GOLF Mag's Top 50 9-hole courses. What are your thoughts?

[Peter Bowman]

A few days ago I received an exciting email.  GOLF Magazine released their first ranking of the World's 50 best standalone 9-hole courses, and I felt excited to see Hooper is ranked #13 and mildly disappointed it wasn't Top 10 (calm down, ego), and I think it's a fair ranking. 
Here's the link https://golf.com/travel/50-best-9-hole-courses-2020/I think having a ranking like this will be a great service for all the nine hole courses throughout the world, not just the ones on the list.  I think a lot of golfers may snuff at the idea of playing a 9 hole track being worth their salt. Having the list should show the typical golfer that the big boys "in the know" are paying attention to 9ers, and so should they.I have played only 3 on the list: Whittensville, Sweetns and Hooper.  I cant wait to travel the states and the world to play the other top courses.  I tmay give some ideas what can be done for Hooper--mainly return it to its original design and improve conditions--to move up a few spots.
One thing these courses have in common: they are way more FUN than the average golf course.

[Dan_Callahan]

I thought it was a pretty good list. I’d have Cruit Island higher. And I was disappointed Greenock in western Mass didn’t make it. But all in all not too bad.

[Tom_Doak]

I thought it was a pretty good list. I’d have Cruit Island higher.

How many of the courses above it have you played?


That's the standard, and the difficulty about a list like this . . . very few people have played more than a small sampling of the courses, which makes it harder to compare them.

[Philip Caccamise]

I thought it was a pretty good list. I’d have Cruit Island higher.

How many of the courses above it have you played?


That's the standard, and the difficulty about a list like this . . . very few people have played more than a small sampling of the courses, which makes it harder to compare them.

Tom, have you ever walked/played Sunnylands? Articles all indicate it has a fascinating interchangeable layout.

[Duncan Cheslett]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

[Ben Stephens]

Flempton GC is not on this list - absolute travesty yet its only 10 miles from Mildenhall! I rate it higher as a golf course than Reigate Heath.


Its a cleverly laid out course designed by JH Taylor

[Sean_A]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

Yes, the blurbs are tragic and extremely amateurish. The mag should be red faced.

Ciao

[Sam Andrews]

Apparently "one saddles up to the unassuming clubhouse" at Worlington. Perhaps the writer thinks it's a polo field.

[jeffwarne]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

Yes, the blurbs are tragic and extremely amateurish. The mag should be red faced.

Ciao

Bravo to GOLF Magazine in general.
Happy to see such varied architectural content.GOLF has come a long way but...
yes, some of the descriptions are simply a waste of limited space and ridiculously generic.
North Haven-not even a hint or mention of its remote reach by ferry only location and island setting, punctuated by wildly undulating terrain and quirky old school holes..... in their one line blurb about "an old clubhouse"...


And this stupid short blurb about a course and town with an incomparable  setting and several spectacular holes .... "Gairloch's strongest characteristics are similar to those of many other great 9-holers: it’s easy to make bogey, but hard to break par."


Nice to see the content and  a good start, but if it's true that "a picture's worth a thousand words", I'd say in this case they're worth more than a dozen poorly chosen ones.
Should've just stayed with just the picture at Gairloch...

[John Mayhugh]

The article is a good start, but agree some of the descriptions need work. Still, it's a huge improvement over "how to cure your slice" or equipment articles. I've seen ten of these.

It might be fun to have a complementary GCA thread to let people who have played the courses listed (especially the more obscure) comment and maybe give better descriptions.

[Greg Hohman]

Sunnylands No. 9? The "expert," smitten by the exclusivity of the place, does not make the case for such a high ranking. Of course it will be "meticulously manicured." I did not feel "off the planet" during the public tour of the course. (The house tour went further in that direction.) Philip rightly expected the "take" to extend to the interchangeable layout.

[Thomas Dai]

I've played a few of these and if the others mentioned are as good as them I'd probably be happy to play most of my golf on any of them. Hopefully there are many more akin to them in the World that the publishing of this list and its updating over the years will inspire to be better known.
Do golfers really need, really need, much more?
atb

[David_Tepper]

Nice column from Lorne Rubenstein on Royal Worlington and some other 9-holers he has played:

https://scoregolf.com/blog/lorne-rubenstein/the-finest-nines/

[Tim Gallant]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

Yes, the blurbs are tragic and extremely amateurish. The mag should be red faced.

Ciao

yes, some of the descriptions are simply a waste of limited space and ridiculously generic.
North Haven-not even a hint or mention of its remote reach by ferry only location and island setting, punctuated by wildly undulating terrain and quirky old school holes..... in their one line blurb about "an old clubhouse"...


And this stupid short blurb about a course and town with an incomparable  setting and several spectacular holes .... "Gairloch's strongest characteristics are similar to those of many other great 9-holers: it’s easy to make bogey, but hard to break par."


Nice to see the content and  a good start, but if it's true that "a picture's worth a thousand words", I'd say in this case they're worth more than a dozen poorly chosen ones.
Should've just stayed with just the picture at Gairloch...

I wrote the description for Tobermory, and a few on the 6,000 and under list (like Kilspindie) - it was tougher than I thought to squeeze a meaningful description into 50-100 words. There's a reason why some of the panellists have day jobs I do think Euros should be changed to pounds, though it might be possible that the author of the Traigh post is pro-independence

[Peter Bowman]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

Yes, the blurbs are tragic and extremely amateurish. The mag should be red faced.

Ciao

yes, some of the descriptions are simply a waste of limited space and ridiculously generic.
North Haven-not even a hint or mention of its remote reach by ferry only location and island setting, punctuated by wildly undulating terrain and quirky old school holes..... in their one line blurb about "an old clubhouse"...


And this stupid short blurb about a course and town with an incomparable  setting and several spectacular holes .... "Gairloch's strongest characteristics are similar to those of many other great 9-holers: it’s easy to make bogey, but hard to break par."


Nice to see the content and  a good start, but if it's true that "a picture's worth a thousand words", I'd say in this case they're worth more than a dozen poorly chosen ones.
Should've just stayed with just the picture at Gairloch...

Pictures of all courses would be great, and I can't imagine any photo combines with a 100-word description could do any of these courses the justice they deserve. 
I'll be curious to see how it evolves over time.  I assume this will be a bi-annual review process like usual

[Tom_Doak]

Tom, have you ever walked/played Sunnylands? Articles all indicate it has a fascinating interchangeable layout.

I have not, and I don't know anyone who has.


I recall that the Fazio group changed it all around 10-15 years ago.  I think before that it was a pretty plain golf course.

[jeffwarne]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

Yes, the blurbs are tragic and extremely amateurish. The mag should be red faced.

Ciao

yes, some of the descriptions are simply a waste of limited space and ridiculously generic.
North Haven-not even a hint or mention of its remote reach by ferry only location and island setting, punctuated by wildly undulating terrain and quirky old school holes..... in their one line blurb about "an old clubhouse"...


And this stupid short blurb about a course and town with an incomparable  setting and several spectacular holes .... "Gairloch's strongest characteristics are similar to those of many other great 9-holers: it’s easy to make bogey, but hard to break par."


Nice to see the content and  a good start, but if it's true that "a picture's worth a thousand words", I'd say in this case they're worth more than a dozen poorly chosen ones.
Should've just stayed with just the picture at Gairloch...

I wrote the description for Tobermory, and a few on the 6,000 and under list (like Kilspindie) - it was tougher than I thought to squeeze a meaningful description into 50-100 words. There's a reason why some of the panellists have day jobs I do think Euros should be changed to pounds, though it might be possible that the author of the Traigh post is pro-independence

Tim,
There were multiple wonderful descriptions, most in fact.
Just a few that downright terrible and non descriptive.
Yours made me want to go play Tobermory even more, and from your description I got a sense of the place, and what would be encountered once there(rollicking!), without a blow by blow hole description.
Thanks for contributing.

[Tom_Doak]

There's a good write up of Leckford here somewhere, but I'll share mine from The Confidential Guide:


One of Mr. Colt's last designs before his passing, this fine little nine holes in the country is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, and generally reserved for employees and their guests.  The first two holes curve left up a wide valley, but when you arrive at the long and narrow 2nd green you begin to get a sense of the testing nature of the approach shots here.  The short 3rd plays back to a narrow green stapled onto a sharp left-to-right hillside; then the long par-4 4th plays up across a valley to a right-to-left sloping fairway and another narrow green.  The 5th through 7th are all shorter par-4's on high ground, before th elonger 8th plays back down to a narrow left-to-right fairway, and the course finishes on a good par-3 back to the parking lot.

[Tom_Doak]

I found the article difficult to take seriously after reading this;

5. Leckford (Old Course), Hampshire, England (Harry Colt/1929)

Expert’s take: A brilliant design by a brilliant designer (Harry Colt of Muirfield and Wentworth fame), Leckford has been largely untouched since its original design in 1929. What greets golfers is a fantastic test of bunkering, strategy, and classic Scottish linksland — at prices starting at just 24 euros.

Leckford is not a links course, it's not in Scotland, and it doesn't advertise green fees in either Euros or Pounds!

Sloppy journalism...

If you thought that was bad, how about this snippet:


"Mike Keiser was a member here for years, before he ever developed anything golf related. "
[/size][/color]
[/size]That was from the brief description for The Dunes Club, which Mr. Keiser developed himself.
[/size][/color]

[Ben Stephens]

How this 9 hole course is not on the list is really baffling

[Robin_Hiseman]

Ben


I did suggest Flempton. Very few have seen it to comment, but yes, it should be on the list.

[Adam Lawrence]

There's a good write up of Leckford here somewhere, but I'll share mine from The Confidential Guide:


One of Mr. Colt's last designs before his passing, this fine little nine holes in the country is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, and generally reserved for employees and their guests.  The first two holes curve left up a wide valley, but when you arrive at the long and narrow 2nd green you begin to get a sense of the testing nature of the approach shots here.  The short 3rd plays back to a narrow green stapled onto a sharp left-to-right hillside; then the long par-4 4th plays up across a valley to a right-to-left sloping fairway and another narrow green.  The 5th through 7th are all shorter par-4's on high ground, before th elonger 8th plays back down to a narrow left-to-right fairway, and the course finishes on a good par-3 back to the parking lot.

Leckford was designed in 1929 according to my research, so is in no sense one of Colt's last designs. FWIW.

[Ben Stephens]

Ben


I did suggest Flempton. Very few have seen it to comment, but yes, it should be on the list.

Robin




Have you played Flempton? I personally prefer it to Reigate Heath 




Cheers
Ben

[Thomas Dai]

Nice opportunity to highlight the wonders of Mulranny - https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63585.msg1529366.html#msg1529366

atb

[Dan_Callahan]

How many of the courses above it have you played?


That's the standard, and the difficulty about a list like this . . . very few people have played more than a small sampling of the courses, which makes it harder to compare them.

I've played 4 of the top 10 and 9 of the top 20, and I would put Cruit at #1 of those 9 courses. I have not played Royal Worlington, so I can't say if I would have it #1 overall, but Cruit is unlike any course I've ever seen. I love Hooper, but Cruit is like Hooper x 10. Cruit doesn't have the conditioning of Whittinsville, but it more than makes up for it in pure, rugged, raw golf. Just my opinion, but I couldn't imagine spending time in northwest Ireland and not playing at least one round at Cruit.