Your Own Personal Custodians of the Game?

[Will Thrasher]

The 'Custodians' list is one of my favorite parts of this site and is a north star of sorts when considering the GCA ethos of thinking and evaluating architecture. In addition to Ran's criteria which I wholeheartedly cosign, I would add an admittedly subjective addendum that is "courses that I find my mind drifting towards the most."

I keep a Google Map of my own personal custodians list. So far there are 8:

Southern Pines
Inverness
Blue Mound
Cedar Rapids
Brookside (Canton)
Pasatiempo
Culver Academy
Pacific Dunes

[Mike Baillie]

Great that Andrew and Ran plan to update The Custodians of the Game to align with the number of Opens with ongoing adds & deletes.  I prefer to use the list and the Confidential Guides I have to find places to visit and play versus most Top 100 lists.  Especially like the criteria and hope that many responsible for building or renovating courses use the criteria to guide their work.  Realize a wish.


Generally building on the stated preferences of others in the thread:


- Canadian: Highland Links for sure. I prefer Lookout Point slightly more than Victoria and Wolf Creek


- Muirfield: Always thought it should be in the top half of the list although years ago on this site I recall Ran's comments about a family trip to Scotland.  He, his father and brother concluded Muirfield close to last among the several courses they played only to see the cover of Golf Magazine touting HCEG number 1 in the world on their return!


- Royal Portrush: Like Muirfield thought it belonged as well.  While Royal County Down a great choice for golfers that can, I don't see how those that can't carry their tee shots 150 yards (which means closer to 125 into the wind) can find much enjoyment.


- Other UK and Ireland: Elie mentioned by a few a great choice.  A couple of 'hidden gems' I like Dunbar and Dooks.


- USA: Pasatiempo


- Dream Golf Group: Interesting both original Cabots have always been in the top third with to my knowledge nothing to date from Bandon or Sand Valley.  There are a couple of great candidates in both spots.  Hope to see one or more make the list soon.

[Kyle Harris]

Fairwinds in Ft. Pierce, FL.

Definite custodian of the game.

1: Enough golf to interest even good players
2: Pull carts for hire outside the pro shop door - arranged somewhat haphazardly, too
3: EXCELLENT positioning of forward tees
4: Decent conditions that doesn't interrupt flow
5: Some quirk
6: Core golf
7: Routing that places necessary boundary holes on both right or left as the routing winds
8: Walkable
9: Air traffic from Fort Pierce International (the golf course is inside the traffic pattern from the major and GA runways) - adds to sense of place
10: Public Sunday Quota Game for all

[Andrew Harvie]

Great that Andrew and Ran plan to update The Custodians of the Game to align with the number of Opens with ongoing adds & deletes.  I prefer to use the list and the Confidential Guides I have to find places to visit and play versus most Top 100 lists.  Especially like the criteria and hope that many responsible for building or renovating courses use the criteria to guide their work.  Realize a wish.


Generally building on the stated preferences of others in the thread:


- Canadian: Highland Links for sure. I prefer Lookout Point slightly more than Victoria and Wolf Creek


- Muirfield: Always thought it should be in the top half of the list although years ago on this site I recall Ran's comments about a family trip to Scotland.  He, his father and brother concluded Muirfield close to last among the several courses they played only to see the cover of Golf Magazine touting HCEG number 1 in the world on their return!


- Royal Portrush: Like Muirfield thought it belonged as well.  While Royal County Down a great choice for golfers that can, I don't see how those that can't carry their tee shots 150 yards (which means closer to 125 into the wind) can find much enjoyment.


- Other UK and Ireland: Elie mentioned by a few a great choice.  A couple of 'hidden gems' I like Dunbar and Dooks.


- USA: Pasatiempo


- Dream Golf Group: Interesting both original Cabots have always been in the top third with to my knowledge nothing to date from Bandon or Sand Valley.  There are a couple of great candidates in both spots.  Hope to see one or more make the list soon.

I wish that I could take any ounce of credit for this, but the 147 Custodians is all Ran! The only thing I'll do is help with the formatting and getting it published online.


FYI, both Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails are on the Custodians, so they're not completely shut out.

[Tim Gavrich]

• A course that provides engaging puzzles to solve beats one which does not.
• A course where the ball is encouraged to run beats one where it is not.
• A course where you can carry your bag at anytime beats one where you cannot.
• A course where you can play quickly while walking, beats one where you cannot.
• A course that you can enjoy at all ages beats one where you cannot.
• A course with understated maintenance practices beats one with conspicuous green keeping.
• A club that emphasizes the simple game of golf beats one which pursues the trappings of status.
• A course you want to play again and again beats one you only wish to play annually.

This set of criteria is really well suited to high-functioning affordable municipal golf courses, as Kyle alluded to with Fairwinds. So my additions would include the likes of Keney Park, Charleston Muni, Fort Myers CC, New Smyrna, Wellman, Jeffersonville, the three Spokane County courses and others.


The one criterion I would add to the list would be "A course that hosts annual open competitions for scratch and handicap golfers beats one which does not." If we are going to lean on the word "game" as part of our reverence for golf, it is appropriate to recognize golfers who take that word seriously and are competitive at least a couple of times per year. A few of the courses I listed above would then fall off the list, because not every town, city and county has a Town Am/City Am/County Am tournament (yet).

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