Old Equipment? Canterbury

New Equipment? Crooked Stick or The Ocean Course

Sand Hills

Its been discussed at length but the things that stand out for me

- I love having a 90 yard wide fairway but if you risk the edge of that fairway, your drive can gain an additional 75 yards.

-  The greens are fabulous with a zillion little contours that really test your ability to read greens and execute

- The setting

- not a single indifferent hole on the course

Kilspindie for me. Its fun, quirky, plays different every time I play it and will still be so when I am 90 and patting the ball 120 yards

Right now for me it is Pacific Dunes however I have a feeling it will be replaced by Ballyneal as soon as I have played it often enough to form a full judgement.  

NGLA, Machrihanish, Muirfield (not Village, GOD forbid!), The Old Course, Boston Golf Club, etc

Why choose?

If you had one round left to play, where would you play it?  Not to be morbid.

Funny how difficult it is for us on threads like this to name just ONE course...

Mine=Pacific Dunes

Why?

Variety on every level: routing, topography, greens and greensites, the effects of Mother Nature
Challenge
Beauty
FUN

That's easy -- Ballyneal.

Why? It has my favorite set of greens, my favorite fairways, superb variety.

merion east  - 18 great chapters in a book - with the 5 hole cliff hanger ending aka the best finish in golf. how hugh wilson designed that gem on such a small piece of property is astonishing

Why it would surprise anyone to hear that for me it is Bethpage Black is understood. But the reason is what is the more important question.

The first time I went to Bethpage was in 1960. My oldest brother would sleep in the car overnight and get the tee times for himself, my father, uncle and aunt for their Saturday morning round.

We would get awakened with a phone call about 5am telling my father what course and the tee time and I would usually be th child picked to accompany my mother as she would drop off my father to play so that she wouldn't drive back home alone.

Our ritual included a breakfast of a buttered roll and orange juice in the grill. I would sit and listen to the family talk about the course that round would be played on and listen to conversations by many of the others present.

We would stay and watch them tee of and then go back home. When they would come back in the afternoon, often they would sit and disect how they played hole-b y-hole and even by shot and always they spoke of how fabulous the Black Course was. It became an almost magical place that I wanted to play when I was older.

When that day finally came, I, like so many others before and since, was awed by the view of the fourth hole from the third green. It stuns every first time player today and most of them have seen photographs of it. Back then I only had the picture painted through their words in the recesses of my imagination; that first look made what I thought I would see insignificant.

I have been in love with the place ever since and would gladly enjoy my final round there more than any other course in the world.

Romantic and maudlin maybe, but, what the hell. It is a very special place.

 Merion was my most favorite place I visited and very hard for me to say it is not my favorite course...but since I played so bad that day it gets axed as the top, PLainfield is right up there as well. Pine Valley really is not in the top 5 or 7 for me. LACC was a great time but too many weak holes in my opinion.
 Wilshire was the greatest surprise to me and in my opinion the best par 3's on one course and a great finishing hole.
 BUT Riviera is my favorite. My favorite holes are on that course and I could play it over and over and over. It is beautiful, play all year round with the weather, and the course is looks perfect in my eyes.  

Now I know you're messing with me.

That's as much a straightforward three-shot hole as
my wife is comfortable right now.

 

Hillandale in Durham, NC.  It's where I grew up, hunted for balls in Ellerbe Creek, played my first round, went sledding, went parking with my girlfriend, just a couple of blocks from where my parents still live.  When I drive into town the few precious times a year that I get there, I pass it on the way to "home", and I know I've arrived.  And when I play there, I feel like a kid again, without a care in the world.

I'd love to play Sand Hills, and NGLA, and Shinnecock and a million others.  I'd love to play TOC and The Ocean Course again, along with a million others that I've been blessed to play so far.  But if I've got one round left in my life, I'm at the 'Dale with my brother and Gary and Chuck, playing 'til dark on a summer night.

 a great post A.G.!