Golf question
 

So , after watching the Masters this afternoon I have a question. If you could blink your eyes and play any golf course in the world, what would you choose? It’s very hard for me to choose anything but Augusta National, although I’d also love to play Pebble Beach or the Old Course at St. Andrew’s. I’ve had the good fortune to play many great tracks, including The County Club in Boookline, Winged Foot, Shinnecock, Beth Page Black, The Ocean course on Kiawah Island (three times), and many rounds at the TPC at River Highlands. Of those, the Ocean Course was my favorite. But dam, how could any golfer possibly not choose Augusta National, unless they are lucky enough to have already played it?

Augusta National wouldn't make my Top 10, St. Andrews wouldn't make my Top 100.

If someone designed St. Andrews today, he'd be laughed out of the golf business.

Once you've played the #1 in the world, I think your priorities change.

So, what would your top 10 be, and what courses starter shack is in the picture?

RCD (played it. I'm standing at the Starter's Shack)
Royal Melbourne
Cabot Cliffs (probably playing it this summer)
Ballybunion (played it)
Royal Birkdale
Lahinch (played it)
Banff Springs
Old Head (played it. Average course, spectacular site)
Pine Valley
Waterville (played it)

Spyglass should in there, somewhere.

I guess you weren’t able to get tickets either!

turtle mound

Augusta National & The Masters, is golf's ultimate triumph of image/style over substance.

Thanks for the daydream but…I think the key word here is ‘play’. Yes, I have all the equipment but I am closer to chasing a ball around a green pasture than playing.

Pebble Beach Links, and I did with my son.

Valhalla Golf Club is memorable each and every round.

Will let you know about Augusta after we get to walk around, after we win the lottery tickets. . probably won't be happening.

As far as best courses to play, most are in England/Ireland for the history and the natural beauty
We play for fun and the awe of natural ocean side / designed beauty mostly.

St Andrews is number 1, old Course, we have played the Eden course, the youngest
Old Head, Ireland, for the view. . we have played, not good enough to worry about the difficulty, but breathtakingly beautiful
Pebble Beach, Spyglass and want to play it.
Plantation Course in Kapalua, we played the Bay course, and was just beautiful, most all Hawaiian courses are great to play for the views, amongst the lava rubble. .

Pinehurst # 2 or TPC Sawgrass or Kiawah Island or Bandon Dunes . . there are just so many great choices. .

Then there is New Zealand and Australia for different types of natural beauty, with their different versions of animals roaming the courses. . .

best post inspiring great wanderlust. . not all who are wandering are lost. . .

Every year a few tickets show up on Augusta website for M T W T. Moving day, and Sunday never hits website. Our youngest with friends tradition travels down to a parent home for couple days and one day at tournament. This was the first year weather changed their plans. But 3 picked up tickets for Wednesday so all was good.

The Village Course at Kapula would be on my list, if it still existed. The Bay course is scenic, but the Village course was amazing. The only time I played it, we had rain on at least 5 holes ... because we were actually in the clouds. I played it 35 or so years ago, with the guy who invented/started Brittania Jeans. If you were going disco'n, they were the jeans to wear in the 80's. John Travolta would be proud.

Life After HP - 4/26 - Kapalua Village Course, Part 1

excellent link Brian, shame that they lost a beautiful Hawaiin course to greed. .

There are some really cool off the beaten path, "relatively cheap" golf courses which we have played for the environment or cheap course challenge, and would play as many times as we could.

Northwood Golf Course, Alister MacKenzie design nestled among huge, ginormous Redwood trees, 9 hole.
St Anne Old Links, next to Royal Lytham, England. . Open Qualifier, pure links style just on the other side of the highway from the shore. . designed in the old days when the coast was undeveloped, appreciated for the age and original links design over 100 years ago.
Old Corkscrew, (no longer cheap) on the Southwest coast of FL, where the panthers live and are seen, beautiful design, behind huge screen fences to keep the panthers off the highways. .

wanderlusting. .

just so many places where TV and pros don't go.

This is list on most golf sites for top 100. Do you keep a want to play, need to play or, what the top courses that aren’t in any golf edition magazine or website.

Personally I enjoy private clubs that a member offers the opportunity to play a course that many will dream, but never achieve. Open to the public isn’t in my wants or needs.

Not so many responses to this post so I thought I would add one.

For me it would be Augusta for sure. It might say Pine valley except its so exclusive and private I don't know enough about it.

For my top 10 and only considering courses that I have actually played it would be

Cypress Point - needs no explanation
TPC Sawgrass - love #17
Pebble Beach - love #7
San Francisco Golf Club - exclusive makes you feel special
Emirates Golf Club - incredible views of Dubai
Spanish Bay - love the over-the-water par 3 and the bag pipe guy
Streamsong Black - great holes with forced carry and false fronts
Spyglass Hill - iconic
Royal Chang Mai Golf Club - exotic location, cool women caddies that barely speak english
Nashville Golf and Athletic Club - its my home course a great track and we have lots of country music stars, every round is a brush with fame.

Im sure everybody's list is different

Augusta National is #1 on my list. Pebble Beach would follow soon after. I've played St Andrews, Carnoustie, Turnberry and Troon. Would love to go back to Scotland and play St Andrews, Royal Dornoch ...

Turtle Mound in The Villages.

PGA greens.

I see your Turtle Mound and raise you an El Santiago! Cups are bigger!

Pebble Beach for the cliffs and ocean view.

Sure, Augusta National, from the super-friendly tees.

I had the good fortune to play a round at Winged Foot in Westchester County. wasn't a very good golfer back then, and only so so now, so it was not a great day of golf for scoring, but great for the experience. I remember taking a big divot on the fairway and the soil and grass were as delicate and fine as you'd see on any green.

My golfer daughter says Sandy Lane, Barbados.

Agree, Augusta
 

Yes, Augusta has to be #1 on bucket list. The purity of it all. Played Scottish courses and not impressed with these former sheep herding fields. The surroundings are better than the courses. Pebble beach has about 6 good holes, rest are mediocre at best.

Ocean Course at Kiawah, scenery better than the golf course.

Scenery does not make a great golf course, pure golf does. If you want scenery
go the mountains, if you want golf go to Augusta.

Amen.

I have been to Augusta National twice. Last time was in 2014 when we watched Bubba win. First time was just my son and me on a Friday the last year Arnold Palmer played the Masters. It’s not an easy walk around Augusta National. It is by far the most beautiful course I ever saw or walked as a spectator. My son and I played Bay Hill shortly after the Arnold Palmer invitational a few years ago. It was a challenge at my age and handicap then. As an octogenarian , I’m just pleased to play a bit of golf period. Fore.

I can't see how anyone can disparage St. Andrew's and then put Lahinch in their top 10. It has a completely blind par 3 over a mound and two fairways that actually cross each other. It's hard for me to rationally rank Augusta because of it's tradition and the immaculate condition of the course. For scenic beauty I've never played a course more picturesque than Kuari Cliffs in New Zealand. Also amazing is it's sister course Cape Kidnappers. I say that and I've played Pebble many times.
One of my favorites is Arcadia Bluffs in northern Michigan. It's not far from Crystal Downs which I've never visited.
Seems to me that golf courses are like food and beautiful women. People have favorites. Sorry I never got to play Pine Valley.

No reply at all would have been my choice for you.

All the courses at St Andrews. Played all of them. Was suggested to play Carnoustie. Very difficult can see why it is so difficult. All of the courses I played while stationed at RAF Chicksands were fantastic.

Both Golf Digest & GOLF put Lahinch in their Top 40 in the world. GD at 27 & GOLF at 37. Alister MacKenzie designed both Lahinch & Augusta National (which I can no longer find in GD's 75 Greatest). []Access Denied

Not that either of them are the infallible. They both put Portmarnock in their Top 100 and if they were giving out $100 bills on the 1st Tee, I wouldn't play it again.

I seldom agree with Mr. Shibumi, but I think his characterization of St. Andrews is accurate.

It sort of like Bob Hope/George Burns syndrome. If you're around long enough, folks will think you're good at whatever you do. Burns wasn't much of anything, until he was in his 90's.

Augusta greens are not that fast and penal outside of the Master's tournament. Country Club of North Carolina is as pretty as Augusta. I agree there are only 6 great holes at Pebble, the rest are meh and it's a 6 hour round of golf. But, the 8th hole at Pebble is my favorite of all. Whistling Straights is much better overall. Love Medina #3 in Chicago. Hazeltine National has the highest tech and best grass, greens, collars and fairways, they are perfect. I'd vote Ballybunion as the best to play in the world.

There is hope for you Brian
 

Nice to hear you are starting to see the light.......... I knew you could do it.

Do I hear an Amen for brother Brian.............

Most courses people are listing are available to play… Pebble, Old course, and most others just require you to spend some $$$ to play, where just a few you need to be a guest of a member. with Augusta National being a national CC, members are CEOs of major corporations that I will never meet nor get invited to play. Augusta is at the top of my list.

If I had to pick one course to play for the rest of my life, Ballybunion would be in the running. It seems to invoke strong opinions on both sides, but I thought it was a great track ... as long as you don't get killed on the access road. The Cashen course is no slouch, either.

Damn ugly clubhouse, though. Trailer park is a nice touch.

But aren’t most of those on your list available to visitors? Which if you lived or vacationed in Ireland, you can somewhat easily get a tee time.

the question to me is a once in a lifetime tee time, Augusta, Oakmont, Shinnecock, Then Country Club.

The Public can play 9 of Golf Digest's Top 10 in the World. Most clubs in Ireland and England allow public play of one sort or another.

"Exclusive" and "Greatest Golf Course" are 2 different criteria.

Not everyone gets the opportunity to play golf on Irish/English/Scottish coast. I get it. Most who have some experience there, come back with a different perspective on American golf courses ... although the Coore-Crenshaw team is doing their best to change that.

I have to admit, the best golf trip with the guys was Sand Hills in the middle of Nebraska. A Coore Crenshaw masterpiece. 18 holes on a thousand acres with the Dismal River running next to the resort so we could go trout fishing. We would play 54 holes during the day. You could sit on the clubhouse porch and hear the golfers late into the day on the course and watch your buddies come in. Caddies for the first 18, walking carrying our bags for the next 18 and then using golf carts for the last 18. Excellent breakfasts, lunches and some of the best beef for dinner. Whistling Straits is pretty cool, but Sand Hills was so unique.

When I was in my 20's, my friend who was consistently shooting low 80's played Pinehurst once. He shot in the 120's and vowed never to play a high caliber course ever again.

Chrystal Downs is nice but Arcadia Bluffs is memorable. Spouse won a Michigan Senior Open at Arcadia Bluffs many years ago.

The family Cabin is in Lewiston, he spent everyday of summer vacation playing Garland. Owner “Old man Otto” was close friends of his father, had Garland Family Membership from day one.

Before there was a close airstrip, spouse and 3 friends would fly up to Garland for weekend golf stay at the cabin on the Twin.

Garland staff and Otto would clear the abundance of deer by running golf carts on a strip of land on property, so the plane could land or fly out. Fun for him scary for me sitting at home.

However Oakland Hills is also his favorite, he was heartbroken the day the club house burned down. Members at the course tried to save as much as possible but not only the loss of the iconic building but memorabilia that can never be replaced.

Article about the number of private jets in and out of Augusta, Georgia last week.

Map shows exodus of private jets from Augusta'''s small, usually quiet, airport after the Masters - Yahoo Sports

You would think they would ride share.