What makes a course your favorite?

[sixcat]

My favorite golf course I've ever played is Palmetto Club in Aikin, SC. Simple yet elegant. The clubhouse is a relic of a bygone era but it's phenomenal exactly the way it is. With that said, I have played some highly ranked golf courses over the past 36 years and never once considered the clubhouse as a reason for liking or disliking a particular club. Fluff and filler are not my thing. Give me golf. You can keep the rest of it!

My favorite courses tend to be those that don't feel forced onto the surrounding landscape. They fit naturally with what nature already provides. My irrational dislike is a lengthy distance from green to tee. It's often the result of lazy design and unimaginative layout skills.

[KC Golf]

I think walkable is a factor for me.  I would rather walk a course with a cold beer in hand than go to place that's mandatory cart.  Also course conditions factors in on top of the course layout and views.  

I really hate gimmicky holes.  Like having to take a blind shot, mid iron down a steep fairway (with some kind of dogleg) then your second involves having a long iron or hybrid to some tiny green.  Other examples... some great courses have gimmicky holes where for instance the green is so firm that its impossible keep anything on the green no matter how high you can hit it and try to land it softly, so your only option is to have to hit it into a sharp bank left or right of the green (with random stuff) to get it to sit by the pin on a green.  

[Paul Hedrick]

Thinking about this question, so many things come to mind. Scenery is high on my list.  Course in good condition, of course, as well.  I also enjoy a course that is challenging, but not soul crushingly difficult (for my skill level).  I am not a big fan of courses that are ‘Kitschy’.  In my mind keep it simple and pure.

[TSauer]

Scrolling through some old threads, this is a tough one to answer. I think it ultimately comes down to price and views. I could shoot well into the triple digits and be fine as long as the views were immaculate and I was with my friends.

[VernL4]

On 8/30/2022 at 3:14 PM, sixcat said:

My favorite courses tend to be those that don't feel forced onto the surrounding landscape. They fit naturally with what nature already provides. My irrational dislike is a lengthy distance from green to tee. It's often the result of lazy design and unimaginative layout skills.

Yep, I like it when the course works with nature. Take advantage of water, trees, and elevation changes that were already there!

The course that I consider my favorite is called "Deer Track". 10 of the holes have water features. Garmin shows 500 feet of elevation gained throughout the 8.6 miles travelled around the course. Three of holes are par 3s where the tee is 20-30 feet higher than the green, so club selection is critical. I enjoy playing this course even though the grass may not be as pretty as some other places.

A local course is called "The Ravines". I feel that it's a misnomer. Only four of the holes holes use the ravines as part of the course. The front nine are basically flat land. Garmin shows 239 feet of elevation gained in 8.1 miles travelled.  There are five ponds on the course. They try to bill themselves as "medium upscale" and " country club playing condition", but I'm not really into it.

While we were on vacation in Tennessee in November of 2023 I played at a course called "Bent Creek". It's in a valley, so the views were much nicer than what we have in Indiana. Garmin showed 473 feet of ascent in 7 miles travelled. There were multiple creeks on the course. I noticed water on 16 of the holes! I really felt like this course worked with nature. Multiple fairways had breaks in them due to the terrain, so I really had to plan my shots. I thoroughly enjoyed it.   

[aguybadatgolf]

It’s somewhat the course conditions and somewhat the experience that it provides. There some very well kept courses in my area that are just kind of boring in how they play. No unique features, minimal hazards, etc. I want to be challenged about where to play my shot and really think about the entire hole so I’m set up for my approach. Because of this my favorite course to play regularly is Murphy Creek, in Denver area. Lots of bunkers, fun layout, good conditions, not terribly expensive, some forced carries over water, it’s got it all for a public course. 

Favorite course I’ve ever played is Arrowhead here in Colorado. Wayyyy too expensive to play more than once a year ($220+) but an amazing lay out, views unlike any I’ve seen on a golf course, challenging from tee, and immaculate conditions. 
 

Edited April 5 by aguybadatgolf

[vandyland]

There are some good quotes from Dr. Alister MacKenzie that resonate with me:

FUN

-- "Narrow fairways bordered by long grass make bad golfers. They do so by destroying the harmony and continuity of the game and in causing a stilted and a cramped style, destroying all freedom of play."

When talking about wide fairways it always seems synonymous with the thought that we “are going to make the golf course too easy.” Yes, it will be easier in many ways. It will be easier to find your ball, easier for you to recover from a poor shot, and probably easier to maintain the golf course conditioning. But wide fairways can present an accurate player more options, he/she can hit the left, right or center of the fairway to find the best ANGLE. 

DESIGN

-- "The chief consideration that should influence us in making any alterations to a golf course is to give the greatest pleasure to the greatest number. Any change to a course that does not do this is manifestly a failure.”

Too often in the past it seemed like golf courses were always made tougher, longer, more stressful. For who? The 3% who play at a + handicap level or the masses? Thankfully, I feel like golf course design is pulling back from the direction of making golf courses overly penal and frustrating. 

OPTIONS

Borrowing from Brian Ross, I have to agree that in golf there is one over-arching goal: to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. In contrast to this singular goal, the best experience typically involves a variety of options for how to play each one of those strokes. Options come from wider fairways and greens that are surrounded by short grass with at least one angle into the green allowing for a run up shot so golfers have the option to hit any club in the bag on any shot. From multiple angles on each hole so golfers have an option for which route they want to take to get the ball close to the pin. Finally, providing at least one clear path to the hole so that even a hacker has the chance/opportunity to finish the golf hole.