This is a question that can be answered many ways. I have kept careful track of the courses I have played over the last 66 years and they now total 1261. I also keep track "top 100 lists" going back to the first one in 1966 for USA and 1979 for world...and how many I have played from each list...and the same for important events (e.g., Men's Majors, Women's Majors, Senior Majors, 5 Cups...Ryder/Pres/Walker/Solheim/Curtis, etc etc). As a result I have had to consider this question and where to "draw the line".
Best way to illustrate is to provide a series of examples:
1. Fresh Meadow CC hosted a US Open in 1932 and a PGA Championship in 1930 and was located in Queens NY (I grew up about 3 miles from this original site) until about 1947 when it moved about 5-6 miles east to Nassau Cty and its current site. So does playing the current site mean you played the Open/PGA track?
2. Similarly, Baltimore CC hosted a US Open at it original Roland Park site in 1899 and move to its Five Farms campus in 1926, eventually closing the golf course at Roland Park in 1962 (although the land for three or the original holes still exists and is "maintained" about like Yale was this past summer
). So...does playing the East or West Course a 5 Farms mean you have played the 1899 site?
3. Prior to retaining Tillie to create 36 holes (Upper and Lower courses) Baltusrol GC had a 9 hole course on the current site which opened in 1895, was expanded to 18 holes in 1898 and was modified by George Low sometime in the following 20+ years. The original 18 and the modified 18 hosted US Opens in 1903 and 1915 respectively, but the modified course was completely plowed under by Tillinghast in the mid 1920's when he built the 36 hole setup. Question...if you play the current Upper and Lower courses, have you played the 1903 and 1915 US Open sites?
4. About 4-5 years ago, Royal Portrush closed down its holes 17 and 18 on its Dunluce Course (and golf holes no longer occupy that land) and took two holes from its Valley Course, renovated those two holes and inserted these holes on Dunluce (and also replaced the two missing holes on Valley with two new holes on other land). So if you played Dunluce in 2015, while you clearly have played the site of the 1951 Open Championship, have you played the site of the 2019 Open Championship?
5. You played The Old Course about 15 years ago, but of course played it from the standard tee boxes (as the Open Championship boxes were closed...and today's tee box on #17 was not built and its land was not even considered part of the course). So have you played the site of some 29 Open Championships?
6. As I recall (could be wrong on one or both off these) for the 2013 US Open, the USGA had a bunker placed about 30-50 years short of Merion's 2nd green, and for the 1998 or 2012 US Open they did something similar on Olympic's #17. In both cases the new bunker was removed shortly after the Open Championship. If you played either or both courses about 2 years after those Opens...did you play the venue fo those Opens?
7. You were invited to play Winged Foot West about 2 weeks after the US open was held there in October and you were able to play the championship tees (hopefully you have the game for that, otherwise you might still be trying to complete your round). But of course the pin positions were not the same positions used on any of the days of this year's US Open. Did you play the host course for the 2020 US Open?
8. Lastly, the old Desert Inn course in Las Vegas hosted some 14 PGA Tour Tournament of Champions events. About 5 years ago, Steve Wynn plowed that course away and in the same footprint built his new Wynn Golf Club (artificial waterfalls and all). So, does the Desert Inn NLE? And if want to play all the Tournament of Champions sites, do you need to play Wynn Golf?
I could outline hundreds of other hypotheticals but the above are enough to show the answer to the question posed in the post is not
obvious.
For what it is worth, I have concluded that the right answer focuses on the footprint where the golf course existed. If that footprint still contains a golf course, you need to play it. So to me, the answers to these above are as follows:
1. The site of the '30 PGA and '32 US Open is a NLE...the Nassau Cty home of Fresh Meadow CC never held a major and if one is looking to play all PGA or US Open sites, playing the current FMCC site is not necessary.
2. Same for BCC's Roland Park...but I did play the three remaining holes about 5 years ago (got permission first)...and you need to play Five Farms East as it hosted the 1928 PGA (and a bunch of other big events).
3. Under my definition by playing today's Upper and Lower courses you have played the venue for all 7 US Opens Baltusrol GC has hosted.
4. Answer regarding Royal Portrush is NO...it
is necessary to return to play the new holes 7 and 8. This affects moi, as I played it twice, last time in 2016 but the new holes were not open for play, and I did not play Valley before the changes.
5. Yes, same essential footprint...otherwise very very few have played any of these courses.
6. Yes, regarding Merion and Olympic for same reason as #5 above
7. Yes regarding WF-W as well for same reason
8. Per my definition, the Desert Inn site still holds a golf course...so it still exists and one needs to play it to play all still existing T of C sites...and this same question could be asked about Sheep Ranch...under my definition if you played Tom's original, you do not need to (but should) play today's C-C version, and if you play the C-C version you have played the old Doak version. If you have played both the old and the new versions I think it should count as one course on your lists.
And I count the NLE's that I have played...including BCC's Roland Park site, Englewood CC (NJ) which I played in 1962 and hosted a US Open in 1909 (when I had played it about 7 -9 of the original holes were gone due to construction of a new entrance to the GW Bridge), Wolf Run (IN), and Red Fox (NC).
I played Inverness, Southern Hills and Oak Hill-East before their extensive renovations/restorations...and I believe I do not need to get back to them for "bucket list" reasons, but I do need to do so to see the changes (was at Oak Hill this summer).
Ira--regarding green fees below $100, I think for sure at Bethpage if you are a NY State resident...and my guess is there are still some private clubs on top 100 lists with accompanied green fees < $100.