Seeing Tom Fazio and Druid Glen makes me think of golf's most disappointing  experiences ie, you go somewhere with high expectations only to be sadly disappointed. What are the nominations from this esteemed panel? I put forward the last 13 holes at Spyglass Hill.

Over-rated: Wild Dunes. Disappointing: Discovering that Magnolia Lane is just off of a major road littered with fast food restaurants, motels, and gas stations.

The most over-hyped experience I have had is going to Haig Point. It is just off from Hilton Head and you have to take a ferry. Unfortunately, the ferry ride is the most exciting part of the day. I cannot recall one single hole other than a good par five on the back nine. Rees Jones is the architect and it is supposed to be one of his best. It still may be in Golf Digest's top 100 courses - which makes you wonder. Maybe we played the wrong the course.

I agree with James - it is much easier for a course to get overrated if it is held in high esteem by one and all. That universally loved course for me is Muirfield - and I don't get it. Forget the club, forget the history. Just go stand in the middle of the 18th fairway. Look left, look right - you are in a big flat     field. Andrew Kirkaldy called it "an auld watermeadie. "  Darwin noted it would always retain a "certain inland character".Dad and I played North Berwick one day, Muirfield the next and Berwick again the following day. After Berwick, (and despite the fact Dad went over the 14th green down onto the beach, tried a recovery shot and the ball smacked him square in the forehead, drawing a good amount of blood), our dinner conversations were lively. What about the 16th green at Berwick? What about the views? How about the 2nd tee? What did you make of the quirky first hole? How do you best approach the 13th green? There are many puzzles at North Berwick to be solved.    After Muirfield, we had a very subdued dinner as the course lacks the key ingredient: inspiration. When people talk about the best links, all I will say is that Shinnecock Hills is actually as good as everyone thinks Muirfield is.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

If you compare the massive sand dunes that The Australian was originally laid over with MacKenzie's help to today's effort of banality, you will hop around like a kangaroo!Nicklaus himself said he would re-do the course completely differently than how he did it in the 1970s, which tells you all you need to know.

Here's a controversial one: St Andrews, Scotland.  Ahh, I hear you all gasp, he must be American! (I'm not!)The point I wish to make is that it was the experience, and not the golf course, that I was dissapointed in.  The mistake I made was to line up with all the other hopefuls at dawn in order to wait until after 12pm to play in a group of (at best) high handicappers for whom St Andrews was the golfing equivalent of Disney Land.Collectively the group I played with would have struggled to spell St Andrews let alone attempt to appreciate it as the high point of golf architecture.Sure, I should have been able to ignore all of this to a certain extent, but as a dissapointing golf experience it is right up there.  My advice for anyone wanting to play St Andrews: make sure you have a pre-arranged tee time and play with at least one person who will appreciate her beauty.

I happened upon this very interesting topic from last July. I was surprised that there weren't more postings on it but the ones that were there were provocative and helpful. Nothing like hearing what someone else went through to make you diligent or avoid the whole experience (like a mid-day round, i.e. 5-6 hours at Pebble Beach with carts on the paths only).  Has anyone else had any recent experiences to share?

George Blunt: My Dad "walked-up" at the Old Course and ended up playing with the famous English golfer Vivian Saunders (who brought her dog), and a friend of hers. A nice fellow from the US completed the foursome. Sorry about your own luck...Faldo was there the same day, playing with the Sultan of Brunei (sic). My old man took the opportunity to have Faldo attest his 81! Most disappointing experience: 1997 Canadian Amateur at The Links at Crowbush Cove, Prince Edward Island. The course is set amid the sand dunes on the northshore of the island, right next to the sea. The wind howls, and the sights down the coastline are (in the words of Dr. Evil!) breathtaking...but the course is overshaped (with moguls separating adjacent fairways, for example); and maintained to emphasize "strip mowing", and wall-to-wall green, instead of firmness. It was soft as hell the week of the Amateur, which made playing conditions unbelievable. The wind was howling off the sea in 40mph gusts as some points, and the ball was plugging in the fairways. They were actually turning the sprinklers on as we left the course each day. It is a disappointing course to the traditionalist, who can't help but expect more on such a site. All the ingredients are there: decent land, sand dunes, the ocean, and fierce winds.  

   Royal Troon, although it does put on a great midday meal. Australia's The National rates honorable mention.   My first experience at St Andrews was as a walk on at 2 in the afternoon, being able to play immediately, take a 45 minute food break, play another 18 and finish by 9:30 and still let about five groups play through because we were too slow.

Guys,Thanks for the consolation! From your stories I will definately have to give the walk up at St. Andrews another chance.  Jeff:Did your Dad get the phone number of the Sultan of Brunei?  

Jeff:If ever there was an opportunity for the patron saint of Tom Paul's collaboration idea.....I think the Worlds Richest Man would fit in rather nicely - so long as he did not want to ride in a cart!

To Charlie MayJust curious why you are so dissapointed with Bethpage Black?  I've been there twice since Rees finished and some 50 times before so I know the place reasonably well. If you were expecting a renovation I can see your disapointment but it was supposed to be a restoration which is quite different.  I think that in this case Rees was quite thoughtful of the original Tillinghast design. But for the 18th hole he really did nothing more than extending a few fairway bunkers, creating new tees and restoring bunkers to sizes and shapes seen in original drawings or aerial photos.  He did nothing to the greens except for enlarging a few to where they were.  This helped to make a great back right pin location on #8.  My criticism which I must say came after my first visit and after learning more about architecture is the blinding white sand used in the bunkers.  It doesn't affect play but it sure isn't the same wild and natural look it used to have.  It now looks like any run of the mill CCFD.  Others have said that it would have been nice to move the 18th green back up the hill near the clubhouse where it originall was and that would have created a hole much like the 9th at Schinnecock.  It would not have allowed crowds to surround the green at an Open however. I have had a question about the Black since I saw the old aerial photo in the Tillinghast book chapter.  Several differences from current bunkering are pretty clear. So, what's your beef here? Am I missing something?  

How about a day at Doral Blue.I went to meet a friend who was in Miami on Business.  He was very excited to play Blue Monster, I was indifferent, but got excited as time grew near.Upon arrival during off peak season I was immediately greeted with rude treatment in the proshop, hit with the $160 price tag,around $10 more for yardage book, and around $10 for a bag of balls.  Talk about getting you coming and going, they didnt even talk dirty to me.  How about this just charge me $180 (I was obviously deranged already) and then give me some range balls and a yardage book for free, make me feel like I got something.  Then after being rushed off the range by the starter before hitting all those valuable range balls, the round began. Raymond Floyd had put in something like 80 new bunkers, apparently his fee cut into the budget they had for rakes, because there werent many.  Try playing out of the 100+ bunkers now on the course when there are footprints in all of them.Overall I was dumbfounded by the maintainance conditions of the course.  After leaving about as dissapointed as I have ever been over a round of golf, we headed north and on a whim decided to stop off at the PGA at the Reserve (I know there are many who are poo-pooing Fazio) but when we inquired about playing that afternoon the friendly person behind the counter (there was our first sign that things had changed) advised us that we could go out now on twilight rates at around $14 or wait the extra 1/2 hour for "super twilight" rates to start (something like $9).Needless to say after shelling out for the morning round, we opted for the $14 went out immediately grinning all the way, and found a very enjoyable course.  What a full spectrum we had seen.