Best Public Access Courses From 20 GCAs

[David_Tepper]

From CBM to DMK:


https://www.linksmagazine.com/personal-bests/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=insider12.13

[Tom_Doak]

I have always understood that having my best work be open to the public has been great for my career, but I never really thought about how rare it is until seeing the lists for the other architects on that page.


The only other designer whose career best are [nearly] all resort and public courses is Stanley Thompson.

[Matt_Cohn]

Didn’t realize Royal Melbourne and Mid Ocean and Karsten Creek and Yale were all public now. 

[Carl Rogers]

Cascades, Flynn.

[Ronald Montesano]

Anyone who calls Pasatiempo "good" is higher than every stoner from the 50s to the present day. Morons.

[Ronald Montesano]

Wonder if they consulted Ian on the ranking of the Stan (my middle name, btdubs) Thompson courses.

[Ronald Montesano]

I think that Dunes in Myrtle Beach is good at best. I would have put Golden Horseshoe Gold in there ahead of it. BS marketing ploy.

[Ronald Montesano]

God Rest his soul, how is Arnie even on this list?

[Ronald Montesano]

Doesn't any public course in Hawaii automatically enter the private category, for the freight it costs to get there and stay there?

[Garland Bayley]

Good, better, best are unfortunate choices for their ranking. What's wrong with 3, 2, 1?

Gotta think they may have the C&C order backwards.

[Daryl David]

The Stanley Thompson order is backwards too.

[Mike_Trenham]

Thousand Island by Seth Raynor?  In the pre-internet days I drove all the way there and found almost nothing of note.   Did I miss something?

[Andrew Harvie]

The Stanley Thompson order is backwards too.

Agree. I think most think Cape Breton Highlands is better than Jasper. Jasper is certainly better than Banff after the routing switch

[Tom_Doak]

Thousand Island by Seth Raynor?  In the pre-internet days I drove all the way there and found almost nothing of note.   Did I miss something?

Raynor doesn't have many candidates for public courses, unless you count the ones he did for Macdonald.

[Andy Shulman]

How does one course (Jasper) become better than another (Banff) solely based on a change in where the other course begins and ends?  I played both on a trip to the Canadian Rockies a few years ago.  They're both wonderful, but if I could play only one, it'd be Banff.  Tom's review in the Confidential Guide has one or two exclamation marks next to 14(!) of the 18 holes.

[Peter Pallotta]

Years ago I found myself wondering what golf in America might've been like if CBM's connections weren't with Wall Street but with local Chambers of Commerce, and if his financing came not from the stock markets-private investors but from municipal governments-public work programs instead. Maybe American golf wouldn't have developed differently at all, but on the other hand CBM might've set a pattern/approach that had others copying him for the next hundred years. If so, the good news is there'd be a heck of a lot of great public-municipal courses all across the country; but maybe the bad news is that Mr. K would've found the completely opposite niche, and all the Bandon courses would now be highly exclusive privates, akin to Cypress!

[Sean_A]

The private nature side of course development in the US isn't at all surprising. What I find far more interesting is why the European and North American models differ so much in terms of budgets and outside access. I strongly suspect the impact and pressures of two world wars account for many of the differences. However, I still find it somewhat surprising that from the 60s onwards when travel to Europe became easier that the North American model didn't shift a bit more toward the Euro model. That isn't just for outside access, but also for guest fees.

Ciao