Worst Course You've Ever Played

[Jed Peters]

The Falls at Lake Las Vegas.

Combination of the horrible layout, stupid golf holes, high prices, slow rounds, construction all over the sides of every hole, etc. and you get a course that's easily the worst I've ever played.

[Phil McDade]

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.

Matt:

Good call on Sun Prairie; used to be the only course in the Madison area without irrigated fairways, and ironically over-watered greens. Fast and firm fairways combined with slow and slower greens -- truly a unique maintenance meld!

[tlavin]

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.

Pat,

Perception is a funny thing.  I just hated Wynstone and I liked Indian Hill!  I just played Indian Hill last week and thought it was small and tight with interesting putting surfaces.  It's not all that difficult and it certainly could use a restoration, but I wouldn't mind playing it more often.  As for Wynstone, it's the worst golf course that is supposed to be a good golf course, that I've played.  I mean, it's on the W. Clement Stone hunting preserve property, it's in a tony area and it's designed by Jack Nicklaus.  I just thought it was contrived, cookie cutter crap.  I wouldn't go back there under any circumstances.

To each his own!

[JR Potts]

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.

Pat,

Perception is a funny thing.  I just hated Wynstone and I liked Indian Hill!  I just played Indian Hill last week and thought it was small and tight with interesting putting surfaces.  It's not all that difficult and it certainly could use a restoration, but I wouldn't mind playing it more often.  As for Wynstone, it's the worst golf course that is supposed to be a good golf course, that I've played.  I mean, it's on the W. Clement Stone hunting preserve property, it's in a tony area and it's designed by Jack Nicklaus.  I just thought it was contrived, cookie cutter crap.  I wouldn't go back there under any circumstances.

To each his own!

I can't support your opinion that Wynstone is worse than the Glen Club.  Wynstone has playing angles and has a little bit of an "enjoyability factor."  The Glen Club is just crap with all of that fescue situated 12 yards off the fairway on the inside and outside of every single dog leg or forced carry.  I've played my three least enjoyable rounds of golf there over the last two months...and I have to play there again in July.

[tlavin]

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.

Pat,

Perception is a funny thing.  I just hated Wynstone and I liked Indian Hill!  I just played Indian Hill last week and thought it was small and tight with interesting putting surfaces.  It's not all that difficult and it certainly could use a restoration, but I wouldn't mind playing it more often.  As for Wynstone, it's the worst golf course that is supposed to be a good golf course, that I've played.  I mean, it's on the W. Clement Stone hunting preserve property, it's in a tony area and it's designed by Jack Nicklaus.  I just thought it was contrived, cookie cutter crap.  I wouldn't go back there under any circumstances.

To each his own!

I can't support your opinion that Wynstone is worse than the Glen Club.  Wynstone has playing angles and has a little bit of an "enjoyability factor."  The Glen Club is just crap with all of that fescue situated 12 yards off the fairway on the inside and outside of every single dog leg or forced carry.  I've played my three least enjoyable rounds of golf there over the last two months...and I have to play there again in July.

I'm no booster of the Glen Club, but from the more forward tees, it can be a very enjoyable and customer friendly golf course.  I don't mind playing there, although a steady diet might induce a level of ennui. 

[tlavin]

Shivas:

I guess I see a bunch of interesting greens.  I'm not saying it's in my Top 30 in Chicago, but it was fun to play.  I had very low expectations and they were exceeded.  If they cut down 1000 trees and regrass the fairways, I think it would be a cute little gem in blueblood heaven.

[JR Potts]

I agree with Terry regarding the greens.  Those greens are outstanding.  For the longer hitter the course has a lot of risk reward opportunities and has enough quirk so as to be charming.

I'd hoof my ass back up into the throngs of Trevianville any day to play it again.

[SL_Solow]

I think this thread is really a function of expectations.  But as long as you fellas are debating the merits (or lack of merits) of courses in the north and northwest Chicago suburbs, where do you place Westmoreland in relation to Indian Hill, Wynstone, and the Glen Club?

[Martin Del Vecchio]

The back 9 at Bradford Country Club in Haverhill, MA.  It's been discussed here several times, never politely.

I played there a bunch with a friend who lived down the street.  We always ended up playing #18 in the twilight, and I have never successfully carded a score for the hole.  Despite playing more than a dozen times, I was never able to find my tee shot, despite trying clubs from a driver down to a 5-iron.

Not to mention #12...

Edit:  I guess they swapped the nines, and #18 is now #9:



Edit:  I guess they just randomly shuffled the holes, because #12 is still #12.  This picture leaves the huge elevation change as an exercise to the reader, but I believe that the scale of the landing areas B and C is correct:

[tlavin]

I think this thread is really a function of expectations.  But as long as you fellas are debating the merits (or lack of merits) of courses in the north and northwest Chicago suburbs, where do you place Westmoreland in relation to Indian Hill, Wynstone, and the Glen Club?

Where does it rank in the Land of the Bland?
That's an exercise not worth the typing, IMHO.

[Carl Nichols]

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.

But when did you last post a score from there?

[PCCraig]

Shivas!! Westmorland?? Really?

I suppose it would be nice to play there if there was actually some grass on the greens. I would put Westmorland barely above Indian Hill, but I would even go so far as to say Wilmette GC and Peter Jans are above Indian Hill!

I may be biased as to the following statement, but I like the Glen Club. I generally think it is easy even from the back tees, you just need to figure out how to play it. If nothing else the course is always in solid shape and it gets almost no play after 1pm due to the lack of any sort of twilight rate.

[John Moore II]

Just to go with the title, I think the worst course I have ever played is the PGM course at Methodist College. Someone on here went/goes to Methodist, so I expect a rebuttal on this, but in my two times playing, I recall it having more truly poor holes than any course I can remember. And no holes that I would consider to be above average. The ProV1 range balls are a nice touch though.

[Tim_Cronin]

I'll go back to Shivas' post of several years ago: Tamarack. Dreadful, and if might have been worse if David Gill hadn't been involved to at least build some decent greens. It's getting from tee to green that's impossible.