Courses with two vastly different nines

[Jim_Coleman]

Tim:  Yes, this is a 55 year old memory.  Played there in the winter when there was snow in Newton.  Kittansett also used to allow public play in the winter.  Probably not so today.

[Tim Martin]

Tim:  Yes, this is a 55 year old memory.  Played there in the winter when there was snow in Newton.  Kittansett also used to allow public play in the winter.  Probably not so today.

Jim-I worked on the grounds crew the Summer of 1980 and they would only let us play the Dunes course.

[Jackson C]

Prestwick

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

Pacific Grove is the hands down winner of the courses I've played....

Hard to top this one!

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

I could have missed it above, but I would also add Colleton River Dye Course.   Through the live oaks on the front, and out to a rollicking windswept open back 9 that is spectacular especially late in the day.

[Dave Herrick]

In my experience the course that most closely approaches Pacific Grove in its disparity of front and back nines is Porthmadog Golf Club in Wales.

[David_Tepper]

Stonetree in Sonoma County has 2 very different nines. One nine is hilly and plays thru valleys between housing. The other nine is pretty much dead flat with no housing at all.


https://www.bayclubs.com/stonetree/

[Buck Wolter]

High Pointe

[Phil Burr]

Maybe 200-yard carries aren't as daunting as they once were, but when I was a 20 handicap with wooden woods the view from the 10th tee at Pasatiempo, after 9 thoroughly enjoyable parkland holes, was like standing at the top of Corbett's Couloir at Jackson Hole Ski Resort.  The chasm in front of the tee slaps you in the face and says 'game on" for 8 of the last 9.  Passy will forever hold a spot in my US "top 10 played" alongside perennials such as PV, PB, CP, TCC, Merion, Yale and my new home club, Davenport.  I guess I prefer classics.

[archie_struthers]

S merset Hill fits and I love the place. Such a nice golf course


Portstewart is a wild ride on the front and a gentle handshake on back but so good that I can't complain. My caddy John there was one of best ever ...if he talked you listened


Told me to hurry and throw my rain suit on in bright sunshine and we just laughed when my buddies got soaked in a ten minute squall     they never understood how I knew it was coming

[Theresa Stotler]

The Big Fish Club in Wisconsin, front nine was links Bck nibe extremely tight and tree lined another hidden gem of Pete Dye.

[JimB]

Pacific Grove is the hands down winner of the courses I've played....

Does anyone have a better one?

[John Kirk]

No, but Salishan in Gleneden Beach, OR has two very different nines.  A hilly, longer front nine with very steep greens, followed by a flatter, short nine on the sand closer to the ocean.  I played it almost 30 years ago.  For a time it was considered one of the better public courses in the state.

[Doug Bolls]

The Quarry in San Antonio.  The front 9 is just another golf course with not a lot of interest.  The back 9 is in a big pit with high walls that used to be a quarry for cement.  Being down in a pit with vertical walls, the quarry 9 can be quite hot in the summer but it's fun to play.  Quite a contrast between the 2 nines.

[Keith Phillips]

Beacon Hall north of Toronto.  Parkland front 9 and 'links' back.

[Matt_Cohn]

Everything at San Jose CC goes together, so it's not exactly what this thread is looking for, but the front nine is 2707 (par 33) and the back nine is 3487 (par 37), meaning the back is 780 yards longer than the front. There can't be too many of those.

[Pat Burke]

In some ways Cypress Point has two different nines. The first seven holes run through the trees while the last eleven holes are through the dunes and hug the coastline.

Largely can say same at Spyglass IMO.

[Pat Burke]

Tijeras Creek down by Mission Viejo.  Ted Robinson design.  Front nine is classic Orange County development playing through houses that all look the same with red tile roofs.  Back nine plays down into, though, and back up out of a little canyon with a creek nicely used on a few holes.  I can't recall if there was a ton of architectural merit, but I thought it was fun to play.

Good call
Two entirely different experiences

[Chuck Glowacki]

South Fork GC, Amagansett, NY

[David Whitmer]

Valhalla

[Brent Draper]

Kirtland (Alison 1921-22) rolling meadow front nine and dramatic valley/river back (10-17)

This is the first one that came to mind.  My home Club, The Country Club in Salt Lake City (1920 Willie Watson/2008 John Harbottle) also has two 9's of drastic difference, although the original routing blended the now top 9 and bottom 9, but changed when "imminent domain" was claimed and a freeway was put through a few holes of the course.  Kirtland's 9's are even more drastic from front to back.

[Mark_Fine]

Bucknell GC in Lewisburg, PA.  Nine holes are Emil Loeffler and nine are Ault & Clark.  What makes it even more unique (but not in a good way) is that the holes are all mixed together because the routing was changed.  Furthermore, Ault & Clark made zero attempt to design their new nine holes so they would blend in seamlessly with the Loeffler holes.  It is very schizophrenic.  You play the first three holes which are Loeffler and get on the forth hole and think you jumped to a different golf course.  The marching orders I had for the Master Plan was to make the A&C holes look more like Loeffler and blend them in so there is more harmony and flow to the design.  They love the Loeffler holes and well they should.  It is a beautiful piece of property and has significant potential to be better than it is.  This is not a restoration 

[Tim Gavrich]

- Meadow Valleys at Blackwolf Run


- Our Dunes Course at Sandridge GC in Vero Beach is pretty pedestrian flat-Florida golf on the front, and then the back nine gets into some of the dunes for which both the course and the entire complex are named.

[MCirba]

Dorset (VT) Field Club has nine vintage holes that go back to the 1890s and nine (interspersed throughout) by architect Steve Durkee in 1999.


There is more dirt moved on each hole of the latter than all nine holes of the former.

[Tim Martin]

Dorset (VT) Field Club has nine vintage holes that go back to the 1890s and nine (interspersed throughout) by architect Steve Durkee in 1999.


There is more dirt moved on each hole of the latter than all nine holes of the former.

Mike-Steve Durkee did a similar project at Brattleboro CC in 2000 by interspersing his new holes with an original nine by Wayne Stiles. Very easy to distinguish the holes between the two architects.