What is a golf course you love but haven’t yet played? A course you’ve seen images of that appears to speak exactly to what you like most out of a design? A course you’ve fallen in love with at first sight?
To encourage variety for our discussion, I ask you to look beyond top-20 ranked courses you haven’t yet seen. I’m more interested in selections that are reflective of your own personal style, kindred to your golfing soul, not everyone’s shared white whales.
I’ll offer three of my own:
1. Essex County (MA) - Like MacKenzie at Pasatiempo, there is something to be said when an architect chooses to live on property. There appears to be a healthy serving of eccentricity at the Clvb. From the blind tee on 8, to the ridge on the right that tumbles toward the center like a peeling wave, all mown at fairway height (!); the visual stack of 10 green and 11 looming behind it; 12’s blind tee; 15’s fairway angled like a cape, with its massive bunker fronting the green; and is there a quirkier finish than 17 and 18 in American golf?
2. Myopia - For its history as an early US Open venue, and the challenging heritage its layout maintains; the obscene 9th, a green that is incomparable today but for maybe one found at Scottsdale National’s Bad Little Nine; The amount of fairways bisected by stream, sand or native hazards, even road (2, 4, 5, 6, 11, 13); the museum quality of its clubhouse and—since I’m an English guy—one day experiencing a round where John Updike was a member. Taken with Essex, I wonder if there is a 36 hole day stateside that is as analogous to the charms of UK golf.
3. Shoreacres - The density of Raynor’s superb routing; his array of template holes, but with the ingenious decision to extend fairways all the way to the fall lines of the ravines; the way the ground tumbles steeply at the landform’s edges with an almost sculptural quality, as if chiseled away by hand (2, 4, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16); the firm and fast conditions that purportedly rival that of any club; the clubhouse perched on its bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.
I’d also like to hear the B-side to the above question—for those of you who’ve experienced a round at a place you’d long dreamt, how’d it turn out? Did you encounter more or less than what met your initial eye? Did it surpass the high expectations you’d set for it? Or did reality pale to the fantasy?
One that comes to mind for me was Cal Club. I recall watching Thomas Bastis’ hole by hole flyover on YouTube as if on a loop, listening to Andy Johnson’s Fried Egg podcast with Allan Jamieson and David Normoyle on the club, and surveying its terrain on Google Earth.
The course proved to be an exemplary members course, with no weak holes, and a couple wonderfully imaginative ones (5, 7, 8, 9, 16). Its turf conditions are the best I’ve encountered. When it comes to architecture alone, though, I would side with Pasatiempo as being superior. Don’t get me wrong, Pasatiempo has a few holes much weaker than any at Cal, but at the same time it also hosts a collection of world class holes, whereas Cal strides through an uninterrupted flow of good and very good holes.
My overall experience at Cal, however, left some to be desired. The round was early on a Monday morning. Although we had caddies, it felt as if I’d arrived before any staff, and found myself wandering around the clubhouse until I stumbled into the north locker room where eventually I met my host. For much of the morning I honestly wondered if the club was closed and that we were out there anyway, but ultimately that wasn’t the case. Yet unfortunately from the pro shop, to the bar and locker room, it was one of the less accommodating atmospheres I’ve had as a guest.
The silver lining is that one’s experience is always circumstantial, and can be easily remedied. What matters ultimately is the quality of the course, and no doubt Cal Club hosts one of the finest and most enjoyable layouts in the West.