And the Worst Routing Ever Award goes to.....

[Bruce Katona]

MCirba & I know of the course he opined on well.  Back in the day I worked on that particular project (post course construction)for over a year, having to spend good parts of an entire winter in The Poconos.  Poncous in the late Spring, Summer and until Halloween is lovely, not so much in February.


There is/was also a routing in Sussex County, NJ that I worked on for 18 months (post course construction & during renovation). It tried for 18 "signature" holes and while the routing wasn't as suspect The Pocono's course, the actual hole corridors and design is/was.


BB are the initials.

[Kalen Braley]

Greg Nash-designed The Crossings at Carlsbad is a course with lots of interesting elevation changes and some really fun holes, but it's completely unwalkable and twice in the span of three holes (10-12), you have to drive the entire length of a hole backwards to get to the tee box.

I took a stab at this one as well and came up just short of 7 miles at 6.95.

Getting from 11 green to 12 tee looks absolutely brutal...just over 1/2 mile 

[david h. carroll]

We know it’s hard to evaluate routings without fully understanding the constraints of the site and the brief of the project


Think it might be worth people identifying specific glaring errors and evaluating why you think they are there.


Most architects don’t make glaring errors in routing without understanding what they are doing.

I don't want to mention the name of the course, but it sits on a wonderful piece of CONTIGUOUS property.  Not a residential development and nice rolling movement.  A golfer can also get lost there...not in a good way.  Cart caddy had to explain numerous times where to go, and even with signage on rocks everywhere, it was confusing and completely disjointed.  And yes, I got "played" 

[Mark Kiely]

Another one worth mentioning here is Arroyo Golf Club in Las Vegas. The first hole is a very long cart drive from the clubhouse, and then later there's a crazy long drive between a couple holes, I think 6 and 7 or 7 and 8, or both. I believe they've tried some different routings that start closer to the clubhouse but have gone back to how it's been anytime I've played it. It's intertwined with the private Red Rock Country Club, and making matters worse, sometimes their GPS system gets mixed up and says you're on the different course.

[MCirba]

There is/was also a routing in Sussex County, NJ that I worked on for 18 months (post course construction & during renovation). It tried for 18 "signature" holes and while the routing wasn't as suspect The Pocono's course, the actual hole corridors and design is/was.


BB are the initials.

Bruce,


The one that still exists or the one that went under?

[Jim_Coleman]

   Galloway National is a poorly routed private, upscale, Fazio walking course. Many long walks between greens and tees, not to mention the 4 times you walk back and forth up and down the 8th hole.

[Mike Hendren]

I present the 36 holes "washboard" routing at Citrus Hills Golf and Country Club, Hernando, Florida:




I win.

[Joe Bausch]

I present the 36 holes "washboard" routing at Citrus Hills Golf and Country Club, Hernando, Florida:




I win.

You are the leader in the clubhouse, indeed! What are you going to do tonight as you sleep on the lead?

[Kyle Harris]

I present the 36 holes "washboard" routing at Citrus Hills Golf and Country Club, Hernando, Florida:




I win.

Oh please. This is UNIQUE.


It’s not even the worst routing within 40 miles.


Though that one may be getting fixed.

[Bruce Katona]

BB doesn't operate any longer. The bones of the routing existed when I was there last - not much you can do with the land as the development rights were transferred from the golf course land to the surrounding community.


I just checked Google Earth. The routing is still visible.

[MCirba]

BB doesn't operate any longer. The bones of the routing existed when I was there last - not much you can do with the land as the development rights were transferred from the golf course land to the surrounding community.


I just checked Google Earth. The routing is still visible.

I see that!   It looks positively restorable!   

[Connor Lewis]

I wish I could remember the golf course but my brain has made me forget it, out of pure disgust.


Golf course south of Tampa hosted my daughter’s HS regional state championships in golf. The girls of course walk and this particular course had maybe 4 holes where the tee boxes were close to the prior green. The gaps between holes were so horrible that parents were asked to rent golf carts and drive the girls to the next tee box. Some of those drives were 500-1000 yards possibly more. I was really upset because it was 95F+.


Florida has an abundance of horribly designed golf courses, which is terribly sad because the weather affords golf 12 months out of the year. “I think” that Florida Golf is slowly getting better with new projects and restorations.

[Tom Yost]

Loews Ventana Canyon...

The Canyon Course.   I describe it as a nice cart ride interrupted on occasion by golf holes.

One of the only places I've played where you need a map to get to the next tee. 

[Ronald Montesano]

My nominee is Congo Falls Adventure Golf.

I also tip my cap to the courageous ones who don't hide behind insinuation and acronyms, but instead, boldly go where braves ones have always gone: the truth.

[Anthony Butler]

Since the architect can no longer read this post and possibly take offense - There is a Weiskopf course near Sedona that is utterly confusing as to which and where the next hole is.

At least once I finished a hole to be unpleasantly surprised the next hole was No 12 when I had only played 7.

[Noah Jurik]

I nominate Canyons GC in Park City, UT. Tee shots that cross other fairways and far too many switchback cart paths make for a pretty awful time. If you need a sign telling golfers to be patient... that should be a clue. I know the land is severe and limited, but it's a clunky round.

[Anthony Butler]

I nominate Canyons GC in Park City, UT. Tee shots that cross other fairways and far too many switchback cart paths make for a pretty awful time. If you need a sign telling golfers to be patient... that should be a clue. I know the land is severe and limited, but it's a clunky round.

Based on this overhead, the property seems better suited to host a mountain stage in the Tour de Utah than a golf course.

[David Harshbarger]

An oldie and a goodie:


https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=47444.0

[Jeff_Brauer]

As someone said, you should probably at least try to understand the parameters.  In my case, what you would call one of my worst is the Legend Course at Giant's Ridge. It's not terrible, in that there are 18 good holes, but the client needed to assemble more land than they had for the course.  Unfortunately, they bordered a national forest, which is nearly impossible to get to swap land with.  So, they had a choice, build no course, wait ten+ years to get the Forest Service land we needed, or get other parcels and start construction on a reasonable time schedule, which is, of course, the option they took.


The result is a mile long ride from 12 to 13 and the reverse ride from 16 to 17 using the same path. The course still somehow ranks in the top public courses in MN, and was even on national lists, so there must be some compensating factors that redeem is somehow.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Silvertip in Canmore
Had terrible walks, terrible holes, and one completely contorted golf hole. At the time you were forced to hit 9 iron for a weird dog leg.
That washboard thing isn't a golf "course"



http://nuzzogolfcoursedesign.blogspot.com/2007/12/architectural-dislike-7-long-walks-from.html

[David Amarnek]

John Kavanaugh,
A great baseball town it is.  Not a great baseball team this year.
My favorite course in town with the one puzzling routing.  It's not unusual for some to tee off on 16, then immediately go to the 17th tee and hit their drive, and then finish playing 16.  Strange, but still my favorite course in town.

[Ben Malach]

Mike Nuzzo:


As a southern Albertan, Silvertip is just the tip of the spear in the middling and awful routings that dot our wonderful landscape.
I have held off on joining this thread because I don't think it is fair to pile on to golf courses that could have been better.


But if you want to look at some head-scratchers I suggest looking across the road from Silvertip at Stewart Creek. Also just down the road the Tunnel 9 at Banff is also very questionable. Within an hour hour and a bit from Canmore, you have the wonders of Eagle Ranch, Radium Resort (Radium & Springs), Shaganappi, Bearspaw, The Hamptons, Douglasdale, Apple Creek, Woodside and my personal favourite the best of the best Heritage Pointe.


The best thing about this list is that I have had local golfers all say that each one of these courses was better than Banff and Jasper.


If you want more wonders of western Canada I have a ton in my back pocket. The only bright side is that golf can only get better here.

[Jeff Schley]

There will be a lot of courses thru housing developments and one that is pretty bad is Temeku Hills in Temecula, CA.  So close to housing on just about every hole but a a few, so just dumb routing with nets put up to prevent u from teeing off over houses. Very jacked up routing, but it helped sell out the housing community in the late 90s early 00's.

[Pete_Pittock]

An oldie and a goodie:


https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=47444.0

and includes the answer west of Philadelphia.   I guess we weren't so tippy-toe back then.

[Chris_Blakely]

And I have finally played the CC of the Poconos course and wow, it exceeded even Mike Cirba’s description!!