[Jon Sweet]

Let me start by saying I’m sure this has been done before.
What is a universally or well respected course you’ve played, walked, or seen numerous times that you just don’t get. IE what’s all the fuss?
Before we stir up a bunch of name calling and rageAholics, Torrey Pines doesn’t count.
I’ll start.
Kinloch GC in Virginia.
Modern, conditions flawless, constantly in the top 100, played it numerous times. If I never do again, I’d be just as happy if I played it 100 more times. Not awful per se, just lacks soul. Some really yuck holes for me, the 9th is horrendous, 18 is as ho hum as it gets. Course is consistently in the top 100 and best of state. I can think of numerous others in the immediate area that are better.
Edited to include rageAholics as opposed to rageholics.

[Brad Lawrence]

I agree on Kinloch.  Nice place, great service, wonderfully maintained turf... but average to slightly better than average layout. I don’t get the sense I’m playing a top 100 course.


The most disappointing course for me is Bethpage Black.  I appreciated it a little less each of the four times I played it. Once the novelty of it hosting a U.S. Open wore off, I realized I didn’t like it that much. Narrow strips of fairway remove any strategic value and a very boring set of greens. It’s 300 acres of rough and sand. It’s an example of just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s great.

[Ryan Van Culin]

The Golf Club outside Columbus, Ohio.


I may get booted for this, but the one time I played it, it just didn't do much for me. I really tried to get everything I could from it because I had heard all about it and did a good bit research knowing I would play there.


That being said, I'm sure I know more now than I did then, so maybe I need to try to go back.

[Jon Sweet]

The Golf Club outside Columbus, Ohio.


I may get booted for this, but the one time I played it, it just didn't do much for me. I really tried to get everything I could from it because I had heard all about it and did a good bit research knowing I would play there.


That being said, I'm sure I know more now than I did then, so maybe I need to try to go back.

Buddy of mine caddied there and loved it. I hope to see it soon. Nothing to apologize for. Golf courses are similar to music, we’ve all got our type. It either speaks to you, or it doesn’t.

[Garland Bayley]

Saunton East. I'm probably not alone on this as several posters have preferred Saunton West even though east gets all the press and ratings.

[Jon Sweet]

Saunton East. I'm probably not alone on this as several posters have preferred Saunton West even though east gets all the press and ratings.


Flyover and hole by hole looked promising, not what you expected?

[Garland Bayley]

Saunton East. I'm probably not alone on this as several posters have preferred Saunton West even though east gets all the press and ratings.


Flyover and hole by hole looked promising, not what you expected?

Lacks undulations on most fairways even though a links in the dunes. Ball gobbling rough with one hole having just a long sliver of a fairway. May as well have a large pond there. Seemed most holes were flat, boring, and easy.

[Jason Thurman]

Dormie Club is decent but if I play it again it'll be because I've been fortunate to play dozens more rounds in the Pinehurst/Southern Pines area.


Corales stinks on ice.

[Carl Rogers]

I get Sweeten's Cove alright, I think it is way over done.

[Phil Burr]

It’s Spyglass for me.  It makes my top 10 Monterey Bay courses in a T-9 tie with Spanish Bay.  Ahead of on my list (in no order) are Pebble, Cypress, MPCC (x2), Pasa, Preserve, Bayonet, & Pacific Grove.  I’d be hard-pressed to find it a top-40 slot in CA.  I just find it to be an endless slog of long uphill par 4s broken up with 3 downhill three pars which give away all of the climbing, along with 3 mundane par 5s and a first hole most noteworthy for the way the view opens up as you walk off the tee.


As JSweet said, courses are like music.  Spyglass is grunge to me and I’m a classic rock guy.

[Cal Seifert]

Its not universally praised but I was a little disappointed with bethpage red. I agree that holes 1 and 18 are better than blacks opener and finisher. The rest of the course has way too many doglegs that did not captivate me. As an aside, it is jam packed with golf carts and easily takes 6 hours most summer weekends. I know we talk about the maintenance of the black course but when playing there I can oversee it while still seeing its potential. At the red course I found myself wishing I just played the black instead.

[Brock Lynch]

I don't get the love for Rustic Canyon. Playing through a wash is not exciting golf. Many holes seem too flat and others try to hard to challenge. There are some good holes, but not enough to create the love and respect many on this site give it.

[Ira Fishman]

Pinehurst 4. If it were not at Pinehurst and Hanse's name on it, it would be viewed as a very good but not great course. We make at least one trip a year to the area, and I would not skip MP/PN to play it again.


Ira

[Jason Thurman]

I don't get the love for Rustic Canyon. Playing through a wash is not exciting golf. Many holes seem too flat and others try to hard to challenge. There are some good holes, but not enough to create the love and respect many on this site give it.

I almost mentioned this one. I have long hypothesized that if all the "do not enter" areas were water hazards the tune would be different.


It's really good, I'd happily return and especially for the price in that expensive part of the world. But like, if you moved it to Indianapolis and moved The Fort to LA, the courses would swap Q Ratings.

[Garland Bayley]

I don't get the love for Rustic Canyon. Playing through a wash is not exciting golf. Many holes seem too flat and others try to hard to challenge. There are some good holes, but not enough to create the love and respect many on this site give it.

Ah, yes. The states side Saunton East.

[William_G]

Pinehurst 4. If it were not at Pinehurst and Hanse's name on it, it would be viewed as a very good but not great course. We make at least one trip a year to the area, and I would not skip MP/PN to play it again.


Ira

+1
lots of stuff in the Pinehurst area is over rated except #2

[JohnVDB]

It’s Spyglass for me.  It makes my top 10 Monterey Bay courses in a T-9 tie with Spanish Bay.  Ahead of on my list (in no order) are Pebble, Cypress, MPCC (x2), Pasa, Preserve, Bayonet, & Pacific Grove.  I’d be hard-pressed to find it a top-40 slot in CA.  I just find it to be an endless slog of long uphill par 4s broken up with 3 downhill three pars which give away all of the climbing, along with 3 mundane par 5s and a first hole most noteworthy for the way the view opens up as you walk off the tee.


As JSweet said, courses are like music.  Spyglass is grunge to me and I’m a classic rock guy.

Definitely agree, although I think I’d put the updated Poppy Hills ahead of it as well.


Played Spy a lot while I worked for the NCGA and never really was that impressed with anything other than how hard it plays.

[Phil Burr]

I thought about where to put Poppy but figured I wasn’t qualified since I haven’t played since reno.  When I get down to it I’d prefer playing Delaveaga over Spyglass too.  Black Horse might also qualify (it has to have some similarity to Bayonet, right?) but again, I haven’t played it.

[Gib_Papazian]

Three come to mind:

Troon: Putting aside the Postage Stamp to the Railway, I find it a vapid, tuneless chore . . . . 1-7 and 12-18 is like having 7 ugly girls in a row on your dance card, twice, with a brief respite in the middle. The whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth - and it does not help the snotty-ass members make it very clear they don't like Americans.

I showed up wearing a tie & jacket, because Dad told me the club was impossibly stodgy and severe, but even my most unctuous, deferential, putridly polite rap got me the same "who are these American cockroaches?" attitude from virtually every person I came in contact with. And did I mention the course sucks eggs? I give it a generous "4" . . . . . maybe. By contrast, my personal nivvana is right down the street at Prestwick.

Next time, I'll play the Portland Course with some lovely, mature Scottish lassies.

Atlantic GC: Nice club, kind members who make you feel welcome - but the golf course is an incomprehensible mess of criss-crossing bad ideas - with bunkers that are not only an ocular offense, but apparently arranged using a blind-folded drunk with a dartboard. Everybody else seems to dig it, but I don't get it.

Torrey South: Take away the ocean, 3-5 and 13-15 - and you are left with an awkward routing, with putting surfaces less interesting to read than the fine print on your PPO. It makes Sandpiper look like a design masterpiece and that is not a compliment.

   

[Joel_Stewart]

Pinehurst 4. If it were not at Pinehurst and Hanse's name on it, it would be viewed as a very good but not great course. We make at least one trip a year to the area, and I would not skip MP/PN to play it again.

Ira

+1
lots of stuff in the Pinehurst area is over rated except #2

Gil gets a lot leeway on this site.


To me its his course at Los Angeles CC South.  With instructions to give the older members a break from the North, he builds a 6400 yard par 70 course that requires a lot of precision with angles, severe greens and equally tough chipping areas and bunkers. I can't imagine the older membership really enjoys it.


Don't get me started with Streamsong Black and the greens.

[Tim Martin]

Atlanta Athletic Club Highlands-I love the Bobby Jones connection and history but this golf course is too hard for me. Nests of flanking fairway bunkers, false front greens guarded by more nests of bunkers and no shortage of forced carries over water are the theme. Reese Jones trying to test the world’s best players doesn’t have to be synonymous with a poke in the eye for everybody else.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Interesting stuff. Count me as one who really like Kinloch. I like the balance of distances on the par threes and fours. I think it is routed well over, across, and around the hills and water.
Same is true for The Golf Club. The routing is brilliant in its use of Blacklick Creek. It might be time for the sleepers to go but they do identify the designer and the time in which it was built. In some ways it has a heathland feel. It has one of Dye’s best finishing holes.
Saunton East does feel a bit uneven in its par distribution. It has seven par fours in a row and nine of ten. The first hole is a par five in disguise and the dunes are not as large as the west course. It lacks some of the charm of its younger sister, but it keeps your attention all the way around. It just doesn’t generate much love, but I really like it. I was an overseas member for a bunch of years.
It is interesting about Dormie. I’ve played it a couple of dozen times and love the routing, balance of distances of the threes and fours, the use of the terrain and the feeling of being away from any housing.
I really liked #4 and what Hanse did with the site he inherited. Some of the others like Spyglass and Troon don’t inspire love but it is easy to “get” them. From what I read it isn’t that folks don’t “get” them as much as they don’t “love” them.

[Peter Flory]

I must be an oblivious American because I didn't notice any attitude at Troon.  And I'm sure that I showed up in shorts. 

I agree that there is something missing with the course though.  I just chalked it up to only playing it once... but many of the other courses that I only played once were thrilling in comparison and much more memorable.  So I guess this would be the Scottish version of a course that I might not get. 

[Peter Sayegh]

Pinehurst 4. If it were not at Pinehurst and Hanse's name on it, it would be viewed as a very good but not great course. We make at least one trip a year to the area, and I would not skip MP/PN to play it again.


Ira

Thanks for the brave statement Ira. #4 is the last (#8 is a close second) course I recommend to visiting friends.

[Marty Bonnar]

Blairgowrie.
As (I like to think) a top MacKenzie butt-boy, for years I had been building up the anticipation of playing it as something akin to losing my virginity, passing my driving test, getting drunk for the first time, achieving total consciousness. A big deal.
How disappointed was I. I’m not sure even how much Dr M is left. Sure, I could see the bones of his work, but the whole experience left me bewildered. I was expecting a fun, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride and got the tamest It’s a Small World after all.
Maybe I need to go back.
F.

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