PGA courses - Quality vs. Quantity

[John Connolly]

Are the PGA tournaments being held at the best courses in America or are they playing the only ones that are relevant with 330 yard drives and have lots of land for big white tents?

[Mike_Young]

they are rarely played at the best course in the town that week much less America

[Tom_Doak]

The best courses in America generally do not want to deal with the disruption hosting the PGA Tour.

[Ben Malach]

This is the number 1 misconception I find with non golfer and golfers who lack interest in GCA. That the PGA tour only plays the best golf courses. It is to bad that a modern tour event is such a disruption to the golf course as Tom said. As I wish more great courses were featured outside of the majors and in some year limited to the few that host regular events like Riviera, Pebble Beach and Harbour Town. I would like to see a comparison between all three tour to see which has the best GCA but I feel that each tour has about 3 to 4 great stops a year to watch. Although the European tour has the Dunhill which has three great courses.

[John Kavanaugh]

There is reverse discrimination against many of the courses on tour. I reluctantly played TPC Southwind this year on an odd little golf, gambling and gluttony trip this winter through Memphis and Tunica. It was a great course for that day, that time and that trip. I am ashamed to think that I almost bought into the anti-hype.

[Nigel Islam]

I think there are several very good courses on tour each year. Certainly the Web.com tour has less. There are a lot of courses like Bay Hill and Doral. They are not bad courses (except on GCA), but certainly not Pebble, Riviera, Spyglass, or MPCC. I think OSU Scarlet and Victoria National are two of the better Web.com courses.

[Tom_Doak]

One problem I have with TPC courses is that their management is convinced that customers are going there for the "TOUR experience" -- a difficult set-up, fast greens, thick rough, etc.  All of which leads to another outcome of the TOUR experience -- boring, dead slow golf.

[John Kavanaugh]

One problem I have with TPC courses is that their management is convinced that customers are going there for the "TOUR experience" -- a difficult set-up, fast greens, thick rough, etc.  All of which leads to another outcome of the TOUR experience -- boring, dead slow golf.

Funny, I can't see you teeing it up at a TPC. I saw none of what you mention at Southwind. What pleased me most was after a hard rain the night before we were not restricted to cart path only. My personal complaint about tour courses is that they often punish the members/guests so the course can be perfect for the pros. We didn't even have to take a forecaddie. Affordable, quality, unaccompanied private golf. Priceless.

[Jason Topp]

My impression is that, for the most part, TPC courses have not become exemplars that even the general golf population has a big desire to play or emulate.  I know the one here in our town is rarely mentioned, if ever, as a course people want to play.  I rarely hear of others taking golf trips with a TPC as the destination unless it is Sawgrass and I do not know of many that travel there.

The courses people want to travel to visit are the same courses liked here. 

Do all professional golf tours have a set of standards that significantly restrict the options available to the designer in building such courses?