[Scott Warren]

On this topic, legendary Aussie cricketer Shane Warne shot 71 this week at the Dunhill Links Championship.

Australia's News Ltd newspapers reporter that the round took place on the "notoriously difficult Old Course". Yeah, nah...

[Bill Vogeney]

Well, I hope most of you would consider Shoreacres to be great. Having played Pebble, Oakmont, LACC, Riviera, Olympic Lake, Colonial, Olympia Fields, Scioto, Isleworth, Spyglass, TPC Sawgrass, Castle Pines, Muirfield Village, Valhalla, and being a national member at Prairie Dunes, I would have to say Shoreacres. I was told by a couple of my well-traveled friends it was about the easier to score of the top 100, and I shot a score that I would be proud of almost any day at my home course! That being said, I played very well, and putted very well thanks to a fine young caddy who read the greens like a grizzled veteran caddy.

That being said, I see how if you were going to get really aggressive and attack pins out there, you could shoot a big number.

[Sean_A]

The easiest great courses to figure out?  For me, the choice would come from the those below

St Georges Hill
Sunny Old
The Island
Formby
Hoylake
Trump

Ciao

[Mark Pearce]

Easiest great course to figure out?  Carnoustie, perhaps.  Which is one of the toughest great courses to play.

Sean,

I'm struggling to work out what you make of Trump.  Here you describe it, by implication, as great.  Elsewhere you have been quite critical of it.

[Sean_A]

Mark

I have always said Trump is great - its just not my cup of tea.  Trump is essentially an aerial style of course, but on (what should be anyway) links.  It doesn't make much sense to me to use prime sand country on a sort of design that doesn't take the ground game more into account.

Ciao    

[David Davis]

On the rare occasion that I hit fairways and greens they are all easy to play and to figure out.  

In fact, even if I can keep it to close to the fairway and close to the greens I'd say most our easy. (assuming I'm not OB, water balling, plugged into a hazard, stuck in a tree/bush or the usual stuff)

Sand Hills (gets my award for easiest)
CPC but winds were on the calm side to be fair.
MPCC winds were also moderate.
Shoreacres
De Pan
Bro Hof Slot - great for a parkland at least. Always easy for some reason.
Baltusrol
Somerset Hills
Wolf Point
Old Mac
Bandon Dunes
Bandon Trails
Chambers Bay
Ballyneal

and the list goes on.

Course we could argue if it's easy you should shoot below par on all of them and if that's the case then they are all impossibly hard for me. However, I'm just judging by my scores vs my expectation given my accurate hcp from my home course.

All in all I find it hard to run up high scores on courses that are so perfectly maintained in moderate weather conditions with fast greens that roll perfectly and hold all the lines.

Even if the question is about figuring them out.

[Mark Pearce]

Mark

I have always said Trump is great - its just not my cup of tea.  Trump is essentially an aerial style of course, but on (what should be anyway) links.  It doesn't make much sense to me to use prime sand country on a sort of design that doesn't take the ground game more into account.

Ciao    

I guess I don't understand how a course that has failed to make the best use of the land it is on can be described as "great".  For me the word great should be reserved for the very, very best courses out there (there probably shouldn't be more than 10 great courses in the UK, for instance and that number is a stretch) and I don't get how an aerial course built on a great bit of links land can fit that bill.

[Sean_A]

Okay, I am coming from the PoV that there are a lot more than 10 great courses in the UK - probably at least 15 in England alone.

David - the thread asks for "easiest". 

Ciao

[Jim Franklin]

I shot 2 under on NGLA on my first try there. NGLA gets my vote. Plus it is the most fun golf course I have played since as well.

[BHoover]

I was under the impression that Oakmont can be had.

[Brent Hutto]

Cypress Point Club, in the presence of a Cypress Point caddie, is darned near a cakewalk. If there's some wind about you still have to control the ball somewhat and of course you need to execute well on the greens and from the bunkers. But I found only a couple of spots during the round with any "puzzle" at all. IIRC, scoring wise I was a couple shots over my handicap due to botching the last two holes execution-wise.

[John Kavanaugh]

Cypress Point Club, in the presence of a Cypress Point caddie, is darned near a cakewalk. If there's some wind about you still have to control the ball somewhat and of course you need to execute well on the greens and from the bunkers. But I found only a couple of spots during the round with any "puzzle" at all. IIRC, scoring wise I was a couple shots over my handicap due to botching the last two holes execution-wise.

Brent,

Can you reach the 16th green at Cypress of do you lay out left?

[Brent Hutto]

Laid out left. Hit an iron to the green, leaving an 8-foot putt. Caddie says the putt is straight, keep the speed up. Putt started straight then died left and stopped on the lip. Caddie says "You didn't keep the speed up".

We had a bit of a breeze hurting and from the right. I calculated that a fairway wood had zero chance of making the carry. Driver would have done it but only if hit very solidly. Just didn't seem a high-percentage play.

P.S. One advantage of playing off a 21-22 handicap (at the time) is that a four in the sixteenth gets redefined as a good score.

P.P.S. If it weren't for the fact I was still playing the same ball I teed off with, perhaps I'd have relished trying to bang a driver up there.

[Jim Franklin]

I was under the impression that Oakmont can be had.

I believe your impression was off.

[BHoover]

I was under the impression that Oakmont can be had.

I believe your impression was off.

My bad. I was mistakenly thinking that I was posting this on the GolfWRX website, where every poster can supposedly carry the ball 315 yards and putts better than a Tour pro.

[John Kavanaugh]

Laid out left. Hit an iron to the green, leaving an 8-foot putt. Caddie says the putt is straight, keep the speed up. Putt started straight then died left and stopped on the lip. Caddie says "You didn't keep the speed up".

We had a bit of a breeze hurting and from the right. I calculated that a fairway wood had zero chance of making the carry. Driver would have done it but only if hit very solidly. Just didn't seem a high-percentage play.

P.S. One advantage of playing off a 21-22 handicap (at the time) is that a four in the sixteenth gets redefined as a good score.

P.P.S. If it weren't for the fact I was still playing the same ball I teed off with, perhaps I'd have relished trying to bang a driver up there.

Sorry for your putt.  Sounds like a great hole. Thanks for the story and btw, where is that ball today?

[Brent Hutto]

Last I saw it, somewhere in the rough on the back nine of the Shore course at MPCC. That little breeze at Cypress Point in the morning picked up to about a much wind as I'd care to play in for our afternoon Wolf game.

[Tim Gavrich]

I would not characterize Yale as being overly difficult, at least to my eye. The greens are so enormous that if you keep it in play off the tee, you ought to have at least 13-15 birdie putts over the course of a round. They won't all be makeable, but you can ring up a few birdies on the shorter holes like 2, 5, 11, 14 and 16.

Bulls Bay is another course that isn't terribly hard, due again to the size of its fairways and greens. Same goes for Tobacco Road, if we're talking about Strantz. At TR, there is a lot to be intimidated by, but after you've played it a couple times, you start to note places where a merely decent shot can end up in the same place as an excellent shot.

[JR Potts]

Shoreacres, Chicago Golf and Old Elm in Chicago....which ironically enough, may be my favorite three courses to play on a day to day basis in Chicago.

[Patrick_Mucci]

I would not characterize Yale as being overly difficult, at least to my eye.

Then you need glasses

The greens are so enormous that if you keep it in play off the tee, you ought to have at least 13-15 birdie putts over the course of a round.

PGA Tour Pros don't hit 15 greens in a round.


They won't all be makeable, but you can ring up a few birdies on the shorter holes like 2, 5, 11, 14 and 16.

#  2 is short ?
What tees did you play from ?

If Yale is so easy for you, would you be willing to wager and give odds that you'll play to your handicap or better ?

[Dan_Callahan]

Newport CC is the easiest great course that I've played. With the obvious qualifier that has been used already that I'm talking about Newport on a calm day. But compared to other great courses in New England, Newport is relatively forgiving and the greens aren't overly difficult to figure out.

[Jed Peters]

garden city easy? Not when I played. But, I am a hack.

CPC is really easy, as is Pac Dunes. But they are BOTH phenomenal golf courses, one's ability to score doesn't make a course "good" or "bad".

[Tim Gavrich]

I would not characterize Yale as being overly difficult, at least to my eye.

Then you need glasses

The greens are so enormous that if you keep it in play off the tee, you ought to have at least 13-15 birdie putts over the course of a round.

PGA Tour Pros don't hit 15 greens in a round.


They won't all be makeable, but you can ring up a few birdies on the shorter holes like 2, 5, 11, 14 and 16.

#  2 is short ?
What tees did you play from ?

If Yale is so easy for you, would you be willing to wager and give odds that you'll play to your handicap or better ?

Pat, my skill level is far from that of a PGA Tour pro, but players who play from the correct tees at Yale should hit considerably more greens in regulation due to the fact of the greens being so large. That's not really a controversial statement, I don't think.

Were a PGA Tour event hosted at Yale, there's little doubt that a large portion of the field would hit more than 60 greens in regulation over 72 holes, and that may even be a conservative estimate.

Would you argue that Yale's greens are not big?

#2 at Yale is about 375 from the back tees. I believe the last time I played, I hit a 3 wood and a 52 degree wedge to a middle-left pin. No wind to speak of that day. So, yeah, I'd characterize that hole as relatively short. It is the second-shortest par four on the course, according to the yardage book. Number 11 is nominally five yards longer but due to being quite downhill plays a bit shorter.

The last time I played Yale, I played it to about three strokes lower than my handicap at the time. I shot 68 on my own ball during the CT State Four-Ball event (my father, a 10-handicapper, and I finished in the top five). That round included a double-bogey on the sixth hole.

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