Most underrated courses not in Golf Digest's top 100

[Paul Richards]

Matt

> there are replacement courses for Baltimore and Point O'Woods by the particular architects involved .

That may be true.

However, are those really better golf courses or just another course by that architect?

 

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Myopia Hunt
BCC
Newport
Hidden Creek
Forsgate(Banks)
Whippoorwill

Cory-

 I love Forsgate, but not the intrusive houses on the first five holes.  Having said that, if RDC or whomever owns the surrounding property, they can do what they please; it's not my place to determine what goes on around classic courses  

  I'll also go with Rolling Green, and Huntingdon Valley, at the risk of being seen as a brown noser to Wayne and Mayday  

[Evan_Green]

Yeamans Hall is a glaring omission as well

[Matt_Ward]

Paul:

I stand by what I said ... Fenway is a junior sized Winged Foot and after the restoration by Gil Hanse is a superb layout and worthy in being cited beyond the qualities of Baltimore.

Ditto Jones with his work at Mauna Kea and the Dunes club over the one-dimensional but tough Point O'Woods. I don't know if you have played the candidates I mentioned as replacements but they are not merely fill-in layouts by any means.

[Paul Richards]

Matt

Haven't played Fenway yet.

I don't think the Dunes is better than the Point, but I did like Mauna Kea more.

Regardless, just because Trent Sr. has other representatives on the list mean it's ok to remove great courses.

If that's the case, which 13 of Fazio's 14 get removed?

 

[Michael J. Moss]

I couldn't agree more with Matt Ward's comments regarding Fenway GC.

Played Kingsley last summer - awsome, and should be on GD's list.

[mark chalfant]

Sean, I think U of M is excellent, the land has some wonderful
changes in elevation and there is great variety of holes.
some of the greens are exemplary in their bold contours,
perhaps some Maxwell work.

#3 is a superb par-5 and  6 is a gem of a hole measuring 310
yards. 2,4, and 18 are very fine par fours.For me, its top 60-70 classical. I must confess that i need to see more great post 1960 courses. Even so i still prefer U of M over Oak Hill
Baltusrol Lower, or Congressional which are GD top hundred mainstays


fo

[Matt_Ward]

Paul:

I would like to see the following Tom Fazo layouts included that were bypassed ...

Glenwild (Park City, UT)
Karsten Creek
World Woods / Pine Barrens

I would throw out the following ...

Sand Ridge
The Quarry at Laquinta
Hudson National
The Preserve
*Possibly one or two others as well.

As an FYI -- I have not played Flint National or Sage Valley thus so no comments forthcoming just yet.

[Ari Techner]

Franklin Hills CC is the one that comes to mind for me.  Both the old layout and especially the post "restoration" layout that reopened last fall.  

I am a big fan of U of M but I wouldnt say its Top 100 worthy.  I can think of a large handfull of Michigan courses I like better.  That being said I did walk miles upon miles almost every day with my clubs on my back to get there from my dorm room befoe I got a car back when I was in school there LOL.  

[Willie_Dow]

Why is Wannamoisett underrated by Golf Digest ?

First off I ask how many years has it been in the top 100 ?  How can a course go from 44th to out the window ?  Every one of the eight methods of rating the course fit into a top value for this less than par 70 contribution to the game.

That little bit of real estate offers shot values and pin locations that fit the U S Open requirements of 45 points for the four quadrants of its 18 greens, which some of the top 100 do not !  

[Tommy Williamsen]

the course that I think is vastly underrated is the Gold Course in Williamsburg.  In some ways it suffers from an ant-RTJ movement that has been underway for years.  It isn't a top 100 course but has a great collection of par threes and some good par fours.

[David_Madison]

Old Town, in Winston Salem, NC. It's a Perry Maxwell designed course built in 1939. A very private and quiet course that few people seem to know of. The amazing thing is that it didn't even make GD's top 25 in the state, and I think that at worst it should be borderline top 5. A wonderful old course that stands up well to current technology. It incorporates many of the features that collectively are valued on this site, such as hills attacked both up and down on the diagonal, greens requiring careful approach planning in order to get close to cups (hit it "here" to have it end up "there"), plenty of width to work angles, tremendous green and green complex variety with lots of interior movement. Speaking with Dunlop White today, I learned that Bill Coore used much of what he saw here in the design of Cuscowilla.