Great topic, Mark! I'm not going to name a course (just yet), but I do have a fun story on the topic of quirky courses and even the word quirky itself.
I was invited to play in a mid-am tournament at a course that I love. It's one of the most polarizing courses among GCAers. Virtually all of us would agree that it's quirky, some of us think it's among the very best in the world, and some of think it goes too far. I'm more in the former camp, but I understand where the other side is coming from.
I've just arrived on site for my practice round and the first of 3 days that I will be spending there. I'm on the putting green and I spot the owner. I run over to say hello, introduce myself, thank him for inviting me, tell him (honestly) how much I love his course, etc. We're chatting about a few different topics, and I start to tell him about my home course. I say something to the effect of "The greens are a little quirky, but nothing like these." I mean it as a compliment, but he's taken aback. "You think these greens are quirky?!" I won't give you the full dialogue and my memory wouldn't do it justice anyway, but he storms off angrily.
Thinking that there must be some kind of misunderstanding, I chase him down to try to clarify that I meant it as a compliment and that these greens in question are some of the most fun, interesting, unique in all of golf. But he's inconsolable. The word quirk has clearly struck a nerve, and there's no coming back!
Needless to say, this encounter soured the entire 3-day tournament for me, and it appeared to put the owner in an even worse mood. Making matters worse, I was the talk of the event! Everyone came up to me and asked some form of, "Are you the guy who pissed off the owner on the first day?" The other golfers made it their goal to use the word quirky as much as possible throughout their rounds.
To complete the story, it seems as if the superintendent or tournament committee caught wind of our conversation and made it their goal to highlight all the quirks of the course. It was as firm and fast as possible, and the pins were in the most extreme possible places. I saw one victim drive the green on a par 4 and then proceed to make a 6 without ever hitting a bad shot! Some of that was fun, but a bad setup can turn quirky-and-fun into quirky-and-ridiculous, and that's decidedly not the topic of this thread, so I'll stop there.