What course is the hardest to get to?

[Big Pete]

Well here I am living in the lovely north east of Melbourne . I am a former member of Ringa Ringa (that is a long story for another day) , live near and play Rosanna most weeks - currently being remodelled by Mike Clayton - and commute to Barnbougle every few weeks .
Remote?Hard to get to?Not from where I am sitting...
So I guess everyone has a different perspective - for me the trips to Sand Hills or Machrihanish or Pinehurst or Friar's head or Jasper or Valderrama were lengthy but fun , and probably around the corner from someone else?
James , next time you want to get to Royal Rosanna and see what Clayts is up to , give me a bell , and I will be your guide...
Peter

[Mike_Clayton]

James,

I'm with you on Rosanna - for anyone who has never been there it is a nightmare - I can't think of another course in the world harder to find
The course is getting a lot better though.

[Chris Perry]

Koolau?

Or any courses on the Islands for that matter.

Unless you live there of course.

Greywolf is no picnic to get to either, even if the scenery is superb.

[Mike_Golden]

I grew up nearby, caddied and played all over the Five Towns as a kid, and I still can't ever find the right path to Seawane.

Brad, you just need to be there on a Friday evening when there is a Shore Dinner-the aroma from the kitchen would lead you directly from East Rockaway Road

[Cory Lewis]

I will nominate Diamond Creek in NC, you can't see any sign of the course, or anything for that matter until you find and get through the gate and drive up the two mile long entrance way, you almost have to get lost to find the entrance among the mountain backroads of Banner Elk, North Carolina.  

[JSlonis]

The hardest course to get to:

Any suburban Philly course that you have travel on the Schuyllkill Expressway to get to.  There is nothing "express" about it...EVER!

[Jim Nugent]

The uncontested winner, IMO, is Luna Intergalactic Golf Club.  Location: the Moon.  Played by one person so far: Alan Shepard, after Apollo 14 landed nearby.

The course contains large numbers of natural sand dunes.  Plays shorter than its length.  With no trees, and the natural "sandy" base of soil, you might think it the perfect location for a links.  Sad to say, the lack of wind among other things disqualifies it from that category.  

Views described as "out of this world."  No water hazards.  Prohibitive costs mean few will ever set foot there again.  

[Brad Tufts]

Thanks Dan, this thread is like a GCA ice core to a simpler time...

I had a few ideas...the two courses on Lanai in Hawaii are a mandatory ferry or puddle-jump from the usual hawaiian tourist spots, and even Princeville is over an hour over narrow roads from the resorts on Kauai.

The Askernish project looks like it will be at the end of the earth, and I felt the same way driving to Connemara over one-lane roads (and then being told I was the closest to the US in all of Europe).

Here in MA, Kittansett is at the end of a peninsula, way out into Buzzard's Bay, but it's still only 90 minutes from the Hub.

I have to get up to Cape Breton sometime, but I think it will be Air Canada to Halifax, then Sydney.  The drive sounds great, but I can't wait that long to play.

My last nominee is Va-Jo-Wa Golf Club in Island Falls, ME, 370 miles from Boston, 90 miles north of Bangor, 40 mins from New Brunswick on I-95.  It's slightly akin to pasture golf, although truly a formal golf course, but my family's new vacation house is right across the lake.  The course may merit its own thread one day (i had a great description of it erased once), as its combined challenges, questionable fairness, questionable maintenance, but very "down Maine" character make it one of my favorite hidden gems.

-Brad

[Dave Bourgeois]

Fisher's Island seems kind of tough to get to, and is private as well.  However, I'm not sure of the guest policy.

[Eric_Dorsey]

Old Head

[Kirk Gill]

When you look at the Cape Kidnappers site, at the "Getting There" page, method one is by airplane, method two is by helicopter.

Now that's tough to get to, in my book.

[John Goodman]

I will suggest Youth Garden Golf Course, Vientienne, Laos.  I guess once you get to Laos, it's not that out of the way (it does require a pretty lengthy and dusty tuk-tuk ride), but getting to Vientienne is a bear.

Your caddie will hold a parasol over you while you walk to your ball and read your putts, and local kids swim in the water hazards during the dry season (in hopes of selling your ball back to you), but I otherwise can't recommend the course.

[Doug Wright]

I always thought the course at Uummannaq, Greenland, 600km north of the Arctic Circle, was a bit remote...

http://www.greenland-guide.gl/icegolf/golfcourse.htm

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Tedesco, in Marblehead, MA, is vritually inaccessible.  

It requires the typical New England directions:  "Take 114 West.  Go through three lights.  At the fourth light, take a right onto 114 West.  Then your next right, onto 114 West..."

[Mike Hendren]

Lightning Bug Golf Course At Solitude.  Driving directions included "a freshly cut wheat field."

Mike

[PThomas]

there's one course in the COnfidential Guide - I don't have with me - that Doak couldn't find!

[Brad Tufts]

Yeah, Marblehead isn't the most accessible place ever, but its only 18 miles from Boston!!

The directions on the MGA competition tee time sheet to Tedesco does say something like, "Due to traffic in the Boston area, be sure to plan accordingly to arrive before your tee time."

[Dan Kelly]

The Carthage Club -- alas.

Jordan Wall and I were supposed to meet up there for a game, and neither of us could find it!

[Tom Huckaby]

The Carthage Club -- alas.

Jordan Wall and I were supposed to meet up there for a game, and neither of us could find it!

Too bad.  D. B. Cooper and I were waiting for you on the first tee.

TH

[Dan Kelly]

The Carthage Club -- alas.

Jordan Wall and I were supposed to meet up there for a game, and neither of us could find it!

Too bad.  D. B. Cooper and I were waiting for you on the first tee.

TH

I hope my caddie -- guy named Sidd, if I remember right; Sidd ... Finch, maybe? -- wasn't too disappointed when Jordan and I got lost.

[Tom Huckaby]

He was cool with it...

Strange guy - bare feet - and man when he tossed a golf ball back to me one green, that sucker STUNG - that kid could bring it.

TH

[W.H. Cosgrove]

I always wondered about Sidd Finch after his baseball career!  After reading this I thought maybe we could look him up in Greenland.

[JohnV]

Given the trouble the bus driver had finding it for the committee outing at the 2002 US Mid-Am, I'd guess that CC of Fairfield is pretty tough to find.  Of course, the caliber of bus drivers we get is pretty low.  One couldn't find Shea Stadium that week and another one in Dallas couldn't get on the right freeway to Fort Worth once (but at least once he did he found Colonial with no problems.)

[Glenn Spencer]

The Carthage Club -- alas.

Jordan Wall and I were supposed to meet up there for a game, and neither of us could find it!

Too bad.  D. B. Cooper and I were waiting for you on the first tee.

TH

I hope my caddie -- guy named Sidd, if I remember right; Sidd ... Finch, maybe? -- wasn't too disappointed when Jordan and I got lost.

Best SI of all-time, but it wasn't the best practical joke of that day, that belonged to Villanova and their win over Georgetown.

[Dan Herrmann]

Great answers, but I'll pitch Pine Valley again.  Once you get there you need to make your way past the Pine Valley police station.  

It's a real boro with real cops!