Golf Season Unwrapped (your 2024 season in review)

[justmuckit]

Favorite New (to me) Course: Gotta go with Sedge Valley. Was an absolute blast start to finish. Need to play it again before I can call it my favorite course on the SV property.

Underrated Course: Kankakee Elks. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but this place is a gem. If you haven’t played in the March Mudness event, I highly recommend getting on the waitlist.

Overrated Course: @IlliniGolferHack is right - Aberdeen in STL used to be one of the top courses in the area, but flooding, irrigation issues and apparently a new owner that isn’t willing to either spend money and/or get a quality Superintendent has really ruined the place.

Best Golf Hang: The Ope. Easy answer.

Best Moment: Being along for the ride to see @jrembold shoot (a career low?) 1 over on the Woodlands course at The Ope. And I think he had 3 doubles on the day?

Best round: 81 at Sedge Valley. (technically 80 at our Roost major but that was from like 4400 yards and blades only. @ConfluenceGC weird scoring formats for the win!)

Worst round: Day one of the Ope - was so stoked to play I promptly shit the bed and shot 108.

Coolest New Hole Played: Tie between 18 at Sedge Valley and 7 (Boxcar) at Lawsonia Links.

[IlliniGolferHack]

@justmuckit

7 (Boxcar) at Lawsonia Links

if they removed the TERRIBLY placed cartpath on the left side of the green it’d be a great hole

[Nickygifts]

You just trying to start shit or what?

[Jrembold]

A career low and legit could have gone lower

[saintjunior09]

Damn I am getting incredibly jealous reading some of these reviews. Crazy good courses for some. My humble 2 cents:

Favorite New (to me) Course: Boot Ranch, which doesn’t have the greatest history but was a lovely golf trip with my Dad and his best friend (the host). The club does everything right from top to bottom: great course, short par 3 course, Himalayan putting green, massive range and practice facility, and elite logo.

Underrated Course: Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, just absolutely loved it and, compared to the rest of the highly rated public golf in my new hometown of PHX, is very underrated.

Overrated Course: Along the same lines… Quintero. Wonderful set of par 3’s. Just didn’t care for the layout, conditioning (right after overseed), price, and atmosphere. They are really missing out on a lot IMO.

Best Golf Hang: From this year’s line up (which was pretty benign), it has to be Harbortown.

Best Round: 74 at Bear Creek GC in Chandler, AZ. Beat my personal best by 3 shots. The alternative answer was the day I had with my best friend at Harbortown… just good vibes all around.

Worst Round: First round at Boot Ranch. Lost 8 balls and hit 6 shanks. It was hard to stay engaged.

Coolest New Hole Played: Talking Stick O’Odham #12 - fun two tiered fairway for a short par 4. I’m always a fan of thought provoking tee shots - spent far too long with three clubs in my hand on the tee trying to decide what to do.

[cfpriest18]

Favorite New (to me) Course: Prairie Club - Dunes

Underrated Course: Cape Cod Country Club. Incredible holes, good walk, and priced extremely well.

Overrated Course: Nothing major stood out this year

Best Golf Hang: The patio overlooking 18 at True Blue, elite place for a post round beverage with your pops.

Best Moment: Standing on 18 tee at the Prairie Club - Dunes as the sun was disappearing. Was with one of my best friends and after 45 holes that day, it was just an incredible moment that I think back upon quite frequently especially now it was 24 degrees in Boston this morning

Best round: Even par 72 at South Shore Country Club. First time I’ve ever shot even par and went birdie-birdie-par-par-birdie to do it

Worst round: Getting absolutely ejected by George Wright all day on what had to have been the windiest day of the summer while viscously hungover. A quick easy 94 after the aformentioned 72 the week before
EDIT - The first BTP event in February where it was 35 degrees and raining wasn’t the best either

Coolest New Hole Played: Breaking the rules here, but 15-17 at Wildhorse blew me away. Short 4 - Long 4 - Reachable 5 that are close to perfect golf holes

[justmuckit]

Love the bounce back after 17. Was fucking fun to watch.

[JamesHCard]

Favourite New (to me) Course: Goswick - perfect weather & a great crew from the RACDG GB&I made for one of my favourite golf days ever.

Underrated Course: Hard one for me to answer here. I know compared to a lot of the neighbouring courses, Leven Links gets overlooked so I’d probably go there. I was very fortunate to call that my home course for half of 2024. On the US side, I’d go North Bellingham - that was a very fun golf course compared to expectations.

Overrated Course: Gleneagles PGA Centenary. I still had a good time thanks to company and the caddies, but the course left me very underwhelmed. Not sure if it is considered well-rated, but it’s held both a Ryder & Solheim Cup, so you would hope for it to be better. Conditioning aside, just nothing going for it.

Best Golf Hang: This would have to be my last round before moving back to the US, with my dad and brother at their home course. It’s a shithole and none of us played very well, but the weather was good & we didn’t stop talking shit and laughing for 18 holes.

Best Moment: playing in a North v South Ryder Cup-style event with the PNW Crew at Allenmore, I hit one of the better shots of my life. Standing on 17 tee 2 down, my partner hit a soft push into the rough high and right, almost onto 18 fairway. Completely blocked out by trees, I hit a slinging hook with a 6 iron from 210-220 to the back of the green, where we were able to 2-putt and take the hole. Very low stakes for sure, but I was buzzing I was able to pull off a recovery shot of that level.

Best round: Shot 2 +3 74s at Leven, about a month apart, in consecutive competition rounds. Nothing spectacular in either of them, but for a down year those are the only real scoring highlights.

Worst round: My most recent round - yay! Nothing serious, just played in the standing game with other members at Bear Creek CC. Never felt so disconnected in my swing, genuinely felt like I had zero control over anything at all that day. Did I have other shit going on in my head? Sure, but I can normally lock in. Ended up with an 86 and the highlight was not breaking anything or throwing anything.

Coolest New Hole Played: Any number of them at Elie could take this one, despite the conditions, but I’d say the 10th. Playing down toward an angry sea, barely able to feel my hands, it was so cool.

[ChuckV247]

Fun stuff man, great idea!!

Favorite New (to me) Course: Rock Hollow in Peru IN. Played it about a month ago on my way to watch ND beat the brakes off Ohio State. Was in amazing condition for November, tight fun track with some solid holes. Hope to get up there a little earlier next year and see it while it’s still a little warmer (was 55 that day, felt fortunate).

Underrated Course: Patriot Points Links in SC…hard as hell, but super fun.

Overrated Course: Pinehurst CC #5…just not my favorite down there.

Best Golf Hang: My favorite trips are always to Pinehurst with my uncle, friends, and family. Fortunate to be able to do that a few times a year (going on 10 years!!)

Best Moment: Hole in one on hole 7 at my home course. 173 yards with a 7i.

Best round: 69 (nice) on Pinehurst #3. Just striped it all round.

Worst round: 89…after playing almost 250 holes of golf in 8 days, it caught up with. I could not find the face.

Coolest New Hole Played: the first hole at Rock Hollow was a fun short par 4. Demanded a great iron shot right off the tee or hammer a late draw with driver. Buddy hit iron, I hammered driver into a green side bunker. Both got up and down for birdie. Was a fun one!!

Thanks for putting this out there!!

[VinnyCal75]

I am fortunate to have always been able to play a lot of golf, but this year was by far the most I’ve played. I had 134 posted rounds but was probably well north of 150 when you include scrambles/solo rounds/rounds not in posting season so a lot to choose from but here it goes.

Favorite New (to me) Course: Great River in Milford, CT. I know some people prefer their courses more rugged, but this was maybe the best conditioned course I’ve ever played. Was hard to find a blade of grass that looked out of place

Underrated Course: Manchester CC in Manchester, CT. It’s a Tillinghast redesign so the greens are really fun to play. It also has a really unique layout with back-to-back par 5’s on both sides.

Best Golf Hang: I was very fortunate to travel to 4 Roost/NLU events including the NIT this year. While the golf is awesome meeting people and being able to put faces to the names is always the best part of these events. So, all of these were equally the best hangs. Apologies to those I forgot but want to shoutout a few of the guys I hacked it around with @Schikolas @DombrowBryan @Southpaw72 @Conley76 @NYC @tigergolftraveler @tdaly Was a privilege to tee it up with you fine folks.

Best Moment: Played with my Dad on Father’s Day and he made an ace! That moment will be hard to beat for as long as I live

Best round: I did shoot a career best 70 this year in a random Sunday round but I have to go with the 74 I shot in our club’s blind draw tournament. That at the time tied my career low but that tournament is our biggest cash pool of the year so there was a lot of pressure (shoutout Azinger) to close it out and fortunately we did.

Worst round: I played God awful at the Summer Festival at Colorado GC. Great golf course but a different kind of golf than I’m used to, and I was just not ready for it

Coolest New Hole Played: The par 3 11th hole at Caledonia Fish and Golf Club. Standing on the tee the hole had this vibe that just made you feel isolated from the rest of the world, and it was just so peaceful. Also helped that I made an incredible up and down from over the green after nuking a PW.

All in all, 2024 was as an amazing year on the course. Here’s to more memories in 2025!

[Southpaw72]

It was an honor my man

[lazyjk]

@cfpriest18

Favorite New (to me) Course: Prairie Club - Dunes

Love this

@mdavis

Overrated Course: North Berwick GC

Hate this

[tigergolftraveler]

It was a pleasure to play with you as well sir.

[mdavis]

Overrated =/= bad

[lazyjk]

Favorite New (to me) Course: Tie between Sedge Valley and Colorado Golf Club. Sedge speaks to me as a short knocker and if I hadn’t been almost dead from heat exhaustion I would’ve loved to give it another go. Colorado Golf Club had not been on my radar at all prior to Summer Festival and I thought it was awesome. Last hole not withstanding @fishtopher18 played some great golf - especially considering some other low caps got ejected.

Underrated Course: Aiken Golf Club was a blast and a steal of a deal!

Overrated Course: Spanish Peaks in Big Sky Montana. Bought the round in an auction so I could check it off the list but thought it was a pretty meh mountain course. I’d play it again if someone invited me but won’t be seeking it out again in any auctions.

Best Golf Hang: Also going with the tie on this one: DBL-DBL and the OPE. DBL² would have been even better if I hadn’t had to miss the 1st round post-hang to drive round trip back to Burbank to pick up my clubs. The Friday night hang post OPE enjoying some pulled pork courtesy of @chefcycle was great and it may not have been on the course but each movie night at the Hot Dad House was fantastic

Best Moment: Stuck under a tree at Soule Park I took a full swing with my putter and advanced my ball ~140 yards. Honorable mention from the same weekend (also with putter) - 2 putting from 85 yards out for par at Rustic Canyon

Best round: I don’t remember what I actually shot (it was quota) but I went on the hottest par streak of my life maybe and made 6 pars in a row at Gearhart during the Olympic Prolific.

Worst round: I just stop keeping score if I play bad

Coolest New Hole Played: 14 at Colorado Golf Club. Short Par 4 with a boomerang green. One of the guys in our group had this putt for birdie

[fishtopher18]

@lazyjk

Last hole not withstanding @fishtopher18 played some great golf

One over with that double on 18 (2). Still don’t know how that GW flew that far. Altitude, am I right?

[Mystic]

@lazyjk

Sedge speaks to me as a short knocker and if I hadn’t been almost dead from heat exhaustion I would’ve loved to give it another go.

We had an open spot in our tee time for you!

[chefcycle]

That putter from under the tree was all time. I just tried to upload the video I have of it but I’m not smart enough.

[57_Flavors]

This is a really fun walk to think back the year.

Favorite New (to me) Course: I’m going to cheat at this one and add American Dunes in Grand Haven Michigan. I saw that because my annual golf trip played it right after it opened a few years ago so this was the first time going back after it has grown in and established. So in a way, it was “new again” to all of us. To see the difference in year 1 vs 4 was pretty amazing. Not sure when I will get back out there, but it was the highlight of the trip this year.

(This picture also made me finally decide to get lessons)

Underrated Course: Leslie Park Golf Course in Ann Arbor. Prime time rate in the 60s and much of the golf can be played for less. One of my all time favorite courses with a fun layout that you can score on if you are playing well. Great twilight course.

Overrated Course: Barton Hills in Ann Arbor. Finally got the chance to play this private club and enjoyed myself and it was really nice, but besides course conditions; the layout and play ability was not worth the price and would prefer to play many other public courses in Ann Arbor over it.

Best Golf Hang: the annual trip usually provides the best hangs of the year. Chance to get away from work for a few days with our group of 12 and play some fun golf. This year we went to west Michigan and already planning for next. Hopefully Forest dunes and west branch.

Best Moment: Putter got on fire in annual golf outing. Last 6 holes, made the birdie putt on 5 of them, concluding with a bending 15 footer for birdie on the par 3 18th at pierce lake in Chelsea. Played about 190 that day.

Best round: 80 at Washtenaw Golf Club. Great feeling as it was the last round of the year and 3 sessions into lessons. After a year of playing pretty poorly, it was great to see some light and hopefully the new path forward.

Worst round: 96 at Diamond Springs. This one hurt. Played there two years prior and fired an 84. But this round and the trip itself are why I started taking lessons this fall. Realized that my swing had developed some really bad mechanics and the game was slipping hard.

**Coolest New Hole Played:**7 at Harbor Shores. Was hard not to put this course as best new, but it kicked my tail that day and to me, were the fastest greens I’ve ever played on. 7 is such a unique hole with a huge payoff at the green. The green is elevated and requires a great second shot for a chance at par or better. (I stuck my perfect tee shot into the side hill bunker…). But it is one of of the only times you actually can see the lake on the course. Can’t wait to get out there again to get another try.

Can’t wait for the 2025 golf season!

[MrDaveKerr]

Favorite New (to me) Course: Lofoten Links in Norway. Just a stunning place to travel to and spend time at.

Underrated Course: Belleair West. I can honestly say I’d never heard of ‘the oldest golf club in Florida’ when I visited back in February but I loved it.

Overrated Course: North Berwick West Links. It’s great but it’s not in the top 10 in the world!

Best Golf Hang: One of our Roost Majors was in St Andrews again this year. The whole thing was fantastic but dinner in The St Andrews Golf Club overlooking The Old Course with 50 other golf sickos is hard to beat!

Best Moment: Finishing birdie, par, birdie on my first round on The Stadium Course at Sawgrass was pretty special so if I have pick a single moment it was seeing my ball land on the green on 17!

Best round: A 74 on The Queen’s Course at Gleneagles is the best scoring round I’ve had this year. Handicap came down quite a bit last year so this year it’s been the struggle of maintaining, which has been tough.

Worst round: A 94 at Prince’s in Kent during another one of our Roost Majors was a slog. Just couldn’t get off the tee into a fairway all day.

Coolest New Hole Played: The short par-4 15th on Karoo at Cabot Citrus Farms. It help when you drive the green but then there was the 3 putt for par so that took some of the edge off it…