Must Play Courses Near You?

[GolfSpy_APH]

What are the best courses near you that are must play?

If we had a Forum outing in your area and we only had a few rounds to play where are you taking us?

Let's hear it ... Better yet drop some photos of these must play courses!

[Josh Parker]

There are a couple in Austin.  

Austin Country Club - Private

Barton Creek

UT Golf Club

[Northern Monkey]

Princes, Royal St George’s, Royal Cinque Ports, The London Club, Littlestone. 
All within 45 minutes of me and 3 of these are previously hosted the Open with the other 2 having being qualifying events. 
Im really lucky in that there are a lot of quality courses near to me

[DiscipleofPenick]

For Cleveland, I'll stick to the public courses.

Sleepy Hollow & Manakiki are considered two of the best munis in the US and designed by Stanley Thompson & Donald Ross respectively. 

Boulder Creek is one of the toughest and nicest courses around. The Quarry, Shale Creek, Grey Hawk, and Little Mountain are other highly rated modern courses. We also have Pete Dye's Fowler's Mill & Fazio's Sawmill Creek. To go a little further out, Youngstown has Mill Creek - 36 holes of original Donald Ross & Toledo has the Arthur Hills golf trail.

For those of you who like the history of the game,  we have access to that as well. Highland Park Blue and Tanglewood hosted PGA events. Avalon Lakes out by Youngstown hosted LPGA. And most impressive is Clearview in Canton, which is on the historical register as the first African American designed and owned course in the country.

All of this and I didn't even mention some of my favorite courses - Sugar Bush, Windmill Lakes, Chardon Lakes, and Pleasant Valley.

[UNCRoss]

Pete dye’s The River Course of Virginia Tech

 

[JonathanCWhite]

Grand National - Lakes in Opelika, AL

Really fun but challenging course that allows you to play just about every club in the bag. Lots of water around the course, but plenty of wide fairways to aim for.

[PaBr]

In your area in my case is Portugal. I would favor local golf courses over the tourist courses in the Algarve.
 

absolutely magical: West cliffs.
 

best bones, most unique experience : Troia golf course. Ferry to the peninsula, great views over the sea and Arabida mountains and acclaimed by RTJ as one of his best designs. 

really really good raw links course you will never hear about: Estella golf course. 
 

historic (2nd oldest course on continental Europe) Oporto golf club. Long: no, tough:yes

[Cfhandyman]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:11 AM, unccross said:

Pete dye’s The River Course of Virginia Tech

 

Played it and an absolute gem of a course.  And very reasonably priced to boot.  Great choice.

[Middler]

A no brainer for my location, Pinehurst #2 & #4, maybe #8 & #10. If you're there The Cradle is a lot of fun, and IMO it's worth the significant premium to stay at The Carolina Hotel or another Pinehurst Resort property.

In the same area, I love Pine Needles nearby. Tobacco Road is truly unique - you've never seen another course like it, but you'll either love it (once) or hate it.

Kiawah Ocean Course and Harbor Town Golf Links are highly recommended in SC, but I have not played either. 

Edited July 17 by Middler

[Cfhandyman]

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, Caledon, Ont

For golfers in the greater Toronto area (GTA) or those coming to Toronto, Toronto is home to many excellent courses. Many of the best are private. Think St. George’s, Weston, Toronto golf club, the National, the Pulpit, Paintbrush just to mention a few.  Of the courses open to the public, one of the true gems is TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. It is currently, the only TPC (tournament players club) designated facility in Canada Located in Caledon, Ontario, it is approximately 40 min from Pearson airport or an hour from downtown Toronto. TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley offers you 3 very different courses, each ranked within the top 60 courses and top 25 public courses in Canada.  Scenic, serene and walkable.  All three were designed by Doug Carrick. The North was redesigned in 2023 by Ian Andrew with input from the PGA and Golf Canada and is now the site for the 2025 Canadian Open.

 As you enter Osprey Valley, its a 2 Km drive to the clubhouse

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley – Heathlands course is the first course you see driving into the property and is a links style course and was the hardest of the three with its mounds, fescue, sloping greens and ever present wind. If you keep the ball in the fairway, it’s an absolute joy and treat to play.  To score well on Heathlands, it  demands accuracy both off the tee and the fairway.  You need to place the ball well on the greens, below the hole to give yourself best chance for birdie’s. The wind is the great equalizer in that on some days it maybe a 2 or even 3 club difference.  The greens can be tricky as you need to get speed and break correct.  

 

 

  

 The most scenic of the three is Hoot, a wasteland bunker style course (think Pine Valley and the wasteland courses of North Carolina) The 3rd harkens to the Carolinas featuring majestic tall pines lining the fairway.  You get very different views depending upon which tee box you play. A challenging, but lovely course to play and walk.  

      

TPC Toronto North course – The North (formerly Toot) is the parklands style course and this is now a championship course. Every hole has been renovated and improved.  Lengthened, fairways narrowed, bunkers rebuilt and added and now come into play on every hole. They now have PGA level sand, beautiful predictable.  The rough is very lush and thick.  The biggest improvement has been made in its green complexes, re-sloped and graded with lots of run off areas.   It is now a much tougher course and places a premium on shot making.   Yet, it’s fair, but requires a lot more thought and thinking as you play each hole. With putts you need to get speed and break correct.   In a particularly nice touch, they have replanted two massive pines on the 9th and 18th fairways, aka the two brothers, eliminating the short cuts on the 18th hole.  Absolutely loved the redesign by Ian Andrew.  It will be a worthy test for the pros, but, yet equally and thoroughly enjoyable for the public.   They have hosted the final qualifier for the 2024 Canadian Open on the North course and will be the host for the 2025 Canadian Open.

     

 

 

[bens197]

Western, NY namely Rochester is home to some of the greatest golf I've played.  While most of the top rated are private, the public courses are outstanding.

If you're headed to the Rochester / Syracuse / ADK area I would recommend in this order:

Reservoir Creek, Naples

Ravenwood, Victor

Greystone Links, Walworth

Durand Eastman (RTJ First Course) Rochester

Thendara (Donald Ross & Public) Adirondacks

Seven Oaks Colgate University Home Course

 

Reservoir Creek is easily one of the best and most fun courses that sits at the basin of Canandaigua Lake.  Spectacular views, incredibly well kept and a great variety of holes.

 

[Berg Ryman]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

Western, NY namely Rochester is home to some of the greatest golf I've played.  While most of the top rated are private, the public courses are outstanding.

If you're headed to the Rochester / Syracuse / ADK area I would recommend in this order:

Thendara (Donald Ross & Public) Adirondacks

 

Home of our sectional tournament/ state qualifier qualifier. I absolute despise some holes here and love it all the same.

[bens197]

3 hours ago, Berg Ryman said:

Home of our sectional tournament/ state qualifier qualifier. I absolute despise some holes here and love it all the same.

That's how I feel about Sunset Ridge...IYKYK

[Berg Ryman]

29 minutes ago, bens197 said:

That's how I feel about Sunset Ridge...IYKYK

All I'm going to say about Thendera is the green on 9 ruined my life in high school, the prototypical turtle back Ross green, to an extreme.

[sirchunksalot]

I'm really envious of all the great courses that some of you have, especially the public ones . The one near my area that would be outing worthy is MacLemore in Rising Fawn GA. I've never played there, but I know they have one of the most stunning 18th holes in our area. 

We also have the Black Creek club and the Honors Course in the area but they are private. 

You would probably have to travel up to Crossville (which I've never been up there to play) and hit up Fairfield Glades to play the likes of Stonehenge, Druid Hills, Heatherhurst Brae, and Heatherhurst Crag. 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

I would rank Wild Rock GC in Wisconsin Dells as the top must play course within my close area. There are great courses in Madison as well, but Wild Rock is 20 minutes from my house. Doesn't feel like a "resort" course. They have great routing, holes aren't gimmicky, and the scenery is just outstanding. The photos I have don't do it justice.