Mark Johnson,
I would love you to flesh out the examples, since I have played most of the courses on the list and generally agree. What is your handicap and how do you get there? (i.e. accuracy, length, finesse in putting/chipping?) Obviously, I am most interested in your take on the Quarry!
A friend defines the difference between fun and hard as:
Fun = a course where you shoot close to your normal score, or exceed it slightly
Hard = a course where you exceed your normal score, sometimes by a lot!
Jeff,
when healthy, i generally range between a 3 and 6. A bit more than that now because I am recovering from some shoulder issues. In terms of my game, my strength is short irons, chipping and sand play. Weaknesses are accuracy off the tee and lag putting. I would probably be long by GCA standards (though I am usually 30 yards behind most of the people I play with), decent drive is usually 280, 3-wood 255.
In my definitition, I view fun courses as ones which either 1) have holes which are atypical, 2) have multiple options, or offer chances for scoring. I think most people's fun course list will likely include alot of half-par holes. For instance, I think the #3s at quarrey is a great example of this.
For hard courses, i am calling out courses that are 1) unforgiving and 2) really dont give you any breather holes. going back to the 3rd hole example, if you want to make his a hard hole as well, you could shave the collection area to the side of the green and bring the quarrey more into play.
In fairness to a few courses on the lists (including quarrey), I think alot of my opions comes from course set up as much as it does from architecture. Understanding that the quarrey is a resort course, it can't be set up the same way a private club is. (slightly slower greens, less penal rough, wider fairways, etc.) I think if i were to add 10 more fun not hard courses, a majority of them would likely be resort courses as well.