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THuckaby2

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #75 on: May 19, 2003, 10:37:40 AM »
Perfectly said, concur 100% - thanks, Tim!

TH
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

billb

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #76 on: May 19, 2003, 09:22:28 PM »
I find it very easy to forget about the bad courses I have played, making it impossible to answer this question.  :)

A friend gave me a book a few years ago called something like "The Worst Golf Courses in America". Pretty funny stuff.

This same friend and I came up with an idea a few more years ago to publish a coffee table book called "The Worst Golf Holes in America." You know the kind of book: heavy, oversize, nice glossy pictures with essays by Herbert Warren Wind and Bobby Jones and The Good Doctor.

We only picked out one hole: the 9th at the El Segundo Golf Course in El Segundo, California. We even came up with some text: "This fine par 3 stretches to 30 yards from the back tee, but is slightly downhill so does not play the full length. The golfer is confronted with a close up view of El Segundo Boulevard directly behind the totally flat, featureless and unprotected green. Lifting one's gaze, the golfer is confronted with a spectacle unique in the world of golf: the vista of oil refineries stretching across the horizon. One is advised not to take a deep breath here to collect his wits, he will collect nothing but a lung full of toxic fumes."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Mike_Cirba

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #77 on: May 19, 2003, 09:44:08 PM »
Bill;

It sounds as though your book was off to a smashing start!  You should have kept at it!

I've often thought of writing a humorous book of a similar nature.  I've been fortunate to have played any number of great courses, but most of my golfing travels over the years have taken me to courses of quite lesser pedigree.  In fact, I've probably played more courses that would be laughed at by this august body than I care to admit without some degree of embarassment.

I now try to justify those efforts by saying that one cannot truly appreciate greatness in golf architecture without also suffering through ignominously horrific counterparts, but I can't really say that's so with any honest degree of intellectual integrity.  Instead, I count my good fortunes that I've been able see all of them in various shades of glory and shame over the years, and realize that I've been lucky to have found enjoyment, amusement, and endless variety at each that have kept me interested and enthralled with this wonderful game.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Tommy_Naccarato

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #78 on: May 19, 2003, 10:24:58 PM »
Bill, You of course are talking about the famed Lakes @ El Segundo, that is directly across Sepulveda from Chevron's El Segundo refinery correct?

I have worked in that area many times, but have never opted to give the course a try--I tire of smelling petrolium-related fumes after spending about 80% of my worklife in the past 10 years in refineries. (Hint:If you sense a rotten egg smell, you are smelling H2S, and it isn't good for you.)

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

billb

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #79 on: May 19, 2003, 11:10:54 PM »
Tommy,
That must be the same place, I sure hope there arent two similar courses!!
You are correct, the street is Sepulveda, I couldnt remember the name so I guessed.
Lakes at El Sedundo ???? I sure don't remember any lakes!!!
BB
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Bob_Huntley

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #80 on: May 20, 2003, 09:08:32 AM »
Talking of El Segundo reminds me of one of Redd Fox's raunchiest jokes, not repeatable here, but if reminded, I'll relay at our next bash.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Dan Kelly

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #81 on: May 20, 2003, 09:38:25 AM »

Quote
Talking of El Segundo reminds me of one of Redd Fox's raunchiest jokes, not repeatable here, but if reminded, I'll relay at our next bash.

That's just cruel, Bob!

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
"There's no money in doing less." -- Joe Hancock, 11/25/2010
"Rankings are silly and subjective..." -- Tom Doak, 3/12/2016

ForkaB

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #82 on: May 20, 2003, 09:44:49 AM »
Bob

Does part of the joke refer to "el Primero"?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Bob_Huntley

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #83 on: May 21, 2003, 09:03:22 AM »
Rich.

No. The subject matter was olfactory.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

JohnV

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #84 on: May 21, 2003, 12:11:43 PM »
I would like to amend my previous posting.  I just went through the 328 courses I've played/studied and ranked them all.  If I throw out the ones that don't meet the original criteria of being designed by somebody who was supposed to know what they were doing, it became obvious to me that there is one course that stood out below all the rest.  And the loser is ....

The Badlands in Las Vegas Nevada. :(

Routed through and old rock filled river bed, the only thing this course might be good for is replenishing your shag bag.  Spend the four hours walking through the rocks, trying not to sprain your ankle and you could probably come up with enough balls to more than equal the cost of the green fees.  The forced carries are crazy, but you still don't feel you like you could hit driver on most of the holes.

My apologies to any course I previously insulted. :-[
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Dan Herrmann

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #85 on: May 21, 2003, 01:20:23 PM »
You can't go wrong with nominating Delaware Park Golf Course in Buffalo, NY.  I think you actually play through the outfield of softball games!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Hillsideb52

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #86 on: May 22, 2003, 10:23:19 AM »
I saw Jasna Polona mentioned and it reminded me of another Gary Player lay-out:  Blackmoor Golf Club in Myrtle Beach.

You would think that Gary Player would know better than to have 8 doglegs in the layout.  All of them hard turns.  7 of them turning right.  

If you draw the ball, you can't play here.  I returned home and forced myself to be able to hit the other way on demand.

I really stay away from courses that are Gary Player designs.  I root for him to lose, too.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Jack_Marr

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #87 on: May 28, 2003, 10:27:30 AM »
This says a lot about Old Head.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
John Marr(inan)

THuckaby2

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #88 on: May 28, 2003, 10:30:37 AM »
Wow... they say pictures speak a thousand words but that speaks a million.  Thanks, Jack.  Enough said about the bad "feeling" at Old Head.

TH
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Jack_Marr

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #89 on: May 28, 2003, 11:08:20 AM »
Well, it could have been done so much differently - that's the real shame. I'm amazed Eddie Hackett was involved, although he may not have know what it was to become.

I have never played there, and am not trying to discourage anyone from going.

They call it a links course. Is it?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
John Marr(inan)

Mike Benham

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #90 on: May 28, 2003, 11:13:56 AM »

Quote
You can't go wrong with nominating Delaware Park Golf Course in Buffalo, NY.  I think you actually play through the outfield of softball games!

The 18th fairway at Harding Park looks like a huge meadow down to the little white flowers growing in the fairway.  More than once I have played it, including during the SF City toon-a-mint, with dogs chasing sticks and people playing frisbee right in the middle of the fairway ...
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
"... and I liked the guy ..."

cary lichtenstein

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #91 on: June 26, 2008, 01:28:30 AM »
bump
Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

Matthew Rose

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #92 on: June 26, 2008, 07:03:10 AM »
I played singles in high school growing up in southern Wisconsin and travelled up to play Sun Prairie Country Club on a couple of occasions. I seem to recall little more than a rustic mix of dead grass, fertilizer, corn, and horse manure.

18 spongy round greens which all sloped back to front and were all the same size and couldn't hold a wedge, even though a couple of the par threes were 220-ish. I remember on one hole hitting the middle of a green with a 7-iron and it bounced 50 feet in the air and went 40 yards over the back. I also remember a ridiculous par four with a pond in the middle of the fairway exactly 250 yards out off the tee.  IIRC another hole had a tree in the middle of the faiway in a similar spot, which was hysterical because the whole course couldn't have had more than 20-25 trees on the entire property.

It probably doesn't help that one of the times that I played it I hooked three balls into the cornfield on #17 and made a 10, ruining what was up to that point one of my personal best rounds in competition.

Now that I've typed all this, I actually remember playing a course in Oklahoma which may have been worse, but my memories of the actual course are clouded by laughter at recalling how our playing group went through seven golf carts in 18 holes.

After reading the rest of this thread I apologise for not being entirely on topic.... I'll say that the worst course I've played by a "name" architect is the Arthur Hills course at Palmetto Hall Plantation in South Carolina.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2008, 07:09:08 AM by Matt Rose »
American-Australian. Trackman Course Guy. Fatalistic sports fan. Drummer. Bass player. Father. Cat lover.

Guy Corcoran, Jr

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #93 on: June 26, 2008, 07:59:12 AM »
That's easy, Rock Hill Golf and Country Club in Manorville, NY on Long Island. I am being kind when I say it was a dog track. It once took me 6 hours to play 9 holes.  The conditions were horrible at best.  You got a better roll on the cart paths than the greens.

Carl Nichols

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Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #94 on: June 26, 2008, 08:02:09 AM »
Haines Point in Washington, DC.  Terrible layout, horrible conditions, and you consider yourself lucky if you don't get pegged by a ball from an adjacent hole.

Brent Hutto

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #95 on: June 26, 2008, 08:18:36 AM »
Sedgewood Golf Course in Columbia, SC. In fact it is literally the closest "golf course" to my house at maybe 4 miles away. Most people call it "Sedgeweed". Nice rolling piece of property, mostly open with some treed-in areas on the back nine.

Greens tended to the flattish and roundish and are most likely Common Bermuda. They looked nice enough the day I was there but putted very slow and grainy and must have had a thatch problem. The ball didn't make much of a ball mark per se but every approach shot dented the green slightly and bounced high. You could feel under your feet that there was a hard subsurface underlaying a really thick, dark green layer of grass, roots and thatch. But if you could handle them Stimping about 4 it certainly wasn't the worst greens I've seen on a cheap course.

The fairways were cut very occasionally with something one step removed from a Bush-Hog (tm). During the summer I think they cut them every couple or weeks or after a big rain and the day I played the "short grass" consisted of a fairly uniform stand of some kind of bristly, stand-up meadow grass and was about 3/4" or a bit longer. Basically like the first cut of rough on many courses except the blades of grass were the consistency of broom straw. The "rough" was the same stuff Bush-Hog'd to about ankle deep. If the grass were not so sparse you'd lose a lot of balls but there was actually plenty of sandy hardpan between clumps so you were mostly hitting off that with your approach and followthrough to the ball bouncing around off the clumps of green/brown stuff.

I can't recall a single bunker filled with sand although I know there must have been some. No water hazards in play. The tee boxes IIRC were actually level, dry and had nice turf on them. Go figure.

But the biggest problem was this...we played after work on an early summer afternoon and didn't find out until we arrived that there is no potable water on the property. None at all.  Signs on the sink and on the couple of rusty water spigots around the course warning that the water was not safe to drink, judging from the toilet bowl that was good advice. It looked like the water was pretty muddy. Now normally I'd think that was a gimmick to sell more bottled water or soda pop. Except there was nothing to drink for sale in the clubhouse either. Yep, heat index of 100 or so, afternoon sun and not a drop to drink except a half-empty 24-ounce bottle of Aqua Fina I happened to have with me. Fortunately the course was dead empty except for my twosome so we strolled around in 2-1/2 hours and got the hell out of there.

Worst. Course. Ever.

But at least it was only something like 12 bucks to walk (and they only had a handful of carts, all of them broken the day we were there).

tlavin

Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #96 on: June 26, 2008, 10:37:31 AM »
I nominate Wynstone CC in north suburban Chicago, a Jack Nicklaus design.  A plethora of putrid holes, many of which have OB stakes that are on the property line of some ostentatious McMansions.  A handful of cookie cutter cape holes with unsightly water hazards.  All in all a place that I'm happy I never got invited back to play.

PCCraig

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #97 on: June 26, 2008, 10:43:48 AM »
Terry,

Wynstone is the worst you have EVER played? I remember the front nine being pretty good, with the back getting a little goofy. But that would hardly make it the worst in Barrington. Did you not play well?

Worst could go to Indian Hill in Winnetka, IL...in terms of overrated to the extreme.

I think the idea of worst course would have to do with your expectations going into the round.
H.P.S.

JR Potts

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #98 on: June 26, 2008, 10:51:21 AM »
Terry,

Wynstone is the worst you have EVER played? I remember the front nine being pretty good, with the back getting a little goofy. But that would hardly make it the worst in Barrington. Did you not play well?

Worst could go to Indian Hill in Winnetka, IL...in terms of overrated to the extreme.

I think the idea of worst course would have to do with your expectations going into the round.

I really liked Indian Hil.

I nominate the Glen Club in Glenview......I absolutely hate it.

Chip Gaskins

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Worst Course You've Ever Played
« Reply #99 on: June 26, 2008, 11:10:37 AM »
Haines Point in Washington, DC.  Terrible layout, horrible conditions, and you consider yourself lucky if you don't get pegged by a ball from an adjacent hole.

Hey, easy on my home course!  That is where I keep my handicap.

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