Alternate, GCA version of the top nine-hole courses in America

[Joe Bausch]

I haven't played it, but I know a member who raves about Merchantville Country Club outside of Philly on the New Jersey side.   Would love to hear more about this place if anyone has played it.

I did a photo tour of Merchantville last summer.  Here is the link:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,41841.0/

[Shane Wright]

When I lived in Dallas in the late '70s, one of my pals at work talked about the four ball tournaments he played on some of those sun-baked nine hole courses in west Texas.  He went to Texas Tech in Lubbock so I believe his bizarre tales.  I think the "
Texas wedge was invented out there, in the land of zero irrigation.  I would dearly love to see some of those 9 holers.
[/quote]

Bill, Texas Tech is my alma mater.  Not too much is better for your game than learning the west texas wedge, but I don't recall any of the good 9 holers.  Maybe I didn't get out enough but I'm racking my brain to come up with one.  Gaines County has the purest greens I may have ever played, but it is 18 holes. 

[Carl Nichols]

Jim-
Isn't Red Hook (in Dutchess County) a nine-holer?

Nope....18.  http://www.redhookgolfclub.com/content/view/39/131/

I guess they added nine holes sometime in the last 25 years....

[Peter Zarlengo]

Tom,

I really enjoyed playing Northport Point Club when I was up in your neck of the woods. It might not get top marks from an architectural perspective, but it gets a 10 of of 10 for atmosphere and character. I remember it had two really cool par threes, a long one playing across a diagonal line of bunkers and a shorter, downhill one with the bay as a backdrop.

[Ronald Montesano]

Things happen overnight like that, Carl!

[Richard Hetzel]

I have played Wyoming CC in Cincinnati, I will post some pics when I get home from work...fun course.

[Richard Hetzel]

What about the 9-holer on Jekyll Island? Granted, it doesn't have a big clubhouse or operation, but talk about carved from the Earth with the Earth. I can't believe much has changed there since Walter Travis built it for Mr. Rockefeller & his buds in 1926.

The more and more I play the minimalist Great Dunes Course on JEkyll Island, the more and more I love it. Everyone should play it at least once.

[Colin Sheehan]

In August of 2005, I played a few twlight nines at San Juan Golf & Country Club on San Juan Island, in the very northwest corner of the Continental US. Just a short drive south of Friday Harbor. Without any fairway irrigation, the course was burnt out like a Scottish links with some very enjoyable holes. Wonderful, super-chill place. The perfect "holiday" layout.

[Adam Clayman]

I'd add The Roosevelt nine in Griffin Park in Los Angeles.

Tom, Dannebrog Nebraska is correct.

Dick Daley did a wonderful pictorial on it, here, several years ago.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,11883.0/

Pelican Beach is on my radar. After speaking with Dan I am even more intrigued. He told the greatest story about the bunker work that IMO should never be repeated. For the sake of your industry. Sadly, Many of the bunkers are being filled in because they are being deemed "unfair". What a pity.

[Sam Morrow]

Someday someone should write a book about all the small town 9-holers in TX.
I lived in rural west TX and I now live in the middle of nowhere So TX and every small town has a 9-hole course. Most have small push up greens, very few bunkers, and most are cared for by 1 or, in the summer, 2 guys. I don't really have any I'd try to add to Tom's list, but there is a very nice 9 hole course about 50 miles from me in Yoakum, TX.
One thing that makes many of the TX 9 holers good courses is most are built on land too severe for farming, and/or in flood plains along natural creeks making for pretty good golf land.

Pioppi, if you plan on coming down here and doing a little research for your next book, I'd advise taking the hammer and sickle bumper sticker off your car.

Don is very right it's amazing how every small town in West Texas and South Texas has a 9 holer. Some of my favorites are the one in Lamesa, Eagle Lake, and of course Starr Hollow which made the Whitten list. I also have a soft spot for the 6 holer in Silver City.

The 9 hole course in Glenwood Springs, CO is also very good.

[Bill_McBride]

In August of 2005, I played a few twlight nines at San Juan Golf & Country Club on San Juan Island, in the very northwest corner of the Continental US. Just a short drive south of Friday Harbor. Without any fairway irrigation, the course was burnt out like a Scottish links with some very enjoyable holes. Wonderful, super-chill place. The perfect "holiday" layout.

Colin, somebody must have done some good work to make that goat hills track playable.  I can usually enjoy playing anywhere, but my 9 holes back in 1968 was as much fun as a root canal.   It seemed like every hole was on a side hill with no way to stop the ball from getting away downhill.  Think 9 holes like #14 at Bandon Trails.

Other than that goat track, Orcas Island is a wonderful place, I've been back several times but never for the golf.

[Matthew Petersen]

I'd add The Roosevelt nine in Griffin Park in Los Angeles.

Tom, Dannebrog Nebraska is correct.

Dick Daley did a wonderful pictorial on it, here, several years ago.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,11883.0/

Pelican Beach is on my radar. After speaking with Dan I am even more intrigued. He told the greatest story about the bunker work that IMO should never be repeated. For the sake of your industry. Sadly, Many of the bunkers are being filled in because they are being deemed "unfair". What a pity.

I have family in a small town in south central Nebraska called Franklin. They have a little 9 hole course that started out as a sand greens layout (given the stories from my Dad and uncle this would have been in the '60s) and has since grown grass greens. I spent many a summer day battling mosquitoes and avoiding poison oak if I was unfortunate enough to hit my shot down by the creek! Over time, I played many of the 9-hole courses in various towns in that area (as well as others along the drive from Denver). Minden (NE), Alma (NE), St Francis (KS), and Smith Center (KS) all come to mind.

But I have always loved the little course in Franklin not simply for the memories I have of playing there as a kid. I have no idea who laid out the course or when, but however it happened that little 9 hole course has 6 VERY good golf holes. Sure, they're poorly maintained and unmarked, but the golf values are actually very high. The course plays over and around a typical Nebraska creek and incorporates the rolling hills to great effect. The two par 3's are bad and there's one hole (#6) that's a very bad "connector" hole, but the other 6 I have always thought highly of.

[Tim Martin]

Jim-
Isn't Red Hook (in Dutchess County) a nine-holer?

Brad-I agree on Brattleboro-original nine is great. I would also say Highfield Club in Middlebury Connecticut is a great nine holer which is an early 1950`s Orin Smith design that sits on a property of over 600 acres. You need an Indian guide to find this place. My understanding is that is was a spill over from Waterbury Country Club where a group of old connecticut yankees got sick of the politics and started their own club. The land is owned by a trust. Different tee positions for the inward nine give this course a slope of 139 from the back tees. I would be happy to play there every day.   

[Phil McDade]

I discovered this wondeful nine-holer this past summer near the southern Wisconsin resort town of Fontana, near Lake Geneva. It's an original Bendelow, hardly touched over the years, with some very good holes over interesting terrain. Literally a few blocks from another somewhat below-the-radar 18-holer by Bendelow, Big Foot CC:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,39987.0/

Country Club Estates is not a hard course, by any means, and certainly might be viewed as a pushover by the big hitters of today. But it's a lot of fun.

[Tim Pitner]

Waveland (aka Sydney Marovitz) is on a "Top" list that doesn't relate to slow play or hazardous conditions?--hard to believe. 

I enjoyed playing the 9-holer at Mt. Washington hotel in New Hampshire, although it probably doesn't belong in this company. 

[JNC Lyon]

One of my favorites is Monroe Country Club in Orange County, NY.  William S. Flynn is the designer.  It is currently very bones, but that is what makes it so fun!  No sprinkler system means the fairways are firm and fast year round.  Many of the greens are like carpets draped across the land.  The greens at 2, 3, and 7 are perfectly benched into the hillside.  If the club restored a few of Flynn's original bunkers, the course would really shine.

If we expand this internationally, the Sacred Nine would certainly find one of the top three spots, no?

[JLahrman]

I have played Wyoming CC in Cincinnati, I will post some pics when I get home from work...fun course.

Agreed and I'm looking forward to the pics.   It's been a long time since I played there but I remember it being a fun little course.  Other thing I remember is the 9th tee being in the driveway.

[Billsteele]

Mohawk Golf Club in Tiffin, Ohio was originally a nine hole Donald Ross design but nine holes were added to it...the addition may be by Jack Kidwell.

Urbana Country Club is now an eighteen hole course. The original nine was done by "Pink" Dye, Pete's father. The new nine was done by P.B. Dye, Pete's son who has a home on the course.

[hick]

Lincoln Country club in Rhode Island is a nice nine hole course, and it may be one of the best private deals around. This summer i will try and play lincoln and whitinsville in the same day as they are only a half hour apart.

[Joe Hancock]

Shadow Ridge, formerly Ionia CC in Ionia, MI. Donald Ross, pretty pure.

Joe

[Tim Nugent]

An untouched classic - Lake Zurich GC - IL (i'm also biasly fond of Willowhill in Northbrook, IL)

[Brett Hochstein]

Newman Municipal in Ithaca, NY
Actually, though, I did have one of the most fun rounds of my life in returning to school there after the summer drought of 05.  I still think it might have been the fastest conditions I have ever played.  I also always enjoyed the quirky old charm and fairway undulations of the course, but the greens are all tilted too similary, more bunkers would add interest, and the natural contours I mentioned could have been better utilized.

Elsewhere in America, I don't know.  I feel like I am forgetting about a 9-holer that I really like.

My favorite overall is Anstruther, and I have played Cupar here as well with it just being walking distance away.  They say you need to saw off half of one of your legs to play that course, which is a pretty funny and accurate analysis.

[Jud_T]

An untouched classic - Lake Zurich GC - IL (i'm also biasly fond of Willowhill in Northbrook, IL)

Agree on Willowhill (Cudos Tim).  Can't believe I spaced on this one.  Windiest spot around which plays into the whole links feel.  And don't forget the miniature Muirfield putting course!

[Tony Weiler]

Don:

You reminded me of a couple of nine-holers in Nebraska.

Pelican Beach, in Hyannis, by Jack Dredla and Dan Proctor, is one.

Can't remember the name of the other right now, but it is a sand-green nine holes a bit north of Grand Island.  I played it with a friend with hickory clubs, an absolute blast.  One of the holes is a par-3 playing into the base of an old grain silo or something ... if you hit a low shot in it clanks off the metal rim.  I remember the name now ... Dannebrog GC or something like that.

Tom, I played one 20 years ago between Omaha and Lincoln, NE.  Can't remember the name, but I remember it being "the best 9 holer in Neb. at the time."  Do you know that one?

[Colin Sheehan]

Two terrific "holiday" nines are Hay Harbor on Fishers Island. Wonderful course. And the Mohonk course that's part of the Mohonk resort a few hours north of Manhattan. Like San Juan, the perfect place for lazy summertime golf, the types of rounds that start of 5pm.