What NLEs have you played?

[Scott_Burroughs]

Sean,

I assume you're talking about WF for the latter.  Maybe that's how Trump got in, they needed $.

[Paul_Carelli]

I played a course near Traverse City, Michigan, which was called Matheson Greens.  It was a fun, sporty course that wound through the cherry orchards and some dense woods.  I heard that it no longer exists, so maybe this is an NLE.

Also the Dunes hotel course in Las Vegas wasn't great, but like everything else there, including the Desert Inn, the old gave way to the new (Bellagio hotel).  Is a huge lake with dancing fountains better use of land than a lake with a little fountain fronting a green?  You be the judge.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Shivas,

Sounds like you followed me around.  I played Rob Roy a lot, both the 18 and the old 9.  When I worked for Killian, we remodelled it to nine holes within multi family housing.  Has it further dissapeared?

I also spent one night playing Arlington Park, and spent many a day on the second deck of their driving range.  I played the old Arlington CC on rt. 68 once, but didn't like it 'cause it had no bunkers.  One of my faves was Old Orchard, with back to back fives and an 18th hole par 3.  That was before that went under the knife to fit in condos.

Scott -

I think only one course "went under the knife" at Stallion Mt.  The west course - last called "Man O War" to my knowledge, is one of my designs, and Cary Bickler did the other two.  I think Perry Dye redid his first one completely, but probably stuck with the same routing.  Bill Walters had me do a little work after buying it from Jim Colbert, but I think it is mostly intact.

[TEPaul]

Chip:

The Links Club was a classic! That reverse redan was great. Remember the pro shop in the barn? Remember the clubhouse-a little old LI farmhouse? How about Bert, the Scotsman of the house? Amazing guy. Remember the Sunday lunches that used to come out of the kitchen? Did you ever know Jimmy Knott, Bobby Grant or Tommy Choate--bigger than life guys and unbelievably sophisticated drinkers? Bert had this extraordinary knack of bringing them just the drink they wanted at just the right time without them ever having to ask him--or even telling him what they wanted--it was like magic!

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom Paul;

If you recall the old Malvern GC, do you have any memory of it originally being called Upper Main Line GC?  It opened in 1962, probably under that name, but the place had some trouble and a couple of pros from the area took it over (probably renaming it Malvern).    

I'm just trying to tie two and two together in my research.  I played there during a visit to the Philly area when I was in high school (which I can't remember much of due to it being the 70s), and vaguely recall a bunch of creek crossings as well as some rather otherwise mundane holes.  

[Pete_Pittock]

All these in Oregon
Wildwood -9 (after laying fallow for 20 years, it was reopened aboput 5 years ago
West Hills -9, and its mini-me Hoyt Park Pitch & Putt-zoo
Neahkahnie Mtn -9-housing
LLoyd -freeway and shopping center
Also, the NLE Pinehurst course next to #2, where I had my first eagle
I asked my father (87) and he gave me an already prepared list which includes all those above and (in Oregon) Peninsula, Inverness, Alderwood, Ruby's and Multnomah Athletic Club GC plus McLoughlin Hgts in Vancouver WA.
Alderbrook hosted the PGA and is on the site of Portland airport.

[TEPaul]

MikeC:

Unfortunately, I can't remember much of anything about Malvern golf club. I can only remember where it was and playing it maybe a couple of times. That was maybe the late '70s or around 1980 just as I got to this area. I'd not really played golf before that time, did not belong to a club, had zero interest or awarness of architecture etc, etc.

Even courses like The Links I was that way. I remember them now in sort of an awakened way. I saw everything back then but it really didn't register, if you know what I mean. I had no ability to make architectural distinctions back then.

I saw it but it didn't sink in--absolutely nothing like now. I remember playing NGLA when I was a teenager and thinking what a queer looking little hole #1 was and after that I recall nothing except, most interestingly, #16!!

Here's an understandable analogy between the way I was then and how I feel now and hopefully see golf architecture now.

When I was about 20 I drove out to the West coast, covering about the last third of the country in one sitting. I got so tired eventually I pulled the car off the road out in flat country in what appeared in the dark of night to be the middle of nowhere. Just before I passed out I could see the amazing firmament above me, a few little twinkling lights from something in the distance and nothing else.

I remember today thinking to myself, I wonder what this looks like out here, I was looking around but I couldn't really tell what was out there? I'd come across hundreds of miles of flat country and I thought that's where I was. I woke up as the dawn was coming, well before the sun, and things were starting to appear, but I fell back to sleep and woke up again as the sun was rising and there right in front of me was the awesome majesty of the Sierra Nevadas with me in my car in the desert just to the east under them!

I'll never forget thinking; "Holy Christ", I had no idea what this looked like or where I was in the dark of the night before and how different it is than I thought it would be. That's the way I look at architecture now (like after the sun rose) compared to back then (which was like the middle of the night) after I pulled off the road!