[Joe Bausch]

For me it is Bethlehem Municipal GC, now called Bethlehem Golf Club. 1960's William and David Gordon Course that is long and tough. In the early 80's the whites played at 6500-6600 and the blues were 7000+. There were only three sets of tees and all high school matches played from the whites. Back then it was $185 for a junior membership that gave me unlimited golf from March 1st to October 31. Remember not really getting charged the rest of the year.


Went back to play it earlier this year and played from where the old whites were. They now have black tees where the old blues were and where we played it was around 1-200 yards longer than where they have the blues now, with a set of whites at 6100 or so. There are yellow and red tees in front of them.


The course has clearly aged. The green shrinkage was very significant on many holes and obvious to me. At some point the beautiful flashed bunkers that had sharp cuts at the fringes have been rolled over so that most of the bunkers are now flat bottomed with grass faces. This was done sometime in the 90's or so I believe.


All in all still a good challenge. Pretty much everyone that I know that grew up there all hit the ball hard. You really had no choice if you wanted to be competitive. An interesting topic would be how the course you learned on affected how your game developed.

http://www.myphillygolf.com/uploads/bausch/Bethlehem/index.html

[Jason Thurman]

Wild Turkey Trace in Lawrenceburg, KY, although I'll always call it by its original name: Bob-O-Link.


Like most of the courses in central Kentucky built somewhere between 1950 and 1980, it's a Buck Blankenship design with 18 fairways and greens routed efficiently on a less-than-ideal property that used to be a farm. It's where I first played and where I first heard the click of hard spikes on concrete. The pond at the 8th is where I used to dump all the balls in my dad's bag, because I liked the splash. The bunker right of 9 green is where I made my first sand save. I swallowed a fly as a five year old at 14 tee and remember washing it down with the lemonade they used to keep in the cooler - that's the same spot where my grandfather had one of his several heart attacks. He survived, as always. For now at least.


Like most of Buck Blankenship's designs, the course's highlights come in spots where a hole had to be "improvised" a bit between all the straight and slightly doglegging 375-ish yard par 4s that Buck seemed to favor. But there are some good ones! I really like 2 with its winding stream and OB right, the driveable 3rd, the ridge-running 11th, the tiny 120-ish yard 13th to an even tinier green benched into a hillside, and the reverse-camber 14th.


I've played one round of golf since July - the annual church fundraiser scramble that I play with my family. It was, as always, a blast. And as she always does, my mother and I joked about heart attacks and flies on the 14th tee. And then, as always, I hit my best drive of the day.


I believe you can purchase a membership for around $300/year.

[Pete_Pittock]

       Tough question for me.  Portland GC was where I started playing. After 10 years of itinerant golf, RTJ Jr built municipal West Delta Park and I joined the men's club and stayed for four years. At 6600ish it had runway tees, biggest greens I had ever seen,lakes, true  doglegs and reachable par 5s, and a doublewide trailer for a clubhouse (still the clubhouse). It is now Heron Lakes - Greenback and hosted a USGA Publinx and the PGA Northwest Open. I abandoned it four years later after my first trip to Scotland and I discovered the value of be a member at a private course, since I knew I would be headed overseas again and again.
       But my home course would be the HC Egan Tualatin CC, in the southern suburbs. I stayed 25 years until I had issues with the lower section flooding, made many lifelong friends, stayed in the lounge way too much. Working swing shift I was able to play 5-6 rounds a week. Longtime member of greens and handicap committee and watched John Fought go from good amateur to USGA Amateur Champion, tour player and fledgling architect (his family went to west Ireland every year).

[Steve Lang]

   do it every summer... Ottawa Park, Toledo, everyone that lived around it and played it for 50 cents before 10 am in the summers, we met many there and went to same high school, we've had memorial tourney there countless times since 1982... its called "The Country Club"


Vintage 1899, first 9 holes, 2nd pub course in USA, but some holes carved out of woods by dutch farmers prior to that date


first USGA Am Publinks Championship held there in 1922, thanks to SP Jermain, 100year anniversary should be interesting, some great stories


i am remiss in not finishing my Home Course writeup, maybe this time... entitled "5000 Yards of Golf"

[Bill_McBride]

I remember asking Mike Hendren to give an after dinner talk during a Kings Putter at Bandon Dunes about growing up on an unirrigated nine hole course in Tennessee. As you might imagine, Bogey came through with a beauty, tears of laughter were flowing freely. I remember playing a similar course in Newman, Georgia, where I was an infrequent visitor. There were some baked out bumped up greens where you had to deploy some unusual short game shots to survive!

[Mike Hendren]

Bill,  hopefully you followed up with a little q at Sprayberry's.

Bogey

[Tim Gavrich]

For me, that course is Pawleys Plantation in Pawleys Island, SC, where my family spent a lot of time in the summer while I was growing up, and where I would play my golf while living in SC from 2011 to 2014. Its relentless 1980s Nicklaus difficulty don't make it a darling of this crowd, which is fair enough, but having logged hundreds of rounds there over the year, it's clear it had a significant effect on my golf game. It toughened me up to be able to play difficult courses well in competition, and to keep the ball in play.


I haven't logged too many rounds at Pawleys in the last few years now that I live in FL, and I find myself missing it a lot. Maybe I'll get up there for a couple rounds over the winter.

[Richard Fisher]

In the summer of 1967 my Dad bought me a lesson from the local pro at Harlech, Jimmy Black. I was then aged eight, and that August I became a junior member of the Royal St David's Golf Club, an institution I have been proud to call 'home' in golfing terms ever since (even though it's more than 200 miles from Cambridge, where I have spent my adult life). I still get a thrill like no other in rounding the final bends into the little town and seeing first the castle and then the links spread out below, and thinking that I am heading to the place where, in the end, I have had more fun than anywhere else. The RStD certainly has its challenges at present (financial, reputational, drainage) as does the town of Harlech itself (major economic and architectural issues), but it's still my favourite place for a game of golf.

Incidentally, at the age of eight I had obviously no idea of the distinction of my first teacher - Jimmy Black was, and I think still may be, the only man to have won both the Welsh Amateur and Welsh Professional championships. Sadly only a tiny fraction of that playing distinction has ever rubbed off on this particular student...

[Tom Ferrell]

My golf home will always be "Old Okefenokee" (NLE) in Waycross, GA.  Old Oki didn't boast much of a golf course - lots of parallel fairways, embarrassingly short par-5s, a couple of decent par-3s.  But it also had shared tee complexes, loads of characters and a rich history of loving golf.  There were 15 or 20 of us who played there every day in the summer, paying our 50-cent GF and slugging it out.  RL Miller, who won the 1932 Public Links, hung around and gave advice.  The railroad men played the Dogfight every afternoon at 3:00.  You knew you had graduated up the ranks when you got invited to play in it.  Some of us are still in the golf business.  Some played on Tour.  Some have passed away.  The clubhouse burned in 1974, and the old club never was the same again.


Eventually, the members bought a parcel of sandy, scrubby land on the banks of the Satilla River.  Really beautiful property for golf (not unlike the land that Ohoopee Match Club occupies).  Joe Lee did the course.  I spent many afternoons walking around with Joe and Rocky Roquemore, watching them design, put down the bones and prep for grow-in.  And in March, 1977 - at 14 years old - I played "New" Oki on opening day. 


New Oki is a far superior golf course - a true hidden gem and one that, with a little love and cash, could indeed be world-class.  And the club is outstanding, though the days of the colorful cast of Old Oki are gone forever.  I am and will always be a non-resident member, though I rarely travel to Waycross anymore.  Those infrequent trips, however, truly are going home. 

[David Wuthrich]

For me it started at age 12 at a local Junior College 9 hole course, San Jacinto.


You could play all day for $ 1.


My Dad would drop my brother and I off on the way to work during the summer months, with a sack lunch and 25 cents for a soft drink. 


We would play as many holes as we could until it was time for him to pick us up after work.


Sadly it no longer exists and they needed the land to expand the Junior College.


It allowed me to grow to love the game and make great friends along the way.


Great memories!

[TAG]

Blush Hill Country Club in Waterbury, VT.

The 1st green was just across the street from my family's home, so I would play lap after lap on the 9-hole layout all summer, stopping to make hot dogs at home in between rounds.


"Featured Hole" would have to be #3, the 205 yard Par 4 over a ravine (great for sledding in the wintertime). Out of bounds lined the left side of the hole from "ass-to-fringe" (White stakes were literally on top of the left tee marker and went in a straight line all the way to the left edge of the green). The iconic feature of the hole was the 300-foot tall radio tower that blocked a straight shot to the green; to hit the green required a tight draw around the tower but not left of the green, where OOB lurked just left. needless to say, it was a good way to learn a draw.


If you've ever driven to Stowe, Sugarbush, or Burlington from the south you've seen the set of three towers- the one in play was the third on the hill.


Sadly, BHCC has been in terrible financial trouble for some time, resorting to selling off their driving range for housing lots. In general, the golf course has little to be offered from a design perspective, but I literally grew up playing thousands of holes a summer and have wonderful memories of learning the game there as a kid.

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