Your top "underrated"

[Jerry Rossi]

Pine Hills CC in Sheboygan, WI.   To me it’s a top 3 course in golf rich state.  If we’re using magazine rankings as the standard for what’s over-rated, then this is hands down a grossly under-rated course.


Also - I appreciate all the love for my home club (Blue Mound), which is also under-rated, although it’s hard to say anything by Raynor is under rated these days, but again if we’re using the magazine rankings then it qualifies.

[Jeff Schley]

I know this topic has been discussed previously, but I always enjoy hearing about places folks have played that may not be in the Top 100 but hold a special place in your personal rankings.


For me, three come to mind:

• Blue Mound - hard to find many places where the architect has done more with less. Just pure fun, playable, and masterful Raynor on an otherwise rather bland piece of property.
• Brookside (Canton, OH) - Had the pleasure of playing this summer, so maybe some recency bias here. I was floored by the green complexes and incredible elevation changes. The property could use some more tree removal, but I wouldn't get tired of playing this place on a regular basis.
• Culver Academy - if this place had a locker room with good shower pressure (or whatever else helps rankings) and 9 even mediocre holes, I firmly believe this would be a top 100 contender. I've been lucky enough to play here quite a few times as it's less than an hour from me and absolutely love it every time. The super (Mike Vessley) does an oustanding job and posts incredible pictures on Twitter and Instagram as well.

Will, Darryl, Jeff,
       Thanks for the kind words regarding BMGCC. As you may know we are completing our restoration as we speak. Bruce Hepner has done a terrific job along with our world class Supt Alex. 2025 will be a very special year as the completely restored course is revealed. It's no longer a hidden gem......

Yes love Blue Mound, however I’ll differ from Will in that I think the land is quite notable. You have some uphill/downhill shots. To me another wonderful aspect, while not overly long, it has some brutal long par 4’s. I can’t recall which one on the back goes uphill like 450 or something and that day into a wind.


So yes any Raynor that is living right now is probably notable, but I have Blue Mound a solid 8.

[Brent Carlson]

Chambers Bay and The Addington

[Bill Crane]

Folks:   In New Jersey - I would include ~


Essex County -   very underrated - extremely good back nine.  Have to go see it again since work has been done on it.
Manasquan River - very diverse set of holes and topography - despite Mike Cirba's comments about this course on this forum.


Others:    Hearing super comments about restoration at North Jersey CC.    Morris County is probably a good call, noted by someone earlier.     Hollywood is awesome - per Mr Rudolfsky's comment.   At 49 Classic at Golfweek, not sure it is greatly underrated any longer.


New Jersey - look before you laugh !!


ALSO ~   Having played over 40 rounds at CHECHESSEE CREEK CLUB, I am convinced it is underrated.   Many folks play once and just don't get the full effect of the thoughtful layout and greens.   Always a bit more going than it appears - the angles and features are so well designed.    This is an indictment of ratings in general since it takes many rounds to reveal the true interest and challenge of an extremely well designed layout - especially if some aspects are subtle.

[Ira Fishman]

My weak memory dredged up how good a course I remember Blackwolf Run River being. It probably would be way too difficult for me 30 years later. But good players would fight it strategic, beautiful, varied, and challenging. To this day, number 5 is one of my favorite holes.

[Will Thrasher]

I know this topic has been discussed previously, but I always enjoy hearing about places folks have played that may not be in the Top 100 but hold a special place in your personal rankings.


For me, three come to mind:

• Blue Mound - hard to find many places where the architect has done more with less. Just pure fun, playable, and masterful Raynor on an otherwise rather bland piece of property.
• Brookside (Canton, OH) - Had the pleasure of playing this summer, so maybe some recency bias here. I was floored by the green complexes and incredible elevation changes. The property could use some more tree removal, but I wouldn't get tired of playing this place on a regular basis.
• Culver Academy - if this place had a locker room with good shower pressure (or whatever else helps rankings) and 9 even mediocre holes, I firmly believe this would be a top 100 contender. I've been lucky enough to play here quite a few times as it's less than an hour from me and absolutely love it every time. The super (Mike Vessley) does an oustanding job and posts incredible pictures on Twitter and Instagram as well.

Will, Darryl, Jeff,
       Thanks for the kind words regarding BMGCC. As you may know we are completing our restoration as we speak. Bruce Hepner has done a terrific job along with our world class Supt Alex. 2025 will be a very special year as the completely restored course is revealed. It's no longer a hidden gem......

Yes love Blue Mound, however I’ll differ from Will in that I think the land is quite notable. You have some uphill/downhill shots. To me another wonderful aspect, while not overly long, it has some brutal long par 4’s. I can’t recall which one on the back goes uphill like 450 or something and that day into a wind.


So yes any Raynor that is living right now is probably notable, but I have Blue Mound a solid 8.

Fair point and don't necessarily disagree with that at all. I think it's less dramatic than other Raynors (or McRaynors) in comparison, and that's not a knock whatsoever. More of the opposite, with how much variety/fun shots the course has on comparatively bland property. I can't think of many places where I've had more fun.

[Stewart Abramson]

In the NYC suburbs Whippoorwill and Tamarack are the two that I think are most under appreciated.The Banks bunkers are very well done and they both have good greens . Whippoorwill in particular is a great property.


On the public side, Rivervale in NJ is very underappreciated. Most locals and visitors rave about Ballyowen and Neshanic, but I'd rather play Rivervale over those and almost any other public in the metro NY area other than BP Red or Black or the Knoll West.

[David Kelly]

On the public side, Rivervale in NJ is very underappreciated. Most locals and visitors rave about Ballyowen and Neshanic, but I'd rather play Rivervale over those and almost any other public in the metro NY area other than BP Red or Black or the Knoll West.

I would take Rock Spring GC and, now, Francis Byrne, over Ballyowen or Neshanic any day of the week.

[Ian Andrew]

Harbour Town


In a world of excessive width and lace-edged bunkers, it’s a delight.


Sure some of the highlights are bold, but the rest of its very understated. Greens are small, which suits the scale. Outside of two or three key trees (I’ll grant the par five is a bit much), it’s not that narrow and you can easily return to the fairway (lots of space between trees). I feel like it suffers from perception rather than the current reality of what’s there. [size=78%] [/size]

[Tim Martin]

In the NYC suburbs Whippoorwill and Tamarack are the two that I think are most under appreciated.The Banks bunkers are very well done and they both have good greens . Whippoorwill in particular is a great property.

Stewart-Two great picks and two great properties with both north of the Merritt Parkway delivering plenty of elevation change/land movement. I haven’t played Tamarack since the restoration but seen a bunch of pictures and the tree clearing and resulting reclaimed vistas are terrific. Whippoorwill with both the Banks and Ross features deliver a compelling set of holes and I’m trying to think of another course that they were both involved in as to the finished product. Montclair GC used both designers with 27 by Ross and 9 by Banks but are solo efforts. The story goes that Whippoorwill flipped the nines a number of years ago as the original 18th played straight up the hill and there were a number of member heart attacks that gave the club pause. Finally they might have the smallest sign tacked to a tree on the way in I’ve seen which is bigger than a matchbook but not by much.

[goldj]

Worcester CC
Tamarack - second vote

[John Handley]

If it's possible to be in the Top 100 in the world and underrated, I am going to go with St. George's Hill.  An outstanding Harry Colt design in the Surrey area outside of London.  Just spectacular.  I'm in love with the place.  I just got back a few weeks ago and it's surprising to me (especially in my bubble of well-traveled, informed golfers) how not on the radar SGH is.  Fine with me.

[Matthew Lloyd]

Sand Hills being mentioned in the overrated thread made me think…. Dismal Red and Prairie Club Dunes feel underrated to me.


Sand Hills certainly doesn’t feel overrated to me, but the gap between Sand Hills and Dismal Red and Prairie Club Dunes feels smaller than it’s portrayed.


DR Red and PC Dunes are both highly regarded of course, but I feel they’re even better than the rankings (to the extent that’s the metric) indicate.

[John Handley]

I've got another one.  I have not yet played it, but planning a trip there next year.  Royal Porthcawl.  It is in Wales which is not a big Mecca for golf, but this course looks amazing.  Do yourself a favor, go to the club's website and do the course tour.  It's 5 minutes well spent. 


https://www.royalporthcawl.com/course/course-tour/hole/1/

[Joe Zucker]

Sand Hills being mentioned in the overrated thread made me think…. Dismal Red and Prairie Club Dunes feel underrated to me.


Sand Hills certainly doesn’t feel overrated to me, but the gap between Sand Hills and Dismal Red and Prairie Club Dunes feels smaller than it’s portrayed.


DR Red and PC Dunes are both highly regarded of course, but I feel they’re even better than the rankings (to the extent that’s the metric) indicate.

Just to show there are two sides to any opinion, I'll (respectfully) disagree on Dismal Red being anywhere near the same ball park as Sand Hills.  It probably hurts that I played Dismal after Sand Hills, but I left mostly underwhelmed.  It's a fine course (maybe Doak 6?) but the front and back side felt extremely disjointed and the back 9 did not feel like Nebraska sand hills.  The first 6-7 holes on the front were the highlight for me.  I'm not sure if this comment is true, but I felt the greens were built rather than found and it betrayed the naturalness of what I hoped for driving around that part of the country, where it looks like a great course could be built any time you look our your car window. 

[David Kelly]

If it's possible to be in the Top 100 in the world and underrated, I am going to go with St. George's Hill.  An outstanding Harry Colt design in the Surrey area outside of London.  Just spectacular.  I'm in love with the place.  I just got back a few weeks ago and it's surprising to me (especially in my bubble of well-traveled, informed golfers) how not on the radar SGH is.  Fine with me.

I read about how good St. George's Hill was, people told me how good it was, the pictures looked great and yet the place still exceeded my expectations.

[Ben Stephens]

Sherwood Forest is underrated IMO

[Carl Nichols]

Lake Geneva (WI).  A massive tree removal and greens restoration (renovation?) many years ago improved the course a ton.   It's "underrated" because, so far as I can tell, it's not rated at all.

[Mark Pearce]

Crail Craighead.  Linking this to the overrated thread, I'd probably split 10 rounds between Kingsbarns and Craighead 6-4.  One is four times the price of the other.

[Niall C]

I’ll second (third?) the votes for Deal and Fraserburgh and add in Southerness. CDP have just started work there and it’s going to be really special when they’re done.

James,


I'd suggest Southerness is already very well regarded, at least in Scotland. It might not be that high up the rankings with overseas raters but I suspect that's partly a function of where it is. It will be interesting to see how it fares with the work by CDP.


Niall

[Steve Kennedy]

probably a lot in the Tri-State area, but first ones that come to mind are Southampton, Essex County CC in NJ w/ its latest restoration tweaks, and Tamarack in CT.  I think Hollywood in NJ is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves (but perhaps still underrated)


Eastward Ho! already been mentioned but genuinely blows my mind that is not unanimous Top 100 US with that kind of land movement, views, and solid conditioning each time I have played it.  With the changes in wind there, the course can play so differently each day and never gets old and is packed with opportunity for risk-taking hero shots (that i typically do not execute, but it's still a thrill)

[James Reader]

I’ll second (third?) the votes for Deal and Fraserburgh and add in Southerness. CDP have just started work there and it’s going to be really special when they’re done.

James,


I'd suggest Southerness is already very well regarded, at least in Scotland. It might not be that high up the rankings with overseas raters but I suspect that's partly a function of where it is. It will be interesting to see how it fares with the work by CDP.


Niall

I was thinking more in terms of the various GB&I rankings. Only Golf World has it in the top 100, and then at 99. It’s definitely worth a place for me.

[Tim Gavrich]

In CT, Keney Park and CT National are very underrated, as is the CC of Farmington (though it's a bit of a work in progress).


Here in Florida, the Dye Course at PGA Village is very underrated. I struggle to find much fault at all with it, given it was built on dead-flat land and around/through swamp.