Just listened to the pod and tons of interesting/thought provoking things here that made me kind of think through my own list. I’ve got an interesting opportunity to knock out a bunch of “day trip” or “within 1 hour” rounds coming up this year and need to do that to places like Lucas Oil, another round at The Ross Course at French Lick, etc.
Also, having @MerchCzar shouting out Canyata was awesome. Growing up playing the 9 hole course in the same town with my grandparents and having no idea Canyata existed as well as seeing just how much fucking reach the Forsythe family has in central Illinois is bonkers. Kudos to the pronunciation on Terrible Haute too. That was the absolute Chef’s Kiss on this episode!
Interested to hear others thoughts on either courses that came to mind in there area. I feel like the bucket list at the end was also kinda interesting and got me thinking of my own top 5. I went ahead and grouped these into “I have a chance in hell of getting on them/Lets not just list the Top 10”
My family has owned property for a long time near Oak Marsh. Inside scoop. Course reopening has been delayed for a long time, having drainage issues on two holes currently. They are really making the greens larger and hopefully removing some trees. I have played the course many times. Never got to play the ocean course.
They are also making it available to only OMNI hotel guests. No more public times.
So many pods behind but I’m excited to listen to this one. Been extremely fortunate to play a lot of wonderful places and I never get tired about hearing other peoples’ wishlists.
Living in NYC, here are my courses to play in 2025. I’ve made them all public but if anyone wants to invite me to their private club I’m open to it lol
Within an hour or so:
Hominy Hill
Bethpage Blue
Bethpage Green
Bethpage Yellow
Berkshire Valley
Within 5 hours:
Leatherstocking
Lake Placid Club (mountain course)
Yale (think this will actually have to wait until a future year due to the renovation)
Inness
Sagamore
Bucket List:
Pacific Dunes
Bandon Dunes
Bandon Trails
Old Mac
Sheep Ranch
This is by far the worst golf course I’ve ever played. Like 10 feet under the earth below the bottom rung on the ladder. The fairly positive reviews online don’t make any sense to me. It’s the only golf course I’ve ever played for the first time where I just picked up and drove past the last couple holes to my car
Shame to hear they will no longer allow public play. I mean, I don’t expect to ever be back, but it’s a shame for others. I was there a couple years ago and played Oak Marsh and Lil Sandy and quite enjoyed both.
Curious if you can expand on what made it so awful? Hurdzan is a pretty successful designer, guy who did Erin Hills. From the aerial it doesn’t look like anything great, but nothing atrocious either. What was so bad that you picked up and went home?
I think the closest (public) course to me that I haven’t played is Desert Canyon, in Fountain Hills. Never really heard great things about it and if I’m driving out to Fountain Hills anyway, I would so much rather be going to WeKoPa (or failing that, SunRidge Canyon, or following through on finally playing Eagle Mountain again which I have been meaning to do for like a decade).
I have a list of all the courses in Arizona I haven’t played and, again private clubs aside, in the Phoenix area there are really only maybe two that I even have a passing interest in playing. Basically at this point if I haven’t bothered to get there, there’s a good reason.
First tee box is a full length par 5 across the road from the clubhouse, course is on a completely uninteresting parking lot of land, the conditions were awful, the routing is truly outrageous, the clubhouse is just a restaurant and you pay for your round at the order out/in window, I played as a single and the course was packed and it was like 105° out when I played. I mean what truly makes a golf course bad anyways?
Full disclosure this was 6ish years ago so it’s possible a few of these things have been fixed, but the plot of land is still a nothing burger in rural Indiana. Fairways were half dirt half overgrown grass. Front nine was completely burnt out. The first hole is a dogleg right around a pond and you couldn’t discern the water from the fairway. Doesn’t help that there was already a three group backup on this hole. Back nine has some character, tight corridors through trees mostly. Drainage was a disaster in this half of the course though, somehow found a way for sopping wet greens when the rest of the course was dried out. Routing is not set up for pace of play in the slightest.
This is part of the front nine and what I had to play that day. Long par three (over a road). Decent length par four back the other way. Then the pathway to the next tee was completely blocked off so you had to go half a mile directly backwards around a few holes to the next tee box (blue arrow) which is supposed to be scenic because it’s on the only hill on the front nine, but you’re hitting off a mat in the trees with a fence like 15 feet behind the tee box.
It was around a 4.5 hour round and I still had a few holes left when I decided to quit. I did notice the regular tees on 18 were blocked off for unknown reasons (tee box was straight dirt) but otherwise don’t think I missed anything. Could definitely be a YMMV situation but I’m never playing that course again
Sounds good! After hearing the CCO guys talk about Rock Hollow, I really want to get up there as well! Should toss in that my Indiana white whale is probably Culver, but I know that’s a much harder get.
