The best set of _____ that you've played

[Wade Schueneman]

Par 3's
1. NGLA
2. Shinnecock
3. Lahinch
4. Prairie Dunes
5. Kingsley Club

Short (<400) par 4's
1.  NGLA
2.  Crystal Downs
3.  Fishers Island
4.  TOC
5.  Lane Creek

Long (400+)  par 4's
1. Shinnecock
2.  RCD
3.  Lahinch
4.  Eastward Ho
5.   I try not to play courses with long par 4s

Par 5's
1.  Rivermont
2. Shinnecock
3. NGLA
4. TOC
5. Athens CC

Greens
1. Kingsley
2. Rivermont
3. Crystal Downs
4. Sebonack
5. NGLA

[Connor Dougherty]

Part way through the trip I can include a few I've recently seen. The post has been amended with the suggestions and reminders of others.

Par 3's
1. Camargo Club (By a country mile for me too)
2. Bandon Trails
3. Pasatiempo
4. Barnbougle Dunes (and it could be ahead of both Trails and Pasatiempo if I get to see them more)
5. Chicago (Based on Andrew Lewis' reply Chicago sits firmly here, as I somehow forgot about Chicago's excellent Short hole over the lake)

Short Par 4's (<400)
1. Royal Melbourne (West, I have not yet seen the East)
2. Crystal Downs
3. Oakmont (2 and 14 are two of my favorite holes in golf)
4. Pasatiempo (Take the trees out at 7 and there's no flaws for me in that group)
5. St. Andrews Old (at least what's left of it  )

Long Par 4's (400+)
1. White Bear Yacht Club
2. Aronimink
3. Oakmont
4. Pacific Dunes (There's not too many of them, but 4, 7, and 13 are incredible holes)
5. Stonewall Old (per Mark McKeever's reminder)

Par 5's
1. Cape Kidnappers
2. Spyglass Hill
3. Carnoustie
4. New South Wales
5. Dismal River White (Nicklaus)

Greens
1. Pasatiempo
2. Camargo
3. Crystal Downs
4. Pacific Dunes
5. Chicago GC

Poke away holes. I could interchange all 5 of those sets of greens for the most part (and throw several more into the mix), and I'm not even 100% sure I've gotten everything the way I want it, particularly on the long par 4's, where I really feel like I missed something. I really wanted to put Mid Pines, which I played today, in the short par 4 mix but I couldn't bring myself to take any of the others out.

Something I'd like to add to this, there are a few courses I'm surprised don't make appearances in these categories based on how much I like them. They are, in alphabetical order, as follows:

Barnbougle Lost Farm
Dismal River Red (Doak) (This may change once the course is playing the way it's intended and not with fairways in the process of growing in)
Royal Adelaide
Rustic Canyon
Stonewall Old
Waverly CC

[Mark McKeever]

Connor, I had Stonewall old up for long par 4's as a strength.

Mark

[Connor Dougherty]

Connor, I had Stonewall old up for long par 4's as a strength.

Mark

Mark, good call, on second thought I would certainly put it ahead of Whistling and the previous post has been amended.

[Andrew Lewis]

Part way through the trip I can include a few I've recently seen

Par 3's
1. Camargo Club (By a country mile for me too)
2. Bandon Trails
3. Pasatiempo
4. Barnbougle Dunes (and it could be ahead of both Trails and Pasatiempo if I get to see them more)
5. Chicago? (It's only a trio, but the strength of the Redan and Eden alone are worthy of this category)

Connor -

Out of curiosity, which of the other one-shotters at Chicago (Short or Biarritz) do you not recall?  I'd personally put it on the list based solely on the green at the Short.

Cheers, Andrew

[Tim Bert]

Not ranked, just grouped...

Par 3s
Cypress Point Club
Pacific Dunes
Banff Springs
Kingsley
Pasatirmpo


Short Par 4s
Kingsley
Bandon Trails
Crystal Downs
Ballyneal
Vanderbilt Legends North (frequency of play bias)

Long Par 4s
Pacific Dunes
Yale
Pinehurst #2
Old Macdonald

Par 5s
Sand Hills
Pebble Beach

Greens
Pacific Dunes
Kingsley
Pinehurst #2
Yale
Oakland Hills

[Jaeger Kovich]

Par 3s:
Royal Dornoch
Prairie Dunes
National Golf Links of America
Rye
Pasatiempo


Short 4s
Royal Dornoch
Pinehurst #2
Sand Hills
Crystal Downs
Pacific Dunes

Long 4s
Bethpage Black
Winged Foot West
Sand Hills
National Golf Links of America
Royal St George

Par 5s:
The Addington
Friars Head
The Old Course
Cruden Bay
National Golf Links of America

Greens:
Royal Dornoch
Crystal Downs
Prairie Dunes
The Old Course
Pasatiempo

... in no order

[Steve Kline]

Some that standout for me.

Par 3s
Camargo

Long Par 4s
Pinehurst #2

Par 5s
Pine Valley
Cruden Bay

Greens
Pine Valley
Pinehurst #2
Kingsley
Ballyneal
Camargo

[Connor Dougherty]

Part way through the trip I can include a few I've recently seen

Par 3's
1. Camargo Club (By a country mile for me too)
2. Bandon Trails
3. Pasatiempo
4. Barnbougle Dunes (and it could be ahead of both Trails and Pasatiempo if I get to see them more)
5. Chicago? (It's only a trio, but the strength of the Redan and Eden alone are worthy of this category)

Connor -

Out of curiosity, which of the other one-shotters at Chicago (Short or Biarritz) do you not recall?  I'd personally put it on the list based solely on the green at the Short.

Cheers, Andrew

Andrew, I spaced on the short when writing the original post. You are right, that short is one of the best. It must have been overshadowed by my recollection of the short's pin placement for Camargo's am qualifier 

[Matt Glore]

Par 3's

5. Kingsley Club

There are a few people with Kinglsey in their top par 3's
I don't get it.  I think they are the only weakness of the course.
2 is great, 9 for me was the worst hole on the course, the next one was a bit forgettable, the closing par 3 was very nice.  
I'm a huge Kingsley Club fan.

[Steve Kline]

Connor - was it on the typical back left corner of the horseshoe? I never try to get near that one but sometimes it happens by mistake.

[Steve Kline]

Matt - I agree. I absolutely love that golf course. But, the only great par 3s on it are 2 and 16. The other two are okay.

[jeffwarne]

July 1978 , but was too young and inexperienced to know they would turn out to be the finest "set" I would ever play

[Jamie Pyper]

The first images that popped into my mind...

Par 3's

Kingston Heath
Pacific Dunes
Royal Melbourne (west)
Royal Portrush

Short par 4's

Barnbougle Dunes
Pacific Dunes
Streamsong Blue
Ballyneal

Long Par 4's

Royal County Down
Pinehurst # 2
Erin Hills
Lahinch

Par 5's

Old MacDonald
Ballybunion Old

Greens

Pinehurst # 2
Old MacDonald
Ballyneal
Royal Melbourne( West)


 

[Ken Moum]

To be completely honest, I don't think like that.... which is why I might be the worst rater Brad ever recruited.

Nor do I have the experience to do it, even if I could.

But I do know this....  The most fun 16 par fours I have EVER seen on one course are the ones at Elie.  And I know that it's partly because I played well, and partly because it was only ~30 hours ago.

More and more I have come to believe that a critical component of enjoyable golf for me is the spread of yardage.  Almost any course with  100+ yard difference between long and short par threes, 200 yard difference between par fours and 100 or so on the fives will find my favor.

And while Elie's par fours range from 252 to 466, it isn't just the lengths, they also vary in character.

And, the two lonely par threes are 131 and 214.

K

[Joe Bausch]

Mark, I hate to be piling on but the par 5 18th at Gulph Mills may be one of the worst I've ever seen with the rock wall fronting the green. What did I miss at Gulph Mills?

Did you have a couple of Pine Valley's afterwards at Gulph Mills, Jack?!  Or maybe a rock wall was there in the past.  But there is no wall on the 18th currently.

Joe,    I did have some drinks afterwards with Wayne,TEP, etc but let me rephrase my answer from a rock wall to a "wall of rock" that repelled my playing partners 2 nd shot. We played 5 yrs ago at Gulph Mills- have they blasted it away since?

Ah, I guess you mean this semi-exposed rock well short of the green?



Maybe it was been mostly grassed-over since you were there?

Joe, As you probably know the wall of rock was significantly covered since my visit to soften the hole- still a pretty lame finisher to an otherwise solid course.

From The Lurker:

As you may or may not know, we have a championship scorecard for GMGC where the 18th is a par 4 and the course is a par 70.

[Cristian]

In order of reminding....

Par 3's
1. Swinley
2. Bandon Trails
3. De Pan
4. Pac Dunes
5. TotD

Short (<400) par 4's
1. Woking
2. Cruden Bay
3. Portrush
4. North Berwick
5. De Pan

Long (400+)  par 4's
1. TOC
2. RSGeorge's
3. County Down
4. Carnoustie
5. Old Mac

Par 5's
1. Pac Dunes
2. TOC
3. Noordwijk
4. Cruden Bay
5. Cinque Ports

Best Greens:

TOC
Woking
Old Mac
Royal St Georges
Pasatiempo

[Connor Dougherty]

Connor - was it on the typical back left corner of the horseshoe? I never try to get near that one but sometimes it happens by mistake.

Steve,
The pin was middle right in between the bunker and the thumbprint in the ridge. I hit my first shot pin high and had a putt that not only broke 2 ft left and then 3 ft right, but began rushing toward the hole once it got over the ridge. Playing the practice round I was certain that they would use the back pin and that was the toughest of the positions. I was dead wrong.