Thank you everyone for sharing thoughts on your top 100 courses that aren't top 100 courses. I really appreciate folks organizing their courses, ESP. As I spewed mine forth in stream of consciousness order.
I don't primarily bucket courses geographically. Instead, I thought of about 10 dimensions along which I take an interest in a course (in no particular order):
For the Love of the Game
Off the Beaten Path
Anti-Patterns
Soul Stirring
Windows on the Past
Ground Breaking
Whimsy
A Good Story
The Architects
Youse Guys
For the Love of the Game - If there's any category that captures the essence of Not Top 100 courses it's courses that exist For the Love of the Game. Milford Manor, the Sand Green courses, Bigwin Island, that course in Nepal, Laiza in Myanmar, and of course many, many more. Any course with an honor box is one of these. Since there are so many, its largely arbitrary that any one would show up on my list, likely that the course fills a spot in another category.
Locally, we have a course, Ondawa Greens, that fits this category. Carved out of a cow pasture, one hole has a fieldstone lipped bunker. A "beginner's course", the rough would choke a bush hog by memorial day. The greens are patchy and lumpy and slow. But people still come play.
There is a sub-category of these, the primitives, that exist outside the architectural continuum. I give these a Doak
-i as to think of these courses within the same architectural framework as an architected course is to miss the point.
Off the Beaten Path - If you thought you could get me to visit your out of the way location by siting a golf course there, you were right. Kudos to those who built Lord Howe Island (south pacific East of Oz), Golf de Belle-Isle (Atlantic coast of France), Banff, Highland Links, Sutton Bay, and many others.
A subset of these (and not really off their beaten path) are the cultures who I understand have appropriated golf and assimilated it in distinct ways. I have to experience Japan, and their culture must have created a different experience of golf. Is the same true in Korea? The small towns of Scotland?
There's more world than ever I will see, so why not prioritize some spots ahead of others based on their golf, and some cultures through their golf?
Anti-Patterns - There are some real dogs out there. No, they don't all come to mind, but there have been some threads on courses that are so bad they have to be seen: goofy routings, brutal use of water, totally disjointed feel. There's one in NoCal, ok there's one about everywhere. Some are named Trump....
While I'd prefer not to make a steady diet of these, I definitely feel you have to make time for courses so bad they engender a strong visceral negative response. That's not easy to do, you know. With time, I would hope one could learn from these the architectural anti-patterns that should be avoided.
Soul Stirring - Yes, we are a bunch of softies here who can wax poetic over grass strains and mowing lines. Look in a mirror and deal with it. There are courses spoken of here in such glowing terms that you know, who wouldn't want a piece of that? The Bandon courses, Askernish, Sand Hills, Ballyneal, Dismal, Cypress Point, and of course many others catch my interest for just this reason, the promise that they can lift one's soul.
Of course, that's a pretty darn high bar and I'm aware these courses could dash my high expectations easily and irretrievably. But if you love this game you have to find a way to capture that feeling.
This category brings in the Top 100 courses, but obviously not all Top 100 courses, as the ball-busters some love are more likely soul crushers than soul stirrers.
Windows on the Past - The architectural currents of golf change with time, and many factors erode the architectural intent a course once had. This is a recurring theme here, which makes courses that remain as intact expressions of earlier times. Musselburgh, for instance, deserves my attention as a Window into the past. The Marion course highlighted here recently, with a stunning collection of steeplechase hazards, is another.
These courses are often similar to the courses categorized as For the Love of the Game. To have survived as a time capsule, they had to be tended to enough, but not too much. Unlike love of the game courses, though, these must have some connection to the architectural currents to generate interest.
Ground-Breaking - Desert Forest is the first desert course, so they say. I want to see that. Sand Hills defined the movement towards minimalism. I want to see that, too. NGLA started the design model here. Not sure what early Trent Jones Sr. Or Dick Wilson courses define the post war era, but I want to see them.
Just as with courses that provide a window to the past, as a student of golf architecture I think it is important to understand and see the courses that successfully broke new ground in how we build, site, or structure courses.
Whimsy - I entered the Mission Hills contest. Much reviled as it is, my hope is that course is as whimsical as it should be. I want to play that. Emmet's St. George's; if you like courses that roll the ball every which way, there's whimsy that will keep a grin on your face. If you think golf isn't so rarefied that the air and turf can be shared with the sheep, cows, and horses, whimsy is for you.
While the Mission Hills course is obviously manufactured, the best courses that deliver whimsy do so by incorporating difficult features with a deft touch. Walls,buildings, big rolls and drops, trains, power lines, grazing animals, forts, craters, et al, contribute the whimsical touches that make a course make my list.
A Good Story - V. Kmetz
tells a story about growing playing Sunset Hill in Brookfield, CT that's enough to make me want to play the course. If memory serves, there was a good story about Sewanee, and another about Tijuana. Those are enough to move me to see these courses, as that will fill in the context in my life.
This category may be the most subjective, as there are only so many shared stories. If you love the pro game, of course there are stories, immortalized in plaques and markers at the championship courses worldwide. To me, this a bonus, but not enough to move my feet. For others, I completely respect anyone's interest in seeing the site of a resonant tale.
The Architects - I owe my golf course architecture life to Devereux Emmet. I make a point to see his work. There are many other ODG whose work I want to see, if for no reason to fill in my knowledge of the record. There's a Top 100 (or 200) courses all of us should see just to fill in the architectural record. For me, that includes Huntingdon Valley, the Hos!, a bunch of Colts, the Dr. Macs, the Wilson's, Jones, Dyes, Fazio's, etc.
A special subset of the architect's are all of the architects on GCA who share their love of their work with us. I will always find it an honor to see the work of the people here.
Youse Guys - Last but not least I owe so much to the contributions of all of you, and so having a chance to meet and play on the courses you all value plays heavily in my thinking. I'm not well traveled, offer no access, and carry a high handicap, so most of my knowledge iis gained vicariously through this site. Playing your courses and sharing what you love is the best.
I'd love to hear what motivates you to prioritize your lists.
Best, Dave