What course really exceeded your expectations in 2014?

[BHoover]

For me, Springfield CC far exceeded my expectations.  I was expecting a fairly good course when I first played it early in the year, but I had no idea I would enjoy it as much as I did.  It's truly a hidden gem and another example of a very good (maybe even better than very good) set of greens.  The course is also fortunate to have a superintendent who truly "gets it" and wants to keep the conditions as firm and fast as possible, which is not always easy in central Ohio.  It's also one of the rare courses in the area that is built on sand-based soil, so that definitely contributes to the playing conditions.

Unfortunately, I had to leave because we left Ohio, but I'll be making a point to play there on my trips home... 

[Daniel Jones]

Barnsley Gardens - A really fun day of golf on a course whose dramatic property was a very nice surprise.

[Mark McKeever]

North Berwick blew me away this year.  Wow, both literally and figuratively.  I knew just walking up to the place I was in for a treat, but it's one of the best courses I've ever seen.  Everything about it encompasses what golf is meant to be.

I hope others can agree how special it is.

Mark

[ward peyronnin]

Tom

I played Hardelot last year or it would have made this cut. Isn't fantastic?

I know this sounds goofy but i felt at times I was on a hobbit movie set

[Josh Tarble]

Hyde Park Country Club in Cincinnati.

I believe they've recently undergone a renovation by Tim Liddy and it is fantastic.  An awesome set of greens, pretty rugged terrain, one of the best set of par 3s I've ever played and of course an excellent routing by Ross.  This place is severely overlooked.

[Mac Plumart]

The Cliffs Mountain Park #1

Sweetens Cove, as well.

[Ian Andrew]

Royal Melbourne East
Peninsula North
Laval sur le Lac (Blue)

Mark, it's funny you mention Laval sur le Lac (Blue).  I spent a few days there this past August for the playing of the Williamson Cup.  I really enjoyed it and heard that they might be getting the Canadian Open in a few years.

Chris,

It was supposed to be a done deal, but the woeful numbers for Royal Montreal + RBC's reluctance to go anywhere but Toronto has become a serious complication. PGA has been multiple times and I'm fairly certain they have signed off too.

I'm glad you and Mark enjoyed the experience.

3rd Hole


4th Green

[Stephen Kay]

I agree with all who mentioned North Berwick.  Now I did not play it this year, in fact it was way back in 1986 that I played North Berwick.  It was wonderful, and the Redan hole might not have been the best par 3.

I played Aronomink for the first time this year and it surprised me how good it was.  Of course I expected a Donald Ross course to be very good but it was better than very good.  Green surfaces very very good but still not as good as Ross's greens at Oyster Harbor on Cape Cod.

[Rob Marshall]

I thought Philly Country Club was fantastic. I didn't know much about it before I got there and it was the first Flynn that I've played. Really nice.

On a much lower level I played the Oswego Country Club this year. Much better than I had anticipated, really tight fun course. The front 9 is a Tillinghast and the back nine is Cornish. I have no idea how much of the Tillingast is original. I expected some deep bunkering but there was none. Still a fun round.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I had a few surprises this year.  I knew something about them before I teed it up but they definitely exceeded my expectations.  Roaring Gap was a stunner.  I loved the routing in the hills and the shots to and around the greens.  Augusta CC.  I knew it would be good but the terrain and green sites were just amazing.  Rounding out the top three is Old Town.  I could play it everyday.

[Paul Gray]

Hardelot (Les Pins), by a mile. Frank Pont and Patrice Boissonnas did a fantastic job restoring this cool old Simpson design. Hardelot is the kind of course that strikes the perfect balance between fun and challenge--I was engaged from start to finish, but never felt like I didn't have a shot. A great "everyday" course that should be on the radar of SE England travelers, as it's so close to Calais. When Frank and Patrice finish the job at Le Touquet, that'll be all the more reason to jump across the Channel for a day or two.  

Runner Up: Pasatiempo. I went in with high expectations, but those greens just blew me away. A work of art.  

I think I have to put the French Golf Coast on the list as soon as Le Touquet is done.

[Ronald Montesano]

This is going to seem quite odd, but my new (hopefully not one-and-done) home course exceeded my expectations. Here's the back story:

I live on an island in the Niagara river. On that island are two golf courses. One is a state-run muni that serves just fine. The other is a private club called River Oaks, designed in the late 1960s by Desmond Muirhead.

Through symbiosis, I was able to play golf on this layout all year long. The club was purchased by some fellows who really understand golf and club operations. They brought in a stellar greenkeeper as director of golf and he wasted no time in bringing the course completely up to snuff.

From the time Muirhead designed the course to play as close to a farmland links as can be envisioned, the former owner began to plant random, useless trees here, there and everywhere. This helter-skelter, arboreal assault closed off corridors, eliminated shots and turned a flexible, challenging golf course into a fairly narrow, average round of golf.

Under the new hands of guidance, River Oaks is opening its fairways back up. Trees are dropping on a routine basis and the enormous and segmented greens are now gaining firmness. The club hosted the AJGA New Era championship this year and as I photographed each round, I heard parents exclaim that they simply weren't used to courses of this quality...they then went back to hover over their progeny.

In the fall, I had the privilege of setting the course up for our high-school league championship. Although the course can extend to 7400 yards, I decided to set it to 6200. It rained on and off all day long and only one score came in under 73...a 67 from my number-one golfer. I had not given our guys any inkling as to the hole locations or the tee decks, as I was working for the league that day. He is a canny golfer and he shined brightly at River Oaks. Over the course of that round, I came to respect the course's immense elasticity.

I always knew that River Oaks was a decent track, but I elevated it in my personal rankings into the elite four in western New York. There isn't a weak hole on the course and I had tons of fun playing a variety of rounds like this: hole 1-tips; hole 2-back; hole 3-middle; hole 4-front; hole 5-tips and so on.

If anyone plans to pass through western New York in 2015, please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll do my best to arrange a golfing tour of Desmond Muirhead's finest New York state layout.

[Ash Towe]

The first 7 holes at Tara Iti.  If the rest of the course matches these holes then everybody who plays there is in for a treat.

[Dave McCollum]

For me Desert Forest and We-Ka-Pa Saguaro in Phoenix were this year’s surprise punches to my golf consciousness.  The ultimate, total knockout blow, overwhelming my sensory system, was Stone Eagle.  I’ve said this before, but that course completely blew my breakers.  I have no objective idea how that course stacks up against any other that I’ve seen.  I do have this subjective impression about golf courses in general:  there is Stone Eagle and then there is everything else.  I stood there looking at it and could not believe it was possible.  A totally unique golf course.  It defies every sensory impression that, in that landscape, it should even exist.  I played it like a baboon because I was so blown away it was like I was playing golf on foreign planet.  I couldn’t process what I was seeing, much less play the course in front of me.  More than any other course I’ve played, I want to play it again just to see if I can get the visual dissonance behind me and treat it like any other golf course.

Perhaps the shocking thing about the Stone Eagle experience, after the utter implausibility that somebody built a golf course there at all, was the conditioning.  I guess I expected something to match the rugged landscape (Mars-scape?).  To me, a regular golf guy who will enjoy the most primitive conditions, Stone Eagle was the best conditioned golf I’ve ever played.  It was perfect, Augusta-like I suppose, and I found myself wondering throughout the round if the designers and builders really expected or even desired such perfection.  I expected faster and firmer and browner, not that such lush and beautiful didn’t emphasize the mind-bending contrast with the rugged landscape, but it contributed to blowing the breakers.  I’d love to hear (offline) what Tom and his crew really think about such perfect conditioning and about how it matches with their vision of the course they wanted to create.  I say “offline” because it must be an incredible complement to the designers that the owners and members want present their golf course in a condition that elevates it to “work-of-art” status.  That’s it really:  I expected a golf course; what I experienced was a work of landscape art that didn’t just exceed my expectations, it left me speechless and unable to play because I was so visually over stimulated.

I could go on, but it would only be about my personal experience and not add much to any objective or intelligent view the golf course.  My view was anything but objective.  I was gob-smacked, blown away, and like nothing I’ve ever seen or experienced.  Does that make Stone Eagle a great course or nominate me as bumpkin?  Don’t know, so I’ll let you decide.

[Ed Brzezowski]

North Berwick blew me away this year.  Wow, both literally and figuratively.  I knew just walking up to the place I was in for a treat, but it's one of the best courses I've ever seen.  Everything about it encompasses what golf is meant to be.

I hope others can agree how special it is.

Mark
[/quot


Fully agree Mark, it is the total package. Easy to walk, full of history and great holes. A real treat.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Tom Dunne -- an everyday, 15 rounds in a week kind of course??


The course that exceeded my expectations this year by the furthest was Olde Farm. I tend to discount whatever Golf Digest says is great, but when you're right you're right.

The one course which really exceeded my expectations was Burning Tree.  You don't see many pictures of it anywhere, and the exclusive nature of the club discourages a lot of conversation about the course.  But I thought it was a terrific routing over a very interesting piece of ground, and there were more putts off greens in our three-ball than I saw anywhere else in 2014.

Since Mother Nature's not allowed on the property, somebody is going to have to manufacture an "ice storm" to take out a lot of trees. (Note to Kavanaugh: they have fans.)

The hole I would like to see them "do something about" is the 7th. With "advances" in technology it's caught betwixt and between. The answer might be as simple as moving the tee box. And lose a greenside bunker...maybe. OR just put it back the way it was. It's at the top of this comparo:
http://golfcoursehistories.com/BT.html

Here's another comparison -- advance warning to epileptics:

[Greg Tallman]

My return trip to Williams Country Club in Weirton, WV.  It was always a favorite of my fathers.  Back in the days of where the steel mills were flourishing it was a magnificent club.  Since then it has fallen on tough economic times but they still maintain a wonderful golf course.  I was completely befuddled in a good way but the hidden breaks in the greens.  We all look on in wonder at how a put would break.  Don't know if it was from settling of the turf but I could play there every day and be happy.

Probably the only course in my homeland i still need to see as for some bizarre reason never made it there.

[Terry Lavin]

Fox Chapel was quite simply a stunner. Great land, fun routing, excellent template holes and a fun vibe in the bar.

[Mike Hogan]

I had three courses that really surprised me. It's the old cliché that I knew they were good but not that good.

North Fulton a public city course in Atlanta an Egan/Jones/ Hagen design. The bones are there could use a restoration. The front nine is ok back nine is really good.

Waverly in Portland, great routing, fun and quirky.   

Plainfield in NJ. best Ross I have played, I was blown away by the greens and bunkering.

[Matt_Cohn]

Plainfield in NJ. best Ross I have played, I was blown away by the greens and bunkering.

Ditto!

[J_ Crisham]

Davenport CC- Colt/Allison design on a terrific piece of property with plenty of elevation change that is unusual for the Midwest. They are in the midst of a big restoration - looking forward to getting back next year to see the finished product. Should contend for best in Iowa with Wakonda, another gem that you never hear about because it is in Iowa.

[Rees Milikin]

I knew Lawsonia Links was good but it was much better than I expected.

Agreed, this is one of the courses that I had high hopes for, and came away more impressed that I ever expected. 

Honorable mentions:

Arrowtown Golf Club, this place was so fun and offered more than I expected, especially the front 9.

Sugar Cane Golf Club (Belle Glade, FL), the original 9 (looked at the newer 9 and passed on playing) was built in the early 40's and for being built on basically a swamp it is really fun and actually way better than I could have imagined.

[Adam Lawrence]

Hardelot (Les Pins), by a mile. Frank Pont and Patrice Boissonnas did a fantastic job restoring this cool old Simpson design. Hardelot is the kind of course that strikes the perfect balance between fun and challenge--I was engaged from start to finish, but never felt like I didn't have a shot. A great "everyday" course that should be on the radar of SE England travelers, as it's so close to Calais. When Frank and Patrice finish the job at Le Touquet, that'll be all the more reason to jump across the Channel for a day or two.  

The work at Les Pins is terrific, but the turf there is, as yet, nowhere near what the design screams out for. I know Frank and Patrice have been helping Ken Strachan and his team figure out a strategy for drying the course out and making it play firmer. Already more than worth a visit, mind.

Touquet blew me away. Colt’s design has been messed around with a great deal over the years, and the site is covered with crappy trees (except where Frank and Patrice have cut them down!) but you'd have to be a buffoon not to see the bones of something very, very special there. I saw some photos of the most recent work last week; if the dynamic duo get to do everything they want there it'll rival Morfontaine for the title of France's best course.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Hardelot (Les Pins), by a mile. Frank Pont and Patrice Boissonnas did a fantastic job restoring this cool old Simpson design. Hardelot is the kind of course that strikes the perfect balance between fun and challenge--I was engaged from start to finish, but never felt like I didn't have a shot. A great "everyday" course that should be on the radar of SE England travelers, as it's so close to Calais. When Frank and Patrice finish the job at Le Touquet, that'll be all the more reason to jump across the Channel for a day or two.  

The work at Les Pins is terrific, but the turf there is, as yet, nowhere near what the design screams out for. I know Frank and Patrice have been helping Ken Strachan and his team figure out a strategy for drying the course out and making it play firmer. Already more than worth a visit, mind.

Touquet blew me away. Colt’s design has been messed around with a great deal over the years, and the site is covered with crappy trees (except where Frank and Patrice have cut them down!) but you'd have to be a buffoon not to see the bones of something very, very special there. I saw some photos of the most recent work last week; if the dynamic duo get to do everything they want there it'll rival Morfontaine for the title of France's best course.

Interesting, Adam.

Are there any radical plans on the table at Touquet?

I played both Touquet La Mer and Hardelot Les Pins in 2005 and preferred the design of the latter...

[Terry Lavin]

Shoreacres is a course that I've played many times, but I didn't get there last year, so I didn't see Stage One of their work on the course.  I tried to get out there early in the year, but got rained out, so it wasn't until late September that I played and I was gobsmacked by the improvements that they implemented.  Sure, I've seen more dramatic work done on golf courses, like the total renovation that Flossmoor did a few years back, with more than 1500 trees getting whacked and all of the bunkers were redone in a classic style.  I've see Olympia South get a huge improvement by Smyers.  But I've never really seen something like the work at Shoreacres, because it was Restoration Minimalism at its apogee.  Trees were removed for various reasons, fairways were expanded to add angles and the rough grass around the greens was removed, which made the course much faster and difficult in a sly and ingenious way.  The work didn't disrupt play and it didn't cost all that much, but it was a HUGE improvement.  So, in an odd and unexpected way, a course that is in my Top 3 in town that I've played many times greatly exceeded my expectations.  Golf is funny that way, from time to time.