Links Top Ten College Courses vs. Your Own

[Ronald Montesano]

http://www.linksmagazine.com/golf_courses/the-top-10-college-courses-intro

Yale
Washington
Taconic
Texas Tech
Stanford
Wisconsin
OSU-Scarlett
UGA
Mt. Holyoke-The Orchards
Notre Dame


I realize they can't have a total eastern bent, which explains the inclusion of courses from the west, the southwest and the midwest. Here are questions I have:

How worthy is Palouse Ridge (UWashington)?
Is OSU-Scarlett better or worse after the Nicklaus touch?
Do Notre Dame and UGA deserve to be on the list?
Do Cornell and Colgate deserve to be on the list?
Which is the Pete Dye course they reference in their lead-in?
What gives the course legitimacy to be on the list? If it's the home course of the team, then Old Town goes on the list, as do the UCLA and USC courses.

[Bill Shotzbarger]

Doesn't Michigan have an Alister Mackenzie designed course?

[Matthew Petersen]

http://www.linksmagazine.com/golf_courses/the-top-10-college-courses-intro

Yale
Washington
Taconic
Texas Tech
Stanford
Wisconsin
OSU-Scarlett
UGA
Mt. Holyoke-The Orchards
Notre Dame


I realize they can't have a total eastern bent, which explains the inclusion of courses from the west, the southwest and the midwest. Here are questions I have:

How worthy is Palouse Ridge (UWashington)?
Is OSU-Scarlett better or worse after the Nicklaus touch?
Do Notre Dame and UGA deserve to be on the list?
Do Cornell and Colgate deserve to be on the list?
Which is the Pete Dye course they reference in their lead-in?
What gives the course legitimacy to be on the list? If it's the home course of the team, then Old Town goes on the list, as do the UCLA and USC courses.

Dye has done several university courses. Off the top of my head he had a hand at Arizona State, Purdue, and ... another on the east coast that's not coming to me right now.

[Ronald Montesano]

It's the Virginia Tech course, but I guess I read the lead-in as on our list. I mean no disrespect; that's just a way we used to read things when I was growing up on my grandfather's farm in California.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Doesn't Michigan have an Alister Mackenzie designed course?

Alister Mackenzie-designed parking lot.

[Andy Troeger]

I think Yale is quite a bit ahead of anything else. Karsten Creek (Oklahoma State) would be high if it counted. After that I think Notre Dame (bias alert) would be next and ahead of Texas Tech. The OSU course may have been good in the past, but the Nicklaus version isn't even worth playing IMO.

Hoping to get to play Stanford in May.

[Matthew Rose]

University Ridge? You're kidding.

[Blake Conant]

I've only played the uga course out of those listed above. it seems to get its accolades for being an RTJ original and hosting a nationwide event. The course is a shell of the former RTJ routing after at least 2 renovations I know of. Now it plays really difficult for a public university course.  Green complexes are dull as well.

[Craig Van Egmond]

>> How worthy is Palouse Ridge (UWashington)?

Palouse Ridge is Washington State University, not UDub.

[Ronald Montesano]

My mistake...they got it right about Washington State.

[Mike Schott]

Doesn't Michigan have an Alister Mackenzie designed course?

It's a MacKenzie/Maxwell design with some terrific holes but at least as of now a bland restoration some years ago. Read Tom's write up in the Confidential Guide. It has the potential to be great.

[Howard Riefs]

For point of comparison, the Golfweek best campus courses list:

1. The Course at Yale
New Haven, Conn.

2. Taconic GC
Williamstown, Mass.

3. Palouse Ridge GC
Pullman, Wash.

4. Rawls Course at Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas

5. University Ridge GC
Verona, Wis.

6. Stanford GC
Stanford, Calif.

7. Ohio State University (Scarlet)
Columbus, Ohio

8. Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Va.

9. University of Michigan GC
Ann Arbor, Mich.

10. The Orchards
South Hadley , Mass.

http://golfweek.com/news/2012/sep/06/golfweeks-best-campus-courses-2012/?RANKINGS-GolfweeksBest

[Jason Thurman]

University Ridge? You're kidding.

Who would you put above it? I'm not in love with University Ridge, but I do like it in spite of the worst hole in Wisconsin blighting it. It's certainly better than the other campus courses I've played in my own limited experience (the ones used by University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University).

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