[Ronald Montesano]

Got a little bored tonight, so here's what I did. I organized Ran's years of write-ups(http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/). Give your top three years. I've eliminated Carthage Club (1999) since it doesn't exist as such. This is a USA-only list (I wasn't that bored) for the time being.

Somerset Hills (1999)
Talking Stick (North) (1999)
The Carthage Club (1999)
The Golf Club (1999)
Heathlands at The Legends (1999)
Winged Foot (West) (1999)
Wolf Run (1999)
World Woods (Pine Barrens) (1999)

Valley Club at Montecito (2000)
Seminole (2000)
Riverfront (2000)
Inniscrone (2000)
Kapalua (Plantation) (2000)
Greenville (Chanticleer) (2000)
Harrison Hills (2000)
Delaware Springs (2000)
Camargo (2000)
Apache Stronghold (2000)
Pebble Beach (2000)

Roaring Gap & Highlands (2001)
Ekwanok (2001)
Highlands (2001)
Lookout Mountain (2001)
Salem (2001)
Huntingdon Valley (2001)
Walnut Lane (2001)
Westhampton CC (2001)

Wilmington (2002)
Victoria National (2002)
Kingsley Club (2002)
Maidstone (2002)
Pine Valley (2002)
Piping Rock(2002)
Rustic Canyon (2002)
Shinnecock Hills (2002)
Charles River (2002)
Fenway (2002)
Garden City (2002)
Honors (2002)
Kittansett (2002)
Beechtree (2002) NLE
Blackwolf Run (River) (2002)
Broadmoor (2002)
Beverly (2002)
Black Creek (2002)

Friar’s Head (2003)
Lawsonia Links (2003)
National Golf Links of America (2003)
Pasatiempo (2003)
Taconic (2003)
Whistling Straits (2003)
Crystal Downs (2003)
Cuscowilla (2003)
Augusta National (2003)
Boca Rio (2003)
Bethpage (Black) (2003)
Black Mesa (2003)

Lost Dunes (2004)
Ocean Course at Kiawah Island (2004)
Tobacco Road (2004)
Engineers (2004)
Chechessee Creek (2004)
Fishers Island (2004)

Sand Hills (2005)

Sutton Bay (2006)
Ballyneal (2006)
Bandon Dunes (2006)
Black Rock (2006)
Culver Academies (2006)

Pacific Dunes (2007)
Shoreacres (2007)
Skokie (2007)
Sleepy Hollow (2007)
Pine Needles (2007)
Bandon Trails (2007)
Cypress Point (2007)
Yeamans Hall (2007)
Oakmont (2007)
Monterey Peninsula (Dunes) (2007)
Marquette (Greywalls) (2007)
May River (2007)

Holston Hills (2008)
Kirtland (2008)
Plainfield (2008)
Prairie Dunes (2008)
Canterbury (2008)
Country Club of Fairfield (2008)
Grandfather (2008)
Southern Pines (2008)
Yale (2008)
Saint Louis (2008)

The Country Club (Pepper Pike) (2009)
California Golf Club of San Franciso (2009)
Cascades (2009)
Lancaster (2009)
Clear Creek Club (2009)
Country Club of Charleston (2009)
Eastward Ho! (2009)
Dunes Golf & Beach Club (2009)
Essex County (2009)

Old Macdonald (2010)
Wannamoisett (2010)
Ballyhack (2010)
Hidden Creek (2010)
Hollywood (2010)

Riviera (2011)
French Lick Resort (Ross) (2011)
French Lick Resort (Dye) (2011)
The Greenbrier (Old White) (2011)
Charlotte CC (2011)
Pinehurst No. 2 (2011)

Blue Mound (2012)
Farmington CC (2012)
Forest Creek Golf Club North Course (2012)
Milwaukee Country Club (2012)

Mid Pines (2013)
Orchard Lake (2013)
Southern Hills (2013)
St. George’s (2013)
The Country Club, Brookline (2013)
Erin Hills (2013)
Desert Forest (2013)
Forest Creek Golf Club South Course (2013)
We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro)(2013)

Gozzer Ranch (2014)
Los Angeles (North) (2014)
Old Town Club (2014)
Rock Creek (2014)
Whippoorwill Club (2014)

[Tyler Kearns]

Ronald,

First off, Apache Stronghold is not NLE, in fact, recent reports seem to indicate that past conditioning issues are being resolved and the situation is looking better.

Now to the question at hand, I'll go;

1. 2003
2. 2002
3. 2007

TK 

[Ronald Montesano]

Thanks, Tyler. I'll make that adjustment.

[Ulrich Mayring]

No way to top the average quality of the 2005 courses.

Ulrich

[John Kirk]

Hard for me to base my opinion on the quality of the courses, as Ran continues to improve as a writer and analyst of golf courses.  The more recent profiles are uniformly excellent.

[Tim Gavrich]

'04, '06, '10, '11 and '14 all have five or six courses reviewed, and all sport a great balance between modern and classic courses. 2014 also has tremendous variety in terms of designers within the eras covered.

[Ronald Montesano]

Hard for me to base my opinion on the quality of the courses, as Ran continue to improve as a writer and analyst of golf courses.  The more recent profiles are uniformly excellent.

Not meant to assess his writing, which should improve as time passes.

Rather, meant to determine which years were the best collection of golf courses.

2005 is weird, I'll admit.

[Garland Bayley]

2003

[Bill Brightly]

2003
2005

[Ronald Montesano]

I'm going with 2002, although 2014 has so much potential.

[Peter Pallotta]

Reminds me of the old Woody Allen line: "If reincarnation is true, I want to come back as Warren Beatty's fingertips".

Peter

[David Davis]

2002
2003
2007

[Chris DeToro]

2002 looks pretty hard to beat--quantity and quality

[Phil McDade]

For what Ran wants to do with this site (from the front page of GCA):

"Many courses are featured that are lesser known and that don’t overtly promote themselves, but are inspiring places to play. Courses that have been written to death (Augusta National, Pebble Beach, etc.) are included for sake of completeness only, but are the shortest profiles. The courses included are ones from which the author believes there is much to be learned. Many of the courses are not ‘championship’ courses (whatever that means) or necessarily the best conditioned courses, but they share a single important characteristic: they are inspiring to play, be it by yourself, with your dog, family or friends."

I think 2009 is a really good year. A fine mix of courses that fly well below the radar, with representation from Flynn (including some of his very best work by all accounts, and notably the Country Club of Pepper Pike, one of the great unknown courses around); Fowler's Eastward Ho!; Ross' Essex County, surely one of his 10 best; Mackenzie's Cal Club (with an emphasis on the renovation work done there); a Raynor; even Robert Trent Jones. Ran had a great run from 2007-09; they are some of my favorite overall course profiles.

[Paul Jones]

When I grow up, I want to be Ran.

[Alex Miller]

2003

2002
2007

...in quality of courses. In quality of writeup Ran seems to continue to improve and the profiles of less-than-world-famous courses are actually more interesting to me anyway. Amazing what has been cultivated here.

[Bill Brightly]

On a related note... I've written about this before, but having any of you ever witnessed Ran play a course?

I'll never forget being placed in Ran's foursome at Bandon Trails as part of the GCA outing leading up to the opening of Old Macdonald. I had a 15 foot birdie putt on the second green and was pleased because Ran's ball was 25 feet away and almost exactly on my line. I knew that I was going to get a good read. I watched the other two guys play their pitches to the green, and turned around to see Ran's putt. But he was nowhere to be found! I looked everywhere and finally saw him about 100 yards away, snapping photos and studying the hole... I yelled "Ran, your putt." He waived me away and said "pick it up." It was at this point that I realized that some people take this gca stuff far more seriously than I do!

And yes, I missed the putt...

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()