Cory and Daryl I am really a little ambivalent about this and I would genuinely welcome your thoughts. Cory said he loves playing new courses. All of them? Equally?
E.g. once I tasted good steak avoided it unless I thought it would be a lot better than the average bit of rubber that gets served up.
On wine I’m a little less discerning, but I avoid plonk and have walked away from a glass after only a single sip.
I love music but I no longer want to own all the albums produced by an artist I admire.
Tom Doak gave a 3 to the average golf course. Surely to have played so many and to plan days with upto 4 courses, you can’t be selecting with an eye to quality. Don’t you ever think I wish I’d stayed at x and played 36? If 3 is the average you must have played a fair no of 2’s?
I’m not trying to be confrontational I’m just really curious as to what drives you to see so many?
For the record after 12 years as a golfer I’ve played about 190 courses.
Tony, I can't answer for either Cory or Daryl, but as one who has played over 1200 courses, including 200 in GB&I, I no longer go out of my way to seek out new courses. Instead, I enjoy belonging to clubs scattered hither and yon where I can meet old friends know the staff and stay for a few days. I will be in England to do a retreat this September. Afterward I will go to Saunton where I have become and overseas member. I played there once years ago but thought it might be a good place to spend a week, get to know some guys and play in a couple of the competitions.
I must, however, add that playing a lot of courses afforded me the opportunity to meet a great many people, some of whom have become good friends, including our Norwegian friend Daryl Boe. I can go to most any state in the US and find a game. It is a grand sport played over lovely fields of dreams.
When I am traveling across the country or near a major metropolitan area I normally can plan far enough in advance that I am getting to play more Doak 7's than 3's. But where your question does have some validity and maybe I have a screw loose, but when I am driving down the road on my sales calls and it is late on a beautiful afternoon I will stop to play any course that I have never played before just by seeing what is close on my GPS. I have played some 1's & 2's I can tell you that, but I have also met some unbelievable people (players, owners at family run courses, etc) I have seen some of the most bizarre things on a course you would ever care to see, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
My theory is that I am blessed to have played many amazing courses, but I also never want to forget my roots where I first played on baked out flat homemade courses in SD. I have met people that won't play anywhere but the cream of the crop, and I vowed I would never become that guy. I often have friends who say you were 10 miles from ABC course and your could have made a phone call and gotten out to play there, why did you play XXX course? And my answer was I played ABC 2 years ago, and I had never seen XXX before. I really love seeing some of the little family owned/designed/built courses (many of which are only 9 holes) that dot the SC landscape. To those people it is a labor of love and I am happy to put a few bucks in their coffers. I eventually want to try to play every course I can (especially in SC).
I played a place several weeks back that is not on many peoples radar screen but was such a treat. It is called Penny Branch GC down in SE corner of SC. It is family owned, and built on the family farm, one owner was behind the counter while her husband was out running maintenance equipment. And it was a great little course. They were so appreciative to have someone from outside the area come play. I have to admit I really liked that it was listed as "A McKenzie Design" (the last name of the family that owns and runs the place). $29 weekdays and $35 weekends and it was a lot of fun.
When one of my friends looks at me sideways when I tell him where I played at one of those little small town 9 hole jobs along the road I have a line I always use... "If you are going to play them all, you have got to play them all."