What major city does not have a great golf course?

[Carl Rogers]

An interesting question might be:
"What major cities have good to very good accessible golf courses?"

[Sam Morrow]

Pretty much all of the major Texas cities could go on this list. Austin (11th largest city) for sure. The best course in Austin (AGC) is 45 minutes away and isn't even in Travis County.

San Antonio (7th) has some decent golf but nothing out of the way impressive.

Dallas has some good tracks both classic and modern, but nothing befitting the 9th largest city in the country. Houston (4th) may be the worst of the bunch.

All 4 cities have a great deal of very solid golf though.

[John Kavanaugh]

Perhaps I missed it, but has New Orleans come up?

Do you hear anyone from Louisiana complaining?  LSU becoming a golf powerhouse with home grown talent speaks to the quality of the cajun golfing experience.  Truth of the matter is, each city has the golf it deserves.  Visiting critics don't get it.

[Matt Glore]

Perhaps I missed it, but has New Orleans come up?

Yes, and I agree its the biggest city lacking a single great golf course.  If anyone can top NOLA let us know.  Major Shipping port, large airport, Cruise and Vacation destination, and two professional sports teams.  Best course could be Metairie CC, that is probably around a 6 on the Doak Scale.  All the cities around NOLA have good courses, Baton Rouge 60 Miles away and the Mississippi Gulf Coast 50 miles away. 

[John Kavanaugh]

Let's not get too technical.  I'm not sure Chicago or New York has all that great of golf in the city limits.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Let's not get too technical.  I'm not sure Chicago or New York has all that great of golf in the city limits.

But that too could be a good list.  What top 100 courses actually lie within the city limits of a city that is one of the 100 largest cities in the world?

San Francisco GC and Olympic, or are they not technically in the city of SF? LA CC?

St. George's in Toronto would qualify.

Probably not too many others.

[John Kavanaugh]

One reason I have never golfed when visiting New York is that I'm not renting a car in the city.

[Rich Goodale]

Perhaps I missed it, but has New Orleans come up?

No, but it is still effectively submerged.....

[Pete Lavallee]

San Diego?

If I had carte blanche to play just San Diego CC, Rancho Santa Fe CC and Barona Creek I would consider myself very lucky; and my handicap would go up!

[Kalen Braley]

In addition to Salt Lake City,
 
Oakland...all the best courses are across the bay.
San Jose....all the best courses across the  mountains near the ocean.

[Michael Underwood]

In my opinion Kansas City has some pretty good golf:
Kansas City CC
Wolf Creek GC
Milburn CC
Indian Hills CC

The large city that gets my vote for the most uninspired golf offerings is Houston.  I spent part of my life in Houston and the golf is just not all that great.  There is a lot of golf in Houston, but not much in the great category.

[Sam Morrow]

In my opinion Kansas City has some pretty good golf:
Kansas City CC
Wolf Creek GC
Milburn CC
Indian Hills CC

The large city that gets my vote for the most uninspired golf offerings is Houston.  I spent part of my life in Houston and the golf is just not all that great.  There is a lot of golf in Houston, but not much in the great category.

Where did you usually play?

[Scott Weersing]

What I have learned the most from this thread is that we are a bunch of spoiled golfers.

I've learned that we're not any better at defining what constitutes a "major city" than we are at defining what constitutes a "great golf course"

Exactly - no offense Carl but Tidewater is a major city???

No Hampton Roads is not a major city but we are the second largest metro area without a professional team along with Las Vegas. Virginia Beach is working to build an NBA arena, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/19/va-beach-mulls-arena-that-could-lure-nba-nhl/?page=all


Austin is also one. I would say Austin may not have world class golf either.


Back to Hampton Roads, no we do not have world class golf like places such as Portland and Denver.


Does Seattle have world class golf? I would say yes with Chambers Bay.

[John Kavanaugh]

How many great golfers learn the game on "world class golf courses"?  I have a strong feeling that Texas has plenty of great courses for great golfers.

[David Kelly]

With that said, Reno Nevada is bleak for golf.

At least Reno has Clear Creek in Tahoe which is 37 miles away.


Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario is the 13th largest MSA and has an international airport and nothing resembling a great golf course.

[Phil McDade]

How many great golfers learn the game on "world class golf courses"?  I have a strong feeling that Texas has plenty of great courses for great golfers.

Tiger sure didn't. Neither did Trevino, or Palmer, or Seve. Jack grew up on a very good course (Scioto), although I'm not sure one would call it world class.

[John Kavanaugh]

I keep wondering how Spieth learned all those shots around the greens if he didn't grow up on a "world class course".  He is too young to have learned them on tour.

[Mike Tanner]

With a population of over 1.7 million and two airports, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News MSA (number 37 in the U.S.) meets the definition of a major city.


Putting aside the fact the great golf course isn't defined in the question, I'd say the Hampton Roads area, formerly known as Tidewater, has some pretty interesting golf courses.


If you extend the region to Williamsburg, and I do, There are two Mike Strantz courses (Royal New Kent and Storehouse), a Pete Dye course (The River Course at Kingsmill Resort) that's hosted professional tournaments for over 20 years and R.T. Jones' Golden Horseshoe in Colonial Williamsburg.


Carl Rogers' home course, The Riverfront in Suffolk, was built in Suffolk by not-yet-famous Tom Doak very early in his career. My hometown of Virginia Beach boasts two Golden Age classics in The Princess Anne Country Club (Willie Park Jr.) and Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club (Charles Banks). In it's current iteration, the Cavalier can trace its lineage back from Lester George to original architect Charles Banks, and by extension its design influencers include Seth Raynor and C.B. Macdonald. Template holes include instantly recognizable examples of Biarritz, Short and Redan holes.


Really though, most of the golf courses in the region are average at best. On the positive side, green fees on the public access courses are reasonable and you can play all year if you're willing to sweat in the summer and shiver a little in the winter.










 

[Jeff Spittel]

Sadly, my adopted hometown of Houston, which was poised to become the 3rd largest city in the States before crude rolled over, has to take the cake for largest city without anything resembling a great golf course.

[Rick Emerson]

Sadly, my adopted hometown of Houston, which was poised to become the 3rd largest city in the States before crude rolled over, has to take the cake for largest city without anything resembling a great golf course.

It will never make a top 100 list but I love Memorial Park. I also remember liking Champions, but I haven't been there in about 15 years.

[John Kavanaugh]

Buffy and Chip may not be in love with Champions but I've never met a golfer who came away unimpressed.  From what I hear Wolf Point is in many a personal top 100.  With a son at LSU I may be biased but Houston is a golf mecca for a guy looking to work hard and enjoy some free time on the course.

[J Cabarcos]

Sadly, my adopted hometown of Houston, which was poised to become the 3rd largest city in the States before crude rolled over, has to take the cake for largest city without anything resembling a great golf course.

Well at least Texas is at the pinnacle when it come to TopGolf.  8 facilities statewide.  Clearly there are plenty golfers in Texas. Apparently they enjoy the camaraderie of slapping the little white ball with more bells, whistles and booze.

[Michael Underwood]

In my opinion Kansas City has some pretty good golf:
Kansas City CC
Wolf Creek GC
Milburn CC
Indian Hills CC

The large city that gets my vote for the most uninspired golf offerings is Houston.  I spent part of my life in Houston and the golf is just not all that great.  There is a lot of golf in Houston, but not much in the great category.

Where did you usually play?

It has been several years and there may be some new offerings in Houston, but when I lived in the city I got the chance to play the following that I think are very good.

Champions
Houston CC
Lakeside CC
Memorial Park
River Oaks CC

All the above are really good golf courses and the privates were in excellent condition as I remember, but overall for as big as Houston is with as many golf courses as Houston has there is really not much that is truly great.  I could be way off base here as I have not played any of the new courses north of the city.

[herrstein]

Flat places like NOLA and Houston are handicapped. But it's amazing to me that Nashville and Atlanta haven't been able to come up with a golf course like The Honors, Lookout Mountain, Black Creek, Sewanee, or Sweetens Cove, all close to my house. I like Chattanooga Golf &CC (after Bergin's re-do) better than anything in Nashville. It's fun.
And Knoxville, also smaller than Nashville and Atlanta, has Holston Hills and Cherokee, both better than anything in Nashville or Atlanta.
Except maybe Peachtree, which probably competes with Cherokee.

[Philip Hensley]

Nashville

Raleigh-Durham (assuming Pinehurst isn't part of it)

Cleveland (if Top 100 is the qualifier)

Raleigh-Durham isn't a city 


I would not include Pinehurst. Relatively speaking it's not far but they really are two completely different areas.


Raleigh AND Durham and the Triangle area in general lack great golf courses, in terms of overall quality and especially if the criteria is a Top 100 course. Hope Valley and Raleigh Country Club (RCC) are Ross designs, both are private.


If you take Carl's suggestion and ask does it have good accessible golf, then I guess you could say yes depending on your definition of "good". If your definition is lots of courses that are well manicured and suitable for normal recreational golfers, then yet. But nothing readily accessible in the area would likely be described as great based on the architecture.