[Mark Molyneux]

The next course that I play (if the snow ever melts) will be course #539. Of the first 10 that I played in 1961-1963, I've played seven at least 25 times. I tallied up the results (and let me mention that my wife thinks there's little value to cluttering the den with scorecards). I play about 100 times a year now and I have done that for quite a few years. I've been to 8 places at least 50 times. Similarly, there were eight places where I've been 25 to 49 times. I've revisited twenty-two tracks 10 to 24 times and coincidentally, there were another 22 places where I've been 5 to 9 times.

There are places where I feel "at home". There are places where I am in awe to be able to say, "I played there." There's always the excitement associated with teeing it up for the first time at a new course. I remember sitting next to a gentleman at Alpine CC (about 200 rounds ago) and telling him how proud I was to say that I'd played "X" number of clubs. He told me that in his days as a rater, he'd played "2X + about 40". That sort of helped put things into perspective for me.

This is one of the reasons that I'm reluctant to join a private club. I get invites a lot. I used to enjoy working at a club for all the entrees it involved. However, if I were paying dues, I'd feel a definite need to dedicate 80% of my rounds to that club. I need my diet of 20 to 50 new clubs each year. It keeps me young.

So many courses... so little time!

[Bob_Huntley]

Bob,

Impressive indeed!  How many years do those figures cover?  I ask b/c I'd love to know how Cypress Point, Pebble, Riviera and LACC have changed over what is presumably a good amount of time.

Also, Nchanga:  I did a quick google search and it appears that this course is in Africa.  Very cool!

Thanks in advance,

George

George,

Nchanga was up until 1963. I first played Pebble Beach in 1963 for a $7.50 Green fee and $10.00 for the caddie fee. I vowed I would live and die in the place, so far it is working, it may get too expensive to expire here. Pebble and Cypress have changed little since then, LACC made some changes at No. 2 and No.8 both without any great improvement. I was a member at Riveria but left in 1975 and have never returned.


Bob

 
 
 
 

[Jason Topp]

Nine - 25 times. 

I try to play most destination courses twice.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Hmmm Interesting. I always felt I needed to play a course 4 times to really see it and come close to getting it. It always amazed me how some like Tommy N and others could get so much out of one visit.
25 plus
Bayou Desaird Cc
Monroe, La  Muni 1
LSU old University course course
University Club Baton Rouge
Webb Park Muni in Baton Rouge
Shreveport Cc
Querbies Park Muni Shreveport, La
Oakbourne Cc, Lafayette, la
LeTriumphe CC Lafayette, La
Champions GC Houston, Texas
Olympic Lake SF, Cal
Mountain Lake CC Lake Wales, Fl
Pebble Beach Links
Spyglass Golf Links
Cypress Pointe Club
TOC, St Andrews
Metaire CC, Metairie, La
The list of 5 and above is long and brings architecture and geographic balance to my golf experiences
A few or the more notable would include Chambers Bay, Olympic Ocean, Monterey Pen CC both, Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, Sand Hills, National Golf Linnks, Cuscowilla, New Course, St Andrews, Crail, Royal Dornoch, Cruden Bay, Muirfield, North Berwick, Troon, Turnberry

[Joe Bausch]

I've never taken the time to tally up the total number of courses I've played, but it might push 400 or so.  And probably 125 of those I've played multiple times, and maybe 20 of those I've played +25 times.  I probably have 5 or 6 courses that I've played >100 times.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Shiv,

You are man with similar experienc to me. If I count the Rob Roy nine holer, I played there and Old Orchard well over 25 times. I also played Kemper Lakes over 25 times because our office was there, although I rarely got in all 18 since we played after work or before work and quit when dark or time to start drafting.

[Richard Hetzel]

I've never taken the time to tally up the total number of courses I've played, but it might push 400 or so.  And probably 125 of those I've played multiple times, and maybe 20 of those I've played +25 times.  I probably have 5 or 6 courses that I've played >100 times.

Joe,

You mean to tell me you are not obsessive-compulsive and keep an accurate excel spreadsheet of all your courses? Jeeeesh! Get on it!

 

[Joe Bausch]

I've never taken the time to tally up the total number of courses I've played, but it might push 400 or so.  And probably 125 of those I've played multiple times, and maybe 20 of those I've played +25 times.  I probably have 5 or 6 courses that I've played >100 times.

Joe,

You mean to tell me you are not obsessive-compulsive and keep an accurate excel spreadsheet of all your courses? Jeeeesh! Get on it!

 

Did you say Micro$oft Excel?  Ah, now you know why I haven't kept up a spreadsheet!

[Mike Cirba]

The next course that I play (if the snow ever melts) will be course #539. Of the first 10 that I played in 1961-1963, I've played seven at least 25 times. I tallied up the results (and let me mention that my wife thinks there's little value to cluttering the den with scorecards). I play about 100 times a year now and I have done that for quite a few years. I've been to 8 places at least 50 times. Similarly, there were eight places where I've been 25 to 49 times. I've revisited twenty-two tracks 10 to 24 times and coincidentally, there were another 22 places where I've been 5 to 9 times.

There are places where I feel "at home". There are places where I am in awe to be able to say, "I played there." There's always the excitement associated with teeing it up for the first time at a new course. I remember sitting next to a gentleman at Alpine CC (about 200 rounds ago) and telling him how proud I was to say that I'd played "X" number of clubs. He told me that in his days as a rater, he'd played "2X + about 40". That sort of helped put things into perspective for me.

This is one of the reasons that I'm reluctant to join a private club. I get invites a lot. I used to enjoy working at a club for all the entrees it involved. However, if I were paying dues, I'd feel a definite need to dedicate 80% of my rounds to that club. I need my diet of 20 to 50 new clubs each year. It keeps me young.

So many courses... so little time!

Mark,

We are very simliar.  

From the time I started playing golf a week before my 13th birthday on July 13, 1971, I kept a scorecard, not necessarily of the round in question, but for each course I played.   As a kid growing up collecting baseball and football cards this didn't seem weird to me at all.  

Years later I'm thrilled I did that because it allowed me to track them all, count them, create a database, etc., and today I still experience much of what you describe about the excitement of playing any new course.   It indeed doesn't grow old as I do.

814 cards later, kept lovingly in a chest, I'm really glad for this game and its venues that have been such a source of unending fascination and joy through my life.

We do need to get out and play together this year...

[jonathan_becker]

Courses that I've played 25+ times....

Shady Hollow CC - Massillon, OH
Canton Brookside CC - Canton, OH
Wooster CC - Wooster, OH
Lagrange CC - Lagrange, IL
Debordieu CC - Georgetown, SC
Forest Creason GC - Bowling Green, OH
L.C. Boles Memorial GC - Wooster, OH
Hawks Nest GC - Creston, OH

[Andrew Mitchell]

Courses I've played more than 25 times:
Northcliffe GC, Shipley
Branshaw GC, Keighley
Bingley St Ives GC
Keighley GC
Ralston GC, Paisley
Shipley GC

All of the above are in Yorkshire & near where I live, with the exception of Ralston GC just outside of Glasgow.

Courses I've played ten times or more:
Dunbar GC
Hollins Hall, Baildon
Ilkley GC
Longniddry GC
Meyrick Park GC, Bournemouth
North Berwick West Links

I always try & play "destination courses" at least twice, ideally 36 in a one day visit.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Shiv,

We must have grown up miles apart. I lived in Scarsdale sub in AH on Lincoln Lane!  Next door neighbors belonged to Medinah....First Round Medinah No. 3 (on a Monday)...next ten rounds...Rob Roy nine holer for that same $3........then Dad took me to the RR 18 holer on a Monday that he took off.  Luckily, since I was pushing hard for membership at Medinah, Dad was willing to subsidize the OO greens fee from time to time!  I never liked Palatine Hills and a few others as much (and early on I had a discerning eye....)

Those nine hole courses (Old Orchard had one, too and there was another at Hicks Road and Northwest Highway in Palatine that was quite nice) were great for kids.  I guess no one can afford adjunct courses anymore.  I have proposed those a few times when a city client has some extra land, but have no takers.

[Mac Plumart]

This thread touches on something that I think is important (at least for me)...

In one of my earlier post (Golf Courses to Learn from, I think), Tom Doak mentioned that rather than play a bunch of courses once he thought playing a few interesting/historic/architecturally significant courses many times and really study them would make better sense for what I am wanting to do.

I have since added this mentality into my "lesson plan".  I am still going to play a wide variety of courses to see what is out there (clunkers included), but all the while find those courses that are on my annual play list.  Thus far, Kiawah Ocean, East Lake, and Harbour Town are on that list.  I have a few others I am going to be playing later in the year that might make it as well.

Great idea/great thread.

[TEPaul]

Mac:

If you're going to make a plan to play some significant courses multiple times to understand them better my advice to you would be to try as best as you can to play some of them when they are as firm and fast throughout as they can get. On most golf courses, particularly the best of the older ones, that is when the "lights" really come up so to speak. That is when the big and particularly the little stuff really starts to pop.

And to take that thought a step or two further you may want to get it into your experience what they are like when they are soft and slow so you can full appreciate what a collossal difference it is from one end of that spectrum to the other.

[Mac Plumart]

Great advice Tom!

I played Chechessee Creek this weekend and the rain had been HUGE lately, so the course wasn't as fast and firm as Coore/Crenshaw probably envisioned...so the run up shots that they tried to induced by leaving the greens open to the front didn't work...so the course didn't play as it should.  I'll have to go back when it is not as wet.

Great point!

[Ken Moum]

This thread got me interested, as I have primarily played a lot of golf on the same courses, none of which are famous.  Many of which are nine holes.

Nine holers I've played 25 times:

Thief River Falls CC (MN)
Fosston CC (MN)
Roseau CC (MN)
Crookston CC (MN)


Nine holers 10 or more times:

Chamberlain CC (SD)
Belle Fourche CC (SD)
Phillip CC (SD)
Fisher Grove GC (SD)
Lake Platte CC (SD)
Larimore CC (ND)


18 holers 25 or more:

Bemidji Town and Country (MN)
Hillsview GC (Pierre, SD)
Shawnee CC (Topeka KS)
Lake Shawnee GC (Topeka KS)

18 holers 10 or more:

Mesa CC (AZ)
Longbow GC (Mesa AZ)
Albuquerque CC (NM)
Lincoln Park GC (Grand Forks, ND)
Red Mountain Ranch (Mesa AZ)


Because of playing a small-course tournament circuit in either Minnesota or South Dakota forabout 35 years, there are lots more courses I've played at least 5 times, and some of them may have been over 10, but I wasn't counting.

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