What are the Best Walking Courses in America?

[Mark Pritchett]

I had the good fortune to play Holston Hills this past weekend with some fellow GCAers and there is no doubt it is a superb walking course or perhaps I should say a superb course that is a great walk.  I carried my bag for 27 holes and could have easily played more.  Just a fantastic course and club.

  

The fireworks constantly booming from across the river during your third nine had to be a little distracting...

I have played golf on Rocky Top!

Actually it was due to the game that I played the additional nine, thanks Dawgs!

[Bill_McBride]

Bob H. - concur that MPCC  Shore is a very pleasant and inspiring walk... assuming one gets a ride from 18th green back to the clubhouse.   

Ah, the young and the lazy!  That is a mere hike, not a trek.

[Pete Wendt]

I agree with an earlier post, that a great walk has a lot to do with other factors.  Great golf course, great views, history, played great, etc.

Some of my favorites:

Seminole (Could play it every day)
SFGC  (Played like Ray Charles, but still enjoyed the walk)
CPC (Wow)
Lahinch (Finished the walk under moonlight with a bag full of empty Smithwicks cans)
Columbia Country Club (Maryland)
Burning Tree Club

There is a great old Donald Ross in Hagerstown, MD called Fountainhead.  Two steps off of the green and you are on the next tee. Loved it. As someone mentioned earlier, old course-usually a great walk.

[Russell Lo]

In my neck of the woods,Kahuku on Oahu's North Shore is terrific, on Kauai there is Kukuiolono and on Lanai Cavendish is wonderful. Hawaii Island has a beautiful 9 holer in Honokaa, north of Hilo. All are 9 hole courses built for the Sugar plantation brass 60-100 years ago and are set up with fantastic Ocean views (Cavendish excepted) .

[George Freeman]

Ravisloe CC in Chicagoland is a great little walk.  It doesn't get much easier than that as far as green to tee walks go...

[Richard Hetzel]

I played Brunswick CC (Georgia) this past July and it would be an ideal walking course...extremely flat, with some of the best greens I have ever seen!

[jonathan_becker]

-Anywhere on the Monterey Peninsula
-Ocean Course at Kiawah (Surprised it hasn't been mentioned more.  Flat and extremely quiet when the wind is down)

[Dan Dingman]

Sands Point Golf Club on Long Island is a fantastic walk!

DD

[Joel Zuckerman]

Secession Club in Beaufort SC is an excellent walking course.
Nearby you could say the same thing about Old Tabby Links, but it's a bit of a trek from 9 green to 10 tee..otherwise, it's marvelous in this regard.

[mike_beene]

Agree on Pine Needles,another big but intimate property.Especially like the flow from one fringe to next tee.I didn't see Pinehurst #2 which is an easy walk on the sand.

[Jud_T]

George,

Good call on Ravisloe, now maybe the best public track in the area, certainly for the money....

[Tom_Doak]

I think San Francisco Golf Club, Garden City Golf Club, and The Valley Club of Montecito are all as good as they get.  Yeamans Hall, too.

We've been fortunate to do several walking-only courses and the strange part is that often they are not the most easy pieces of property to walk -- Stonewall in particular.  In fact, the North course at Stonewall (which was built so that members would have a course where they could use a cart) is quite a bit easier to walk than the original 18 holes.  And the property is only a bit less hilly than the original ... it's just a better routing for walking.

[Eric Franzen]

We've been fortunate to do several walking-only courses and the strange part is that often they are not the most easy pieces of property to walk -- Stonewall in particular.  In fact, the North course at Stonewall (which was built so that members would have a course where they could use a cart) is quite a bit easier to walk than the original 18 holes.  And the property is only a bit less hilly than the original ... it's just a better routing for walking.

I know that they have a bunch of carts, but I would actually like to nominate Sebonack as a pretty good walking course. Nice piece of land with a routing that has a really good flow when it comes to the green to tee walks. Very enjoyable overall.

[JNC Lyon]

I would agree that Garden City and Yeamans Hall are both fantastic walking courses.  Garden City is especially good.  I love the feel that you are leaving a bustling suburban neighborhood and entering a completely different world.

I'm not sure I would agree with the choice of the Ocean Course.  It is a beautiful golf course, no doubt, but the 500 yard walk between 9 and 10 does not making for an ideal walking layout.

[Sean_A]

Yes, Yeamans is a delightful walk.  

I think Kiawah's walk is seriously compromised by the long walk to the 1st tee and the long walk from the 9th to the 10th.  It really irks me when designers do this sort of thing.

I always liked walking my boyhood course, Grosse Ile, though nearly all Ross courses that I am experienced with are good walks. 

Ciao

[Norbert P]

In my neck of the woods, Kahuku on Oahu's North Shore is terrific . . .

Kahuku rawks!!!  My favorite Hawaiian golf excursion.  Beautiful linksy golf with warm Scottish winds following the "morning blessings". 

[Tim Gavrich]

The best walks I've played in the US:

Shennecossett GC
Newport CC
Wampanoag CC
Pinehurst No.2
Caledonia--even though it's a lengthy walk from the clubhouse to the first tee and there's the whole 8 green-9-10 tee thing, it's one of the most magnificently landscaped places I've ever been in the game of golf, which makes me all the happier on the longer walks.
Palmetto GC