18 GB&I links holes (NOT Open, British Am, Ryder/Walker Cup, Irish Open courses)

[Thomas Dai]

I was idling away a few minutes in front of the TV waiting for the football, whoops, sorry some of you, soccer, to start, and was wondering what would make up a tastie 18-hole GB & I links course, but with a couple of qualifications -

namely:

excluding any hole from any course that have held either The Open, the British Amateur, the Irish Open or the Ryder/Walker Cups.
and
not including more than one hole from any course.

It proved to be quite a time and thought consuming exercise, so much so that I forgot about the start of the match! The use of pen and paper was initially needed, with many scratchings out and changes and reviews of various Stokesaver booklets.

This is the listing I arrived at -

1 Royal Jersey (par-5)
2 Perranporth (5)
3 Tenby (4)
4 Fortrose & Rosemarkie (5)
5 Portstewart (4)
6 Brora (3)
7 Murcar (4)
8 Cruden Bay (4)
9 Ashburnham (4)
10 St Enodoc (4)
11 Carne (4)
12 Southerness (4)
13 Silloth (5)
14 County Sligo (4)
15 Enniscrone (4)
16 Pennard (5)
17 Burnham & Berrow (3)
18 Moray (Old) (4)

Par-75 - 2 x par-3's and 5 x par-5's. Playing to handicap might be 'fun'

Anyone fancy coming up with an alternative? I have allowed myself the luxury of including two holes that I haven't played (boo, hiss, cheat!), so you can as well!

atb

[Mark Chaplin]

No Rye?? 4, 7 or 15 all worthy of a place.
Littlestone 17
Hayling 13
Hunstanton 6
Brancaster 8

[Paul Gray]

Any mention of Hayling and I'm shamefully all over it.....

Credit to Mark for being the first person outside of Hayling Golf Club to realise just how good the 13th is. And best played from the yellow tees as well, although I'll listen to debate on that.

Everyone raves about the 6th and the 12th but, good though they are, not the stand out holes for me. I'll throw 5, 8, 10, 11 and 13 into the mix here for consideration.

[Phil McDade]

No Rye?? 4, 7 or 15 all worthy of a place.

No Machrihanish? http://www.golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/scotland/machrihanish1/

No Fraserburgh? http://www.golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/scotland/fraserburgh-golf-club/

Some would suggest #1 at Machrihanish; considering its the dullest hole on the front nine, I wouldn't. But any of the remaining 8 would do. Fraserburgh has several very good short par 4s, among them 4, 10, 13 and 16.