Clemson univ. course... if we hadn't gotten burned out from a week in Southern Pines...

65 miles is not very far to venture for a good course... roughly an hour's drive... is this another metric for a big listing of good courses?

[Mike_Cirba]

Folks;

There are a LOT of "good" courses out there, probably more than qualify as "terrrible".

This year, I've played about 42 new courses for me, ranging from a ultra-low budget 9-holer that some guy built on his farm, to some of the "name" courses that everyone around the world knows and respects.

Isn't that part of the charm and variety of this game we all love?  Isn't it fun and amazing that there are now close to 20,000 courses in the US alone, of all types, styles, genres, and origins?  

That being said, this site tends to focus on "the best in golf course architecture", or something similar from Ran's "mission statement", and given that we are a diverse, disparate group from around the world, it's only natural that conversation tends to contract around those great courses that many here are most familiar with.  

I've tried in the past to start thread about a "new public course designed by David Horn in Delaware", and although reaction has been "nice", for the most part, participation is naturally limited.  I envision some guy in Australia or Norway thinking..."why read and contribute to this thread?", and rightly so...

But, I also think this site can serve ALL purposes, and if I get glossy eyed reading about golf in Kenya, I just figure that someone, somewhere, will find it relevant and useful and I'm glad someone took the time to post about it.

Bottom line is this...ratings, greatness, etc. notwithstanding...we have a virtual plethora of good golf courses out there these days...much more so than any time in history, so anyone should feel free to talk about and point out the architectural virtues of any course they feel is worth mentioning...to anyone else....at anytime.

Just remember that distinguishing between good, better, and best is largely what this site is all about.