[Alex Cameron]

Walnut Lane in Philadelphia (Roxborough).  No matter what the conditions, I always have fun and some how find myself there at least a few times a season for some practice rounds. 

There are holes at Walnut Lane that need to be seen to be believed. Literally cut right out of the woods, with bramble so think just feet off the fairway that in some places you can't even enter to look for your ball. But then some really great holes are randomly mixed in, like an uphill par 3 that looks like a miniature version of something at Rolling Green or Manufacturers. If it weren't for the 5.5 hour rounds I'd probably make it out there once a year.

[Andy Shulman]

I'm a fan of Poolesville in the Maryland suburbs not far from Washington, DC.  The greens are almost always in very good shape for a muni and there are some fun holes, including #s 8 and 11.  And, the course is accommodating to the spray hitter, which I sometimes am.

[Jason Thurman]

Duckers Lake near Frankfort, KY is an absolutely awful course. It has some amazingly bad holes further hampered by housing encroachment. A wide backswing on the 5th tee will clip a deck railing behind the tee box. I once birdied the hole after hitting a ball off a house on the corner and bouncing it back into play while the homeowner worked in his yard. The 10th is perhaps the world's worst island green par 3. Still, it's the course that I often went to when I started playing regularly during summers in college, and I have a certain fondness for it as a result.

As a kid, I used to play at Bob O' Link in Lawrenceburg, KY. It's now called Wild Turkey Trace, but it's still the same pasture-golf layout with 18 parallel holes on what's probably an 85 acre property. It's kept in poor condition and has some real clunker holes, but I still like to get out there every few years just for fun. I actually really like the 2nd, 3rd, 13th, and 18th holes (13 is a bit like a shorter version of Lawsonia's 7th). But really, it's an awful course that just happens to make me nostalgic.

[SL_Solow]

Brian;  Your mention of South Haven took me back to when i was about 11 years old, before I discovered tennis and abandoned golf for several years.  we vacationed in South Haven and played the course several times.  I have a similar course, Lake Cora Hills in Paw Paw Michigan.  When I knew it, some 40 years ago, it was 9 holes of which perhaps 2 had any real interest.  but it was close to my summer job for days off and it was inexpensive so we played it and the greens were OK.  Now I see it is 18 holes, still inexpensive.  I suppose I will have to pay a visit one time just to see what time has wrought.

[J_ Crisham]

Brian;  Your mention of South Haven took me back to when i was about 11 years old, before I discovered tennis and abandoned golf for several years.  we vacationed in South Haven and played the course several times.  I have a similar course, Lake Cora Hills in Paw Paw Michigan.  When I knew it, some 40 years ago, it was 9 holes of which perhaps 2 had any real interest.  but it was close to my summer job for days off and it was inexpensive so we played it and the greens were OK.  Now I see it is 18 holes, still inexpensive.  I suppose I will have to pay a visit one time just to see what time has wrought.

Shelly,  That is hilarious! I used to play Lake Cora Hills as a kid- we used to vacation in Water Viliet. What a crappy course- at the same level as my other youthful favorite Marquette Park. We hit off concrete with rubber mats for tees there.

[Andrew Lewis]

Brian;  Your mention of South Haven took me back to when i was about 11 years old, before I discovered tennis and abandoned golf for several years.  we vacationed in South Haven and played the course several times.  I have a similar course, Lake Cora Hills in Paw Paw Michigan.  When I knew it, some 40 years ago, it was 9 holes of which perhaps 2 had any real interest.  but it was close to my summer job for days off and it was inexpensive so we played it and the greens were OK.  Now I see it is 18 holes, still inexpensive.  I suppose I will have to pay a visit one time just to see what time has wrought.

Shelly,  That is hilarious! I used to play Lake Cora Hills as a kid- we used to vacation in Water Viliet. What a crappy course- at the same level as my other youthful favorite Marquette Park. We hit off concrete with rubber mats for tees there.

Jack and Shelly -- I played Lake Cora Hills on occasion during high school!  Super cheap, very walkable, a couple interesting holes, memorable due to place-in-time -- perhaps the definition of a "sh**ty course one should love"!

Two others on my list:

1) Jackson Park in Chicago.  This was the closest course to my alma mater and, as an undergrad, nothing felt better than skipping an afternoon class in the spring and taking a few bucks off the b-schoolers with whom I'd inevitably get paired up.  Tom Bacsanyi's post also brought back a flood of memories of kids selling errant balls back at a steep mark-up (paging Mr Friedman...Mr Milton Friedman...), the need to dodge traffic while crossing major roads between holes and car mufflers backfiring during one's backswing.  I have played only once since college -- with hickories to boot -- and now think I need to get down there again this season.

2) Haines Point (aka, East Potomac's Blue Course) in DC.  Cheap and close -- I didn't have a car so accessibility by taxi was necessary.  I always wondered why a few of the greens seemed so interesting, albeit in a run-down and neglected kind of way, and later learned that this was originally a Walter Travis design.  Looking back, a bit of "architectural squinting" brings that connection back into focus.  If only the parks department had the budget to try to bring the original back.  Oh...and if you every find yourself there and a gentleman on the practice putting green offers to play you in "the wheel" for a friendly wager, under no circumstances should you agree!

[Steve Okula]

Like a couple of others have said, the course where you started to golf will always hold a special place in your heart, no matter its shortcomings.

For me it's Pequabuck Golf Club in Bristol CT. A working man's, semi-private club, short even for a par 69 on a site too small even for that. The first hole is a 280 yd. par 4. There are three parallel doglegs, tucked inside one another, with interior OB stakes to prevent people cutting the corners. There are only two par 5's, both on the front 9, and the longer one is 480 yds. Some of the original holes date from the '20's, and the greens are small and flat with no interest. But I love it like my own mother.

[Bryan Lewis]

Brian;  Your mention of South Haven took me back to when i was about 11 years old, before I discovered tennis and abandoned golf for several years.  we vacationed in South Haven and played the course several times.  I have a similar course, Lake Cora Hills in Paw Paw Michigan.  When I knew it, some 40 years ago, it was 9 holes of which perhaps 2 had any real interest.  but it was close to my summer job for days off and it was inexpensive so we played it and the greens were OK.  Now I see it is 18 holes, still inexpensive.  I suppose I will have to pay a visit one time just to see what time has wrought.

SL_Solow,

The 9 hole course was before my time.  Several of the current greens were from that course, though.  The course was at it's best when it was owned by Jeff Voss in the 70's.  Time has not been kind since them.

Bryan

[Sven Nilsen]

Andrew:

Heard a story about Jackson Park yesterday that is worth sharing.  A guy left his clubs outside the shop for a moment, and when he came back they were gone.  He reported them as stolen to the guy behind the desk.  A week later he goes back to play and gets a rental set.  They're his clubs that were stolen.

[Jason Topp]

http://www.mississippidunesgolflinks.com/course/

I believe this course was designed by the owner but I am not certain.  If so, it demonstrates the benefits and drawbacks of an amateur design.  The look of the place is very cool - sand duny type property on the Mississippi River, with sleepers used as the faces of most, if not all of the bunkers.  It has six par threes, six par fours and six par fives.

Unfortunately the details are off - some greens are way too small, the driving range is at the far end of the course and many fairways are too tight and/or awkward.  Despite these drawbacks, it is refreshing to play a course that is not of the cookie cutter variety and I have played a number of late or early rounds here.  

[Dan Kelly]

http://www.mississippidunesgolflinks.com/course/

I believe this course was designed by the owner but I am not certain.  If so, it demonstrates the benefits and drawbacks of an amateur design.  The look of the place is very cool - sand duny type property on the Mississippi River, with sleepers used as the faces of most, if not all of the bunkers.  It has six par threes, six par fours and six par fives.

Unfortunately the details are off - some greens are way too small, the driving range is at the far end of the course and many fairways are too tight and/or awkward.  Despite these drawbacks, it is refreshing to play a course that is not of the cookie cutter variety and I have played a number of late or early rounds here.  

The course was designed by the owner, a doctor and former member of Dellwood Hills -- which he apparently concluded didn't offer sufficient pain. (Minnesota GCAers will get the joke. Dellwood Hills -- now Dellwood CC -- though being literally a next-door neighbor to the wonderfully fun White Bear Yacht Club, is absolutely no fun at all to play. Or so I think, anyway.) The doctor was assisted by his first Head Pro, Dave Tentis -- who told me and Rick Shefchik, early in its history, that his primary contribution to the course was making it *less* penal than the doctor wanted it to be. (Even so: In the first year(s), there were much larger areas of lose-your-ball rough. It was just brutal beyond words. Rick and I had failed to learn, at that point, that golf was supposed to be fun.)

Rick and I played a lot of rounds there. I think I can speak for both of us in saying that we loved it until the day we loathed it -- and for the reasons you cite.

The plus side: There's nothing cookie-cutter about it; that's its lone virtue (other than the par-3s, which I think are all pretty good).

The much larger negative side: "The details are off." Good summary -- though I think you missed the biggest OFF detail: The approaches to the greens -- supposedly modeled after the greens the doctor/owner saw in the British Isles -- are all too steep to accept shots running in, and many of the greens are profoundly unfriendly to shots hit high ("plateau greens in a wind tunnel," in Rick's memorable phrase).

I would again play a last-round-of-the-year there, after everything else has closed -- so long as the price was low, and you got a free shirt in the deal.

For 20 years now, I've wondered what a competent architect could have done with that land. Something very good, I think.

As for me, the Sh**ty course I love -- and I shouldn't use the word Sh**ty, because it's mostly a wonderful example of its kind: the old-fashioned "resort course," where kids, including my daughter Rose, can begin to learn how to play golf -- is the 9-hole par-3 course at Brookside Resort, north of Park Rapids, Minnesota.  One of these days, I'll do a photo tour. Here's an aerial:



Check out the Maintenance Meld: http://goo.gl/UBuAaR

[Greg Tallman]

Have mentioned this one before - Sctoland Yards GC in Dade City, FL. I suspect most on here would enjoy it quite a bit, particularly the front nine.

[Ari Techner]

Gleneagles International GC in San Francisco.  9 hole course that is anything but up scale and borders a housing project.  Conditions go somewhere between terrible and adequate.  At times the greens can be good.  Tons of elevation change and fun shots.  I will go out of my way to play there when I am in town if I have the time. 

[Brad Tufts]

My soft spot is one shared by many of Boston's state-level amateur players, President's Golf Course in Quincy, MA.

This is the course on the hill seen from I-93 about 6 miles south of downtown.  The course holds the Norfolk County Classic every year, a Mass. Golf Association point event and the unofficial kickoff to the amateur season.

5670y, par 70, the course traverses the hill back and forth with wickedly sloping greens (unfortunately the best pin positions/conditions are only seen during the NCC tournament) and a multitude of risk/reward options.  The course dates back to the early 1900s, when it was built as the original Wollaston CC.  Wollaston CC built a new Fazio course in Canton in the early 90s, and George and Tom renovated President's once in the 70s.

The city has slowly redone and revamped the course hole-by-hole from a low point in conditions about 15 years ago, and it's as good as ever today with engaging green complexes and new bunkering while the bones and routing of the course remain the same as always.

Half-par holes abound, and all but a few holes offer a shorter route while engaging with some form of peril.  Worth a play!

[Adam Warren]

Duckers Lake near Frankfort, KY is an absolutely awful course. It has some amazingly bad holes further hampered by housing encroachment. A wide backswing on the 5th tee will clip a deck railing behind the tee box. I once birdied the hole after hitting a ball off a house on the corner and bouncing it back into play while the homeowner worked in his yard. The 10th is perhaps the world's worst island green par 3. Still, it's the course that I often went to when I started playing regularly during summers in college, and I have a certain fondness for it as a result.

As a kid, I used to play at Bob O' Link in Lawrenceburg, KY. It's now called Wild Turkey Trace, but it's still the same pasture-golf layout with 18 parallel holes on what's probably an 85 acre property. It's kept in poor condition and has some real clunker holes, but I still like to get out there every few years just for fun. I actually really like the 2nd, 3rd, 13th, and 18th holes (13 is a bit like a shorter version of Lawsonia's 7th). But really, it's an awful course that just happens to make me nostalgic.

You are correct about one thing Jason, Duckers is truly an awful course.  

One bad course I really enjoyed was the Daly course down in Myrtle Beach.  The name escapes me now, but Daly gave you plenty of opportunities to make birdie out there.  

I guess a bad course I always enjoyed playing was Woodlawn Springs in Bardstown, Ky.  I don't know who designed and its a fairly bad design that winds through a neighborhood with some pretty odd holes.  The conditions have been up and down through the years, but were great when I lived in Bardstown.  There are opportunities to score and hit some crazy shots out there.  I wouldn't recommend playing it to anybody, but if given the chance to go back and not spend money on it, I'm sure I would.

[Paul Jones]

Iberia Golf and Country Club - a little nine hole course I grew up on.  I can still remember every hole, bunker, ditch, etc....

Now it is just another subdivision behind my parents house.  Some ding dong built a house on top of where there use to be a pond - curious how that is going to turn out.

[Paul Jones]

The other is Lanier Golf Club, outside of Atlanta.  We had a great bunch of guys that use to play it.  We all walked and really liked the Joe Lee design and greens.  The club house was very run down and dated, but we didn't care.

Once again, the course was bought to build a neighborhood; however, I think it is still in existence guessing the deal fell thru and now a public course?

[Jim Nugent]

Gleneagles International GC in San Francisco.  9 hole course that is anything but up scale and borders a housing project.  Conditions go somewhere between terrible and adequate.  At times the greens can be good.  Tons of elevation change and fun shots.  I will go out of my way to play there when I am in town if I have the time. 

Ari, I played there a bunch of times.  (I've played two in this thread now.  Belt-notchers beware!)

Always really enjoyed the course.  The wind usually kicked up in the afternoon and made many of those holes real challenging.  We always played 18: two sets of sometimes dramatically different tees made the second nine play pretty differently from the first.  

Some holes (#2 e.g.) were not as long as the card claimed, but always a lot of fun.  

[Dan Kelly]

Crystal Golf Course, Crystal, MI….NLE

This sporty gem, the only course ever designed by the esteemed farmer Lyle Whitmore, had 9 holes and played 2600 yards from the tips. Average green size was approximately 1500 square feet and the elevation change on the property was about 6 feet. Perhaps the most interesting aspects of the design were the various species of trees that were planted in the middle of the fairways, between 100 and 230 yards off the tee, giving the player the option of attempting a slice that had to traverse off property for a good 100 yards, throwing an 8 iron over the tree, hooding the shit out of a long iron (the preferred tee shot as the fairways were normally within 8 hours of death due to lack of moisture, hence hundred yard + runouts were the norm) or using putter off the tee and hope that one’s ball did not hit one of the exposed roots in the fairway. Maintenance meld with respect to the fairways ran from firm and fast by death of grass to fairways that were about 1 ½ inches in length.  If forced to ballpark the speed of the greens, depending on rainfall, they varied between 4-6 on the stimp. After the round, one could relax with a warm soda served up by the owner/pro/bartender who took particular umbrage if a glass with an ice cube was requested to accompany the aforementioned warm soda.

So why the love? My parents had a lake house on Crystal Lake (Little Crystal) and when they finally gave me the green light to go to the course by myself at age 10, it opened up an entirely different world to me. I would work at my dad’s car business during the week (quarter an hour) between baseball games, save up my money and either hitch a ride with one of my parents or walk the ½ mile around the lake to the course. When I got there, it was $.50 to play all day with $.25 glasses of A&W root beer at the bar, post round. Usually my father would accompany me for a couple 9 hole rounds each weekend over “Royal Crystal”, as he referred to it and as I get older I look back at those long summer days with a growing sense of gratitude and fondness. I only wish that my kids find something so pure and innocent that gives them such lasting memories.

Just to bump this outstanding post.

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