[Jordan Wall]

I once heard Blue Mound CC was an amazing course from another GCA'er.
Obviously it has never been in any kind of rankings list, but he said it was fantastic.
My scorecard shows the course is only 6500 or 6600 yards, so perhaps it is overlooked in the rankings (?)
Nonetheless, it is still (based on what I have heard) a great course that goes way under the radar.
I mean courses that arent really in any big rankings list, but are just purely great golf courses.

For those who have played Blue Mound, would you agree it is a great course?

What are some other great courses not usually put in the spotlight?
What makes them great?

I guess we could call them hidden gems..

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jordan,

Its a GREAT course - Raynor with all the protoype holes, and very little changed. Doak's firm has been involved in some minor and ongoing restoration as I understand it.

Shoreacres was once a hidden Raynor Gem, but no more. Maybe when Erin Hills or Whistling Straits host more majors, and more in the know folks go to Milwaukee, Blue Mound will get discovered.  For the most part, the members don't seek publicity.  To get noticed, they would need a flag bearer, like Doak championing Crystal Downs twe decades ago.

[Dan Kelly]

Two terrific Twin Cities courses you almost never hear about, even here in the Twin Cities -- mostly, I think, because they don't have an abundance of outside play:

Somerset CC (Raynor, etc.)

Oak Ridge CC (cf. Jason Topp's "My Home Course")

P.S. How 'bout those Seahawks! Super Bowl or Bust!

[McCloskey]

I'll suggest Spring Creek Ranch in Collierville, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis.
It will be the home of the Memphis Open in 2008.
A Jack Nicklaus hidden gem.

[John_Conley]

Two terrific Twin Cities courses you almost never hear about, even here in the Twin Cities -- mostly, I think, because they don't have an abundance of outside play:

Somerset CC (Raynor, etc.)

Oak Ridge CC (cf. Jason Topp's "My Home Course")

Not to mention Owatonna, Winona (now named the Bridges), and Cloquet (which may now have 18 holes).

[Jordan Wall]

Jordan,

Its a GREAT course - Raynor with all the protoype holes, and very little changed. Doak's firm has been involved in some minor and ongoing restoration as I understand it.

Shoreacres was once a hidden Raynor Gem, but no more. Maybe when Erin Hills or Whistling Straits host more majors, and more in the know folks go to Milwaukee, Blue Mound will get discovered.  For the most part, the members don't seek publicity.  To get noticed, they would need a flag bearer, like Doak championing Crystal Downs twe decades ago.

Jeff,

I heard the first green was redan type on a par-4, and other greens had double plateaus and cool features.

It just sounds so cool.

And yes, Shoreacres is a course I have heard alot about, and I think it keep smoving up in rankings too.
Needless to say its no so much a 'hidden' gem anymore, but rather a gem which everyone wants to play.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jordan,

It was at Blue Mound that I learned that Raynor did a Par 4 Redan green from time to time. I think its called two shot Redan on the card.  The course also has a Redanish par 3.

The double plateau is a wonder, better than the one at Chicago, IMHO.  The punch bowl green is also a prototype on how to do it.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Jordan, there are thousands of them. We talk about the best of the best on here. There are so many great courses in the world. My home course here in Lafayette, La is Oakbourne Cc, a Dick Wilson course. It is a wonderful course that I never tire of. My childhood club is Bayou Desaird CC in Monroe, La. It is a Press and Perry Maxwell course which I cherish. We almost never discuss courses like that which are all over America. I was chatting with Will Ellender last week about the Muni in Monroe, Louisiana which has some very cool holes that will only be discussed on here twice. The par 3 second is as good as it gets as a short and the 8th could be a Tilly inspired hole. The strong par 4 5th has a wonderful natural green setting. We laughed about playing the ball off a power plant wall on the par 5 first. lol Now is the 2nd time, the first was when we discussed the great and much loved late Johnny Myers who was the pro there.

[C. Squier]

And yes, Shoreacres is a course I have heard alot about, and I think it keep smoving up in rankings too.
Needless to say its no so much a 'hidden' gem anymore, but rather a gem which everyone wants to play.

Shoreacres is a time warp.  Driving down the entry road, you travel from 2006 to the 1920's.  Very similar to the experience down the dirt road at Yeaman's Hall.  Raynor sure knew how to start an experience from the moment you hit the grounds.

Another thing, Shoreacres occupies probably one of the most expensive pieces of modern day Real Estate as almost any golf course....LACC also comes to mind.  

[Mark Chaplin]

Whilst well known to patrons of this site Rye, West Sussex and Royal Ashdown Forest are all fairly low profile.

In Kent there are good courses at Lamberhurst and 2 in Sevenoaks - Knole Park and Wilderness, these 3 are fabulous 6400yd courses that attract little publicity but are more than worthy of a day out.

[Greg Clark]

"Great" is relative and overused, but a hidden gem that gets almost no play is Playa Grande in the Dominican Republic.

[Tim Leahy]

Rancho Murieta North course outside Sacramento is an underrated gem. It hosted a Senior Tour event about ten years ago and is a Bert Stamps design redone by Palmer. Routing is a figure 8 and you cant see any holes your not playing. Beautiful rolling terain with original oak trees. It used to be the toughest course on the Senior tour.

[Phil McDade]

Jordan:

Blue Mounds was the host of the 1933 PGA, won by none other than the great Gene Sarazen, the only time Wisconsin had hosted the PGA prior to its recent visit at Whistling Straits. Blue Mounds and Milwaukee CC (Alison or Colt/Alison) are generally regarded as the two premier Milwaukee-area privates, and both keep pretty low profiles (although Milwaukee CC and Brown Deer -- the county muni that hosts an annual PGA tour stop -- are hosting the USGA Mid-Am in 2008.) I think if you dig around the GCA archives, you can find a thread that had some good pictures of Blue Mounds, esp. some of the more obvious Raynor holes. Scott Burroughs also did one of his aerials of the course -- it sits hard by one of the larger shopping malls in the Milwaukee area.

For truly obscure in these parts -- and pretty good -- I'd point out Kettle Moraine, an 18-hole course in the far reaches of Milwaukee's western suburbs (south of Oconomowoc), with no architectural pedigree of any kind (the owner/founder built in a hole or two at a time), routed over wonderful kettle and glacial terrain (of the sort that everyone raves about at Erin Hills).

[Jordan Wall]

Jordan:

Blue Mounds was the host of the 1933 PGA, won by none other than the great Gene Sarazen, the only time Wisconsin had hosted the PGA prior to its recent visit at Whistling Straits. Blue Mounds and Milwaukee CC (Alison or Colt/Alison) are generally regarded as the two premier Milwaukee-area privates, and both keep pretty low profiles (although Milwaukee CC and Brown Deer -- the county muni that hosts an annual PGA tour stop -- are hosting the USGA Mid-Am in 2008.) I think if you dig around the GCA archives, you can find a thread that had some good pictures of Blue Mounds, esp. some of the more obvious Raynor holes. Scott Burroughs also did one of his aerials of the course -- it sits hard by one of the larger shopping malls in the Milwaukee area.

Phil,

If I knew how to use the search engine I would certainly love to see some pictures of Blue Mound.

Does anybody know how to get a link to that thread?

[Dan Kelly]

Does anybody know how to get a link to that thread?

I tried to use The Google to find it. Failed -- but did stumble across the line "Pat Mucci is a knucklehead."

So it wasn't completely in vain!  

[Jason Topp]

Here is the link to the aerial:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=6515


This is the link to all of Scott's aerials:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=7479

[JR Potts]

And yes, Shoreacres is a course I have heard alot about, and I think it keep smoving up in rankings too.
Needless to say its no so much a 'hidden' gem anymore, but rather a gem which everyone wants to play.

Shoreacres is a time warp.  Driving down the entry road, you travel from 2006 to the 1920's.  Very similar to the experience down the dirt road at Yeaman's Hall.  Raynor sure knew how to start an experience from the moment you hit the grounds.

Another thing, Shoreacres occupies probably one of the most expensive pieces of modern day Real Estate as almost any golf course....LACC also comes to mind.  

It is my favorite place to play.  However, talk about a course that needs its own ball.  Technology has totally overwhelmed the par 5's on that course.

[Joe Bentham]

Tokatee in Oregon's McKenzie River Valley.  A fun, walkable, Ted Robinson design.  Its a nice treat in the summer to get out of the wind for a day or two.  We usually play Emerald Valley outside Eugene on the way up.  

[Bill_McBride]

Tokatee in Oregon's McKenzie River Valley.  A fun, walkable, Ted Robinson design.  Its a nice treat in the summer to get out of the wind for a day or two.  We usually play Emerald Valley outside Eugene on the way up.  

Joe, my brother is a member of Emerald Valley for years, and has been raving about the removation and drainage improvements made there recently.  I played it with him for the first time in August.  It is a brute, much more difficult in my opinion than Eugene CC in the same city.

Tokatee is an old favorite.  I really love the way it wanders in and out of several different environments - meadow, forest, savannah almost on the back nine.  Anytime Tommy Naccaratto says Ted Robinson has never designed anything worth playing, remind him of Tokatee.  It's an old Indian word that means, "TN is occasionally full of it!"  

Wouldn't you love to see a central bunker in that first fairway?  It's really the only weak hole on the course.

[Andy Silis]

Wheatley Hills Golf Club; East Williston, NY ( Long Island )
Architect: Devereaux Emmett
Recent work done by Hurdzan and Fry

Thought I had played just about everything great in Long Island and this one was THE SURPRISE of the year!

Truly a hidden gem!

[cary lichtenstein]

Highland Links in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Royal New Kent in Virginia
El Campeon at Mission Inn near Orlando
Oak Quarry near Los Angeles
Quarry at Giants Ridge in Minn
Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction, Colo

[Jay Flemma]

Hiawatha Landing
Conklin
Royal New Kent (right on Cary)
Fossil Trace and red hawk Ridge
Links of ND...I'll think of more soon...

[David Stamm]

I'd like to nominate Rancho Santa Fe. I know I'm probably being a homer picking a course in my neck of the woods, but it's alot of fun and one of my favs. Not to mention that it's probably Behr's best surviving course, albeit much changed. It was home of the Crosby before it went to PB.

[RJ_Daley]

North Shore CC, Menasha WI, designed by Leonard MacCumber, restored-remodelled by Bruce Hepner.  Maintained as a classic by a super super, Scott Schaller who I suspect is in the league with Scott Anderson of HVCC.  A real hidden gem!  Very low key membership, way off the radar, some unique design ideas that are classic in feel, but not knock offs of the standard template sort of classic holes.

[Tom Huckaby]

I'd like to nominate Rancho Santa Fe. I know I'm probably being a homer picking a course in my neck of the woods, but it's alot of fun and one of my favs. Not to mention that it's probably Behr's best surviving course, albeit much changed. It was home of the Crosby before it went to PB.

Great call.  Great course.  Not discussed all that much even in here, where it should be.  Methinks it's because so few have seen it... It is rather intensely private, as you know.  But yes, it is a lot of fun for sure.

BTW, saw your mention re #10 also in tough short holes... that screwed me up my one round there... came into that hole -3 (hellaciously great for 4 handicap me) left that hole -1 and muttering.  

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