Top 25 Courses You Want To Play

[Chip Gaskins]

Seminole



Jacks Point
Martis Camp
Loch Lomond
The Golf Club
Morfontaine
Cruden Bay
Royal Dornoch
Highland Links
Hirono
Sunningdale - Old, New
Cabot Links
Clear Creek
Wolf Point
Sagebrush
Gamble Sands
Camargo
Castle Stuart
Trump Scotland
Eastward Ho!
Alotian
Jockey Club
Dunes Club
Atlantic
Hillside Golf Club
Noordwijkse
de Pan
Rock Creek Cattle
Myopia Hunt
Indianwood

[Mac Plumart]

Drew

watch out

Bart

 

[Connor Dougherty]

I'll just say that I'm seriously considering a trip to Iceland in a few years to check out their golf courses. Someone put on reddit a picture of the course called Westman Islands, which it looked particularly interesting.

I imagine it would be fun.

[K Rafkin]

I'll just say that I'm seriously considering a trip to Iceland in a few years to check out their golf courses. Someone put on reddit a picture of the course called Westman Islands, which it looked particularly interesting.

I imagine it would be fun.

I believe i have seen something about the same course (not on reddit though), and it looked really interesting.  I've recently been quite intrigued with golf in more exotic locations.  I worry that most of it gets written off as gimmicky without getting an objective look.  It really is a shame that the top 100s and all rating systems that ignore the non traditional destinations are keeping many of these gems hidden.  Im fairly confident there is good golf waiting to be discovered all around the world.......so what im trying to say is.....Go to iceland and take some pictures for me...

oh and here is my top 25

1.Gamble Sands
2.Thracian Cliffs
3-25 the usual suspects

[K. Krahenbuhl]

oh and here is my top 25

1.Gamble Sands
2.Thracian Cliffs
3-25 the usual suspects

Good to see Thracian Cliffs on another list.  It's definitely up there on my top 25 to get to.

[Mark_F]

Shinnie
PV
Augusta
Crystal Downs
Garden City
Streamsong
Cabot
RCCC
Old Town
Dismal River

Ellerston
Newcastle
Peninsula North
Cape Wickham

Prestwick
Rennaissance
North Berwick

Royal St Georges
Nottingham

Tara Iti
Oreti Sands
Royal Wellington

Bit of a cheat next:

Copy Brian Sheehy's trip to France
Copy BUDA Cup to Holland.

That's a pretty decent list for someone with a bad back, Ash. 

[Tom_Doak]

the courses in upstate NY like Teugega and Yahnundasis because I like that they sort of fly under the radar, but this is the area where Ross, Travis, et al spent a lot of time in their careers so I think much can be learned from spots like that
Ekwanok--mostly for the setting

Chris:

I can vouch for this as a great trip [as can Bogey], having made it in September.  Ekwanok is just an add-on day to the east of Glens Falls CC, too.

[Tim Martin]

the courses in upstate NY like Teugega and Yahnundasis because I like that they sort of fly under the radar, but this is the area where Ross, Travis, et al spent a lot of time in their careers so I think much can be learned from spots like that
Ekwanok--mostly for the setting

Chris:

I can vouch for this as a great trip [as can Bogey], having made it in September.  Ekwanok is just an add-on day to the east of Glens Falls CC, too.

Glens Falls/Ekwanok would be a great 36 holer as they are only 45 miles apart. Can't imagine a much better day.

[Chris DeToro]

Great to hear it--this is very high on my list for next year.  It's an easy jaunt from Providence too

[Charlie Ray]

There is no way I am answering the OP’s question.  I will however describe some features of courses I would like to play. 
-A course where the internal contours of the greens are of greater size then the surrounding features. 
- Courses like Wolf Point Golf Club, where the teeing ground is on the fringe of the green.  Would need to be a course catering to a small cliental.
- Clay-based parkland style courses with fewer than 15 bunkers. 
- Courses with no mowing lines.  (green cut,  everything else fairway cut)
- a course in Hawaii that matches the beauty of the land with limited forced carries
- a 12 hole course full of members that didn’t want 6 more holes. 
- and lastly,  a course in Louisiana that made some of the things we discuss on here relevant for me.

[Joey Chase]

- Clay-based parkland style courses with fewer than 15 bunkers. 

Really, not to be cynical but why? 

[Charlie Ray]

Joey,
I don't detect any cynicism in your question.  
I do admit after reviewing the thread for "best bunkerless holes"   ( http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38278.0.html )
there aren't many examples of great golf holes minus bunkers,  nevertheless entire courses without bunkers.  
But with all the distaste for manmade water features,  millions of cubic feet of dirt moved, and overwatered (over green, eliminating the ground option)   why is it that the bunker, which is an obvious unnatural occurrence in clay based soil areas, given a free pass.   Not to open a can of worms, but why do many on here loath a tree dictating play on the edge of a fairway, but celebrate a bunker;  especially considering sand is a rare resource in my particular area of the piney woods of Louisiana?  Bunkers are a pain to maintain,  evergreen trees not so much (again in my area).  Therefore, I would be thrilled to play a course that took this attitude into consideration.  I am sure it would be rejected by many as for most folks tees, fairways, greens, and bunkers =  golf course.  

[K Rafkin]

oh and here is my top 25

1.Gamble Sands
2.Thracian Cliffs
3-25 the usual suspects

Good to see Thracian Cliffs on another list.  It's definitely up there on my top 25 to get to.

Tell me about it.  I cant imagine anyone seeing a picture of this course and not wanting to play.  Sure it was designed as a tourist trap, but who cares?  I dont find myself in bulgaria all that often, but one of these days ill make it happen.  Has anyone actually played?  was the course good?  did you care if it wasnt?

[Jay Carstens]

25 courses?  Who has time for that?  Are you guys all retired?   

My top 3 love to sees:  Crystal Downs, Eastward Ho, and Yale.

[Joey Chase]

Joey,
I don't detect any cynicism in your question.  
I do admit after reviewing the thread for "best bunkerless holes"   ( http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38278.0.html )
there aren't many examples of great golf holes minus bunkers,  nevertheless entire courses without bunkers.  
But with all the distaste for manmade water features,  millions of cubic feet of dirt moved, and overwatered (over green, eliminating the ground option)   why is it that the bunker, which is an obvious unnatural occurrence in clay based soil areas, given a free pass.   Not to open a can of worms, but why do many on here loath a tree dictating play on the edge of a fairway, but celebrate a bunker;  especially considering sand is a rare resource in my particular area of the piney woods of Louisiana?  Bunkers are a pain to maintain,  evergreen trees not so much (again in my area).  Therefore, I would be thrilled to play a course that took this attitude into consideration.  I am sure it would be rejected by many as for most folks tees, fairways, greens, and bunkers =  golf course.  

I understand what you're saying, it was more the "clay-based" part that threw me.  I cannot stand golf courses that, with a small rainfall, are soggy.  It requires a lot more drainage work to make this type of course receptive to the smallest of rainfalls.  This in turn costs a lot more money to the club/owner.

 Bunkerless is fine to me, but trees dictating play is another thing.  I am always reminded of the opening hole of Valderrama when people talk about using trees as part of the hole's design strategy.  On this hole you are forced to play a long tee shot to a small target on the left side of the fairway or else you cannot even hit the green.  That is, to me, a very one dimensional design and may be good for the pros but not fun to me.  Honestly, you are in the middle of a 20 yard wide fairway and you can't even hit a back hole location no matter how well you hit the approach.

[Ronald Montesano]

I'll nominate five each that I haven't played from a series of places, and do my level best to avoid the biggest of names on this site:

Hamilton-Toronto (Canada): Ancaster, Copetown Woods, St. George's, Paintbrush, National

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Triad: Forsyth, Oak Hollow, Sedgefield, Cardinal, Starmount Forest

Vermont-New Hampshire-Maine: Ekwanok, Equinox, Cape Arundel, Rutland,Shattuck

Connecticut-Rhode Island: Tamarack, Shennecosset, Misquamicut, Richter Park, Shelter Harbor

Pittsburgh: Olde Stonewall, Birdsfoot, Pittsburgh Field Club, Allegheny, Sewickley Heights

[Tommy Williamsen]

2. I AM NOT looking for an invite, hook up or any other favor from a member of this group. Because of how long I have been in the golf industry I have invites to every place that I have mentioned in the post, but time and location have precluded me playing them. That being said I hope to play all the courses on the list.

You have nice friends.  You really should spend some quality time with them.