[James Brown]

This thread makes me think about how I used to find out about golf courses in the pre-internet days when I was just learning to play in the early 1990s in college in Albuquerque.   It was all word of mouth.  There were some golf maps you could but and there were the golf magazines that would advertise “dream” courses.  I discovered every course within 100 miles of ABQ in about 3 years.  Discovered some real gems (like Cochiti Lake) and some totally weirdo courses too and it was always a treat to totally discover a new place. 


Now that we have all these resources available to us, I am definitely finding more better courses all over the world.  But I am surprised less. 

[Tim Leahy]

Pebble is better than its pictures in person and the pictures are great. Add a round at Spyglass and the trip is hard to beat.


The pictures I have seen of Pinehurst #2 dont make me want to travel across country to play there.

[JHoulihan]

There are many. Machrihanish GC, Brora, and Kilspindie would be my first 3 across the pond.


Justin

[Tim Gallant]

Not sure I am understanding this correctly, but the answer has to be Augusta right? Could you imagine hearing everything you've ever heard about Augusta and NEVER having seen the place? I wonder what impressions would be.

[Nigel Islam]

Lawrence Country Club in Lawrenceville, IL. Home of former ACES coach Marty Simmons amongst other more famous products. A Tom Bendelow nine hole course.

[John Kavanaugh]

Marty is now coaching at Clemson. The official team of GCA.com.

[Nigel Islam]

Marty is now coaching at Clemson. The official team of GCA.com.

Marty's players were usually class acts and his staff was great. He could coach offense, but only had the horses a couple years.


LCC was a neat round. I like playing courses I know nothing about and I like playing courses I've drooled over for years. It's neat seeing new places, meeting new friends, and playing with old friends.

[Kalen Braley]

I'm curious, for those who want to be honest about it..

Name a course or two you saw in pictures and then decided you wouldn't play, even if just passing thru...

I'll go first...I've seen lots of pics of Seminole, (and its not like I could ever access it anyways)....but I just don't get why its compelling.  Especially being located in the Western US, I couldn't imagine stopping in, even if I could... when/if I make it to Florida...

[John Foley]

This is a cool premise.


First one would be Leatherstocking - nice setting on the lake w/ the HOF down the road, I was always up for that first trip.



I've searched out lots of courses because of photo's I've seen here. Knowing what I've seen at Sand Hills, never seeing a photo of Sutton Bay, Prairie Club, Dismal River & Ballyneal I'd still try and get there.


I recently had the chance to get to Sand Valley and made the choice since I'd seen SV pics and played Streamsong and a few other C&C courses I'd play Mammoth Dunes. VERY glad I did, it's an Epic course.


Wanted to see Sea Island but once they started showing the PGA tourney there I'm less enamored with the place. I am SURE that it's still a great place just that discovery part is a big part of the experience I'm looking for.

[Thomas Dai]

I'm curious, for those who want to be honest about it..
Name a course or two you saw in pictures and then decided you wouldn't play, even if just passing thru...

I suspect there’s a course at Balmedie north of Aberdeen that might fall into this category for some folks. Some others with the same branding might also attract a similar reaction.
Atb

[Joe Hancock]

There’s a place in The UK that I don’t know the name, haven’t seen a picture of, and haven’t met new friends there yet. That’s where I want to go.

Will you be taking any old friends with you?

Yes, but you’re not old! (Of course, you’re more than welcome to come along anyway!)

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

Camden, New Jersey. I saw Pine Valley at the top of the magazine lists for years before Al Gore invented the internet and even the magazines had very few photos of it.

[Greg Smith]

I have to think about "non-photo" sources that would make me WANT to travel.   That means good golf writing.   As I'm a US golfer, that probably means the UK, and the golf writing would probably have to be either Patric Dickinson's little book, or something by Bernard Darwin.

Therefore, I would travel to.... Harlech.  Based on Dickinson's colorful piece, it seemed the best combination of the right trip for my personality and the right golf for my game.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Because you are not supposed to take photographs of it, I would like to see San Francisco Golf Club for myself, but won't now that I don't fly. You're not supposed to photograph a very famous course not far from New York, but I was allowed to take photos as I went round and have never published the photos, nor will I.


A course I think I've not seen in photographs is Glasgow, not Gailes but Killermont. Don't know how good it is, but it is said that one day a tree fell down, years after being blown up by a German bomb.


I hadn't seen more than one or two pictures of Hamburger Falkenstein before playing it. It was very good, though it has since been rebunkered and may be even better.


I also hadn't seen a single picture of El Saler before first playing it in the 1980s, when it was really off the map. It was exceptionally good, and I got a wonderful set of photographs later. Happy memories!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Even more obscure, I once played a course somewhere near Bangkok. Can't even remember what it was called, but it belonged to the hotel in which we were staying. I went out alone with borrowed clubs and a Thai lady-caddie who didn't speak English. All I remember is a lot of water and intense humidity. Imagine, going all that way and not even knowing the name of the course.

[Peter Pallotta]

Long before there was gca.com there was Scotland -- and a little later on, there was Long Island too. Post gca.com, there is England, and Pinehurst-NC. It doesn't take a genius to know where golf was meant to be played.
Peter

[Tom_Doak]

I'm curious, for those who want to be honest about it..

Name a course or two you saw in pictures and then decided you wouldn't play, even if just passing thru...

I'll go first...I've seen lots of pics of Seminole, (and its not like I could ever access it anyways)....but I just don't get why its compelling.  Especially being located in the Western US, I couldn't imagine stopping in, even if I could... when/if I make it to Florida...

The fact that many find it compelling, even though it looks boring in pictures, would make me want to see it.


Royal Worlington & Newmarket is also in that class.  And Hoylake.

[Ryan Coles]

I'm curious, for those who want to be honest about it..

Name a course or two you saw in pictures and then decided you wouldn't play, even if just passing thru...

I'll go first...I've seen lots of pics of Seminole, (and its not like I could ever access it anyways)....but I just don't get why its compelling.  Especially being located in the Western US, I couldn't imagine stopping in, even if I could... when/if I make it to Florida...

I wouldn’t pass them up obviously but there’s a few courses where to my eye the photos clearly don’t do the courses justice given how highly rated they are.


Sand Hills always looks like every hole is uphill to me.


Streamong reminds me of Vilamoura Laguna, which isn’t a compliment.

[Matt MacIver]

Whistling Straits looks pretty in pictures, but also looks hard - it was never high on my list but was for friends, so we went and had a nice time.  But now that Streamsong, Sand Valley, Cabot, more at Bandon — those pictures look more interesting to me. 

[Ira Fishman]

There is not a single course I have played in the past 10 years that was a result of photos.  For most, I never looked at photos until after playing as a way of refreshing memories.


Ira

[John Emerson]

I'm curious where you would not go now because of the pictures you have seen.

I’m curious of the converse: where have you gone, or do you want to go now, largely because you saw photos?

This is easy for me....thanks to your photos, I salivate over Sleepy Hollow.  There is no other course in the USA I’d rather visit.  I’m sure this could change but for the last 2.5 years I’ve seen amazing photos of places and visited some amazing places, but SH still remains.

[BHoover]

I'm curious where you would not go now because of the pictures you have seen.

I’m curious of the converse: where have you gone, or do you want to go now, largely because you saw photos?

Sand Hills, Pasatiempo, Eastward Ho, and Somerset Hills, among others.

[Terry Lavin]

I'm curious where you would not go now because of the pictures you have seen.

I’m curious of the converse: where have you gone, or do you want to go now, largely because you saw photos?

Sand Hills, Pasatiempo, Eastward Ho, and Somerset Hills, among others.

Ditto.

[V_Halyard]

Askernish: The descriptions I have heard convey a sense that you might disappear into a fabulous golfing twilight zone.
Cypress Point: Before I actually played golf, I heard a guy my late father knew supposedly from Fort Huachuca.
He was in his mid 50's probably year 1980-ish. He was black and cool like Marvin Gaye. I can't recall if he was a caddy at some point in his life but golf was his passion and he was describing it to my dad in a barbershop. (True Story)
He was clear he had NOT played it but described walking it one night after finishing a drive from Fort  Huachuca to "classes" near Monterey which in hind sight would assume were at the Defense Language School. He sat in a barber chair holding court with what I know now was a Saturday golf group. During a "touch up around his ears", he described walking down holes 13 through seventeen after dark, stumbled through what he called a "F****** Haunted Cypress grotto on 15 and the reveal of 16. He wrapped it up with the tale of how he almost got lost backtracking out so as not to get caught going up the hill to 18 and almost got hit on 17 Mile drive.
I always assumed he was a spy. As I matured I decided he could have been a scholar or in intelligence but spy makes for a more fun memory, plus he had a knack for starting the most fascinating stories, then just stopping cold and changing the subject.
His C-Point story burned an image in my head before I ever picked up a club.

Brora: Sounded insane. Magnificent dunes, roaming cattle and electric fencing around the greens. I couldn't wait to play it.

[Andy Ryall]

Original topic of seeing no photos:  Dornoch, Crystal Downs, Seminole
Seeing photos as main driver of interest: Sleepy Hollow, Tara Iti, Old Sandwich

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