"Kyle, just because you're growing the beard longer doesn't mean you need to pull on it quite so much..."
-"Quiet, there's relevancy here."
I am loathe to accept the notion that an "average" golfer exists, at least in terms of a meaningful statistical notion from which business or artistic decisions can be based. More interesting to me are the modalities of categories of golfer.
Let's talk about one of those modalities.
Let's talk about the guy whose personal "Top 10" list of golf courses is populated with the only 8 courses they've played. This list is likely topped by some destination golf course or golf courses (Maybe Bandon, Streamsong, or Pinehurst - but Hilton Head, Myrtle, or a one-off like Pebble or somewhere in Scottsdale is FAR more likely) followed by whichever private clubs in their home town they could play somehow.
Maybe the third/fourth/fifth course on the list is that course they play most frequently, and maybe you're having a conversation with them, right now, at the bar at that course.
Which course is next?
And that question is the basis of this concept... is it possible the greatest golf courses, greatest golf holes, greatest maintenance melds are... unknown?
Are they secure from this scrutiny through being obscure?
During the dinner for the Renaissance Cup at Streamsong in 2012, I had the pleasure of hear Tom Doak's love letter of the Himalayan Golf Course. The golf course certainly existed prior to Tom Doak's visit but it hadn't been in our consciousness until Tom's visit. The problem with a place like this is that while it is remote, as a golf course is not obscure. No golf course serves to "hide" the place by drawing attention away nor are there any "hidden gem" type places nearby.
It's always curious to talk to the golfer at the bar who's only played a handful of places because they don't know what they don't know, but what they do know is something you may not know.
What kind of course draws the line? Which ones are they? Let's push the obscure a little bit deep down the barrel, eh?
My first candidate: Diamond Hill in Dover, FL. Home of the best bunkerless 650-yard Par 5 I've ever seen.