Great concept, Pat. MaKes you think about what is really important in golf, and in life......
First, my 2nd 10, and why they didn't make the final cut:
Cypress Point--my top 10 is already overloaded with posh, exclusive clubs, and with short courses, and if I have to choose one course to play in the 17-mile drive, well, CPC just ain't the best....
Sandwich--similar problem, partially in reverse. If I'm going to add a posh, exclusive club in the south of England, Sandwich is 2nd best
Ballybunion/Royal County Down--I can allow for only one Irish course, and much as I love the hinterlands, I also need some venues that are near great cities. Dublin is a place to be.
Prairie Dunes--played it once and absolutely loved it, but I'm not going to spend 10% of the rest of my life in Kansas
Merion--great course, but it will not be that long before I will be unable to make the carry from the back tee on 18, and I do not want to spend the rest of my life playing from the forward tees.
Olympic/SFGC--hard, hard choices to make, but I've got enough fog and mist to contend with in my Scottish contingent, so they must go
Turnberry--where I popped my cherry on links courses, but too remote and too yuppified now to be of the greatest pleasure.
Stanford--lots of memories and a very good golf course, but better and more substantive memories at better courses listed below.
Given all this, the list, in alphabetical order:
1. Dornoch--my home course
2. Muirfield--great golf, and still a loveable sociological time warp
3. NGLA--another time warp, and a course that I really do want to play again, and again
4. Painswick--size isn't everything....
5. Pebble Beach--THE "test of golf" on the Monterrey Peninsula, or perhaps even on the world...
6. Portmarnock--as good as Ballybunion or County Down, but in the middle of civilisation
7. Rye--the NGLA of little England. A golfer's course.
8. Shinnecock Hills--Pebble Beach East. Unrelenting questions about your game and your character.
9. St. Jean de Monts--I can't imagine a future life that did not include France. A very good course in a refreshingly low key area.
10. Winchester--where my parents met and I played my first proper round of golf. The home course of my previous life.