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Charles did you take up the game in 2005 or just recording courses?
Approx 300 since then. Impressive.
I have 210 in 7 countries (3 continents), since stating in 2000.
Tony,
I actually played the short nine at Jefferson Park Municipal in Seattle around 1957 or 1958. My first time on a full length course was across the street in 1959 at age 12. It was a long day.
I played quite a bit for a couple of summers and then was required to work, got my driver's license, and adolescence kicked in, followed by undergraduate and graduate school. I played a lot between 1978 and 1982, but ended up recognizing I needed to focus on other priorities, so I stopped playing for close to 20 years. When I started playing again around 2000, I found that there were new public courses near Seattle where I lived. My renewed interest led me to play more and get a condo in San Diego for shorter golf getaways during winter months. I spent more time in San Diego, worked less, and started doing solo road trips in California and the Southwest. I spent some miles accumulated for a flight to New Zealand in late 2007 for a month and did a side trip to Australia.
I retired fully in late 2008. I just returned from my 37th overseas trip, having spent close to two and a half years overseas, mostly on golf related trips.
I have a hard time with what was the best course. I have played about 30 of the best 100 courses outside the U.S.
My favorites have to be at the club I am a member of in Australia on the Mornington Peninsula and another where I am a member at on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal. I've been to Australia 13 times and Ireland 11 times. I think the Mornington Peninsula and County Donegal represent excellent value and get overlooked by visitors to either Australia or Ireland who are doing their one trip of a lifetime. I was fortunate to have two weeks in Australia on my first trip and to find the Mornington Peninsula via an Australia golf website. I did a five week loop half loop trip to Ireland in the spring of 2009. I played 27 rounds on 23 different courses. I have been to Donegal on every trip to Ireland.
For me, the idea of a favorite merges with value. Favorites are the places I go back to over and over.
As a teenager, I played Fircrest Golf Club in Tacoma at the 1962 PNGA Junior Championship over several days. In 1979, I went to Eugene Golf Club and played in the adult version of the same tournament. Those experiences clarified the difference between upper tier courses and the public venues here in the Pacific Northwest. I played at Inglewood CC for about three years from 1979 to 1982 and got to play a lot of the private courses around Seattle. I was happy to find that there were many quality public courses outside of Seattle by 2000.
In the next year, I have four trips lined up, with two involving Ireland and two involving Australia. On one of the Australia trips, I will travel on the way through Japan and Hong Kong and stay over in Hong Kong on the way back.
I enjoy playing new courses and have some vague notions of what I would like to play for the first time if the opportunity presented. There are many I would love to play but they are basically inaccessible.
Hope all is well with you. We communicated some about playing golf if I were to be in the London area. I was looking at a side trip to England in June of this year, but a friend from Australia is meeting me in Donegal. I will be back in Ireland for two weeks in mid-September.
Charles