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BCowan

Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« on: December 27, 2013, 10:37:17 AM »
Please say what your favorite Muni is?  City, St.  It could be one that has great bones or one that has been restored.  Tell us all about it

Mine are

Ocala Golf Club (Ocala, FL) has been renovated

Roseland (Windsor,ON) has been renovated

Ottawa Park Golf Course (Toledo,OH)  needs a renovation, great bones!

Does anyone play a Muni that is privately managed?  

Mark McKeever

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2013, 10:49:48 AM »
My Favorites:

George Wright-Ross
Berkleigh Golf Club-White/Gordon
Jeffersonville-Ross
Cobbs Creek-Wilson
Best MGA showers - Bayonne

"Dude, he's a total d***"

Philip Caccamise

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2013, 11:32:20 AM »
Durand Eastman (NY) - RTJ
Jeffersonville (PA)-Ross
Monmouth County (NJ) courses (Charleston Springs, Hominy Hill, Howell Park)- various
Charleston (SC) muni
Dale Hollow (KY)

Jon Wiggett

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2013, 11:37:03 AM »
Braids Hill in Edinburgh and of course Musselburgh Old

Jon

Jason Thurman

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2013, 11:47:04 AM »
I really love the municipal golf system in Lexington, KY.

Picadome is my personal favorite. At about 6600 yards, it's short and a bit jammed onto its property. Built around 1932, it suffers from the same issues of a lot of Golden Age designs - its greens have shrunken and it has too many silly evergreens lining its fairways. It's nothing spectacular, but it subtly throws one interesting hole after another at you, including a pair of wonderful short par 3s in the 4th and 7th holes. It has a lot of variation and some nice rolling terrain made more interesting by a handful of sinkholes on the property that give some visual flair and make shots like the approach to the 18th a little more treacherous. It's also kept in wonderful condition - fast and smooth greens and very nice Bermuda fairways. I think a lot of GCAers would really find it interesting. The 6th and 14th holes are among the better par 4s in the state, and the 17th is an excellent short par 5 with some really cool mounding around the green that's a bit reminiscent of 8 at Augusta.

Kearney Hill a bit further out of town is the crown jewel of the Lexington system. It's a PB Dye design that received debatable input from Pete. A good, stout course for tournaments, it has hosted the PubLinks and has a few really interesting holes. It would be a fabulous course with better bunkering (it has a lot of fairway bunkers, but most are outside the preferred lines of play and therefore not very strategically interesting). As it stands, it has a really strong set of par 3s and the stretch from 14 through 17 is one of the better four hole stretches of public golf in the state. Like Picadome, it typically stays in very good condition. It's also one of the best routed courses for walking I've ever played, with very short green-to-tee transitions and a very natural routing. I think Picadome is a slightly better design, but Kearney is a much better property and consequently a better golf course overall.
"There will always be haters. That’s just the way it is. Hating dudes marry hating women and have hating ass kids." - Evan Turner

Some of y'all have never been called out in bold green font and it really shows.

Ronald Montesano

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2013, 12:06:38 PM »
In Buffalo-Niagara:

1. Sheridan Park
2. Elma Meadows
2. Deerwood Fawn Nine (Scott Witter awesomeness)
3. Hyde Park Original 27 holes
4. Cazenovia Park
5. Grover Cleveland Park

Sorta kinda close by
1. Mark Twain (Elmira)

Haven't Played-Wanta Play
1. Green Lakes

Borderline Well Known
1. Triggs (Providence)
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Brian Ross

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2013, 12:24:43 PM »
Riverside (Austin, TX) - Encroachment from the college has altered the routing, but this old Maxwell course, long home to Harvey Penick, has some great bones.

Charleston Municipal (Charleston, SC) - probably my favorite. A classic, with the feel of a Raynor, that you can walk for less than $20.


Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

http://www.rossgolfarchitects.com

Jud_T

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2013, 12:33:35 PM »
Radrick Farms
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Sean_A

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2013, 12:41:47 PM »
Radrick Farms
:-X

Okay, so I guess TOC and Carnasty etc are famous?

For me, its a chuck up between Carnoustie Burnside and Cleeve Cloud.  I used to think munis like Leslie Park in Ann Arbor and Cascades on Jackson were good munis  ;).  

Ciao  
New plays planned for 2024: Nothing

Tom Walsh

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #9 on: December 27, 2013, 12:48:42 PM »
Missouri USA
St. Louis- Forest Park Municipal (27 holes) aka Norman Probstein
University City- Ruth Park Municipal (9 holes)
Ballwin- Ballwin Municipal (9 holes)

not great, but all fun
"vado pro vexillum!"

Jason Topp

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #10 on: December 27, 2013, 02:42:41 PM »
Waveland - Des Moines, Ia. Could be great with a major renovation but what is wrong with good at a $25 green fee?

Trees, cartpaths and horrible greens rebuilt in the 60s are akin to dressing a victoria secret model in Wal Mart polyester.


Terry Poley

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2013, 03:32:54 PM »
Horace H. Rackam golf course.

Even after the expansion of I-696 cut off parts of the original first four holes, It is still a great course.  The bones are there, some of the greens resemble Oakland Hills South.

"Rackham followed through by giving 22 acres (8.9 ha) of his purchase to the Zoo for use as a parking lot; a memorial fountain at the zoo bears his name. The remaining acreage was given to the city of Detroit, explicitly for use as a public golf course. In 1925 the Rackham Golf Course, reportedly the first 18-hole course constructed in Michigan, opened to the public."

Michael Blake

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2013, 03:40:32 PM »
My home course:  Jeffersonville (Ross/McGovern)
One of the courses I grew up playing:  Francis Byrne (Banks)

Jim Nugent

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #13 on: December 27, 2013, 03:47:10 PM »
Missouri USA
St. Louis- Forest Park Municipal (27 holes) aka Norman Probstein
University City- Ruth Park Municipal (9 holes)
Ballwin- Ballwin Municipal (9 holes)

not great, but all fun

Tom, did you play Forest Park before they made the Probstein changes?  If so, which version do you think is better?  Used to really like the old first four holes.  In the mid 1960s, they had still a different first hole.  The tee was where some tennis courts are now; a stream cut diagonally across the fairway and then ran along the right side of the fairway to the green.  

btw, last I played there, in the early 1970s, they hadn't yet turned old 15 into a dogleg.  It was a straight shot, about 260 yards slightly downhill, with internal OB on the right along old #5 fairway.  


Tim Martin

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #14 on: December 27, 2013, 03:56:56 PM »
Keney Park-Hartford,CT-Dev Emmet


Howard Riefs

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #15 on: December 27, 2013, 04:42:34 PM »
Highlands of Elgin (Elgin, Ill.; Keith Foster, Art Schaupeter)

Murphy Creek (Aurora, Colo.; Ken Kavanaugh)

Shepherd’s Crook (Zion, Ill.; Keith Foster)
"Golf combines two favorite American pastimes: Taking long walks and hitting things with a stick."  ~P.J. O'Rourke

Tom Walsh

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #16 on: December 27, 2013, 05:21:58 PM »
Missouri USA
St. Louis- Forest Park Municipal (27 holes) aka Norman Probstein
University City- Ruth Park Municipal (9 holes)
Ballwin- Ballwin Municipal (9 holes)

not great, but all fun

Tom, did you play Forest Park before they made the Probstein changes?  If so, which version do you think is better?  Used to really like the old first four holes.  In the mid 1960s, they had still a different first hole.  The tee was where some tennis courts are now; a stream cut diagonally across the fairway and then ran along the right side of the fairway to the green.  

btw, last I played there, in the early 1970s, they hadn't yet turned old 15 into a dogleg.  It was a straight shot, about 260 yards slightly downhill, with internal OB on the right along old #5 fairway.  



Jim- Yes I played the old Foulis 18 a bunch before the Hale Irwin redesign. The flat 9 (Eisenhower) too. The bones are still there. I guess I liked the old 18 hole course better. More quirk. I never played the original #1--I'm 55, but 2 and 3 were all you could handle. Back to back par threes, number 2 about 210 yards to a small green, water behind and to the right. Then number three, about 180 straight uphill to a two tiered green--semi blind. Follow those with two par 5's. Number 4 played on Art Hill beneath the Art Museum and the statue of St. Louis. True quirk- 440 yards to a side hill fairway, blind second up and over a hill (if u tried it), between a 30 yard gap in the trees. Then a really good par 5--number 5, about 560 dogleg right, straight uphill after the dogleg. The old number 9--par 5, 560 with every shot seemingly aiming you onto Skinker Blvd. with a semi blind third. The back 9 was more conventional, but no I didn't play the old 15th pre dogleg.

I think the redesign, refurb had to be done at least for drainage purposes. The green complexes are more interesting I think. That being said--I think the new 27 plays short. The old 18 had faster, rock hard greens.

I learned to play golf there. If I played it once, I played it 200 times--the old courses. They still had fire plugs out on the course left over from the 1904 World's Fair. Probably played the "Publinx Open" there 10 times. Lots of memories.
"vado pro vexillum!"

Tom Walsh

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #17 on: December 27, 2013, 05:39:35 PM »
Some good history on an urban muni--Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri USA

http://www.westendword.com/Articles-c-2012-05-08-180337.114137-The-Park-Turns-100.html#123

"vado pro vexillum!"

J.D. Griffith

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #18 on: December 27, 2013, 05:47:53 PM »
Keller Golf Course--Maplewood, MN  Can't wait for it to re-open after renovation this upcoming spring.

Phil McDade

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #19 on: December 27, 2013, 05:54:09 PM »
Riverside in Janesville WI -- tight layout adjoining the Rock River with some solid holes and odd quirk here and there. Maybe Wisconsin's best not-overpriced muni.

Bonnie Brook in Waukegan IL -- nice layout, nothing incredible, but a solid set of holes esp. on the back nine. Foulis original.

Macktown in Rockton IL, just over the WI-IL border -- short, fun, easy, but still a good round of golf. Bob Hope was said to love it; Nicklaus played a round there, and it was  once an LPGA Tour stop.

Matthew Rose

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #20 on: December 27, 2013, 05:56:34 PM »
Two in Wisconsin immediately come to mind.

Riverside in Janesville, a Robert Bruce Harris that dates to 1924. From age 7, this was my home course for the next 14 years and where I played 90% of my golf. It was also where I had my first job; I worked in the pro shop for two years when I was 19 and 20.

The course really had a lot of character in retrospect. There was an active railway separating Holes 4 and 5 from the rest of the 18, and a lot of ditches and gullies to negotiate (but no water).

Photo tour:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,40066.0.html

Brown County Golf Course, outside of Green Bay. It's an old Lawrence Packard design which dates to the late 50s/early 60s, I believe. I lived on nearby Thornberry Creek and played there more, but I always preferred Brown County, which was only a stone's throw from my neighborhood anyway. I used to shoot really good rounds here, even though I never thought it was that easy a course. Had really good food, too.

They are actually quite similar in that they are traditional parkland layouts with mature trees and holes routed naturally over hills and valleys. Riverside was on top of a bluff overlooking the Rock River and had some quite extreme terrain, particularly on the back nine.

Doesn't seem to be a photo thread of Brown County anywhere, but I did find some brief discussion on it in a Larry Packard thread.



American-Australian. Trackman Course Guy. Fatalistic sports fan. Drummer. Bass player. Father. Cat lover.

Matthew Rose

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #21 on: December 27, 2013, 05:57:58 PM »
Way to steal my thunder Phil....  :D
American-Australian. Trackman Course Guy. Fatalistic sports fan. Drummer. Bass player. Father. Cat lover.

Ben Voelker

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #22 on: December 27, 2013, 06:07:20 PM »
Highlands Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska by our very own Jeff Brauer.  It is a modern, treeless course with some of the best driving angles/strategy I have seen on any golf course, especially on the front nine.  With a mix of some wild, undulating greens and you get a great muni that can be had for $30 max walking.

Matthew Rose

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #23 on: December 27, 2013, 06:13:13 PM »
Quote
Highlands Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska by our very own Jeff Brauer

This thread is gettin' kind of spooky. I was born in Lincoln and lived in the Highlands before that course existed. I think they'd been planning it for 15-20 years before it finally opened. I did eventually get to play it later, and enjoyed it. Woodland Hills is another one of Jeff's in the area that is a lot of fun to play.

I'll vouch for all the munis in Lincoln as being particularly fun, actually. I always liked Pioneers too; whenever we went back to visit relatives, we usually played a couple of rounds there. That's a really interesting example of an 18-hole course that is completely bunkerless, if anyone is every curious.

You guys have good taste.
American-Australian. Trackman Course Guy. Fatalistic sports fan. Drummer. Bass player. Father. Cat lover.

Phil McDade

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Re: Favorite Muni (Non well known course)
« Reply #24 on: December 27, 2013, 06:18:55 PM »
Way to steal my thunder Phil....  :D

Thanks for posting the thread; I was too lazy to look it up myself. :P