What have you learned by playing highly ranked courses?

[William_G]

I'm fortunate to be good at a golf, on here at GCA, and played about 2/3 of top 100 world


I've learned that "what makes great golf is not only the course, but who you are sharing it with"

[Bill Gayne]

A byproduct of playing highly ranked courses is that you learn about the ranking process being highly subjective and driven by the biases of who's doing the ranking along with the make-up of the panel. I've also learned that there's a lot of excellent golf out there and very little difference between say the 50th ranked course, the 100th, and the 150th.

[Peter Sayegh]

They are either too expensive or exclusive to see/justify their "perceived" greatness or high ranking PLAYING them once or twice...in a lifetime.

[John Foley]

What have you learned by playing highly ranked courses?


- That there are a lot less hidden gems today than there were 20 years ago.


- That separating the experience from the architecture is hard.


- That low key / laid back is way better than flashy.


- That the cache of a USGA / PGA Tour event may give you something, but that something is not everything.


With all that being said, great company matters tremendously but bones / conditioning / setting do also.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I was just reminded about this quote from Tom Simpson (which I had forgotten when I was posting my comments earlier in the thread):


‘It is not individually great holes that make a great golf course. It is rather the relationship that exists between one hole and another.”

[Sean_A]

I gotta believe that somewhere, somehow, great courses necessarily must have great holes. A combo of good holes in tune with each other and the landscape does not equal greatness. And yes, I do note that Simpson’s quote doesn’t exclude great holes, but it hints at great holes as being a junior partner.

Ciao

[Tim Martin]

I gotta believe that somewhere, somehow, great courses necessarily must have great holes. A combo of good holes in tune with each other and the landscape does not equal greatness. And yes, I do note that Simpson’s quote doesn’t exclude great holes, but it hints at great holes as being a junior partner.

Ciao

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