[Jordan Wall]

I love Chambers Bay, and it really is a great golf course.  However, I would not want it as my home course to play on a daily basis.

For a home course, I prefer a more low key club that has almost a serenity to it when playing. A course you could just enjoy one hole at a time, where as opposed to Chambers where it is more like an entire course experience. 

How busy the course is would also be a determining factor in this, one which does not work in Chambers Bay's favor.  But even if it were not so busy, I dont know that I would want to play it every day.

I think another course like this would be Kapalua.  A smiliarity between the two courses is the severity of the design, in the sense that each course is very dramatic.  Two awesome golf courses, just not ones I would want to play every day. 

Are there other great courses like this, where you really love them and enjoy playing them, but would not want to play them on a daily basis?

What do you guys feel is the main difference between a great home course and a great golf course?

Cheers,
Jordan

[Andy Troeger]

Jordan,
The point might be that most people aren't going to want busy public courses, no matter how good they are, as a "home" course. Pebble Beach probably falls into the same category due to cost and pace of play. Same with Whistling Straits, etc. They aren't catered to people as a home course as much as a destination visit.

If they weren't busy and price wasn't a consideration I could do Chambers Bay easily as a home course because while its challenging, its got a lot of variety and is playable enough to be fun for repeated play. I play as the first tee time in the morning, and you couldn't get much a much more serene setting than that course with nobody on it.

[Paul Jones]

I played Oakmont and Bethpage, loved them both but would not want to play them on a daily bases - too damn hard.  I like my home course to be a lot easier and still able to be setup harder when need for club  tournaments.

[John Moore II]

I couldn't play Pinehurst #2 on a daily basis, but I would certainly be a member of Pinehurst Country Club, since I would have my pick of 5 other courses to play on a daily basis.

[Tom_Doak]

Jordan:

I have an older friend who is a member of Muirfield and Gullane.  He plays golf darned near every day, but he has never been keen to play Muirfield more than twice a week, and even then he'd rather play foursomes ... it's just too punishing. 

As he has gotten older, he's played Gullane #1 less, and the 5500-yard Gullane #3 a lot more.  Most clubs with 36 holes insist that the two courses should be equal quality, believing that a bigger and better one will draw all the play, but it's nice to see the Scots did not fall into that trap.

[Tim Bert]

For my daily course, I want one that challenges me (doesn't take much with my skill level) but doesn't regularly beat the crap out of me.  I like to have fun.  I can have fun at a great, brutal course if I do it on a limited basis.  I don't think I can enjoy such a course on a daily basis.

Whistling Straits
Pebble Beach
Spyglass Hill
Bandon Trails

All are great courses, and I love each of them.  I'd love to play them more than the once to get to know them better.  At the same time, if I were given the special gift of being to play them more but it came attached with playing those courses regularly or exclusively, I think I'd pass.

[Tim Nugent]

PB and PH #2 would work for me because you can still play a mishit. But a course like Medina #3 would cause me to quit the game.  Too tight (what I refer to as a toothpick factory) for everyday play.  Probably why Tom's friend can't endure the likes of Muirfield on a daily basis.  Although at Muirfield, just cutting back the gunch a bit would be easier than the deforestation that would be needed at M #3. 
A good members course should be one that can test the better players without beating the crap out of everyone else in the process. And to do that, you need some room to be able to find and play outside the fairway because that's where a fair amount of shots tend to land.

[Tim Bert]

I could do Pinehurst #2 because I would occasionally hit a GIR.  I would just sometimes putt the ball off the green after I hit it, which can be fun.   I'd also love to sit and chip around some of those greens.  Plus, the savings in golf ball expense would be remarkable.  It's one of the few courses out there where I would actually retire balls due to excessive play rather than loss.

Pebble Beach would drive me mad just because I might never hit a GIR again.  I need bigger targets to feel like I've got a fighting chance on a regular basis.

[wsmorrison]

Though it wasn't planned that way, Merion's East and West courses are the perfect compliment to one another today.  They were originally designed to be two championship courses, the East as a par 73 and the West as a par 70.  Decades later, the East is still a great championship course and the West the perfect course for family play, juniors, seniors and others wanting a chance to have fun on a fascinating little course.

Back to Jordan's question, I'll change it just a bit.  Instead of considering a great course as one you wouldn't want as a home course, how about a great course you wouldn't want as your only home course?  In that regard, Pine Valley is it for me.  Nearly every local member of Pine Valley is a member at another local course.  The late great mayor was the only one I knew who was soley a member of Pine Valley.  While Pine Valley is one of the very greatest courses in the world, it is not a club where you can just show up and meet some friends to play an unscheduled round or go out for a quick round on your own at the last minute.  It is the prototype member and 3 guest kind of course.  However, it is a perfect second course for locals.

[David_Madison]

TPC Sawgrass - - a wonderful course but way too much pressure on every shot to be relaxing enough to want to play all the time, especially with friends who can't break 85 on normal courses. Probably the same for The Ocean Course. Maybe the same for many Pete Dye courses, at least the high profile ones that we all hear about.

[C. Squier]

THE Riviera CC.

Loved the course, but it's a golf factory.  Though my host did mention that they're trying to scale back on memberships and some guest play.  Felt more like a resort than a private club.

[Mike Golden]

I suppose I am in minority but Bethpage Black was practically the only golf course I played from 1972-1985 and I never either got tired of it or thought it was over the top difficult.  It's just a matter of playing from the proper set of tees which, for me, are the Whites-at 6,500 yards it's a terrific members golf course-there isn't a hole you can't reach in regulation yet every shot is challenging and fun.  You have a chance to reach all 3 par 5's (a friend of mine eagled #4 it once after I told him not to go for the green) and the par 3's are all very different.  I would make one change, though for member play-I would restore the old tee on #9, which makes the hole a 290 yard dogleg par 4 with a tee shot obscured by trees.  It was a good respite hole before the back 9 and gave you a birdie attempt if you could place a fairway wood properly off the tee and you could also use driver and put in the front bunkers for a pretty easy sand shot.

[Rick Shefchik]

THE Riviera CC.

Loved the course, but it's a golf factory.  Though my host did mention that they're trying to scale back on memberships and some guest play.  Felt more like a resort than a private club.

Ditto Interlachen.

[RJ_Daley]

I am in line with Jordan's thinking.   The big name courses seem more special if visited less, and are more intense for day to day play when you really feel like just going out with friends and whacking it around on a comfortable walk (although not wanting to play everyday at a push over either). 

If I lived in Nebraska, it would be Wild Horse for everyday, not SHGC or BallyNeal, even if cost was no object.   

Here in GB, I am very happy with my yearly unlimitted play at Brown County GC, and wouldn't want to play something like any of the Kohler courses, or The Bull, or some of the top venues nearby as an everyday thing, including the GBCC (not walking friendly) here.  Of course, Lawsonia can qualify for a top venue and an everyday course.   

An everyday course should have some challenging holes or shots, yet also offer a comfortable venue.  Perhaps if I were a much better golfer, I would look at the more intense courses as everyday venues more favorably.  But, at my stage, I want to play more enjoyable and entertaining golf; not beat me up every hole and embarrass me golf.  And, I love the prospect of not loosing more than a ball or two per round... which leaves out big watery grave hazard courses...

[Ajay Yadav]

I would take a course like bethpage black (with he rough toned down from current levels so that there is a choice to be made for the shot from the rough)  or winged foot west as my  course for daily play / weekend play (if I could play black under 4-4.5 hours). Golf for me needs to be challenge both mind and my skill level as a golfer....a fair fight to score well......and relish coming back again to score better and execute my shots better, effect a better strategy etc. .... next time around..

 

[Sean_A]

I reckon I have seen about 40 great courses.  Of those, there are more than a few I wouldn't want as a home course. 

Enniscrone - too much walking between greens and tees

Portrush - too punishing

Woodhall Spa - the greens just aren't interesting enough for weekly play

Co Down - to damn tuff

Aberdeen - too punishing

TOC - too crowded/Disney World

Deal - the out and back routing with a harsh wind would grow on me

Muirfield  - too punishing

Birkdale - too tuff

Tobacco Road - terrible walk/public

Pinehurst 2 - the atmosphere is awful

Lakewood Shores - public/harsh winters

Merion - harsh winters

Ciao

[cary lichtenstein]

Assuming the same pace of play, price, and weather conditions:

Oakmont: just too penal
Pinehurst #2: too tedious
Medinah #3: too many trees
TPC Sawgrass: too penal

[Dan Herrmann]

Wayne brings up a good point about PV.  I remember speaking with a member who lamented that he coudn't get a game out there on any given Saturday morning.  Eric Pevoto called it the "Norm Factor" after the Norm character in Cheers that everybody knew and was happy to see.

For me, it'd be the Bandon courses.  You can only take so much wind and rain.  I lived in Oregon for 9 years.  I was amazed when I, in my first December in Philly, actually saw the sun.  I had become soooo conditioned to the dreary, dark, rainy, cold Oregon winters.  But, boy, are their summers fantastic.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I am off the opinion that when ones home club is an Oakmont like hard then a second course which is of same quality but less punishing makes for a better Member experience over their lives. I am fortunate to be a member of a hard course and a good but less punishing fun course, but unfortunately they are not on the same property. lol I think Tom's Muirfield Gullane analogy is good, but Muirfield-Luffness New is even better.

[Dan Herrmann]

Tiger - you have the financial issue there too...  Taking a looper for every round at the "hard" course would sure get expensive for 99% of golfers.

[Chuck Brown]

Somebody has beaten me to it, and I hate to nominate a course that I haven't played, but from the moment that I first saw pictures, my overriding thought about Whistling Straits was that, "I wouldn't want to play there every day..."

[Jed Peters]

Olympic Club, Lake Course.

It's just not very "fun".

[Cory Brown]

Sean,

Just curious, what's the difference between too tuff and too punishing?

[Carl Rogers]

The late Mike Strantz's Royal New Kent ... just played it once

[Sean_A]

Sean,

Just curious, what's the difference between too tuff and too punishing?

Cory

I think of a great tough course as one where I can play, probably without losing more than a ball or two, but that the shots required are just too tough for me to pull off.  These kinds of courses are fun in the pulling off of these shots.  It ain't much fun to layup on most opportunities. 

A punishing course to me is a lost ball fest.  Many less than mediocre shots (of which a 9 handicap can expect to hit quite a few) sail off to be found by someone else 6 months later. 

Unfortunately, these days, most championship courses fall into one of these two camps.  That is why I can list them as Best Courses, but they rarely make my list of Favourite Courses.

Ciao

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