[Sean_A]

Andy's thread about his golf travels this year has me thinking about my golf in the past year.  I spose it has been a good year for this jaded old boy.  I have played several past and present Open courses.  A few other big guns, but mostly second tier courses.  In total, I think I have played about 30 different courses of which about half have been new to me.  There have been surprises and disappointments and a few good rounds put together along the way.  

I reckon my favorite new courses in the past year in no particular order are:

Tobacco Road
Delamere Forest
Wildwood Green
Perranporth
Littlestone

There are several surprises for me.  Good surprises included Wildwood, Delamere, Mid Pines and Gullane #3.  Wildwood is a public course in Raleigh that takes memberships.  I will say right off that it is an estate course so there is way too much ob.  However, there are loads of really good holes, there is great elevation change, some water holes, some layup holes, and decent greens all at under $30.  This course does avery good job of keeping things simple.  One of my pet peeves.

Delamere was a complete delight to play.  It is a Fowler gem that has been mentioned before.  Hopefully Mark R. can chime in with praise.

Perranporth blew me away.  I didn't expect anything like the scale of dunes that is there.  I like blind shots, Perranporth is the well of all blinders.  It is short and funky.  I will definitely return here for more.

Other positive surprises included Gullane #3 and Mid Pines.  Though these are not listed, I think they are worth a go.  I played Gullane this year as a filler on our annual links tour and it turned out to be a real winner.  Mid Pines was also a course I didn't expect much from and it brought a smile to my face.  

The two biggest new course disappointments this past year have to be Pine Needles and The Deuce.  They both charge way too much for what is on offer.  I spose this is one of the dangers of playing hyped up courses.  Perhaps my expectations were too high.  I really enjoyed The Deuce, but I can't afford to learn the course properly.  Pine Needles, well it is nice and all that, but I don't have much interest in a replay.

As for old standbys I played this past year.  My favorites are in no particular order:

Muirfield
North Berwick
Pennard
Burnham & Berrow
Deal

This is a tough list when I omit Beau Desert!

There are a few surprises here.  Though I always reckoned North Berwick to be a good course,  I hadn't realized before how good North Berwick is.  I have a healthy new respect for the West Links.

Deal has also surprised me.  I was always so-so on this course.  After playing it this year and with some encouragement by NAFster, I am won over.  

Other positive surprises include Musselburgh and the Highgate course at Enville.  Musselburgh was a load of fun to play and I recommend y'all play it before the proposed new nine holes is added.  If there ever was a case for slapping a preservation order on a sporting ground, this is it.  

Enville's Highgate is a lovely heathery come moorland course out near Stourbridge.  I know many of you are not likely to ever visit, but I strongly recommend this course.  I can't believe this is a newish course without any archie pedigree.  

My biggest disappointment for courses already played in the past year is without a doubt Wyandotte Shores.  This has all the ingredients of greatness.  Dead flat reclaimed chemical waste area on the Detroit River.  Sounds great doesn't it?  The problem is that all the tall fescueish rough has been removed from the playing areas.  What remains is for show only.  Very sad indeed.  I guess The Almighty Dollar took over the management of the course.

Ciao

Sean

[Martin Mulholland]

Sean,

Nice to hear that you enjoyed Wildwood Green despite losing  .

I am very surprised that Pinehurst #2 didn't appear in your report with either good or bad comments, its not every year that you get to play a US Open course.

Remy.

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Sean-

Hey, partner!  What a nice topic.  Generally, these come more towards the end of the year, but cool!  This topic has been on my mind as well.

This year, the golf was a lot better--thanks to Kyle Harris and Cory Lewis.  My personal life was like Groundhog Day, so it was nice to be able to escape and play some good golf.  Working with these two guys paid dividends, especially in the DCII matches.  

Jeff Goldman put it so eloquently on the porch at TR--it was a 'moral victory'.  And it was.  I don't have a great track record in GCA events, or playing with GCA members last year; digging halfway to Ohio at several courses around Pennsylvania.  So it was nice to be able to start playing again like I know I can, especially after my escape from the club industry.  

Anyway, out of the therapist's couch and on to architecture, a good cross-section of courses this year:

Beechtree, Bethpage Red, Green  in April and May
Hidden Creek, May; (thanks to Pat, Steve, Jason B, Jason M.!)
The Club at Morgan Hill, May; (thanks Billy!)
The Creek, May (Thank you, Wayne!)
Bethpage Red, Yellow; June; (thanks, Kyle!)
Lu Lu, July (Thank you Steve!)
Jeffersonville, July (2 & 1 victory! Finally!)
Schuylkill CC, July (Thank you, Jim, Dave, Kyle!) Note to other GCA'ers--SEE THIS COURSE--IT'S GOOD!!
Knoll West, July (walking tour; Thank you, George!)
Bethpage Red, August (Thank you Phil, Kyle, Steve, Jason, Joel!)
Merion, Philadelphia CC, August (walking tour; Thank you, Tom!)
Cobbs Creek, August (Thank you, Steve, Cory, Kyle!)
Penn State University White Course (Thank you, Kyle!) Note to GCA'ers--SEE THIS, TOO--THE PARK HOLES ARE WONDERFUL!!
Beechtree, Sept. (Thank you, Cory and Kyle!)
And the Dixie Cup rota-TR, MP, PN, TR-thank you to everyone-what a capper to a season.  It's hard to put into words how much fun it was to play in this event with such nice people.  Everyone.  Can't wait for next year!  

No US Open courses for me this year (if I recall correctly) but there's plenty of time left in my lifetime.  

All the best.  

[RSLivingston_III]

Sean,
I have a great love for Gullane #3, too. Personally, I tend to like it more than 1 or 2.
Just wondering if you happened on Kilspindie. Curious what you thought of it. If you played it, I hope it was in a minimum 2 club wind.
Ralph

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()