One's Personal Top Ten

[JMEvensky]

     Ireland itself stirred my soul,so:

     1) RCD
     2) Ballybunion
     3) Lahinch
     4) Portmarnock
     5) Portrush

     6) Cypress Point
     7) WFW
     Honors
     9) SFGC
    10) Pebble Beach

[Peter Pratt]

1. Sand Hills
2. Crystal Downs
3. Ballybunion (Old)
4. Royal County Down
5. The Ocean Course
6. Pacific Dunes
7. Kingsley Club
8. High Pointe (I just love it and could play it every day)
9. Pasatiempo
10. Pebble Beach

[Dub_ONeill]

Royal County Down
Royal Dornoch
TOC
Muirfield
The Golf Club
Royal Aberdeen
Aberdovey
Lahinch
Cruden Bay
Pacific Dunes

[Sean Leary]

This was harder than I thought:

Pine Valley
Merion
Pebble Beach
Prairie Dunes
San Francisco
Ballyneal
North Berwick
Royal Dornoch
Royal County Down
Lahinch

Killed me to leave off The Old Course, Capilano, Eastward Ho!, Pacific Dunes, Pasatiempo, Turnberry, Portrush and Ballybunion, but Sir Bob says 10 and only 10.

[Tim Gavrich]

In soul-stirring order...

1 Yale
2 Newport
3 Sunningdale (Old)
4 Shelter Harbor
5 Pinehurst No. 2
6 Palmetto GC
7 TOC
8 Greenbrier (Old White)
9 Homestead (Cascades)
10 Cuscowilla

First few out: Caledonia, Hartford GC, Crail (Balcomie), Elie, Scotscraig, Tobacco Road

[G Jones]

Top group:

NGLA
Pine Valley
Merion
ANGC
Old Course
Muirfield
Shinnecock
North Berwick

Closely followed by:

Pebble
Carnoustie
Deal
Walton Heath
Pinehurst

[Sam Maryland]

personal fav's based on enjoyment in no particular order:

Myers Park CC
Bay Hill
Lake Nona
Bethpage Red
Bethpage Black
Westchester CC
Seaside/Retreat (old Sea Island)
Los Verdes
Harding Park
Carmel CC (South)

[Chip Gaskins]

Using the 10 that "stir the soul" direction from Bob:

Bandon Trails
Ballyneal
The Old Course
Royal County Down
Tobacco Road
Pine Valley
Waterville
Turnberry
Cabo Del Sol
Augusta National

All sandy soil except for Augusta

[Jim Franklin]

CPC
NGLA
Pine Valley
TOC
Shinnecock
Sand Hills
Pacific Dunes
Oakmont
Merion
Prairie Dunes

[Mark_Rowlinson]

1.   Royal County Down
2.   The Old Course, St Andrews
3.   Royal St George’s
4.   Ganton
5.   Royal Portrush Dunluce Course
6.   Royal Dornoch
7.   Woodhall Spa Hotchkin Course
8.   Royal West Norfolk
9.   Sunningdale Old
10.   Rye

11 Swinley Forest
12 The Addington
13 Alwoodley

[Carl Nichols]

I'm sure that many of the courses that have been mentioned would indeed stir my soul and senses and give me much pleasure, but I haven't been lucky enough to have the experience.  Of the courses I've played, my top ten would be:

WF West
Merion
Olympic Lake
Turnberry (only course I've played in that area of the world)
Pac Dunes
Shoreacres
Bethpage Black
Olivos (Buenos Aires -- for the step-back-in-time experience)
Bethesda CC (my home course)
Simsbury Farms (pure muni golf where I made many great friends and from which I have many great memories)

[Jerry Kluger]

No particular order


NGLA
Shinnecock
Friar's Head
Ballyneal
Sand Hills
Wild Horse
PV
Plainfield
Baltimore CC
Kiawah Ocean Course
 
Plus:
Kapalua Plantation - golf is really good but the location is even better - the views are so spectacular that you just want to spend the rest of your life on that golf course.

[Tim Leahy]

In somewhat of an order depending on the day:

Olympic-Lake
Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach
Riviera
Kapalua Plantation
LACC-North
Torrey Pines South
Koolau
Stone Eagle
Rancho Murieta North

[Andy Scanlon]

No particular order:

Oakmont
TOC
Ailsa
Muirfield
Prestwick
Royal Dornoch
Pebble Beach
Pinehurst #2
Merion
RGGC (I am a homer)

[Rich Goodale]

Alphabetically, and just for today:

Auchterderran
Carnoustie
Dornoch
Lahinch
Muirfield
Myopia
Painswick
Pebble Beach
Rye
TPC-Sawgrass

[Ben Stephens]

My Top Ten that I have played

1. Carnoustie
2. Royal County Down
3. Royal Porthcawl (I may be biased but a proud Welshman)
4. Ganton
5. Royal West Norfolk
6. Woodhall Spa
7. St Enodoc
8. North Berwick
9. Notts
10. The Golf House Club, Elie

Other notables that not made my top 10 - Royal Lytham, Royal Liverpool, Royal Worlington, Huntercombe, Harbour Town, Doral, Luffenham Heath, Hunstanton. Notts has vastly improved over the last few years due to tree clearance, re introduction of heathland and all bunkers rebuilt and new ones added.

[Doug Wright]

Hopefully not just another list but a collection of courses that have stirred the soul and senses and given much pleasure. They certainly may not be Doak 10's but they are the tops for me.

Not neccessarily in order.

Pacific Dunes
Pebble Beach
Muirfield
Royal County Down
The Island
Cruden Bay
Royal Dornoch
Royal Portrush
Oak Hill East
Sand Hills

[Matt_Cohn]

In somewhat of an order depending on the day:

Olympic-Lake
Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach
Riviera
Kapalua Plantation
LACC-North
Torrey Pines South
Koolau
Stone Eagle
Rancho Murieta North

How do you rate the Lake Course above LACC and Pebble?

[Nick Church]

I started to toss in my 2 cents, and suddenly realized...

I could list 3, maybe 4, courses at best!  Nearly 25 years of golf & that is it!!

I learned the game on the Monterey Peninsula (yes, Ft. Ord counts!), but had to return 20 years later to finally play Pebble Beach.  And even then didn't play Spyglass... dummy.

Spent my high school years in Hawaii, but the "best" off-Post experience I had was Makaha Valley.  In 3.5 years, my family never left Oahu.

Lived in Knoxville -- never played Holston Hills.  Now in Nashville & I still haven't trekked to The Honors.

Even lived in Orlando, but I excused not playing Sawgrass, Bay Hill, or at least World Woods on my grad intern stipend.

Every time I visit GCA.com I realize that despite my travels as an Army Brat, there is a lot of the world yet for me to visit & experience..... Scotland, Ireland, Oregon, and "I-would-never-have-guessed" --- Nebraska / Eastern Colorado.

[John Shimp]

Shinnecock
Royal County Down
Yeamans Hall
Old Course
Lahinch
Palmetto
Friars Head
Yale
Merion
Royal Dornoch

[Chris_Clouser]

I think this thread has been on here in various forms in the past.

In no particular order

Prairie Dunes
Crystal Downs
Southern Hills
Old Town
Rolling Green
Oakland Hills
Medinah
Muirfield Village
Crooked Stick
Dornick Hills

[Jason Mandel]

After the first 3, no particular order...


Pine Valley
Pebble Beach
Merion
Long Cove
Kinloch
Pine Needles
Gulph Mills
Bulls Bay
Baltimore Country Club
Lawsonia

[Andrew Mitchell]

Based on Bob Huntley's criteria that they must have stirred the soul and given much pleasure and only in the order that they came to mind:

Royal Dornoch
Cruden Bay
Turnberry
St Enodoc
Muirfield
North Berwick
Ganton
Woodhall Spa
Royal Birkdale
Elie

As ever it was hard to stop at ten

[Carl Nichols]

In somewhat of an order depending on the day:

Olympic-Lake
Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach
Riviera
Kapalua Plantation
LACC-North
Torrey Pines South
Koolau
Stone Eagle
Rancho Murieta North

How do you rate the Lake Course above LACC and Pebble?

Matt--
Tim can obviously answer for himself, but IIRC from a post earlier this year, I think he has a personal connection to Olympic -- perhaps an uncle or grandfather with whom he played a lot of golf there.  So it may be that Tim puts Olympic-Lake that high for a similar reason I included the muni course from the town I grew up in, even though that muni is nowhere near as good a course as others I've played -- because it has "given [him] much pleasure," to use Bob Huntley's phrase. 

[Tim Leahy]

In somewhat of an order depending on the day:

Olympic-Lake
Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach
Riviera
Kapalua Plantation
LACC-North
Torrey Pines South
Koolau
Stone Eagle
Rancho Murieta North

How do you rate the Lake Course above LACC and Pebble?

Matt--
Tim can obviously answer for himself, but IIRC from a post earlier this year, I think he has a personal connection to Olympic -- perhaps an uncle or grandfather with whom he played a lot of golf there.  So it may be that Tim puts Olympic-Lake that high for a similar reason I included the muni course from the town I grew up in, even though that muni is nowhere near as good a course as others I've played -- because it has "given [him] much pleasure," to use Bob Huntley's phrase. 

No relatives involved, but if any member wants to adopt me I'm available.
I have played the course three times and not in the last 20 years, but nowhere else that I have played did I have the experience of those huge tree lined fairways with only one fairway trap and no water hazards on the whole course and still the toughest tee to green course I have ever played. The sound of your shot echoeing off those trees is amazing and not duplicated anywhere else that I have played. Also the views up to that marvelous clubhouse from the course just gives it a special place in my golfcourse scrapbook. Pebble has the Pacific Ocean, Riviera the Eucalypus trees and grand clubhouse, and Spyglass the dunes and forest, but those tall trees at Olympic are special and provide the ultimate test of a golf game.