27 Hole Courses: How Do They Work?

[JJShanley]

I imagine that someone will give me a very short answer to this question, but I ask it as I have no idea.  Nor have I ever played such a course.


Does the club nominate particular pairs of nine holes for a given day?  AB one day, BC the next, CA after that, with the "spare" nine closed or reserved for nine hole golf?  Or does it start groups off A and B simultaneously, with groups playing one of the other nines to finish off?

[Daniel Jones]

One in my town typically kept all 3 nines going, with groups starting on A&B and then turning to C or the other 9. As it turned out, "C" was the outlier of the group and no one ever wanted to play it, so it was eventually closed and converted into a park.

[Scott McWethy]

My club has 27 holes and they alternate each day, but it also depends on the maintenance crew as well.  Having three nines allows the crew to do the work on a particular nine without being bothered.  When work is being done it is usually completed by mid-day so it opens up all the nines for play.  With 27 holes, even on a busy day, there is usually no wait on any holes.

[Bill_McBride]

My club has 27 holes and they alternate each day, but it also depends on the maintenance crew as well.  Having three nines allows the crew to do the work on a particular nine without being bothered.  When work is being done it is usually completed by mid-day so it opens up all the nines for play.  With 27 holes, even on a busy day, there is usually no wait on any holes.

Scott, is there a combination of nines that is regarded as the "competition" course?   i.e., the club championship is played over those nines in that order?


Our local 27 hole course is the Navy course at NAS Pensacola.  The three nines are Bayou, Lakeview and Bayview.  The most frequent 18 round is Bayou/Lakeview.  Bayview is the most fun, has the quirk, so it's fun to play it as the second nine every now and then.  But an "event" will be Bayou/Lakeview.  Too bad.

[Ash Towe]

At my club, all three nines used on Wednesday and Saturday.  Other days 18 holes only.  Sunday starts with 18 and expands to 27 later in the morning.

[Scott McWethy]

My club has 27 holes and they alternate each day, but it also depends on the maintenance crew as well.  Having three nines allows the crew to do the work on a particular nine without being bothered.  When work is being done it is usually completed by mid-day so it opens up all the nines for play.  With 27 holes, even on a busy day, there is usually no wait on any holes.

Scott, is there a combination of nines that is regarded as the "competition" course?   i.e., the club championship is played over those nines in that order?


Our local 27 hole course is the Navy course at NAS Pensacola.  The three nines are Bayou, Lakeview and Bayview.  The most frequent 18 round is Bayou/Lakeview.  Bayview is the most fun, has the quirk, so it's fun to play it as the second none every now and then.  But an "event" will be Bayou/Lakeview.  Too bad.

Bill, I would say holes 1 - 18 are the main course.  The third nine opened a year after the initial 18 was opened, so it's always been viewed as the third nine, although it is just as good as the others.  There isn't a defined set of 18 holes though for tournaments.  The club championship this year was over two days.  The first day was holes 1-18.  The second day was holes 10 - 27.

[Jason Topp]

At the public course I play most frequently there are two hour blocks of tee times.  From around 7-9 am (exact hours change with the season) people tee off on all 3 nines and then rotate for their second nine.  A new block starts up around two hours later.  After the 2nd rotation twilight rates kick in.


It works pretty well.  Most people favor the East/West combination but my group prefers North/East.  The nines are close enough in quality that complains about playing a combination different from ones' favorite seem relatively light.  It also adds to the post round atmosphere because many groups will finish around the same time your group finishes. 

[Richard Fisher]

There is clearly a difference between those clubs with an 'old' or 'principal' 18, plus a relief 9 (as at the Gog Magog GC before the opening of the Wandlebury Course), and those with a nominally balanced set of three nines. In the British Isles, I guess that (maybe) Portmarnock and certainly St George's Hill and Prince's would be the best examples of the latter. I have only ever spent one day at lovely SGH, but recall that we were able to play all 27 in the course of our 36 hole day. At Prince's, on a windy spring Sunday afternoon, we could do pretty much what we wanted, but I guess that is not the norm. I suspect that in practice there is an established members' preference for the 'two best or most enjoyable' nines to go together, at least seven times out of ten?

[Ally Mcintosh]

There is clearly a difference between those clubs with an 'old' or 'principal' 18, plus a relief 9 (as at the Gog Magog GC before the opening of the Wandlebury Course), and those with a nominally balanced set of three nines. In the British Isles, I guess that (maybe) Portmarnock and certainly St George's Hill and Prince's would be the best examples of the latter. I have only ever spent one day at lovely SGH, but recall that we were able to play all 27 in the course of our 36 hole day. At Prince's, on a windy spring Sunday afternoon, we could do pretty much what we wanted, but I guess that is not the norm. I suspect that in practice there is an established members' preference for the 'two best or most enjoyable' nines to go together, at least seven times out of ten?

I think in the case of Portmarnock and St George's Hill, there is clearly an established 18 and then a third nine, despite the fact that in both cases the quality of all 27 is similar. I believe a club works better in this fashion.

Princes is more of a genuine 27 as fas as I can tell.

[Adam Lawrence]

I would not agree that the third nine at St George's Hill is comparable in quality to the main course. It is much shorter, which doesn't bother me but does others, and it contains by far the worst hole on the property (the fourth). There are some good bits, but it's not up to the standards of either of the main nines by a long chalk.

[jeffwarne]

I would say a 27 hole complex (as opposed to a core 18 and a relief nine)has a very poor chance of being recognized or ranked as the confusion/rotation would work against it.
Glen Oaks has 27 fine holes but they all tend to run together and it's difficult to figure out what 18 hole course one is referring to.

[JJShanley]

Thank you everyone!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

The Wisley (RTJ 2) has three nines of pretty well equal length and difficulty. There are separate cards for different combinations of nines. I've only played it once (very private).


Kennemer is a club with three nines. A combination of holes from all three courses is used to make up the Dutch Open course (one of the few links courses on the European Tour schedule). On my various visits I have been told which two nines are being used that day.

[Adam Lawrence]

Kennemer is an interesting one. The two Colt nines are on the quieter land, while the third nine, which was routed by Colt but not built till much later, by Frank Pennink, occupies bigger dunes. Yet most agree it's the weakest of the three, with less sophistication around the greens, for example.

[Adrian_Stiff]

They all work differently. Much depends on the position of the clubhouse, equal quality of each nine. As for which is the main 18, if you don't have one that in itself is a problem, but better to have that problem and equal quality or else the other nine is exactly that.

[David_Tepper]

The Poppy Ridge course (owned by the NorCal GA and designed by Rees Jones) in Livermore, CA is a public course with 3 nines that uses all three nines every day. On any given day, you may play nines A&B, B&C or C&A.

[Ulrich Mayring]

The solution to the 27 hole problem is not hard, but you need a computer to figure out the tee times and a marshal to keep play moving along. One local course does it approximately like this:

At 9 AM they're starting with 18 hole tee times for A+B. They're also starting another set of 18 hole tee times at 9 AM over C+A. At 11 AM the players from the first set are starting on B and the players from the second set are starting on A. But nobody is on C. So from 11 AM to 1 PM they're putting out a set of 18 hole tee times over C+B. At 1 PM the first two sets are done and the third set is on B. So now they're starting all over: one set going off on A+B and another on C+A.

That way they're running their course at capacity.

Ulrich

[Wayne_Kozun]

Hamilton is another example of a 27 hole course that is sometimes in the World top 100, although the course normally ranked is the West-South combination which is the original Colt layout as opposed to the East nine which was built in the 70s, although I am not 100% sure that the East doesn't include at least one of the original holes and vice-versa.

[Philip Hensley]

I worked at a 27-hole course one summer. It was a mix of local retired members and tourists, all that wanted to play in the mornings. So it was very packed in the mornings, and not so much in the afternoons.


Tee times would generally go off A & B, with C either as an overflow starting tee, or C would be the 2nd 9 for alternating groups from A & B.


A & B were more popular than C, so C was a great way to play quickly if you didn't care which 9 you were playing.

[Will Peterson]

Does the club nominate particular pairs of nine holes for a given day?  AB one day, BC the next, CA after that, with the "spare" nine closed or reserved for nine hole golf?  Or does it start groups off A and B simultaneously, with groups playing one of the other nines to finish off?

A course I frequently played would have A turn to B, B turn to C, and C turn to A to keep all 27 in play.  Tee times were scheduled like a double tee start with time for everyone to turn.  It was a resort, and would get large amounts of play.

[Sam Krume]

i think Princes would be the best 27 hole course i can think of. The main 18(shore & dunes) are mainly used for the visiting golfer & comp play where as the 3rd 9(Himalaya's) tends to be used by the members in addition to play on either shore or dunes. All 3 nines are now of equal measure since the recent work carried out by the club brought the himalaya's holes & conditioning back in line with the other nines. Play the himalayas and visit Sarazens bunker.

[Jerry Kluger]

Ridgewood has 27 holes.


Osprey Point is a public venue in Boca Raton, Florida that opened a few years ago and has 27 holes.  I have played there a few times and as far as I can tell they use all 3 nines all day except when they close one for maintenance.  It is simply if you start on 1 you go next to 2, start on 2 and go to 3, and start on 3 and go to 1.  They will vary it each day where you might start on 2 and go to 1, etc.

[Mike Policano]

Ridgewood's 27 were built by Tillinghast. All three nines opened the same day in May 1929.

The nines, East, Center, West, are all comparable in quality.

All three nines are open every day the course is open. The nines play in a set order East-West-Center. The starter decides which nine you start on and members generally have no preference.

All three nines have been used in tournaments including the 1935 Ryder Cup, US Am, US Sr Open and US Sr PGA. A championship course using holes from all three nines is used for the Barclays.