The Courses That Have Defined Your Golfing Life

[JJShanley]

We've a thread on magazine rankings that call into question whether we can rank golf courses, for a variety of good reasons.  Several posters have suggested that rankings are a half-truth: Yes we enjoy some courses more than others, but we can't compare two courses on drastically contrasting sites.  (NB: I consider a half-truth as containing 100% truth and 100% error.)

The following represents the courses which have somehow played an important part in my development as a golfer, with a brief explanation.

• Bethpage State Park (Green): My first course in the U.S., played during a road trip across the U.S. in 2003.  I took a cracking photo of #4, which hangs in my parents' house in Edinburgh.  I played with someone who didn't speak English, a drunk financier, and a decent New Yorker.  I'd a beer that day, which was great as I was only 20 on that trip, and they didn't card on the course.
• Blackthorn: Where I broke 80 for the first time after hand surgery that might have prevented me playing golf again.
• Braid Hills (#1): Possibly the most impressive skyline green of all (17); where you should tee it up on your first afternoon after arriving at Edinburgh Airport.
• Camargo: Where I begun to understand what architecture involved, after having sat on the patio at lunch thinking "this looks awfully wide open."  I three-putted Redan, but that didn't stop me from developing a profound appreciation for that template.
• Carrick-on-Shannon: Where I introduced a cousin to golf.
• Craigmillar Park: The course that I have played the most.
• Mount Prospect: First GCA outing.
• Rolling Green: Where I begun to understand how tree removal improves a course.
• Strandhill: An excellent example of a members' course, which offers a fun day out for visitors without any pretense.
• Warren at Notre Dame:Where I fell in love with golf again, and found a community of like-minded participants.
• Wigwam (Gold): Where I had the hat 32 years before I teed it up there.

Honorable Mention: Forest Highland (Canyon): Where I only played three holes due to lightning, but where I enjoyed a fascinating afternoon with a lately-deceased fellow Domer who shared his love of golf and the 46556.

I'd love to see a similar lists from other members of our community.

You can include any course, for any reason; just do so in alphabetical order.  You can have played it only once, or have played it over a hundred times.  Just tell us why you have listed it.

As much as anything else, I intend this as a thread where members can share the experiences they've enjoyed that don't fit into a Top-25 thread.  Similar to the "Guilty Pleasure" thread of a while back, where I got to know another poster after he talked about playing my old home course in Edinburgh while studying at University of Edinburgh.

[Sean_A]

I would have to start with Grosse Ile circa 1977-82 because I was inundated with classic architecture ala Ross from day 1 even if I didn't fully realize it at the time.  To this day I use Grosse Ile's greens as a quality bar.  I still treat golf as a walking game and retained my appreciation for courses which are well designed to walk.

Royal Troon circa 1992: It was the first links I ever played after a long lay off from golf.  I was fascinated much more by the conditions than the architecture and still don't think Troon is all that.  However, I do recall being in awe of Postage Stamp. 

West Links circa 1993: I didn't really know much about the course, but as with everybody else, I found it fascinating that walls, weird greens and blind shots could be such an integral part of architecture and the game.  This style of design was worlds apart from my daily dose in Michigan. 

TOC circa 1994: TOC is more akin with West Links than any championship links and the very thought that this type of architecture could be "validated" by hosting the golf's most important championship ~ every five years is still a bit mind blowing to me.

Pennard circa 1997: There are few things Pennard did for me. 

1. It was this course which solidified for me that what courses I was reading about in books and magazines only scratched the surface of the quality available if one is willing to look. 

2. I fully embraced the concept of extreme sites as a positive attribute if we allow for the fact that the best players won't be visiting....sort of TOC on steroids. 

3. Courses don't have to be well conditioned to be great.

4. Just as we can relive memories of youth through song, we can relive our golfing childhood through courses like Pennard. 

Kington circa 1999: Who needs bunkers?  Why can't more courses use completely artificial earthworks as features?

Cleeve Cloud circa 2010: Width.

Sacred 9 circa 2014: I heard about economy of design quite a bit, but this course really drove home the concept.

Ciao

[Peter Pallotta]

You guys will laugh at this, but there is a replica course northeast of Toronto called Wooden Sticks that I played some 20 years ago and that was instrumental in helping me understand/appreciate architecture as architecture. To this day I have not played a fairway so wide nor a green so large as on the replicate 18th at St Andrews, nor have I ever again found a fairway hazard as frightening or penal as the faux Church Pew bunkers there. Was it gimmicky? I honestly didn't find it so (though then and now I feel a slight urge to pretend I did) -- but if it was gimicky it also sure made crystal clear how certain architectural features 'worked' in the game of golf.

[Terry Lavin]

BeverlyBandon Dunes (PAC D mainly)
Sand Hills
LACC North
Shoreacres
Olympia Fields N&S

[Greg Gilson]

Nice topic. Thanks JJ


Southport (Australia)...grew up here in the 60's while my father was the original Club Professional. A childhood full of memories buffing members clubs and foxing practise balls while my father gave lessons


Cararra Par 3 & Range (Australia & NLE)...where my father went after Southport. Maybe Australia's first stand alone range. No such thing as ball picker uppers in the late 60's. 3 sons to fill that role doing it by hand - where I learned to have eyes in the back of my head. I guess I learned my short game on the par 3 course


Yarra Yarra (Australia)...first GREAT club & course where I had/have the honour of membership


National Old (Australia)...most fun course I get to play on a regular basis. Scene of some of my best and saddest memories. My father's ashes spread behind black tee on #7


Tobacco Road...maybe the "WOW" moment for me when I found my real interest in GCA


Cypress Point...nothing for me to say about the course but the scene of my wife/my favourite on course day together. One play only & we've turned down a couple of subsequent opportunities because we do not want to spoil the memory!


TOC...I love the course, the history, the town & the anticipation when driving in. Never tire of it. Looking forward to one more trip "home" someday


HONOURABLE MENTIONS (all for different reasons)...Pine Valley, Cruden Bay, NGLA & Morfontaine

[John Cowden]

Pasatiempo and Bandon Dunes.  It would take a small pamphlet to explain, but large portions of my golf life, my life, are framed by Pasatiempo in the '50/'60s and Bandon '99-on.   I'm blessed. 

[Rob Marshall]

Airco Golf Course Clearwater Florida-The club where my father first got me started. We had many 36 hole days and one 45 hole day while on vacation at my Grandmothers house. I've never looked back.

Pebble Beach/Spyglass-35 years later I played both and wished that my father was still with us so I could tell him what a great experience it was.

Penfield CC-a few years ago holing out a wedge on number 4 for an eagle from at spot in the fairway where I spread some of my fathers ashes. Oh and it was on fathers day.......

[Tommy Williamsen]

Lincoln GC in Michigan in 1956. The first course I played. I was eight years old. I didn't care about the course just tried to get the ball airborne. I played with hickories my Dad got me. I was hooked. I played the course years later and decided that playing golf was more important than the course. Then played it again and changed my mind. The quality of the course was more important to the enjoyment of the round than score.

Fort Meade golf club 1961-1964. I grew up on those two courses and learned how to play a variety of shots. When I think of playing my thoughts always go back there.

Riviera in 1983 was my first really good course. I didn't know how good golf could be.
Musgrove Mill in 1995. I had never seen anything like. I joined on the spot. It was fun, difficult, and beautiful with some of the most interesting greens and hazards I had played.

Ballybunion in 1991 was my first experience with links golf and fell in love.
Royal County Down in 1991 on my first trip to GB&I. It was the most difficult course I had ever played and loved every minute. It still is my favorite course in the world.

[John Connolly]

Petrifying Springs, park district course, Kenosha, WI - where I learned the game


Kenosha Country Club - my first private golf experience - Ross track that showed the power of small greens


Thunderhawk - park district course, Waukegan-ish, IL - experienced the joy of "bargain" golf


Skokie, Shoreacreas - where I learned the secrete sauce is benevolence off the tee with thumb screws applied at, and on, the greens


Every narrow, tree-lined course in the world - where I understood how it can all go wrong


Cal Club - the course that sits on my mantle. What I want my golf to be - wide, firm, vista-rich and with a great bar


DC Ranch, Scottsdale - where I realized great golf to me will sometimes vary significantly from the cognoscenti

[David Davis]

My golfing life is very young still but even so a fanatic dedication can make up for lost time or a late start.


My first ever pure golf trip greatly defined my golfing life so rather than a single course it was this mix that sealed my fait.


I arranged the trip for a close friends father who had just retired. We played: Old Course, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, North Berwick, Gullan #1, Muirfield and St. Andrews Bay (because we stayed here 1 night). My friends father was a very wealthy man and he stayed in the likes of Greywalls and a suite in the Old Course Hotel while I stayed right up the street in both cases in B&B's for less than 1/10th the price and had a wonderful time.


Noordwijkse Golf Club - I've probably learned more from Noordwijkse as any other course. It's the first and only personal membership I've ever had and still have. I spent a few years on the greens committee fighting an impossible fight. Sometimes you can learn a lot more from something that's done completely wrong than you can from something completely right because you have to work your way through all these details, what could be better and why. I strongly believe that Noordwijkse has one of the best pieces of land you could ever have for a golf course (and a links course at that) and through a history of unconscious incompetence it may never reach it's potential as one of the world's great links. A wonderful and certainly defining learning school!


Cypress Point - Because it freed me from the clutches of inevitability and a suffocating relationship.

[Frank M]

Going to keep this pretty simple.

TOC - There's nothing like The Old Course. 

Eastward Ho - This is my ideal golf course. Absolutely spectacular in every way.

Tobacco Road - If there is or was ever a more daring golf course I've yet to find it.

St. Georges (Toronto) - This is really just a masterpiece in the city and one of Stanley Thompson's finest. It spurred my GCA obsession.

Beacon Hall (Toronto) - I started working at Beacon Hall at just 11 years old as a caddy and walked those fairways for 6 years. It's a Bob Cupp/Tom McBroom design with two distinct, modern nines. I have always had a soft spot for the course, but it is very, very good with some really cool features throughout. 

[Greg Tallman]

Cypress Point - Because it freed me from the clutches of inevitability and a suffocating relationship.

Loved that story David and I understand completely!

I may have to unfriend you on FB though... I have had Sir Mixalot in my head for a couple of days now! Damn you.

Happy New Year.

[Thomas Dai]

A few phases, some overlapping to various degrees -
a - pitch-n-putt muni's
b - muni's
c - low spec private club membership
d - higher quality private club membership
e - open comps at other good quality courses
f - golf trips to higher standard and/or interesting courses
g - playing occasionally with hickories
h - the future? Who knows, a few targets exist although the front tees are beckoning!
Atb

[Ira Fishman]

I am new thanks to Ran's graciousness, but found this thread a great way on the New Year to reflect on the intersections between golf and real life.


Skokie Playfield (Winnetka IL)--Sleeping in car to get tee time so I could play with my father and his friends.


Cog Hill--Riding L from Skokie with my clubs at 7:30am to meet friends in Lincoln Park for breakfast and drive out for an every week 10:36 tee time which meant 11:45. Reverse commute with pizza for dinner and getting home by 10pm or so. Worth every minute because of quality of companions and fierceness of $1 skins and 25 cent Hogans.


Hog Neck (Easton MD)--Big highlight break from rota of mediocre publics in DC area for group of golf fanatic friends.


Silverado/Broadmoor--Played first with then girlfriend and now wife when she took up game because of fanaticism described above. She was horrified when a low line drive 3 wood hit a bird. But she too fell in love with the game. Hence a honeymoon at the Broadmoor (25th Anniversary too) plus at least twice yearly golf vacations.


Bryn Mawr--Playing so many times with my Father who traded in Playfield after having to sleep himself in the car. Do not understand why some on CGA have praise for the course, but for me the company more than compensated for its averageness.


Lahinch--As so many have noted, a simply transformative magical experience as the last round of the "classic" Irish trip by Americans.


Pine Needles/Mid Pines/Hope Valley--Our recent regular Rota which after all these years taught me what good routing really means. And although my wife is not an architecture buff, she takes great delight in explaining false fronts and back to front greens to non-golfers.


Thanks for letting me join and Happy New Year to all.

[JJShanley]

a - pitch-n-putt muni'slly with hickories
Atb

I can't believe I missed out Bruntsfield Links!  Site of my first ever tourney, which ended in a 9&8 loss in a 36 hole tie.

[Ken Fry]

I came to "serious" golf later in life.  Growing up playing hockey through college, golf was a past time.  I had my fun courses I'd play growing up in Massachusetts (how I wish I knew then what Golden Age gems were nearby).  Once out of college, the healthy obsession began.

Golf Club of Georgia:  I was hired on as a forecaddie.  The club had just won GD's "Best New Private Course."  I was introduced to guys trying to play for a living, guys who were playing for a living,  executives from major corporations and what the hottest golf course architecture at the time looked like.  This was my first experience in "big time golf."

Blackthorn GC:  My first experience opening a course and deciding to make golf my profession.

Warren GC at Notre Dame:  So many positive things happened when I was lucky enough to get the head professional position.  I met Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw, Jeff Bradley  and other team members.  I was introduced to this site.  I began to cut my teeth on what made a golf course great, not necessarily what makes it hard.  It's a shame I wasn't mature enough at the time to know I'd learn more if I spoke less and listened more.  There were some really solid people involved with that project.

Kingsley Club & Crystal Downs:  Fred Mueller from Crystal Downs invited the Director of Golf at Warren GC and I to visit him and play Crystal Downs.  He recommended we stop and play a new course about 40 minutes east of Crystal before coming over to play.  We took Mayfield Trail sure we made a wrong turn.  I stood on the first tee at Kingsley Club and my jaw dropped.  We played the front nine and I declared the course right then my favorite anywhere.  Then we drove to CD.  I stood on the first tee and my jaw dropped again.  We finished 18 exhausted from the best golf day I had had up to that point.  My interest in architecture took off from there.  I would never look at golf courses the same way (for the better).

Lawsonia:  This one is simple.  Inexpensive golf doesn't have to mean dumbed down architecture.  Plus, golf can be REALLY FUN without being sadistically hard.

Happy New Year all!  All the best to more meaningful rounds in 2017.

Ken

[Pete_Pittock]

Pacific Dunes  the first course I saw under construction, my perfect course. Was there the week the final routing was chosen.
When asked my opinion (after the fact) I said that if that was the best routing golfers would accept it despite the disparate sides.


Sandpines   Winter golf in the PNW is rain and soft ground conditions. When the course opened I could look forward to playing golf year round. The more I played there, the more I saw the missed opportunity.


Sagebrush    I joined the Posse despite sitting out a lot of the GCA outing with a sprained ankle. That was a blessing in disguise
because I spent a lot of time talking with Terry, Richard and Don. Relegated to riding it became my replacement for Bandon, despite being a 7 hour drive, one way.


St. Andrews   Always wanted to play it. Talked my father into the trip. Discovered Prestwick and North Berwick along the way, as well as finding my game was much more suited to links golf. Made a pilgrimage to play the reverse course. It started my golf course architecture library, which morphed into travel planning sources before Gore invented the internet.


Tualatin   Joined there the year after the St Andrews trip so I could access private clubs on golf vacations here and overseas. Became involved with the Green committee for a number of years, including a rerouting and improvements of the course.
Can't claim too much influence because we had two USGA champions, a future pro and a future architect on the committee.

[jeffwarne]

Ken,
good stuff.
Interesting evolution-wish others in the biz could evolve as well

[Mike_Duffy]

Paraparaumu in 1957 as a very young teenager. I remember it well even to this day 60 years later.
Royal Melbourne 1961. I recall every hole I played that sweltering day in January of that year as well as my playing partners, including a 76-year-old doctor who almost equaled his age by shooting a 77 over the magnificent West Course.

[Tim_Weiman]

For me, there is one golf course that stands above all others, although I doubt it has ever been discussed here and has no claim to fame except a guy named Babe Ruth was a member and apparently played there often.


The course is Leewood Golf Club in Eastchester, New York. That is where I feel in love with golf courses at about three years old.


Every great golf course I have had the good fortune to see became part of my life because of Leewood and the huge impression it made on me as a toddler.

[Connor Dougherty]

There's no doubt that Pasatiempo tops this list for me, when I made my first go-around it in high school, it was seeing that course which ultimately got me into architecture, as I marveled at the the green contours and bunker placement. Caddying for a friend the next day as he played in a US Am qualifier (where they had the greens stimped at 13!!!). Doing research on Pasatiempo brought me to this site, and I can confidently say that Pasa has had more influence on my life than any other golf course.


From a personal standpoint, no place has made me fall in love with the game than Nicklaus' Old Greenwood in Tahoe. Playing up there in the summers through what was one of the most difficult times in my life as a kid was everything. It was the place I went to to escape, relax, and reflect. It's not an architectural treasure by any means, but there's enough there to make it interesting, and there is no place I have more of a personal connection with.


But without going into further detail, the other courses which significantly changed the way I viewed golf architecture and have ultimately come to define much of my golfing life are as follows (and surely I could add more to this list): Shinnecock Hills, Camargo, TOC, Lawsonia, Sheep Ranch, and Tobacco Road

[John Kirk]

Stanford University GC
Pumpkin Ridge GC
Pacific Dunes
Ballyneal

I'm a lucky guy.  I've had a nice golfing life.

[Martin Lehmann]

After I took up golf as a youngster, about 40 years ago, I was lucky enough to play a lot of golf at De Pan in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Back then, I wasn't aware of Harry Colt, who designed De Pan, let alone of his fame as golf course architect. But those early rounds defined my ideas about the way a golf course should play and look: natural, simple, elegant and completely balanced.My love for golf became permanent after a round at The Old Course as a student. With a half set of old clubs in a pencil bag around my shoulders, I played in a flight with a wealthy American and his daughter. They were lousy golfers but extremely friendly and more importantly, they had hired two Scottish top caddies. From that moment on, I realized that this was the home of the greatest game ever invented.

[Criss Titschinger]

JJ, this is a great thread, and I’ve been enjoying the entries so far.

I’m sure I’ll see lots of well known courses on here. My entry into golf, and therefore golf course architecture appreciation, is a bit different.

Delhi Hills Par 3 - Cincinnati, OH
My parents had a house on the third tee, so I basically grew up on this course my entire youth. While I could do the occasion loop and possibly sneak on to play a couple holes, I was not a golfer in my youth. I was a soccer player through my sophomore year of college. The course is family built, owned and operated, and I’m sure only exists today as a write-off.

Arcadian Shores Golf Club - Myrtle Beach, SC
What I believe was my first 18 holes on a big boy course; at the age of 16. Didn’t plan on golfing during that family vacation, but we drove by the course on the way to our villa and it looked interesting. I didn’t know a thing about Rees Jones at that point. While I played mostly terrible, but I remember most is a tee shot into a par 3 that hit a rake and ended up a foot from the cup. Still the closest I’ve come to a hole-in-one.

Kiawah Island Resort (Cougar Point) - Kiawah Island, SC
When I was 21, I took a trip with some friends and stayed in their parent’s villa. Similar story as above; drove by a lot of golf that week, and finally decided to bite the bullet and play. I’m not sure what I was thinking putting that much money into a round of golf at the time. Somehow I pared the first hole and had a 5ft putt to par the 18th (which I missed). This time, the golf bug stuck and wouldn’t let go.

Indian Ridge Golf Club - Oxford, OH
This is basically where I learned to play golf while I finished school at Miami University. As much as I realistically could, between studying and socializing, I would try to get out there and play. Hueston Woods had the cheap student rate on Thursdays, but I enjoyed the variety of holes at Indian Ridge much better.

Canterbury Golf Club - Beachwood, OH
Playing in the 2014 Midwest Mashie was the first time I got to meet a lot of the people I’ve met through GCA in person. It was also my first time playing a club with a high level of stature and history. My rounds at Canterbury showed me what a club and course could be at its highest level. While I played poorly, I used that experience to improve many aspects of my game. I also won’t soon forget the friendships forged during that weekend either.

[Jon Wiggett]

The course that shaped my basic game was Dewsbury District Golf Club which is a hilly part wooded, part exposed heath/moorland course full of awkward lies and shaped shots. Here I learned the importance of being able to play from an uneven lie and tricky shots around the green.


Howley Hall GC between Batley and Morley which is an early Mackenzie for the main part where I learned the importance of keeping the next shot playable by plotting my way round the course and playing sensible shots where needed.


TOC in the late 80's where I learned ground contours not hasards make a course challenging and width adds opportunities to the play.


Finally, Kilspindie where I learned that it is the short course that is the most fun to play.


Jon