What is the easiest Top 100 course?

[Anthony Gray]

  And don't ask for the definition of easy.

  Anthony

[Mark Saltzman]

PLAINFIELD

And which top 100 list?



Seriously, of the ones I have played.....Pinehurst #2

[Jim_Kennedy]

Anthony,
Using GD's list and resistance to scoring as an indicator: Shoreacres at 6.93 would be the easiest, followed by Sage Valley= 7.21, The Quarry at La Quinta= 7.27, Estancia= 7.39, GCGC= 7.39, and Ballyneal= 7.40.  

[K. Krahenbuhl]

It's definitely Shoreacres.  By a decent margin, too...

Agreed.

[C. Squier]

It's definitely Shoreacres.  By a decent margin, too...

Agreed.

Not based on your scoring records..... 

[David_Tepper]

If you can stay out of the bunkers, San Francisco GC is not too difficult. Whether it is "easy" is another matter. You could probably say the  same thing about Cypress Point.

[Steve Kline]

Seriously, of the ones I have played.....Pinehurst #2

Seriously?

I have shot one round under par in my life on #2 and that was from the white (member) tees. I have played a couple hundred rounds there over the last two decades.

Ballyneal and Kingsley (both of which I love and are in the top 5 courses I've played) are easier than Pinehurst. Is Kingsley top 100 anywhere?

Camargo is easier than Pinehurst too.

Depending on the weather, most of the GB&I courses are easier than Pinehurst.

[Mark Saltzman]

Steve, seriously.

NB I haven't yet played the 'new' #2.

I've played #2 twice.  Played liked junk both times (once from the 7300 yard tees, the other time from the 6800? yard tees).  Shot 79 (tips) and 76 (and as a 4, these are quite reasonable scores for me).  So why do I say it's easy?  The corridors are 100 yards wide.  It goes trees, 40 yards of rough cut almost like fairway, 30 yards of fairway, 40 yards of rough cut almost like fairway.  So tee shots were all just try to kill it and go find it --- that's pretty easy.  And both times I played #2, the greens were soft and pretty slow, taking away a lot of the teeth of the golf course.  When you can hit it anywhere and then have shots that land and stick on those greens, how tough can the course be?

[Sean_A]

I think the easiest I have come across is North Berwick.  I don't know if these are top 100 or indeed which top 100 we speaking of, but Woking, St Georges Hill and Swinley Forest are three others I would nominate.  

Ciao  

[Steve Scott]

One of the easiest I have played is Seminole when the wind is down and conditions are soft.  Par fives are very gettable with many short fours...a totally different animal when it blows which is most of the time!

[Mark Johnson]

  And don't ask for the definition of easy.

  Anthony

Can I ask which set of tees?  The Tournament tees or the tees the majority of members/patrons play?  Could get very different answers based on this?


Obviously haven't played them all (and havent played shoreacres which seems to be the consensus choice),  but here are my candidates for "easy" courses

- Maidstone
- Forest Dunes
- Interlachen
- Rich Harvest Links

[Andy Troeger]

Shoreacres gets my vote too, although I don't think the Valley Club of Montecito is especially difficult either.

Mark,
Rich Harvest Links? The tip rating is 79.1/155? That's as hard as it gets!

[RichMacafee]

World Top 100?

Depends on the level of golfer obviously, but for a pro/scratch golfer Royal Melbourne West would have to be close. It is genuinely a par 68 for that level of golfer, but plays as a 72.

[David_Elvins]

Most great courses difficulty is determined by variables such as wind strength, turf firmness,and pin positions and tee positions. 

Courses such as Augusta, St Andrews, Pacific Dunes, Royal Melbourne, Barnbougle Dunes, Cypress Point could change in difficulty by 10-15+  shots depending on these variables, making the determination of the 'easiest course' somewhat of a futile exercise. 

[Steve Kline]

Steve, seriously.

NB I haven't yet played the 'new' #2.

I've played #2 twice.  Played liked junk both times (once from the 7300 yard tees, the other time from the 6800? yard tees).  Shot 79 (tips) and 76 (and as a 4, these are quite reasonable scores for me).  So why do I say it's easy?  The corridors are 100 yards wide.  It goes trees, 40 yards of rough cut almost like fairway, 30 yards of fairway, 40 yards of rough cut almost like fairway.  So tee shots were all just try to kill it and go find it --- that's pretty easy.  And both times I played #2, the greens were soft and pretty slow, taking away a lot of the teeth of the golf course.  When you can hit it anywhere and then have shots that land and stick on those greens, how tough can the course be?

The summer I was a +4 I played #2 three times from the Open tees (about 7,300 yards). I played my ass off and shot two 76s and a 75. I think that was right at the course rating, which that summer was a bad score for me. I can't do much better on a course that long. If I had been striking the ball poorly my score would have been much.

You must be really long and or have a good short game. My short game is weak relative to my handicap so I don't get up and down much on #2.

[Mark Saltzman]

Steve,

Was the course in the condition I described?  With real rough and/or firm greens I would not call the course easy.

I am not long, at all.  Driver 240ish, 5i 180, 8i 150.  Short game is good and hopefully not cursed for writing that.

I hit 3-wood into a lot of greens from the back tees.  I was unable to reach a couple of the P4s in two, but 79 is a bunch of bogies and a bunch of pars and no huge mistakes.  The only birdie I made from the tips was on 16, where my caddie kindly pointed out that since I was playing the golds, the hole actually played as a par 4 --- so I made par.

[Terry Lavin]

I don't care. As long as it has options. Wide fairways no rough shallow bunkers water in bottles only and a requirement that everybody carries his own clubs without any rangefinders.

[JR Potts]

Shoreacres...yep.

[Jeff Tang]

  And don't ask for the definition of easy.

  Anthony

Can I ask which set of tees?  The Tournament tees or the tees the majority of members/patrons play?  Could get very different answers based on this?


Obviously haven't played them all (and havent played shoreacres which seems to be the consensus choice),  but here are my candidates for "easy" courses

- Maidstone
- Forest Dunes
- Interlachen
- Rich Harvest Links

Mark, I'd be very interested to hear your take on Rich Harvest and why you'd consider it easy.  Easy isn't a word I can imagine using for a course that tips out at over 7600 yards, is narrow in spots, and has very quick greens.  As Andy mentioned the course rating and slope are very high, in fact probably higher than any other course I've seen.  Even from a shorter set of tees the course would be difficult to manage.

[Tom_Doak]

North Berwick would get my vote as the easiest.  It's 6300 yards if they let you play all the way back, which they don't.

Royal Melbourne is very playable, but not as easy as N.B. when the wind is up.  Shoreacres is not that hard, but I've never scored exceptionally well there.  Chicago Golf Club is relatively easy; I can still break 80 there.  The National Golf Links is relatively easy.  And Sunningdale (old) is pretty easy.  Those are the first that come to mind.

Ballyneal is probably the easiest of my own highly-ranked courses, but I don't think any of my highest-ranked courses are among the hardest I've built.

[Steve Kline]

Steve,

Was the course in the condition I described?  With real rough and/or firm greens I would not call the course easy.

No roll in the fairways and the greens were soft. Typical rough at Pinehurst. I've played the course in every condition from every tee. Like I said, I've shot one round under par there in my life and I probably have shot par maybe two or three times. You really think it is easier than Ballyneal? BN's fairways are wider than Pinehurst's and you can still reach the par 5s in two from the back tees, which you can't do at Pinehurst. I shot par the first time around Ballyneal and missed a bunch of very makeable putts. Also shot 67 from the tips in a 15-20 mph wind there this summer. No way I could ever do that at Pinehurst.

[Kevin Pallier]

Noth Berwick for mine.

[Shane Wright]

North Berwick would get my vote as the easiest.  It's 6300 yards if they let you play all the way back, which they don't.

Royal Melbourne is very playable, but not as easy as N.B. when the wind is up.  Shoreacres is not that hard, but I've never scored exceptionally well there.  Chicago Golf Club is relatively easy; I can still break 80 there.  The National Golf Links is relatively easy.  And Sunningdale (old) is pretty easy.  Those are the first that come to mind.

Ballyneal is probably the easiest of my own highly-ranked courses, but I don't think any of my highest-ranked courses are among the hardest I've built.

Ballyneal has been mentioned a couple of times in this discussion.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I think Pacific Dunes is easier than Ballyneal.  In fact, when I first saw this discussion, the first two courses that came to mind were North Berwick and Pacific Dunes.

[Steve Kline]

Ballyneal has been mentioned a couple of times in this discussion.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I think Pacific Dunes is easier than Ballyneal.  In fact, when I first saw this discussion, the first two courses that came to mind were North Berwick and Pacific Dunes.

Paging Tim Bert...Bert Line 1.

[Kalen Braley]

I think its good to add reasons why they are "easy".  For Ballyneal I see it like this.

1)  Pretty wide playing corridors, you can spray it and still be in the short stuff
2)  When you spray it far offline, you can almost always still find your ball
3)  For the most part there are no "stroke" assessing penalties.  No OB, no ponds, with very few lost ball penalties...on other courses those "non-stroke" strokes can really add up.
4)  With no designated tees, you can play every hole from a reasonable distance.
5)  Fast and firm means even short to medium length guys can poke it out there and have reasonable approach distances in.
6)  Almost every non Par 3 hole allows for the run up shot, meaning there are very few "blocking" bunkers that mandate an aerial approach.

P.S.  There is no way Pac Dunes is easier than Ballyneal IMO.

1)  No ball eating gorse at BN
2)  No OB at BN
3)  NO Water hazards at BN
4)  Playing corridors are more narrow at PD.
5)  No difficult green complexes like 3, 6, and 16 that require a super precise approach.
6)  No shrubs or trees to lose a ball in at BN
7)  I may be wrong on this, but the bunkers at BN seemed less severe than at PD.