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Worst conditioned course(s) that you just love to play


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We all have them.The 9 - or 18 hole goat tracks that are in very bad shape year round.But are very enjoyable to play for many reasons.We had a local regulation 9 holer that I played all thru my youth and well beyond my college years.Greens were bumpy and slow / yardages were always off on markers/trees were over hanging and unkept/no rough - nor fairway just a big open field with 9 holes on it.I can go on and on.But what made it fun was all the kids my age would be there all day during the summer months.The stories and memories will always live on.It was sad to hear the day they sold to a housing development company a few years back.Course was terrible,but loved every second I was there .

 

Anyone else have those local goat tracks that you miss or still love to play?

Keep it in the short stuff

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Had this executive course that was located by an animal bi-products plant.When the wind was just right it would smell like someone crapped in their pants for the entire round.The golfers and staff made the course fun to play.Particularily the shop girl who wore tight jeans and low cut tops all the time

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I played many years on a little county course in middle Georgia that would not make the most notable courses in our state.  With that said, I had some awesome times there and the friends I made are family to me.   Soooooo many great memories made at that place and  I have hole #9 as my desktop background on my laptop.

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I can't say I enjoy playing a nappy course. Although I do join some guys occasionally over at a local poorly kept muni. I do it because I enjoy the company of these fellows not the course. It's cheap to play there too so no biggie. Like Big money I have good memories of playing with my friends when we were kids. Mostly at the local goat ranch. As an adult I have a choice and I choose to avoid run-down courses. Why waste my time and money. 

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We have two 9 holes that fit the bill.

 

One is a really neat and challenging par 35 that would be incredible if it were kept up well. The greens are good, but everything else is rough... cart paths are washed out gravel that will break your neck.

 

The other is a par 36 nine hole that was cut into a large chunk of river bottom land. Tee boxes and greens are nice, everything else is basically sandy loose soil. I've seen all sorta of characters there... best of all was a guy playing in cut-off bib overalls, no shirt, and a straw hat. When he was leaving, he drove out in a miata with plates that said ZZ TOP DOWN

 

 

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Great responses.@ Aliens8mycow: one of our best city players dressed like your ZZ Top guy. You would never realize he was a +3 player and a former division II standout. Now he mows greens every morning for $12 an hour and plays golf for free all day long after cutting

Keep it in the short stuff

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Great responses.@ Aliens8mycow: one of our best city players dressed like your ZZ Top guy. You would never realize he was a +3 player and a former division II standout. Now he mows greens every morning for $12 an hour and plays golf for free all day long after cutting

That guy has the life!

 

Tell you what - for all of the odd folks at that course, it's probably the most friendly atmosphere anywhere.

 

The first time my buddy and I played there, the lady at the pro shop gave us free shirts with the course logo! Told us to wear them 'back in the city' and tell our friends to come visit!

 

 

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Lol... my home course! It's short, has no sand and dime size greens. They try, but it isn't what anyone would call a "nice" course. Even though it's short with no bunkers, it makes up for it with hard to putt greens and narrow fairways with trouble on both sides.

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Mine was Swan Lake Golf Club in New York. It would have been a really nice course it was poorly taken care of. They had just aerated the greens but dumped it right next to the green. The sand traps haven't been touched in months and when they got heavy rain they let the water just sit on the greens.

 

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Newman Golf Course in Ithaca NY. A little 9 holer, no traps, miniature greens that wouldn't pass for tee boxes today. My annual student membership was 75 bucks.

 

Living in Florida I will never play a poorly conditioned course a second time. Every course that I regularly play has either hosted some sort of professional event, is a private club or at least a 4 and a half star resort course.

 

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Old Sconset golf course on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

9 hole "pasture" golf but very serene and a lot of fun.

 

If you've ever been to Nantucket you know it's pretty much the haves and very, very few have nots.  

There is one private course that is even more exclusive than Augusta and one other well-known public course that starts at 125 a round.

 

This is an out-of-the-way-only-known-by-the-locals 9 holer that's been there since 1894 and is 30 bucks to play.  It's owned by the town (Nantucket land bank) so it can't be sold or developed and the land is worth many millions of dollars.

 

Every single time I've played there I can't help but smile.

 

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Two come to mind for me.  The first is Cobbs Creek Olde in Philly and the second in McCall CC right across the street.  Cobbs was designed by Hugh Wilson (same designer as Merion) and was a great layout just not the best of conditions most times.  Also the only course that I lost all the cash I made on the course in a closest to the pin contest from the porch of the club house across the road to the 18th green.  Had not mastered the knock down 87 yard 9 iron at that point in my life.   McCall is a short par 66 that Ross did the first nine holes and William Flynn did a redesign and the last nine holes.  Longest hole is 371 and the green are dime sized that look like potato chips.  What it lacks in length it makes up for in the greens.  

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My problem is, we have but one course as described within 25 miles of me. And I won't play it do to the condition. If it's in that bad of shape no matter what the layout, I can't play it.

 

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Sandy Pond - 9 hole in Riverhead, NY. It's basically a par 3 course but it does possess elevation change and slope! There is also water that comes into play and some of the worst sand traps known to many...

The best part is that the course is usually run on the honor code! Just leave your money and enjoy your round..., just the way it ought to be

 

 

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My local small town 9 hole course has really good greens, but inconsistent grass types on fairways, lots of trees, tall rough and a lot of unplayable areas off the fairways.

 

That said, it's a great place to practice during the day and if you're playing well there, you'll play well anywhere else in the area ;)

 

With the "Great Life" membership program I'm playing this year, it's one of the included courses that I can play without any additional fees, one of my best friends plays there and it's close to my house.

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I started playing golf 25 years ago at a local 18 hole par 70 muni; used to be an Elks course.  Not in the best of shape but fun.  It was in a flood plain, and it flooded every winter.  About 20 years ago one of the pros at that club was asked by the Port of Benton to build a golf course off the end of a runway at one of our local airports.  It used to be a goat field.  He built a nine hole par 35 executive course; 2 par 3's, 6 par 4's, one par 5, and it became known as the local "goat track".  After he built it, I started playing there and I held the course record at 31 for many years.  Even the pro couldn't beat it.  The course had very tight fairways and you did not want to miss any of them.  If you did, you played out of the finest sandy silt you can imagine with rocks in it.  No bunkers and small, slow greens.  Eventually, a local high school kid who got a golf scholarship to Oregon shot 28.  

 

I met my wife there and we played that course for 14 years until 15 months ago when we made a decision to join a much nicer muni, and I haven't been back.  I don't know how many more years I can play golf, and I wanted to play at a  nicer course for the years I have left.

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There is a short par 3 next to my house that I'll go to with my oldest son (4) if it is not too crowded. Very laid back so I lots of people bring their kids. My son loves it, I just have him start a hole about 10 to 20 yards off the green. If it is crowded we just hit the range and putting green so we don't slow other groups down.

 

 

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Funny story.  My home course when I joined fit this category. Greens were in rough shape, the rough was ankle deep on a good day.  If you missed a fairway into the woods, you couldn't find anything because the underbrush was so thick and matted with blackberry thorns. Every fairway had dead spots of red clay.   We played there for the people.  It was cheap, the ownership put no money into it.  The grounds crew was a 3 guy crew, none with any real background.  The staff tried, but a lack of money, a lack of rain, and ownership disinterest... well, you get the picture.  The fun bit, was that it was a sister course to a very nice course about 3 miles away. Members could play either course.  We played the goat more often than not. About 18 months ago, they hired a new groundskeeper.  No more money.  no extra staff. Just he and his 3 man crew, some elbow grease and some REALLY smart work, and the course is in amazing shape.  To the point where his greens are now better than several of the area courses that are FAR more expensive, and his fairways are getting close.  He's cleaned out the under brush, brought down about 80 trees, (and has a spot where he can burn, mulch and compost).  He's made his own fertilizer from the ash & compost plus what little he's been able to buy.  He's carefully restored fairways and grassy areas with smart sod cuts. 

In short, he's worked miracles.  To the point where members will actively seek him out to tip him and his crew, not just the cart staff.  

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  • 1 month later...

Spring Brook Golf Club, its a come as you are place. I grew up playing here. I'm always trying to beat the course record. The Par 5's are 500 or under and I got my first hole in one here. Worked here in middle school. I live 250 miles from it now. But I always try to get out and play the home course when I get a chance. A little family owned course in the Chandler Hill area. Love that little place.

 

http://springbrookgolf.com

 

 

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For the 16 years I've lived here, our main course, 18 holes, the comment about has always been, "It's SUCH a good track. If only the city had money to put into it." It is a fun course and very challenging, even though it's dead flat. It's not beautiful, and maybe one week a year it's in "good shape", but it's my "home" course.

 

 

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Sandy Ridge Golf Course in Midland, MI. It sucks and there are some extremely questionable holes. But the course itself is sort of an inside joke to all the serious golfers in the area and it's fun to go play with a couple buddies.

 

 

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I played a fun 9 hole right on the sand down near Pismo beach while at a wedding this past weekend. It was rough but literally, on the beach! It was cheap and fun, couldn't ask for more! Pismo State Beach GC

 

20151007_134155-5312x2988.jpg

 

My local run down favorite is the Davis Muni where I learned the game as a boy! It's a full 18 but only about 4900 from the tips with a slope rating of 63. It has it's moments but can most often be found in a state of serious distress. 10/10 highly recommend! The one armed Marshall is a character who can really hit a ball too!

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I have two as well: Las Vegas National, which probably doesn't really deserve to be on the list, but it's never in the shape that I know it probably was 20 years ago. (Or 50...)

Also, the recently closed Shreveport Country Club. You can tell that this place was a palace back in the day. If I'm not mistaken, it may have been the original home course of Hal Sutton.

 

 

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I played a fun 9 hole right on the sand down near Pismo beach while at a wedding this past weekend. It was rough but literally, on the beach! It was cheap and fun, couldn't ask for more! Pismo State Beach GC

 

20151007_134155-5312x2988.jpg

 

 

Oh man, I haven played there in about 10 years!!  Used to play there quite a bit as a kid, was a lot of fun!  I dont remember it being that rough of condition but then again havent played there in a few years.

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I grew up across the street from the Muni that my dad played at. My brother and I would spend hours chipping and putting against each other while Dad played all day Saturday and Sunday. Then when I was old enough to start I played jr golf there. When I was old enough to join the men's club I remember being a D player for awhile, then a C, B and finally an A player. My dad is in his late 70s and still plays there 5x a week with his buddies new and old. I live an hour away these days and play some hoity toity manicured palace but my favorite golf of the year is the dozen or so rounds I go back there and play with him and the boys. 5800 yards of creek and tiny upside down teacup greens. I absolutely love it.

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Fenwick in CT. 9 holes that would be open in the winter and take a beating. We played that course when all the others were closed. It really wasn't a bad little track but that much play beat it up. Had a lot of local charm.

 

 

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