Playing the Top 100 Golf Courses in The World

Loch Lomond looking up toward Ben Lomond from the 17th green

If someone knows of a finer clubhouse in all the world than Rossdhu House at Loch Lomond, please let me know. The clubhouses at the National Golf Links, Winged Foot, Garden City and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers impressed me as being world-class. Rossdhu House takes it to another level. The similarities between Loch Lomond and The White House in Washington D.C. are striking. The club has a fenced exterior gate around the property with a guarded entrance. Your movements on the property are perfectly orchestrated. When you arrive and leave they track your progress with walkie talkies through a command center. The interior of this 18th century Georgian mansion has a series of interconnected, themed rooms, each decorated with original, high-quality large oil paintings. Rossdhu House has a green room, a red room, a library, a formal dining room, a reception area, and a series of additional rooms for a variety of specialized purposes that I lost count of them. Like at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the club has its own helicopter here. Each has a Rose Garden and perfectly manicured grounds. Rossdhu House even one ups The White House with clearly superior views out of the large windows, and I doubt that the White House has an amenitized spa!

In the end, I was won over at Loch Lomond by the setting and the Scottish charm. The club is not pretentious, and I've decided that I like being pampered. I had an 'A' caddy and a great day at Loch Lomond. I have been playing some local municipal courses this year to try to cut back on expenses, and the experience here was the polar opposite of public golf. I didn't find lots of broken tees laying on each tee box, nobody was walking around with their shirt out, there were not a lot of unrepaired pitch marks on the greens, and we didn't have to wait to hit every shot. While playing the round, I was asking the member how far it was to Dundonald, the other course associated with Loch Lomond. "About 10 minutes by helicopter." It must be nice.

It's official. I've become a golf snob. The problem is that, once you experience this level of golf, it's tough to go back. I apologize to all of you hackers out there for leaving the fraternity of regular guys and moving over to the dark side. I have indeed gone native. It did strike me as a bit odd that they served us Kool Aid at Loch Lomond after the round in the walled garden. I should have paid more attention, as it didn't seem right at the time, but now there is no going back.

Loch Lomond was the last of the twenty-seven courses ranked in the top 100 in Europe that I set out to play. As such, I finished on a very high note indeed, but hope to be invited back to Loch Lomond again.

The last time I was in Spain I passed through Madrid, so this time I arranged my travels so that I could visit Barcelona. I stayed on La Ramba, which is in central Barcelona and offers one of the most delightful areas in the world to go for a stroll down a tree lined boulevard. The architecture of Barcelona is beautiful, especially the iron railings on the exterior of all the buildings. There is much to be said for the slower, more relaxed Spanish way of life.

My only letdown was the well known church in Barcelona, the Sangrada Familia, designed by Gaudi. It is in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, is weird and is covered in scaffolding. It is to churches what Medinah is to golf courses: a big disappointment.

I felt fortunate to have an uneventful and quiet flight home. Luckily, there were enough rolls for everyone flying back to America.

As one of the traveling companions with the blogger, I feel compelled to write a rebuttal to the above, well-written but misguided review. I appreciate and respect the author’s unbridled enthusiasm of his review of Valderrama. I too had that enthusiasm as we pulled into the resort and golfing complex. When there is an individual in uniform controlling the entrance gates to approve (or disapprove) of your playing privileges, you usually are in for a special day. And once inside the gates of Valderrama, you truly believe something special lies ahead. The place is immaculate. It feels like hallowed ground. History was made here. And history will probably be made here again. In short, before you put a tee in the ground, the excitement level is high.

It must be noted that my blogger colleague and I did not play in the same group. He was invited to play with a special, elite traveling group. I played with the third member of our trio of friends, each of whom is on a quest to play the world’s top 100 courses. My golfing partner and I flew into Madrid the day before and drove almost 10 hours south to Spain’s southern coast. Spain is a beautiful country – it is very dry and much more mountainous than ever imagined. Our drive took us through the city of Granada, which is home to the famous Alhambra palace. What shocked us most about Granada was the snow capped mountains that framed the city. These are the Sierra Nevada mountains, not unlike the Sierra Nevadas found in this country. Another highpoint of our day-long trip were the roads in Spain. They are real and spectacular. Perfect condition. No potholes, no traffic. Truly a pleasure to drive in this country. We passed seemingly miles of nothing but olive trees. There are more olive trees than people. Kind of like Scotland where sheep far outnumber humans. Refreshing.



Golfing Letdown

So where did things go wrong? First, as we were about to tee off, we asked the starter if it ever rains in the southern part of Spain. It’s probably a question he doesn’t get too often. After all, they don’t name it the Sun Coast for nothing. But it was a very cloudy this day and it looked darker on the horizon. “No, it never rains in Spain,” he confidently said. I was both pleased and relieved as I had left my rain suit and umbrella in my hotel room. By the third hole, the rain was pelting down. So much for Al Roker sitting in the starter house.

Although the rain was an unwelcome surprise, the bigger let down was the Valderrama golf course itself. This is where the big differences between my blogger colleague and I exist. My second shot on the first hole was my first clue. My drive was on the left edge of the fairway with about 160 meters to the green for a second shot. Not a great drive but certainly playable and acceptable to my level of play. But the second shot would require either a low stinger beneath the cork trees that would have to stop suddenly on a tiny green or a high lofty shot that would have to, by luck, ricochet off the cork trees and drop onto the green (see blogger pictures). It was then that I realized this course was built for Seve, not for Steve, Joe or Jim and their 8 to 14 American handicaps.

The second hole was a bit more ridiculous – cork trees in the middle of the fairway. My drive was where it was supposed to be – in the fairway. My reward for hitting the fairway? A punch shot to advance the ball under the trees. I couldn’t get near the green. And of course there was cork trees overhanging parts of the putting surface.
A quick comment on cork trees. They are fascinating. Never saw them before. Yes, they are spongy like a cork. I like cork, especially when it is released from a lovely bottle of Bordeaux. I don’t like cork when it unfairly obstructs my approach shots to green after green.



By the third hole, I said to my playing partner and traveling companion, “I’ve played this course before. It’s called Harbour Town. Hated that tricked up place and it isn’t worthy of being in the top 100.”

As we reached the fourth hole, the rain didn’t let up but the flow of the round did. We were delayed by the slow play of the two groups ahead of us. This gave us the chance to meet up with a lovely married couple and we joined their twosome. He was from Scotland, she was from Ireland. Golf was obviously in their blood. Money was obviously in their pocket as they were members of both Valderrama and Loch Lomond. Both had game but more importantly they were truly informative about their courses in Spain and Scotland. As for the fourth hole itself, it was more of the same. The picture looks nice but even the blogger admits that part of the green is blocked by overhanging trees.

By the time we got to the ninth hole, the rain was teeming down. Kind of like Octomom when her water broke. It was so intense and unexpected, the rain actually sent our Scottish/Irish friends packing. They had had enough. However, after we shook hands to say goodbye, the Scot, seeing my pathetic frame as if I were in a wet-tee shirt contest, offered me his rain suit. I’m not yet comfortable to jump into another man’s trousers but I quickly seized his waterproof jacket. All I had to do at the end of the round was to return it to Al Roker, who would put it in the Scot’s locker. Another reason to love Scotland, I declared.

The rain on the back nine continued. Admittedly, the golf course improved somewhat. But I think you get the idea that trying to bend and shape shots into covered greens gets old fast. My comments and rebuttal, however, wouldn’t be complete without a note about the “iconic seventeenth hole.” Yes, history was here during the 1997 Ryder Cup. My blogger colleague is correct in saying this is an uncharacteristic hole compared to the others because of the lack of overhanging cork trees around the green (perhaps there was an emergency corkage need for some Contador 2005 Benjamin Romeo). But what was most shocking about the 17th hole was the man-made pond in front of the green. Actually, calling it a pond is an injustice to ponds. If you look closely at the blogger’s second picture, you see the “pond’s” pool liner that is covered by sunken green algae. It’s kind of like the neighbor who has an in-the-ground pool but never cleans it. All that was missing was a diving board and a slide.

19th Hole

I didn’t hate Valderrama. As noted, I was very excited to visit Spain for the first time and play this historical course. I was pumped for a course that I thought would exceed expectations. But with the rain in Spain not staying on the plain and a course that doesn’t reward good shots, my Valerrama golfing experience was disappointing. Plus, and this cannot be ignored, at 300 euros plus 60 euros for a cart, the golf set me back about 480 large. Ouch!

What did I like about Valderrama? I like small greens, and small areolas and Valdy had about 18 of them. Plus the course was in beautiful shape. The scenery was just average – there was a lot of real estate. Keep in mind that this is a resort course. Think Harbour Town, Doral, Palm Desert. If you look really hard, you can see the Mediterranean Sea and the tip of the Rock of Gibraltar. Frankly, the views found within the low country of South Carolina (Yeaman’s Hall), cliffs of Bandon Dunes or windmill at Long Island’s National excite me much more. The biggest plus, as it is with all of our trips, was my playing partner. We were soaked yet thirsty. We reveled in our disappointment of the course yet had a lot of fun. The pops we consumed during and mostly after the round are and will always be a key component of any of our trips.

Finally, perhaps the best way to judge a golfing experience is to ask yourself if you would return. This doesn’t mean a second round in a day – that would be too easy, especially if, like my blogger colleague, money is not an issue (his idea of hard times is no salt on his peanuts or drinking 12-year-old Macallan instead of 15-year-old). Would I make another transatlantic flight to Spain just to play Valderrama? I would do – and have done it – for Scotland, Ireland and England. Spain, despite its rugged beauty and the extreme courteousness of its people, is not a place I would return for another golf experience. There are way too many other places I’ve got to play and re-play.

His write-up of the Selsa Hills Course, also gets extra style points: "The worst fairway in the whole world can be found here, in Selesa Hills Golf Course," and "Please don’t even think about this course. You’re better off standing in a driving range and have people hit their driver straight at you." He pulls no punches, "Make the turn and it descends into being plain, boring and crappy again. The first nine is a like a girl before marriage. After the turn, it’s post marriage, she becomes lazy, fat and hideous."

Like him, I am also always struck by the raving reviews you see in magazines and on web-sites, especially where the actual experience can be so different. In this vain, he re-writes a marketing piece done for the people at Bukit Unggul, replacing the original flowery prose with his own version below:

“Very few golf courses in Malaysia leave a lasting memory… Bukit Unggul Country Club is NOT one of them. Craved into a 65-hectare valley, the par 71 5,858-metre long 18-hole course is an unnatural piece of crap mutated by renowned American architect, Ronald Fream, who is also a suspect in the latest crime of defacing golf courses around the world. Golfers who play here for the first time instantly realize how screwed they are with each hole of wrong yardage and sadistic treelines that eat your balls. Golfballs, that is..”

“Playing he (sic) sadistic course demands a beretta 9mm and a precise shot to the head to end all misery. Here, a non existent fairway and green maintenance programme by the management ensures a muddy, dirty experience for all golfers, and especially for beginners, remind them just how lousy and useless they are and that they should stay home and curse the day they took up a golf club. Its un-maintained Bermuda Tifways fairways and tees, and bouncy Tifdwarf (do we actually give a darn what Tif actually is??!) greens exist harmoniously among a luch, majestic tropical rainforest, filled with wild boars and monkeys who will not hesitate to attack and kill golfers, simply to make play a true test of agony, like middle age torture, or wearing a corset at your crotch.

Bukit Unggul Country Club is simply an forgettable experience. However it will often return randomly as a nightmare that will revisit you night after night until your dying day.”

There, now that is what I call truthful advertising. Enjoy!

Gilagolf blog

Victorian beachgoers at the Cruden Bay beach

The magnificent setting of Cruden Bay

Cruden Bay was originally designed by Old Tom Morris in 1899 and then re-designed by Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler in 1926. Cruden Bay is located along the Aberdeen coast of Scotland about two hours north of Carnoustie. If there was ever an apt description of the term 'hidden gem,' then Cruden Bay is it. The golf writer James Finegan says of Cruden Bay: "Out sized, non conformist, unpredictable and flamboyant." These same words also describe course re-designer Tom Simpson to a tee, and the combination of Morris' original holes combined with Simpson's flair for the dramatic make this a special place.

The first two holes are par fours that are similar in style and play from elevated tee boxes, down into a valley, to greens set on a plateau. You are playing alongside the town of Cruden Bay with O.B. along the left side.

The first sign that the course is not going to be traditional starts at the third hole. It is a 285 par four with a big chocolate drop mound in the middle of the fairway 80 yards from the green, making it potentially a driveable green; however, the mound is so large that it is a blind shot if you go for it. The green sits down in a hollow with several hills and hammocks around it and in front.

The fourth is a world-class par three that plays along the village of Port Erroll. Driver is often in order on this ~200 yard hole, depending upon the wind.

The par three 4th green

The 6th green with 'Bluidy Burn' surrounding

The seventh hole ("Whaupshank") is a par four with an elevated green situated between two dunes. Like all holes at Cruden Bay, it is a whimsical hole that snakes and twists through the dunes with a sharp dog-leg left. There is very little that is conventional on this course.

It is because of holes like the eighth that make Cruden Bay a course that has developed a cult following. It is a 248 yard par four that plays to an elevated green enclosed by dunes. English golf writer Dell Leigh, writing in his 1925 book Golf at its best on the LMS, describes the eighth as sitting "in a valley between stately hills; the hole which produces in the long hitter a frenzy of self-adulation." Leigh was writing about the original Old Tom Morris hole; Simpson had the foresight not to change it so the golfer can experience the same excitement today.

The exhilarating 8th hole looking back from the green, a 258 yard up-hill par four

The world of golf has much sterner tests than Cruden Bay: courses such as Carnoustie, Oakmont and Olympic. Muirfield, Merion and Shinnecock are more historic. Turnberry, Pebble Beach and Kingsbarns are more scenic. But for pure fun, Cruden Bay cannot be beaten. The course defies being pigeonholed because it doesn't fit neatly into any category. It is a one-of-a-kind golf course. Golf at its simplest is a game. I think we sometimes lose sight of that fact. The point of golf after all is to have fun and enjoy yourself. Cruden Bay would be ranked #1 in the world if having fun was the only criteria utilized. There is something about Cruden Bay that lightens your spirits and brightens your mood. It makes me see golf through the eyes of a five year old: everything is exciting; there is a sense of discovery around every corner; life is good and full of promise; curiosity abounds.

The ninth hole atop a hill

The ninth and tenth holes play on top of the dunes with dramatic views and shots played down a large hill. There are many times when the Cruden Bay landscape almost seems lunar and surreal. The ninth and tenth tee boxes are two of those places. If you look north over the beach and ocean you can see the ruins of Slains Castle, which provided the inspiration to Bram Stoker when he wrote Dracula.

Slains Castle as seen from Cruden Bay

The fourteenth and fifteenth holes are two of my two favorites on the course. Like Cruden Bay generally, they are full of quirks, but I found them exhilarating. Fourteen has a blind second shot to a bathtub green. What's a bathtub green you ask? One that quite literally is shaped like a bath tub and is sunken down into the ground. Just like the Punchbowl sixteenth green at National Golf Links of America, when you are on the green the outside world is muted. You are totally detached from civilization.

Why don't you see more bathtub style greens? From a practical standpoint, the green most assuredly doesn't work, since it doesn't get the proper amount of air and light, is difficult to maintain and playing shots into it doesn't always distinguish between shots hit well and shots played poorly. Ok, so it's not practical to have holes like these, but it misses the entire point of Cruden Bay. The R & A isn't going to hold a championship here, and it is not a proving ground for your manhood. It's a fun golf course. Personally, I like an occasional hole that has these unique element of playfulness, which has more similarities to billiards or pinball with shots banked off the sides of hills and hollows and crazy kicks of the golf ball.

The 'bathtub' 14th green

Look to the right of the bathtub green in the picture and you can see a tee box. This is the tee box for the 200 yard blind par three fifteenth hole. The huge sand dune you see on the left is your target. When you are done playing the hole you ring a bell to let the group behind you know you're done.

I can hear the skeptics now. Blind shots? Ringing bells? Multiple par fours under 290 yards? A bathtub green? Back-to-back par threes? Only two par fives on the whole course? Par is only 70, 6395 yards from the back. Horrors. I understand those that prefer golf courses in the conventional and traditional sense might not like Cruden Bay. Sounds like trickery you say. Well, many of the world's great courses have characteristics just like the ones I describe above. Cypress Point has back-to-back par threes; coincidentally, they both happen to be on the 15th and 16th holes. Quaker Ridge and Chicago Golf Club only have two par fives. Lahinch has its brilliant blind par three Dell hole. Pine Valley and Royal County Down have several blind shots, and you ring bells at Prestwick and the National Golf Links of America.

So these quirky elements in and of themselves are not unique to Cruden Bay and are clear evidence that having quixotic features on a golf course alone don't make it bad. What makes Cruden Bay unique is that it crams all these features into one course. It doesn't have one or two quirky holes like many of the world's best courses mentioned above. The distinction at Cruden Bay is that virtually every hole is quirky or has some kind of unconventional feature. It is this cumulative effect of the design that makes it such a fanciful place to play golf.

Admittedly, Cruden Bay has a weak finish. Sixteen is a downhill par three with a green that slopes away from you, so you must play it short and run it up. Seventeen and eighteen are decidedly weak holes that play back to the clubhouse and are uninteresting.

Rossdhu House at Loch Lomond

Although the club is very exclusive, the course is known to the public because each year, the week before the Open Championship, the Scottish Open is played here. This allows outsiders a peek at what has been called the most beautiful setting in the world. Their clubhouse, Rossdhu House, is an 18th century Georgian mansion, and serves as a focal point in the scenery with the loch and the mountains in the background. It looks very special indeed.

Apparently, their approach to running a golf club hasn't work out as planned. They went into receivership in late 2008, making it more difficult for me to play the course. I've known two members over the years but both dropped out due to the increasingly high dues and the restrictions. I was offered a chance to play recently, but I guess they are so desperate for revenue that they're trying to soak anybody that comes near the place. I'm sorry, but a £600 guest green fee is just wrong. This highfalutin, haughty approach is an outrage.

In this era of de-leveraging, the Loch Lomond Golf Club model is coming apart at the seams. How many people can now afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to join a vanity club like this?

I take their bombastic approach to things as a challenge to be overcome, which I accept with pleasure. I have done this twice previously and this one should be easier since there is no language barrier like there was when I tried to book a tee time at France's Morfontaine and Japan's Hirono.

I am now singularly focused on getting onto Loch Lomond and I will keep you appraised of my developments.

Maybe this would be a good time to break out some of that "In Residence at the Lodge" letterhead I picked up at Sea Island and write them a letter. Perhaps they will be impressed. I'm working on some florid language of my own to approach the club with.

I'm also dusting off my recording equipment and am about to make some calls...

1st green at Sea Island Seaside Course

The first unique thing you notice about the Seaside course are the distinctive red wicker baskets instead of hole flags, like those at Merion. Most of the green designs are like the first green seen above, with slopes and shaved areas that repel shots hit short away from the green. Most of the greens are small.

Of course, I jinxed myself by mentioning how great the weather was when I played Cypress Point. The golf gods were listening and got even, so the pictures here are not as brilliant as I would have liked, due to the cloudy and foggy day. On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to have to return to Sea Island and play again.

View from the second tee

The tee shot on the second hole shows off one of the principal design features the architects had to work with, namely, routing a course through the lowcountry marsh. Many holes have a forced carry off the tee like the one here.

The third green at the Seaside Course

The third green again shows the design feature of an inverted bowl with the oak trees in the background. This is a demanding 200 yard par three that normally plays in a crosswind.

Fourth hole looking toward the green

I've played some good golf holes in my day. The Road Hole at St. Andrews, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen at Carnoustie, the Island Green at Sawgrass, the Postage Stamp at Troon, the 15th and 16th at Cypress Point and the 18th at Pebble Beach. The fourth hole on the Seaside Course is right up there with them. Not only is the design brilliant, but with marsh and ocean as a backdrop, it is visually dramatic as well. A link to the best holes is here.

The 4th looking from the tee toward the flag in the distance to the left

The fourth hole is 421 yards on the card, but is one of the severest dog-legs in all of golf. The hole makes an acute left turn at 300 yards to a green situated on the other side of the marsh at a ninety degree angle from where you are standing on the tee.

The 4th carry off the tee over the marsh

The tee shot is a forced carry over marsh, and the left side of the fairway is preferred because it lessens the length of your second shot to the green. The entire left side of the hole is bordered by the marsh and White Heron Lake. If you play too safely, you end up in the bunkers on the right, so not only is it a nice risk-reward hole, it is one with a severe penalty for being too greedy and a penalty for being too conservative.

4th fairway

Your second shot to the green requires you to hit the ball a precise distance. Even if you play more conservatively and aim away from the marsh to the fairway approach, your distance has to be perfect or you will go into the marsh on the other side. The hole requires back-to-back perfectly placed risk-reward shots that places a premium on well struck balls and penalizes poorly struck ones.

The fourth hole was originally named "It Is" which was short for "It is unlucky if played carelessly." Perfectly named.

The 4th approach to the green

The green has big slopes in it and is well protected. The fourth hole is the #1 ranked handicap hole on the course, without question.

The fifth at Seaside, approach to the green

The fifth hole is the mirror opposite of the 4th. It is a 388 yard par four that is a sharp dog leg right over the marsh. It also requires you to hit back-to-back risk-reward shots with a high penalty for error. The fifth hole was originally named "Marsh" and again is both visually dramatic and requires precision. Those playing cautiously away from the marsh have to be careful not to hit too far through the fairway to the left.

The fifth green sited between the marsh and the tree

The creativity required to design two holes like this back-to-back is what makes Colt and Alison such brilliant golf course architects.

The sixth green shrouded in fog

The sixth hole is a short par three at 164 yards from the back tee. It is a nice respite following the harassing fourth and fifth holes. Such is the brilliance of the design at the Seaside course. The routing of the course through the marsh and dunes is brilliant.

The seventh green falls off at the rear

The seventh hole is a challenging 531 yard par five. The fairway zig zags with sand bordering the left side of the fairway and the marsh down the right side, while the green falls off at the back, penalizing shots hit long.

The shot of the 8th green from the fairway bunker

Eight is a short par four with a tee shot over marsh and a large bunker in play on the right side off the tee. This makes the effective landing area on the left side of the fairway very small. The hole finishes you off with a devilish, well-protected, harshly sloping green.

The 18th green

The ninth hole provides a strong finish to the front nine. The back nine feels like a different course, because it largely is, although the theme of alternating long and short holes, risk-reward shots and forced carries over marsh continues. There are some good holes and the routing is interesting and varied, as is the front, but it lacks the sizzle that the holes on the front nine have. When Bobby Jones played the course, the current front nine played as the back nine on a different composite course. Jones said, "Second nine is one of the very best I have ever seen." Who am I to disagree with Bobby?

The Seaside Course is a really unique place to play golf. We saw several bald eagles, which nest nearby, flying overhead while we played. The feel of the Seaside course is the lowcountry meets Merion; it is a throwback to an old-style design that requires the golfer to do more than just hit the ball long.

Sea Island Resort

The Sea Island resort has been owned and run by the Jones family (no relation to Rees or Bobby) for generations. The current generation, Bill Jones III, runs the business and resort.

No expense was spared when Sea Island was built, including at both the Cloisters hotel and the Lodge. Dark woods are prominently featured, but done tastefully. It is not as overbearing as the Breakers in Palm Beach or the Boca Raton Resort; it has more class. They do a lot of little things right at Sea Island, which adds up to a very nice experience. Bach's Brandenberg concerto was playing on the Bose CD player when I entered my room, for example. The employees all prononunced my simple name correctly, instead of making it two syllables instead of three, like many people do. There was stationery on the desk with my name engraved on it, underneath which "In Residence at the Lodge at Sea Island" was printed. I felt a bit like an English King or Howard Hughes. I imagine they used this type of thing occasionally, dashing off a letter from Balmoral or The Desert Inn, whilst in residence.

There are dozens of real wood-burning fireplaces throughout the resort. It has better service than a Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons, which is a high standard to surpass.

An interior view at The Cloisters

The resort has more five star ratings than The Pentagon has five star generals. At Sea Island, the Lodge, the Cloisters, the Spa and the Georgian Room all have received five stars from Mobil, which is a rare feat. It is also one of the few civilized places in the world where you can still smoke a cigar without persecution. You can smoke in the locker room at Ocean Forest, in the locker room at Sea Island and in the elegant cigar lounge at the Cloisters.

The 12th green at Ocean Forest showing Jones' design philsophy around the greens

Ocean Forest from the air

The routing is good at Ocean Forest; Jones had a lot to work with and used it all: the marsh areas, the sand dunes and the areas along both the river and the ocean. The course starts in marsh and wetlands, then you get a brief glimpse of what is to come as the fifth hole backs up to the river with views of the ocean in the distance. While standing on the fifth green, the land you see across the river is all owned by the arrogant, disgraced, bumbling-idiot, Katrina-style bailout leader, ex-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who both owns the private island and had a personal vendetta against Lehman Brothers. Enjoy your ignominious retirement, Hank. You should hope they don't try to bring criminal charges against you for your incompetence. "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie!"

Sorry about the tirade, but it did make me feel better.

View from the par three 5th tee box

The Golf Course

Through the first five holes, the views of the water are fleeting; you see only enough to build your interest and curiosity because the course is routed inland again after this hole, playing back through the marsh and dunes. The same thing happens again when you get to the 12th and 13th holes; you think you will now play along the water from then on, but the course is again routed back inland before you re-emerge for the brilliant climax of the 17th and 18th holes along the ocean. Jones saved the best for last.

The opening hole on Ocean Forest follows the design philosophy of both Prestwick and the National Golf Links of America, which is of a short, relatively easy hole. Put a big asterisk next to that, however, since this is your first shot of the day and water is in play. At Prestwick, it's the slice over the stone wall and onto the railroad tracks that can ruin your start; at National, a shot into the high fescue; at Ocean Forest, the trouble manifests itself in the form of the 'Mullet Pond' that borders the left side of the fairway. I call it the 'Mullet Pond' because the pond is full of mullet, and they jump high out of the water with a frenetic frequency. When you hit your second shot on the first hole (and your tee shot off the 9th hole), you will absolutely be distracted by the jumping mullet.

The first green at Ocean Forest

The second hole plays along a stand of trees, the third plays by the dunes and the fourth plays by the wetlands.

The 4th hole seen from the tee

The ninth hole, a 151 yard par three has a Biarritz feature in the front, the jumping mullet, and an occasional crocodile sitting nearby the pond. It's a nice short par three that requires a precise tee shot over water and offers no bailout option.

The 10th hole at Ocean Forest

The 10th hole was my favorite on the course. Jones calls ten "the most thought provoking, risk-laden hole." The tee shot on this 545 yard par five demands a shot hit to a fairway which is set at an angle, over marsh grasses. It is a classic risk-reward shot. The further to the right you can successfully hit, the closer to the green you are. A shot hit short of the fairway is gone. There is a beautiful marsh along the entire right side of the hole. The green is treacherous, well protected by bunkers and has a lateral hazard on the right and to the rear.

The 10th green

The 13th, a 381 yard par four, plays along the Hampton River and has a stream running through the fairway, which means most players have to club down off the tee in order to avoid hitting into the hazard.

13th fairway bordering the Hampton River

Fifteen is a short par three at 165 yards. My advice is take one more club on your tee shot. It plays longer, even though it is set on level ground; you have to hit it the entire way there over marsh grasses with a cross-wind blowing across the green.

The par three 15th

The nice par four 16th

The 16th hole is quite good. It plays 425 yards from the back tees and is a dog-leg left where you have to hit through a chute of trees. The hole requires you to shape your shot off the tee and land on the left side of the fairway. The book The World's 500 Greatest Golf Holes ranks this hole as one of the hardest in the world to get on in regulation. Part of their logic is that there is usually a fresh breeze blowing across the marsh near the green, and the green repels balls. Behind the green, there is no margin for error because there is a shaved area that trickles down into a lateral hazard. I'm a hack and got there in two, so I'm not sure about their assessment.

The par three 17th

The first time the course has a hole bordering the Atlantic Ocean is on the long 217 yard par three seventeenth. The seventeenth green backs up to the ocean and is wind-swept, with winds blowing across the marsh nearby.

The 17th green

Believe it or not, there are only a handful of holes on courses ranked in the top 100 in the United States that play along the Atlantic Ocean. Seminole sorta-kinda has a couple of holes. Maidstone has two or three, The Ocean Course at Kiawah has several and these final two at Ocean Forest. The eighteenth hole is 480 yards, plays along the Atlantic from tee to green, and is a tough finishing hole with a small green that slopes back to front and is well bunkered.

Approach to the 18th green

Ocean Forest

The locker room at Ocean Forest is among the best I have seen. It is on a par with Seminole, San Francisco and Mayacama. The locker room has its own library; a nook with a giant fireplace and card table; a cozy seating among the lockers, and the top of the room is adorned with animal heads.





Ocean Forest reminded me of another exclusive southern club, The Honors Course. Both encourage walking, have great caddy programs, have a great respect for the traditions of the game, particularly amateur golf, and both exhibit true Southern hospitality.

Walter Hagen once said he didn't want to be a millionaire, he just wanted to live like one. Staying at Sea Island will allow you to fulfull Walter's fantasy. It's expensive, but it is a true five star resort and worth it.

The Seaside course, also located at Sea Island, a few miles from Ocean Forest is not ranked in the top 100 courses in the world, but does rank as one of the top public courses in the country. Personally, I think it is a better course than Ocean Forest and I will do a detailed write-up of the Seaside course next. It is also the easiest way for most people to see the design work of the genius architects H.S. Colt and C.H. Alison, and in particular their unparalleled ability to route a course. Those that followed my travels to Japan know how highly regarded Charles Alison's design skills are. His partner, H.S. Colt, was involved in Royal Portrush and Pine Valley. Playing the Seaside course is a good chance to see how great this pair were without traveling half-way around the world or without gaining access to a private club.

Why is Ocean Forest ranked so high in the world? A little inside-baseball might provide some insight. Gary Galyean, who wrote the club history after the Walker Cup matches in 2001, also serves as chairman of Golf Magazine's top 100 courses jury. Rees Jones also rates courses for the magazine as does the owner of Sea Island, Bill Jones III. It can't hurt to have three people associated with the course on the rating panel. As we say in Brooklyn, "You know what I mean?"

Ultimately, Ocean Forest is like local boy Davis Love III. All the essential elements of greatness are there, but there is just something I can't put my finger on that keeps me from becoming a big fan.


Post Script

There are four courses ranked on the world top 100 in the state of Georgia. I have now finished playing three: East Lake, Peachtree and Ocean Forest. You all know which one I still need.

Driftwood immediately behind the 17th green

The distinctive Cypress trees,
the walk from the 15th green to the 16th tee starts by walking under here

Holes eight and nine are short par fours at 369 and 283 yards, respectively. Eight doglegs to the right and offers a blind tee shot. Once you are in the fairway and look back, there is no sight of the tee box you hit from. Nine plays downhill but to the best protected green on the course. I don't know if these two holes had any influence on Coore and Crenshaw, but they reminded me of the short back to back par fours at Sand Hills (7th and 8th).

The distinctive tee markers at Congressional

The Golf Course

While the course is not exactly as hilly as Westchester Country Club or The Country Club at Brookline, the terrain and routing at Congressional reminded me of both these courses. The course has many irregular shaped fairways and doglegs, and greens that are very small. One of the keys to playing Congressional is to make sure that you approach the greens from the fairway. Attempting to hit and hold the green from any angle except the fairway is quite difficult here.

The fourth fairway at Congressional is typical of many on the course: narrow, with an irregular shape. This hole, like most at Congressional, plays from an elevated tee. On the front nine the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th all play from elevated tees.

4th fairway at Congressional

The fourth hole, the #1 handicap, is 427 yards long and doglegs to the right.

5th fairway at Congressional

The fifth hole was one of my favorites. Notice the nice rolling terrain, with the fairway following the contours of the land. This hole doglegs to the left and rewards the golfer who hits a tee shot far enough left to avoid the trap and opens up a better angle to the green.

Congressional's 5th green

Like almost all the greens at Congressional, the green on the fifth is small and well bunkered.

The sixth hole is a short par five at 488 yards that tempts the golfer to hit the green in two. The perils of being short are illustrated by the water hazard short of the green.

6th green at Congressional

Par three 7th hole green at Congressional

The par three seventh hole plays 157 yards uphill, and the green, like many at Congressional, slopes front to back.

9th green at Congressional

The ninth, a 544 yard par five, is a very good hole with a big swale that you must carry to get from the fairway to the elevated green. The front of the green slopes back toward the fairway and repels balls down into the ravine. Club selection is made trickier here because from more than 130 yards out you are playing a blind shot, as the fairway rises gently from the middle of the hole toward the green.

The par three 10th green

The back nine begins with the 170 yard par three 10th, over water, to one of the largest greens on the course. You will notice the mechanical fan behind this green. Almost every green has them due to Congressional's hot and humid summers. Unfortunately, they do come into play if you miss the green, as I found out about on the first hole, and I didn't see any local rule allowing relief if you are behind one.

12th fairway at Congressional

It is difficult to tell how much of the course is the original Emmett design, but I could still see some features that reminded me of Emmett's masterpiece in Long Island, Garden City, such as the 12th hole, seen above. This type of slightly elevated rise from fairway to green is typical of Garden City. Many of the greens at Congressional are slightly elevated like this one with a narrow opening between the bunkers.

14th fairway looking backward

Another good example of the irregular shape of the fairways at Congressional, and a nice use of the hilly terrain, can be seen on the 408 yard fourteenth hole, above, looking back from the green.

You hit down into a landing area from an elevated tee and then the remainder of the hole rises to an elevated green.

17th green

The seventeenth is ranked as one of the top 500 holes in the world, and it is quite a tricky hole at 420 yards. The fairway drops down to another level about three-quarters of the way toward the green. The elevated green is small and well bunkered.

18th green

Both the 10th and 18th greens, modified by Rees Jones, seem a bit out of character with the rest of the course as their greens are surrounded by water and feels incongruent with the design.

I played Congressional on a brilliant but blustery day. As my readers know from my experience at Royal St. George's, a wind game is not the strongest part of my repertoire. I played Congressional in October of 2008, a month of bank runs and stock market crashes that I hoped I would never see in my lifetime. The Dow Jones average was as volatile as it has ever been. It had moves of more than 100 points on 20 of 23 days. Out of sympathy for the market I also had a move of more than 100 points for the day on my scorecard. My golf game experienced as much volatility as I can handle. I hope both the markets and my game calm themselves soon.

2. Japanese people are genuinely service oriented. Upon arrival at your hotel, the staff comes out and bows to you. If a staff member is nearby as you are getting into or out of an elevator, they will bow to you. Even employees and security agents at Narita airport, one of the busiest in the world, manage to more things along quickly an with respect and a service orientation.

3. The toilets have a button to push which creates a simulated 'courtesy flush' without wasting any water. Not only is it a 'green' thing to do, it's also brilliant. The Japanese fascination with technology and gadgets and something that distinguishes them in the world and only here could you have musical toilet seats.

4. There is no tipping anywhere in the country. Not in taxis, hotels or restaurants. The baristas at your local Starbucks don't have a tip cup out asking for money. It makes life much simpler.

5. The picture of the 1,000 yen note (roughly a $10 bill) features Noguchi Hideyo, was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist who discovered the agent of syphilis disease in 1911.

6. People don't abuse cellphones, assuming that the person on the other end of the phone is deaf. In the week I spent in Japan, I only overheard one person speaking in a loud voice on a cell phone.

7. The average Japanese has 70 cents in credit card debt. The average American has $2,607. We can learn a lot from the Japanese about living within your means.

8. The Imperial Palace sits in the middle of Tokyo and is surrounded by high stone walls and a moat.

9. Narita Airport. Although one of the busiest airports in the world, they treat you like a human being instead of a cow. Going through security is ten minutes, max. Four levels of shops and entertainment including good food, an observation deck on top of the terminal building so you can watch takeoffs and landings. You can get a haircut at Narita 365 days a year. You can rent a baby carriage. It has a medical clinic, pet hotel, playrooms, showers, a post office and a location where you can get a massage.

10. Geisha Girls

The Punjab and the Geisha

It has become a tradition of mine to review interesting comments I received throughout the year in my year-end post. One of the most interesting comments I received in 2008 was about my previous write of Medinah. One of my adoring fans wrote, "You, my friend, are nuts". I had criticized the condition of the course in my post, particularly the abundance of poop on the course, to which my gifted visitor wrote: "As for the geese, millions migrate through the area every spring and every fall and have always been a problem for all Chicago area courses. Too bad one didn't drop a turd on your head."

Voila! Although, you spelled 'spectacular' wrong in your comment. Might want to run the spell checker next time.

Another anonymous comment on my Medinah write-up: "You sound like a real tool from NY. Funny as I read your comment about your playing partner. Sounds like he might have been your long lost brother from Queens. Pound sand and stay in NYC."

Thank you for your thoughtful comments, please keep them coming. Alas, you got the wrong borough, I'm afraid. It's Brooklyn.

The biting comments were not limited to domestic readers. Regarding my Muirfield post, one enamoured fan from across the pond asked, I assume rhetorically, "Are you visually impaired, or perhaps lacking knowledge of what constitutes a great golf hole?" Very cheeky.

Touche!

The following anonymous comment is crisp and succinct, "you're a pompous ass......let me guess you are a Scientologist as-well......", although we don't discuss religion or politics on our site.

Another reader had the quintessential visitor experience to The Links Club when he wrote:

"When I entered the bar, instead of being asked what I would like to drink, I was accosted by a waitperson who admonished me that "business papers aren’t allowed here”. Thinking fast, I said, “what, this plain envelope…these aren’t business papers – it is a gift.” I received no drink, but slunk into the library, which was exactly as you described it. I picked up a magazine and hid the offending envelope in its folds and tried to look like I belonged." We feel your pain.

Cabo del Sol's 17th hole

My super 2008 golfing season started south of the border in Mexico. Cabo del Sol was an ideal starting location to kick off 2008, the Corona factory visible as the plane was landing set the tone for a great year. Spyglass was also a great treat and has the best five starting holes in the game. As a public course, I encourage you to play it if you can.

Things really began to fall into place in April. My visit to the Masters started off a six week stretch where I got to play Pine Valley again, followed in rapid succession by Seminole and my favorite The National Golf Links. I was able to play Oakland Hills prior to the PGA Championship and I enjoyed my visit to The Honors Course in Tennessee.



The highlight of the year was my golfing adventure to Japan. Readers of recent posts will understand the uniqueness of playing in this part of the world. I have spoken to several others who have completed playing the top 100 in the world and several of them said that aside form Augusta, getting on the private courses of Japan are the next most difficult feat in the quest. Kawana, Naruo and Hirono are all worthy courses in the top 100.

Hirono's 14th hole

All-in-all, I once again had a great year in 2008 with nine new top 100 courses played and a cumulative total of eighty courses completed.

I'm also glad that I have completed eighty courses prior to the market crash. I'm a lot poorer now that when I began the quest. Hopefully my money will hold out long enough for me the play the last twenty courses. I've had to adjust my habits to my sudden lifestyle reversal. I'm clipping those coupons, comparing the unit prices of everything in the supermarket and loading up on the free tees many clubs offer. The Age of Leverage was a lot more fun than the Age of Deprivation.

I'm looking forward to a productive 2009. Happy New Year to all!

P.S. Loch Lomond is one of the courses I had hoped to play in 2009. Hopefully, its being in receivership and pending sale won't impact my ability to get on the course.

The 4th green at Hirono, "Lake-Pont"

The 5th hole at Hirono, nicknamed "Fiord" is like a smaller version of the difficult 5th at Pine Valley. It is a par three that plays over water to an elevated green. At Hirono the hole is shorter, at only 152 yards, but plays uphill.

Pine Valley-like 5th hole at Hirono, "Fiord"

Par three 7th hole, "Devil's Divot"

The same hole is seen below shortly after the course opened in 1933. See how much the course has been 'cleaned up' and polished. It looks like the major hazard of the "Devil's Divot" has been softened, which is too bad; it looks like the course truly had a Pine Valley feel to it when it was built.

The Devil's Divot in 1933

The routing at Hirono varies long and short holes nicely, creating an interesting variety of shots. A good example is the 8th hole, "Cedar Grove," so named because both sides of the fairway are lined with cedar trees. It is a short 353 yard par four with water short right and a green framed by tall bamboo trees behind it, creating a tranquil alcove.

8th green at Hirono, "Cedar Grove"

The 10th green at Hirono, below, is a good example of how Alison elevated and bunkered his greens. This particular green slopes back to front on this 351 yard par four. The hole is nicknamed "Mt. Mekko" for the high mountain that sits in the distance behind the hole.

Elevated 10th green at Hirono, "Mekko"

The 12th hole is the #1 handicap hole at Hirono and it is a double dog-leg par five that plays 596 yards with O.B. along the left side. It is a good hole, but there are two even better holes on the back nine as you come in toward the clubhouse: 14 and 15. In fact, the stretch of holes from 12 through 15 is one of the finest in the world.

The thirteenth hole, "Loch Lomond," is a 167 yard par three that plays downhill over water in an idyllic setting. While not exactly like the par three 14th at Pine Valley, the hole did remind me of it.

13th hole at Hirono, par three, "Loch Lomond"

The 14th hole is like no other hole I have seen (golf hole, that is). It looks unremarkable on the scorecard. It is only 388 yards from the back tees. When you approach the tee you see one of the widest fairways in the world. Perhaps as wide as the combined 1st-18th at The Old Course at St. Andrews. You must hit your tee shot over a ravine to reach the tilted fairway. The fairway tilts both back to front and right to left. So while technically you only have to carry the ball 130 yards to hit the fairway, doing so leaves you with virtually no shot to the green. Only a carry of 200 yards and to the right will leave you on flat ground with a view of the hole. In other words, the first 70 yards of fairway is setup as a hazard. It's brilliant.

The 14th fairway looking back toward the tee

If you do not hit your ball 200 yards to the top of the hill, it will roll a significant distance in the wrong direction, that is, away from the green. The fairway is shaped like a big 'V' and the hole doglegs to the left. The hole is aptly nicknamed "Quo-Vadis" which is Latin for "Where are you going?"

The uphill 14th fairway from the bottom

To give you a sense of the severity of the slope, the hole has its own escalator. That's right, its own escalator. As at all the top Japanese courses, you walk. The gradient is so steep on this hole that if you are fortunate enough to hit your drive long enough (I was), you get on an outdoor escalator installed along the right side of the fairway to spare you the sharp uphill walk.

Only on a small handful of courses in the world can you find two truly world-class holes back to back. The 14th and 15th at Hirono are two such holes. The 15th is a 568 yard par five that once again doesn't look that hard off the tee. A good drive will leave you on the fairway, hopefully on the right-hand side so that you can avoid the big tree on the left side seen below.

Tree blocking approach on 15th fairway, "Ichino-Tani"

Your second shot has to land on a fairway 'island' that provides the only safe passage to the green. There are two ravines to navigate: one short of the green and one between this fairway area and the intermediate fairway. Throw in some severe bunkers around each fairway area and you've got yourself one hell of a golf hole. It is not the kind of hole where you can just blast away with two big shots in an attempt to overpower the hole. The first person to ever reach the green in two was Jack Nicklaus and since then very few golfers have ever done so in competitive rounds. You have to make three strategic choices to get to the green on this well thought out dog-left left hole.

The one thing that keeps Hirono from being ranked higher in the world than 35 are its greens, in my humble view. While they were the best ones I played in Japan from a conditioning standpoint and they played the fastest, because they are bent instead of the slower 'Korai,' they all tend to be relatively flat and roughly in a circular or oval shape in all instances.

Ravine on 15th fairway

I literally and figuratively did the full monty at Hirono. We arrived to have the obligatory pre-round coffee, played quickly and came in for a very nice lunch. I can't remember another golf club that I've played that has white linen table cloths, white glove service and world-class food at the turn. Hirono has a civilized ambiance to it. The appropriate protocol at lunch is to have beer before your meal and coffee afterwards. I didn't feel like having a beer and got the appropriate subtle scolding from our host. Saru mo ki kara ochiru (nobody's perfect). It was a mistake I would not repeat the next day at Naruo, where I would follow the protocol perfectly.

It took me only four times before getting the entire Japanese golfing routine down. We did the post-round communal hot bath in an elegant and appropriately large-sized room. Like everything else at Hirono, it was done perfectly. My post-bath shrinkage was a bit more than I had hoped for, but the geriatric group I shared the bath with didn't seem to gasp aloud when I got out. Faced with an embarrassing situation, the Japanese often resort to silence - mokusatsu. Whereas an American might have given a spontaneous "wooh", they showed no emotion and I'm quite grateful that their custom is to be so polite. They must make great poker players.

Our host at Hirono was a distinguished elderly gentleman. He was 75 years old but looked like he was 60. In general, men in Japan are extremely fit and don't look anywhere near their age. They are also sticklers for the rules of golf. There are no gimmies at Hirono (or in Japan generally). Every single stroke counts. He was even looking subtly to see that I didn't tee my ball ahead of the markers a couple of times during our round.

Alison wrote about Hirono: "Almost every hole has some bold natural feature, and for variety of scene and strokes Hirono is difficult to beat. I can name no superior among British inland courses." While I think Sunningdale and Woodhall Spa are as good as Hirono, Alison's basic point is right on. Hirono is both a classy club and a brilliant Golden Era course designed by one of the masters of the trade and clearly deserves to be ranked among the top 50 courses world-wide.

For a fantastic photo montage of Hirono shortly after it was built from Golf Club Atlas click here. Thank you for posting them Paul Turner.

Hirono's Web Site

P.S. It's too bad you couldn't join us on the Japan trip Sheldon. Although, in hindsight it may have worked out since you probably would have given the old boys at Hirono a cardiac arrest in the bath with your impressive equipment.

Clubhouse at Tokyo Golf Club and the 18th green

The elevated sixth green at Tokyo Golf Club

I never realized how hot and humid Japan is, but it gets quite hot, especially in the peak of the summer. As such, many courses in Japan have two sets of greens with different types of grass. One strain that is better in cooler weather and one set is better in warm weather. The best illustration of the two-green layout can be seen below in this picture of the eighth green(s) on this challenging par three. Note one green on either side of the tree.

Eighth greens at Tokyo Golf Club

The strategic use of cross-bunkering at Tokyo in the fairways is seen on the second hole, below.

Second hole at Tokyo Golf Club

The course has a lackluster front nine but a much better back nine, particularly holes ten through fourteen. The 10th hole, pictured below, is a good example of how the fairway narrows and snakes its way toward the greens at Tokyo Golf Club, putting a premium on hitting fairways and greens.

Approach to the 10th hole

I liked the 11th hole quite a bit. It is a short par four with a highly elevated green and beautiful "Alison" bunkering.

11th green at Tokyo Golf Club

There is a Japanese Air Force base located quite nearby Tokyo Golf Club. Similar to the experiences you have at Royal Dornoch or The Old Course at St. Andrews, throughout the round there were fighter jets taking off.

The 17th green at Tokyo Golf Club is again a good example of the elevation found around the putting surfaces. This beautiful downhill par three places a premium on hitting the green.

The 17th, elevated green at Tokyo Golf Club

Tokyo Golf Club at times reminded me of the George Thomas designed Los Angeles Country Club North Course in both style and feel.

When we were done playing at Tokyo Golf Club, we had our clubs shipped to our next scheduled course, Hirono Golf Club near Kobe. Since most Japanese travel by train it is impractical to carry clubs around with you. This efficient service, which almost all courses offer, ships your golf clubs for about $10. It is a great bargain and it is nice not to have to carry around clubs in such a space constrained country.

Another of Charles Alison's Japanese designed courses is immediately next door to Tokyo Golf Club and runs parallel to holes eleven and twelve - Kasumigaseki (East).

Tokyo

This was my first visit to Tokyo and I found the city hard to take in. With 36 million people in the metropolitan area it is the largest concentration of people on the planet. Imagine a city with the geographic footprint of Los Angeles and the density of Manhattan and you have Tokyo. There are elevated highways running through the chaotic city with apartment blocks and office towers abutting the highways almost everywhere. Virtually every block is like Times Square or Piccadilly Circus in its vibrancy and use of neon. It has the ugliest architecture of any city I have ever seen with an almost absurd emphasis of utility over aesthetics. Being in Tokyo is often times a surreal experience given the scale and magnitude of everything. In his science fiction silent movie of 1927, Metropolis, Fritz Lang imagined an overwhelming futuristic city with cross-crossing elevated highways, unimaginable density and hyper-activity. Modern day Tokyo is that city.



What makes the city a joy to visit despite its architectural banality is the Japanese people. They have a charm, sense of manners and self-discipline that makes their city truly a unique place in the world.

Mount Fuji

The Kawana Fuji course (ranked #80 in the world) is often called Japan's Pebble Beach because it is a golf resort set on cliffs near the ocean. The course is accessible only to hotel guests. Kawana is located in Shikuoka Prefecture, two hours from Tokyo on the Izu Peninsula. It is located within a national park on Sagami Bay. The course was completed in 1936 by Charles H. Alison, partner of the great H.S. Colt. Alison took a vacation at the Kawana hotel in 1930 and convinced the owner that he should use the amazing land here to build a golf course.

During the Second World War almost all the golf courses in Japan had to be converted into farmland to produce food. The remaining courses were taken over by the occupation forces. Hotel Kawana was taken over by the U.S. Eighth Army and was later handed over to the Australian troops to be converted to a recreation center.

Unfortunately, we played Kawana on a rainy day. When you travel 6,500 miles to play a course, you're going to play no matter the weather. I didn't have a particularly good nights sleep since rain was pelting the windows all night long. We delayed the tee time an hour because at breakfast it was still raining like a monsoon. We played the first three holes in a downpour, but luckily the weather got progressively better as we went along. The picture at the top of this post is of the 12,388 foot high Mt. Fuji, which you can see from the course only about a half-dozen times a year, given the vagaries of the weather patterns near the mountain.

Kawana is a beautiful Alison course with brilliant use of terrain, a lot of shot variety, beautiful bunkering and memorable par threes. The start at Kawana is one of the best in the world. You tee off from a high, elevated tee down into a narrow fairway with a view of the water in the distance. It reminded me a bit of the first tee shot at Spyglass. The drop off the elevated tee is quite dramatic, and drops about 100 feet. Riviera has a similar elevated first tee shot. My estimate is that the drop in elevation here is probably twice as high as the one at Riviera.

Looking down the fairway from the 1st tee at Kawana

You can see from the picture taken off the second tee that the elevation change at Kawana can be quite acute throughout the course.

2nd fairway with big sweeping hill

The third hole, pictured below, is narrow and the landing area is at an odd angle from the teeing area. The hole plays significantly longer than the 450 yards on the card. Kawana reminded me of playing in Northern California at times. Variously, it looks like either The Olympic Club, Spyglass and Pebble Beach. This hole reminded me of the narrowness at Olympic.

4th green at Kawana

The greens at Kawana are almost always elevated, as was typical of Alison's design style. They are also well-bunkered, as you can see from the most acute example on the course seen below, on the 18th hole.

The 18th green at Kawana

This picture below was taken on the 17th fairway. As an island nation, the weather in Japan is changeable. One of the great aspects of playing golf is being out in the elements. Sometimes you catch the weather just right. Other times you have to adjust to the conditions at hand and enjoy the moment. Low clouds were blowing through quickly as we played the back nine. As the clouds lifted, it revealed the high mountains in the background. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was probably a result of jet-leg, too little sleep and a mild hangover, but a couple of times while playing Kawana it felt like an out-of-body experience. Playing the 17th hole was a magical moment and illustrative of how enchanting playing in Japan was.

17th fairway at Kawana

The terrain is so steep throughout the course that to get to the 5th tee box you have to take an outdoor escalator. I have taken an elevator before during a round of golf, namely, at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, but this is the first time I've taken an escalator.

Escalator to the par three 5th hole

The natural undulations of the terrain can also be seen well in this picture of the 9th fairway, below, looking backward from the green.

9th fairway at Kawana

The 15th at Kawana is clearly one of the world's greatest golf holes. It is a par five that plays next to the Pacific Ocean on a high cliff with dramatic views. You hit over a deep ravine to a fairway below you and to the right. This part of the course feels a lot like Pebble Beach.

The dramatic 15th hole at Kawana

After your tee shot the hole plays uphill and the fairway slopes from the right side to the left, toward the water. You are not immediately adjacent to the water; there is a buffer of bushes and you can clearly hear the waves crashing below you and see the water in the distance over the dense foliage.

Uphill 2nd shot from the 15th fairway

The best view of how much waving and rippling there is in the fairway can be seen in this shot, below, taken from the green looking back on fifteen.

15th hole looking back from green

Hitting your approach shot long to the 15th hole is not recommended, as you can see the steep drop off behind the green.

15th green as seen from behind

Planet Golf compares the terrain at Kawana to Turnberry, Mid Ocean and Pebble Beach. I've been lucky enough to play all three and agree that Kawana belongs in this small group of the world's most scenic courses. The difference at Kawana is that there is thick foliage between the edge of the cliffs and the course, but you can see the water from virtually the entire course.

Holes thirteen through fifteen are fabulous holes, as is the finish generally. Seventeen and eighteen both play uphill and are difficult holes. The only weak stretch of holes is eleven and twelve, which appear a bit out of character with the rest of the course. The Korai greens, a thick bladed (like bermuda) grass, are slow.

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe stayed at Kawana on their honeymoon in 1954, and my sense is that the beds in the rooms are still the same ones. The resort is a bit dated, and the dining room has the ambiance of a corporate cafeteria, but if you are in Japan it is worth the two hour journey south of Tokyo to see this C.H. Alison beauty.

Since Kawana is a public course, it is the only way most people can play a course designed by Charles Alison, the maestro of golf course design in Japan. A round of golf at Kawana is ￥26,500 or about $265.

I would personally rank Kawana higher than #80 in the world.

Kawana's website

Two interesting photos from the late 1940s showing American soldiers at Kawana during the occupation. Note the American flag flying over the pool:

Bullet train arriving in Tokyo Station

Several things did catch my attention though. One is the continued politeness of the Japanese. The train conductors bow each time they enter or exit a car and are highly respectful, as is everyone here. The other thing that was ideal is that no-one, repeat no-one speaks into their cell phones on the train. There are only small areas of the train where cell phone use is allowed and it makes for a very pleasant ride.

The golf here is incredible, I will be putting up my course reviews between now and year end, and you will be amazed at the quality of the courses.

A sneak preview below, Kawana's 15th hole:

Most of the ranges are mechanized - a ball pops up after you hit your ball and the ball cleaning machines are automated, scraping across the ground to retrieve the balls.

The Japanese are golf obsessed and it's quite a sight to go to a driving range at 10:00pm at night and see all the range players hitting balls.

The first course built in Japan was the Rokko golf club in 1901, near Kobe. In 1930, Joe Kirkwood and Walter Hagen went to Japan at the invitation of the Japan Golf Association and played ten exhibition matches. After their visit, golf started to take off, with thirty courses built in the next few years.

Many of the courses in Japan have two sets of greens because the summers are so hot and humid, the idea is to lessen the wear on just one set of greens. Japan is a small country with a large population, a lot of the land is steep mountainsides unsuitable for living or golf. There is a law against converting farmland to golf courses.

One name I have already become familiar with is C.H. Alison, a British golf course architect who visited Japan in the 1930s and was responsible for almost all the world-ranked courses in the country.

My course lineup includes:

Hirono Golf Club (ranked # 35) - Japan's most distinguished golf club
Naruo Golf Club (ranked #75) - Japan's Hidden Gem
The Kawana Fuji course (ranked #80) - Japan's Pebble Beach
Tokyo Golf Club - The most prestigious club in Tokyo



I'm eager to expand my vocabulary, my waistline and my golf repertoire. Get the Kobe beef ready and keep the Sapporo chilled. The American Embassy has warned the Japanese people - for the next week - bring the women and children indoors. The complete jackass gaijin (foreigner) has arrived.

I will post frequently to keep you up to date.

The hardest to access course - Augusta National

You can't out-original Bernie Hiller when it comes to golf experiences.

You also cannot insult him. He's become used to (numb to?) being called crazy, nuts and out of his mind. His wife calls him these things daily.

To say that Hiller is a compulsive, moderately-eccentric man who's on a mission from God to get his way is to say that the greens at Augusta National are difficult to putt or that Pine Valley is an awesome golf course. (More on those two courses in a moment).

Hiller is a 71-year-old Long Island resident who had a vision back in 1974 - Oct. 1, 1974 to be exact. And, to put this as mildly as we can, Hiller would not allow himself to be denied fulfilling his dream.

"I got a book from Golf Digest about the 100 best courses in the U.S. and I said, 'God, I would like to do this someday,'" Hiller was saying this week.

By "doing this someday," Hiller meant playing the 100 of the best courses. All of them. Honest.

And so he did, officially completing his methodical, self-funded mission in November of 1997. That mission, by the way, was modified from the top 100 courses in the U.S. to the top 100 courses in the world.

Hiller, who's in the life insurance business, has traveled as far as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan - just to play these great golf courses. He's done it, for the most part, by writing letters to the courses and asking on.

His most difficult conquest was Augusta National.

"I'd finally almost finished the U.S. list, getting up to No. 99, but I could never get into Augusta," Hiller recalled. "I calculated that I talked to at least 5,000 people trying to get onto Augusta.

"Finally," Hiller went on, "I got to play Augusta. I played with the dishwasher. It took me 20 years, seven months and 27 days from the time I first started trying to get on it."

On May 27, 1995, after being connected with the Augusta National dishwasher by a mutual acquaintance, Hiller, a 16 handicap now, conquered his toughest quest - shooting 85 at the home of The Masters. It was made possible because in late May the club employees are allowed to play the course with one guest.

"It was one of the great rounds of my life," Hiller said. "I swear I heard the 25,000 people applauding when I got off 18. I still get chills talking about it."

Hiller's favorite course of all - what he calls "the most enjoyable course in the world" - is not even on any of those top 100 lists: The Gold Course of the Golden Horseshoe in Williamsburg, Va.

He calls Pine Valley "the greatest golf course in the world, no ifs ands or buts." He said he loves Pebble Beach and added, "There's no greater hole than the 16th at Cypress."

"I rate, right now, Bethpage Black in the top 10," Hiller said. "I think it's better than Shinnecock."

Hiller said he has his own rating system for courses.

"I look at a golf course as a piece of sculpture made out of the basic elements of sand and grass and trees and water," he said. "I go along with some of the Golf Digest criteria - identifiability, memorability, diversity of holes, quality of the course itself and degree of difficulty. Then I add my own: enjoyment."

Hiller estimated that he's spent somewhere around $100,000 in his quest. He said he buys a shirt from each course he played, estimating that he's spent about $12,000 on shirts alone.

His mission nearly never culminated as he nearly died trying to complete it. While attempting to play the 100th of the world courses, Hiller collapsed in South Africa with heart problems the day before he was to play Durban Country Club.

After a night in the hospital, though, "I got up the next morning, teed off at 1:30 at Durban, and walked the whole way," Hiller said. "It was finally No. 100. My hands were shaking. The next morning at the airport, the same [heart] thing hit me. When they called my cardiologist back home, he said, 'Let him die, because he's too stupid.'"

Durban's spectacular 17th hole

The morning Hiller arrived back to the States, he had open heart surgery.

"But I did it," he said. "I know that had I died that time, all my friends would have said, 'He died happy playing that golf course.' It's a craziness, I know. But I'm a very compulsive person."

Bobby Jones with his grand slam trophies

If there was ever a course that new equipment has destroyed, it is Merion. It is too bad that the U.S.G.A and R. & A. have let the situation get out of hand and length is now the primary driver of competitive golf. It would be a shame if this course is lost from major competition forever. Hopefully, the rule making bodies will make changes prior to the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion.

I consider Merion to be the spiritual home of golf in the U.S. due to its greatness, its history, its association with Bobby Jones and the architecture of the course and the clubhouse.

This is the first course Bobby played a major on (the 1916 Amateur), the first course he won a major on (the 1924 Amateur) and the last course he played competitive golf on (the 1930 Amateur), completing the fourth leg of the Grand Slam at Merion in September 1930. Also, the classic photograph which is the golfing equivalent of the sailor on V.J. day kissing a woman in Times Square was taken at Merion.

The first tee as seen from the 18th green

4th green

The fourth hole (above) is a downhill par five that requires a precision shot, normally from a downhill lie, to a well bunkered green over a creek.

7th green

11th hole green

When you play the 11th hole, where Jones finished his match in the 1930 Amateur to win the Grand Slam, you have chills up and down your spine. I have, on the half dozen times I've been fortunate enough to play. Like most holes at Merion, there is just no margin for error on approach shots to the green. Dan Jenkins describes the shot into the 11th green with absolute clarity as, "There is hardly any shot that will do except the perfect one."

13th green - short par 3 near the clubhouse

16th "Quarry" hole approach to green

The 16th, 17th and 18th play through an old quarry and are demanding finishing holes.

Sun setting on the 18th green

The finest American golf writer ever, Herbert Warren Wind, described Merion as a three-act play: The Drama of the first six demanding holes; the Comedy of the next seven short, precision holes; and the Tragedy of the last five punishing holes.

If you get invited to play Merion, by all means make the pilgrimage.

Merion's Web Site

Oakland Hills represents my 75th course played out of the top 100, only 25 to go!

The Oakland Hills Clubhouse, which was modeled after Mount Vernon

According to the club history, when Ross started routing the course, he started it with #10 and #11, two world-class holes. The tenth hole is a 462 yard par four where the entire fairway falls off to the right. The tee shot requires precision and all but the perfect shot will feed down the hill to the right side of the fairway, leaving a blind or semi-blind shot to the elevated green. What makes it such a tricky tee shot is that visually off the tee you have to hit it at the tree you see on the left side of the fairway. The tee box and visuals trick you into hitting it to the right side. It is very well done.

The 11th hole from the tee

The 11th hole plays parallel to the 10th in the opposite direction. The trick on the 11th hole is to favor the left side off the tee. On this hole the fairway also slopes severely left to right off the tee, where a shot that is not struck well will leave you a blind shot to a difficult green.

The 11th hole with its twisting hills

If you hit it to the correct spot over the hill, the fairway then slopes severely right to left. The effective landing area you hit into is quite narrow. In our group, all four of the golfers hit into the rough on the left. You need to take the perfect angle to hit the shot correctly. I have never seen this type of hole before: a sharp hill that is used to create two very distinct landing areas that slope off in opposite directions so abruptly.

The 11th green

There is no respite once you get to this two-tiered green. The green is highly elevated from the fairway and slopes back to front. A less-than-ideal shot will roll back perhaps fifty or sixty yards to the bottom of the fairway.

Ross used the natural contours of the land here to create two fantastic back-to-back holes that announce to the golfer that the back nine is going to beat you up if you don't bring your 'A' game.

The par three 13th

You can see the beautiful bunkering at Oakland Hills as seen on the 191 yard par three 13th hole. This plays downhill and is the shortest hole on the course, which tells you a lot about what kind of golf you will play at Oakland hills. There are par fours of 446 yards (the 4th), 490 yards (the 5th), 462 yards (the 10th) and 455 yards (the 11th). They believe in long holes at Oakland Hills. The par threes play at 198 yards (the 3rd), 257 yards (the 9th), 191 yards (the 13th) and 238 yards (the 17th). To add insult to injury, the 17th plays longer than its 238 yards since the green sits well above the tee.

The 15th hole

The back nine offers no letup at Oakland Hills. The 15th hole, a dogleg left, for example, has two huge bunkers in the middle of the fairway. You can choose to hit it left of the bunkers into a 10 yard-wide fairway or right of the bunkers into a 15 yard-wide fairway. It's no wonder that many choose to play it short and leave a significant second shot to the small elevated inverted-saucer shaped green.

The 16th hole

Sixteen is the signature hole at Oakland Hills with a second shot that plays over water.

The 16th hole

Similar to Valderrama's 17th hole, the 16th at Oakland Hills features a shaved area near the green that feeds shots hit short into the water.

Shaved area near the 16th green

The finishing hole at Oakland Hills is a 498 yard par five that the pros play as a par four. I wouldn't describe it so much as a dogleg right as I would a semi-circle. It is an interesting shaped hole that uses the hilly terrain well.

Oakland Hills doesn't feel like a Ross design in the same way Pinehurst #2 or Seminole does, probably attributable to Jones' changes. The course has a more wide open feel to it than some of the other PGA courses I have played such as Oak Hill or Winged Foot, which I like, since I'm not a fan of tight tree-lined fairways.

As Robert Trent Jones wrote after his redesign of the course and the 1951 Open, "the field was thrown into utter confusion. Golfers of reputation staggered home with rounds high in the 70's and occasionally in the 80's." After playing the course, it is not hard to see why. Hogan aptly called it "A Monster".

# posted by Top 100 Golfer @ 6:26 AM 4 Comments

It blends in a lot better with the landscape now that it is clad with wooden shingles. Yes, it is a big building, but it is very tastefully done. The first two pictures here were taken from the first tee of nearby National Golf Links of America. It's no wonder they are not thrilled with the building, given that it looks down on them.

I did a tour of the inside and it will be one of the nicest clubhouses in the country when completed shortly. There is a lot of custom woodwork in the building. The spiral staircase in the entry foyer and the custom made cherry lockers with the Sebonack logo carved in are magnificent.

The last two pictures are taken from Sebonack's 18th fairway looking back up the hill across the second fairway.

We are happy to have our photo included in Forbestraveler.com's feature article on The Most Expensive Private Golf Clubs.

Seminole's Clubhouse

Arrival

Arriving at Seminole, you feel like royalty. It is a golfer’s equivalent of being king (or queen) for a day. It has all the buildup and regalia of the State Opening of Parliament. This annual ritual is full of pageantry and pomp, as is arriving at Seminole. During the State Opening, the Queen arrives in her gilded carriage, while at Seminole we arrived in a rented PT Cruiser. Although she does not have to have her credentials checked to make the royal procession, we did our requisite stop at the front guard gate. Her ride is from Buckingham to Westminster, ours was down Seminole Blvd, the long entry road lined on the left with high bushes, which ensures Seminole’s privacy. At the end of the road, we made a sharp left through the hedges and turned into the club with the beautifully proportioned pink stucco clubhouse in front of us.

The drive in is enticing, because you can catch glimpses of the golf course through the hedges occasionally, raising your sense of anticipation. The Queen’s footmen help her dismount when she reaches Parliament. At Seminole, you drive into the gravel rock courtyard, and while you don’t have to dismount, you are greeted by a staff member who takes your clubs and parks your car. Since Her Majesty brings along her own cavalry, she is let in without hassle. We had to stop and check in again at the clubhouse foyer. She then walks up the steps to Parliament under a covered portico. After checking in, the golfer has the privilege of walking up an enclosed covered stairway through the Spanish style clubhouse, leading to the second level.



When you re-emerge in sunlight, a short walk leads you past what must be the least used swimming pool in America, situated right next to the clubhouse. The Sovereign proceeds through a series of corridors to approach The Lords Chamber. Your final turn down the walkway brings you into the locker room. Just as the House of Lords is the apex of parliamentary chambers, the Seminole locker room is equally as revered and respected. It is one of the most exciting golf clubs in the world to arrive at. The only things missing on our arrival were the trumpeters and beefeaters, although we would have our share of the latter after the round.

The Locker Room

The massive locker room is double-height and has a beautiful Cypress-beamed ceiling. Around the top of the room are animal-head hunting trophies and wooden boards listing the names of past champions. The room is ringed with polished pine lockers, and there is a big fireplace at one end of the room. There is a bar at the far end of the room and comfortable seating throughout. Enter the locker room here and you begin to see why Seminole is one of America’s hallowed golfing grounds that commands reverential treatment. It is one of only a handful of places in America where you get this feeling. The others are Oakmont, Merion, Chicago, Baltusrol, Winged Foot and Shinnecock (my educated guess is Augusta and Cypress are as well, but I haven’t played them yet).

Seminole Locker Room

The first hole, as is standard on Ross designs, is a relatively easy hole to start the round. You pay for this easy start on the second hole, which has a forced carry over water. The golfer’s second shot is to an elevated green that is tilted and repels balls. As I was to learn, this is one of the essential elements of Seminole: Fast, elevated greens that are hard to hold unless you hit the perfect shot.

Rees Jones, who is a member, says in the club history, “Seminole is probably the best bunkered course in America. A shot that hasn’t hit the proper portion of the green is likely to wind up in one of the greenside bunkers.” The crowned greens that are Ross’s signature at Pinehurst are also present here, but not as pronounced, which in some ways make them more difficult. It is a very subtle design that fools the golfer into thinking they can attack pins.

2nd green

The third hole, a par five of 504 yards, is a dogleg right. It also plays uphill to a green that is tilted front to back.

4th green

The fourth hole, a 450 yard par four is the #1 handicap hole at Seminole. Your long second shot is to an oblong narrow green that is crowned and tilts to the side. Welcome to Seminole!

Par three 5th green

Ben Hogan, who was a member, used to practice at Seminole during the month of March each year, in anticipation of playing at The Masters. Hogan's favorite hole was the 6th. A short par four at 388 yards and a slight dogleg to the left, it plays to an elevated, well bunkered-green. Apparently, Hogan used to play the hole by hitting a draw tee shot and a cut into the green. I was happy with my two straight shots and a par.

6th fairway from the tee

6th green

The course winds its way back to the clubhouse at #9. The first few holes on the back are delightfully similar to the first several holes on the front, but looping in the opposite direction. Eleven is a difficult hole and is one of my favorites. It is a par four of 420 yards with a forced carry over water off the tee. The second shot is up-hill to a green that slopes front to back and left to right severely. Putting off this green is not uncommon.

12th hole from the tee

Twelve was my favorite hole. A 367 par four that plays from an elevated tee box into a prevailing wind with a hedgerow down the entire left side. The green is the best bunkered on the course and is tilted sideways and oblong, making for a very narrow landing area. Even though you are hitting a short iron, the green looks so small and un-receptive that it is very hard to hit.

13th green

Thirteen is a beautiful up-hill par three nestled within the dunes, with the Atlantic Ocean behind.

The par five fifteenth is Arnold Palmer’s favorite hole. It is a 497 yard hole and asks the player to hit risk-reward shots twice. The first decision off the tee is how much of the lake to cut off on your tee shot. The dogleg runs to the right, so if you hit far enough right you have a shot at going for the green in two. The safer play is to the left and a pussy shot is to play the alternate fairway, which is far left behind a row of palm trees, but well away from the water. Your second shot is again over water, so you have two forced carries in a row. The green is elevated, well-bunkered and fast. Like all the greens at Seminole, it repels shots that are not hit perfectly.

16th green

Seventeen and eighteen parallel the Atlantic Ocean, and the prevailing wind is off the ocean. The eighteenth must be an impossible hole in a strong wind. The 417 yard par four is a dogleg left and has a fairway that slopes uphill and at an angle toward the beach. If the wind is blowing, you have to hit your shot over the sand dunes along the ocean and hope the wind blows it back to the correct spot on the small fairway. Architect Brian Silva, who restored the bunkers at Seminole, describes it perfectly: “the strongest feature of the golf course is its angles in relation to the wind.” The eighteenth is the perfect example of this. Although it looks relatively benign when you see the routing on paper, in reality it is very difficult. These subtleties make Ross’s design such a treat. The way the fairway is shaped is counter to the way the wind blows.

18th green from the side

Seminole is the exception to typical Florida golf. Although you have to look beyond the conditioning and wide open feel, if you judge it like a links course that plays firm and fast, you will appreciate that it is a great course. The elevation changes make it interesting, as do the difficult to hold crowned and tilted greens. The fact is, it has a great routing and is one of the best risk/reward courses ever built.


In many ways, I liken Seminole to The Old Course at St. Andrews and Shinnecock, both of which do not bowl you over upon first sight. Their greatness is in their subtlety, variety and the degree to which the course changes depending upon the wind direction and speed.

Seminole Locker Room

The Club

Despite my tattoo, cutoff shorts, surly manner and earring, I was treated well at Seminole and liked the course. Seminole has figured out how to be respectful of the past without being stuffy. They are on the right side of that fine line between guarding their privacy and being pricks or impressed with themselves. The attitude of everyone at the club was the same – friendly and accommodating. The caddies were the best I have personally seen in the United States. Seminole is upper crust without being uptight.

Seminole is a private club with a high percentage of members who do not live locally and has many similarities to Augusta National. It is only open from November through May. Consistent with its history, many of Seminole's members are of the corporate elite. It is one of those clubs that is coveted by the select group of über-golfers who collect high-end golf clubs in the same way your average golfer might collect balls or scorecards. Five ex-USGA presidents are members. I found it amazing that Hogan played there until 1980 – members still recount first hand playing with him.

Strictly speaking, Seminole has a great locker room – although it really is more of a combination of a locker room and bar. While it is world class, I personally think the locker room at San Francisco Golf Club and the clubhouse sitting area at Garden City Mens Club are just as good.

Does the overall atmosphere, exclusivity and the locker room influence Seminole's place in the world rankings? You would be naïve to think differently. So the course might be a tad over-rated, but when you throw in the whole package, it remains one of golf's standard-bearer’s. As Doak says, it is one of golf's aristocrats.

Now, to the important stuff. I have to focus my efforts on playing the course. I've got a couple of seeds planted to get onto Augusta, and as this quest has taught me, you never know which one will come through, so it's always a good idea to have a couple of options, in case one or the other doesn't pan out.

Option #1 is playing with one of the titan-of-industry members that I know either first or second hand. I already have the visual image complete: Flying down on their Gulfstream G550, having a 1982 Chateau Haut Brion with dinner, staying in one of the cabins on property, watching old Masters re-runs all night, playing thirty-six and flying back without ever going through an airport security check-in line. Both of my connections know I want to play, but protocol demands that I not ask directly. So I'm being patient. But it's killing me.

Option #2 requires patience. To be precise, a five-year wait. I have to wait for my volunteer duties to come up at The Masters. Volunteers are allowed to play on a day in May ("Play Day"). This explains why even the guys who have pulled bathroom duty greet you happily as you enter the mens room at the Masters. Wouldn't you be willing to clean toilets to get a chance to play Augusta? I'm hoping I get assigned rope duty on the 16th hole, but will take whatever they assign me.

One of life's great simple pleasures is a pimento cheese sandwich at The Masters. The $1.50 for this underappreciated treat on white bread is one of the greatest bargains in the world. We can all learn a lot from the best organized and run event in the world, including how to control your brand down to the smallest detail, like your own chocolate, chips, ice cream and moon pies.

Although I haven't played the course yet, one of my fellow blogging golf fanatics has, and I am including his link here so you can get a good feel for what it is like for a mortal to play the course.

Par four 3rd hole

7th hole

The seventh hole is the #1 handicap and has a small burn in front of the tee and down the entire right side. The left side of the hole has a reed-filled marsh jutting out as an illusion. The correct strategy is to favor the right side of the hole, but off the tee it looks like you should favor the left. Parts of the fairway are concealed behind the reeds in a brilliant use of optical illusion. Ruddy employs what he calls the "Reverse view telescope" effect on this hole; that is, everything looks further away than it is. I'm not sure how this sleight of hand is achieved but it works beautifully. The hole is 470 yards long and a bear under good conditions. Into the wind it is one of the hardest on the planet.

8th hole

The eighth hole is a narrow par four that plays 415 yards from the back tees and shows the classic links feel among the sand dunes.

The 12th hole at the European Club

The 12th hole at The European Club is a 459 yard par four. What makes the hole unique is that the green is 127 yards deep. For sake of comparison, this is longer than the length of the entire world-class seventh hole at Pebble Beach and longer by nine yards than the widest double green at St. Andrews. It creates that unique problem of a pin placement being anywhere from 412 yards when on the front of the green to 515 yards when on the back. Potentially a three or four club difference, without factoring in the tricky winds!

Hole 12a is a par three, reverse image of the 14th hole at Royal Portrush, "Calamity". At Portrush, there is a huge fall off on the right side of the green, where a mis-hit shot goes into an unfathomable void. On hole 12a, all the trouble is with the abyss on the left side. It is a heroic hole that plays 166 yards from the tips.

13th hole

The thirteenth is a long 596 yard par five, with four strategic bunkers on the left side of the hole and the bay on the right. When Tiger Woods played at The European Club he hit the green here by hitting a driver off the fairway.

16th hole

The 415 yard par four sixteenth hole shows off the inland scenery at The European Club. Similar to the beautiful Perthsire hills that surround Gleneagles in Scotland, the richly colored mountains that surround the European Club add to the overall idyllic beauty of the place.

The finishing hole used at The European Club used to be a weak hole. A 477 yard par four that plays back toward the clubhouse, it had a pond in front of the green which was out of character with the rest of the course. It was an anti-climactic finish that received much criticism. Ruddy converted the pond into a burn a couple of years back; his inspiration was the Barry Burn at Carnoustie, after watching Van de Velde melt down at the 1999 Open Championship. It makes for a much better finish.

I got the opportunity to play The European Club again two years ago on a golf trip to Ireland. The contrast between the first time we played and the second was stark. It took us several hours to get to the course from Dublin since the capital city has prospered so much in the intervening years. This is despite the fact that there is now a highway south of Dublin which should make the trip quicker. There has been so much development and population growth that we sat in traffic most of the way.

Despite the admonishments on the card, we also had a painfully slow round the second time. We played on a Saturday afternoon and had to wait on EVERY shot. I also thought that the course conditioning needed an uptick, particularly the bunkers. When The European Club first opened, there was no clubhouse, and Ruddy and his family used to sit in their car and take the 10 pound guest fee through the window of their car. The visitor fee is now 180 Euros a round. The price of success and a top 100 world ranking has begun to spoil it, no doubt.



Pat Ruddy

Pat Ruddy is a unique figure in the world of golf. He is the owner, architect and operator of The European Club. Part of the secret of his success was that he did much of the work at The European Club himself. He didn't have to pay architect design fees. He drove the bulldozer himself when shaping the course, had a minimal crew and built it without frills. He was also smart enough to build in stages, stayed within his budget, didn't spend on a clubhouse and basically did it as a pay-as-you-go venture, pacing his development of the course to coincide with his cash flows. Ruddy is a self-made man and self-taught golf course architect. He started his career as a golf-writer and evolved into an architect. Based on the brief time I met him and reading his book I found him to be an affable, sarcastic and witty man with a sharp sense of humor and a visionary.

The European Club was arguably the first course built to rate as a top 100 course. Ruddy had a passion to build a world-class course and do things his way. He chartered a helicopter to fly him around the Irish coast looking for an appropriate piece of land on which to build a proper links course. Ruddy's feat would be difficult to repeat today. Part of the secret of his success was good timing. At the time he started his venture the Irish government was giving out grants to spur tourism. Even for private clubs such as The European Club, as long as they allowed visitors, they could take advantage of the grants. Also, in the intervening years, and with the formation of the European Union, the Irish economy has exploded upwards, and Ruddy was no doubt a beneficiary of this.

While there have been several visionaries who have followed in Ruddy's path (Mike Keiser at Bandon Dunes, Herbert Kohler at Whistling Straits and Mike Pascucci at Sebonack), this jocular fellow did it the old-fashioned way, without the benefit of being a gazillionaire. I congratulate this Irishman, excuse me, European, on such a brilliant accomplishment. I like his attitude.

Ruddy also designed the Glashedy Links, located in Ireland's God's country - County Donegal. If you even get the chance to go there, I recommend playing both the Old Course and The Glashedy Links.

The European Club's Website

4th approach to green

Often times, shots to the green at Cabo del Sol also require a forced carry over desert as well. The approach to the par five fourth hole, above, requires you to hit a shot over about 60 yards of desert and over a ravine, to an elevated green.

Cabo del Sol is located in the Mexican state of Baja California in Cabo San Lucas. Baja California is a peninsula of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. The course overlooks the Sea of Cortés and was opened in 1994. The course starts away from the water on a desert plateau and then gradually plays downhill until it reaches the water at the par three sixth hole.

The par three 6th hole

This 165 yard par three is situated in a dramatic setting among the craggy rocks right on the sea. The setting is made even more spectacular by the whales that fill the expanse behind this hole. Grey whales migrate the 12,400 miles to Cabo in the winter from Alaska to mate here. Whales are clearly an intelligent species spending their winters in Mexico! The water immediately offshore is extremely deep, which is what attracts the whales here. As you play the holes along the water, and this one in particular, you can see them continually jumping up in the water and also shooting plumes of water into the sky. I suggest playing Cabo del Sol between December and April so you experience the whales while you play.

Par three 6th hole

The par three sixth is one of the prettiest of its kind anywhere in the world and for my money rivals Pebble Beach's seventh for scenic beauty.

Behind the 7th green

The dramatic par three sixth is followed by another par three, the seventh, which is a 137 yard hole that plays at a ninety degree angle to the sixth and is parallel to the water. You can see the curious juxtapositions at Cabo del Sol, above, where Cactus plants in the desert meet the ocean. The sixth and seventh are the only holes along the water on the front nine. You don't return to the water until holes sixteen through eighteen, which finish along the sea. At this point, the course is routed back inland and plays up the plateau and then back down it again for the closing stretch of holes.

The view from the 11th tee

The 11th hole is a classic risk-reward hole. A very short par four at 328 yards, the hole offers a generous lay-up area down the entire right side. What is tantalizing, however, is that you can hit your drive just short of the green by hitting over the vast desert area on the left. Take the risk and you will have a very short shot to the green and a very good angle of approach. Miss it and you'll be down in the sand for a bit. Jack Nicklaus's courses can sometimes be overbearing and too difficult to play. I didn't find that to be the case at Cabo del Sol. As with this hole, the overall course is a nice bit of Nicklaus design.

12th hole, approach to green

The twelfth hole is a 473 yard par five and the picture above is the approach to the elevated and well bunkered green.

Downhill par three 13th

The 171 yard downhill par three 13th hole, seen above, again demonstrates the forced carry present on every hole. The greens at Cabo del Sol are among the best I have played in all my travels. They were in ideal condition when I played and were very fast.

A desert hazard at Cabo del Sol

The signature 16th hole

The sixteenth hole is the signature hole at Cabo del Sol and is featured on its scorecard. It is a 342 yard par four that plays downhill. The approach shot to the green should obviously not be long.

The par three 17th

The seventeenth hole, pictured above, is another forced carry to a beautiful, small green perched between the ocean and the desert. It is somewhat reminiscent of Pete Dye's Casa de Campo where he built several holes into the water. Golf Magazine has also compared this hole to the sixteenth at Cypress Point.

The 17th green

The eighteenth is a disappointing hole that plays along the water but doesn't really take advantage of the great terrain and beautiful setting. According to its website, Jack Nicklaus calls Cabo del Sol "the best three finishing holes in all of golf." I don't agree. Carnoustie is the clear winner here, followed by Merion and the National Golf Links of America.

You must take a cart at Cabo del Sol because the walk between green and tee is often quite long. The greens fee is steep at $325, but then again, you are playing one of the world's best golf courses in a dramatic location. Cabo del Sol was the first time I had tacos for breakfast, at the half-way house between the nines. It know it sounds unusual, but they are included in the cost of your round, and they are delicious.

Cabo del Sol is a worthy desert course among the world's top 100. Similar to Pebble Beach and Turnberry, Cabo del Sol also has a hotel on the property and I suggest staying there to soak up the experience and enjoy the great views.

The Cabo del Sol web-site

9th at Pebble Beach

The lodge, food and resort at Pebble Beach are all world-class, especially the Tap Room overlooking the bay. It would be tough to argue there are many better places for an apres-round cocktail. I note that in the November/December issue of Links Magazine, 43% of the respondents in a survey said that if they could only go to one golf destination for the rest of their lives, they would go to Pebble Beach. This ranked ahead of the other three choices offered: St. Andrews, Pinehurst and Bandon Dunes. No surprise to me that I'm again in the minority.

If you are planning a golf trip to the Western United States my advice is to go to Pebble Beach if you haven't already, and if you want to stay in plush surroundings, eat well and be pampered. If you're really into great golf and want to experience the game as it was meant to be played, walk at a good pace, and be surrounded by beautiful scenery and solitude, I suggest a golf trip to Bandon Dunes instead. Bandon is closer to the soul of the game, and its less commercial feel appeals to me more.

Pebble Beach's web-site has a cool feature of live web-cams.

The chateau at Chantilly

Like most of the elite french courses, the history here is intertwined with the aristocracy. Golf de Chantilly was founded by a local prince in 1909. Baron Edouard de Rothschild was the president of the club from 1927-1940.

Like at Morfontaine, Chantilly doesn't open until nine o'clock in the morning. Perhaps it's related to the 35 hour work-week the french have, but it seems a bit odd to give up a couple of great dawn hours when you could be playing. C'est la vie.

The Golf Course

Golf began at Chantilly in 1909, when a nine hole course was laid out. Tom Simpson was brought in to re-design the original course and design a new eighteen hole course in the 1920s. Unlike Morfontaine, Chantilly was heavily damaged during the Second World War, and nine holes were abandoned as a result. In the 1980s Donald Steel designed thirteen new holes and integrated them in with nine holes from the earlier Longeres course. There are 36 holes at Chantilly today: the Veneuil course, which has most of the original Simpson holes, and the Longeres course. They play championships on a composite "Vineuil Old Course" which is made up of fourteen holes from the Vineuil course and four from the Longeres. The course has hosted the French Open championship ten times. Nick Faldo won twice at Chantilly. Other winners include Roberto de Vicenzo, Peter Oosterhuis and Arnaud Massy.

Chantilly 1st hole

Some courses ease you into the round, and it takes awhile for you to find the courses' charms. Not at Chantilly. It announces right away that it will be a great round of golf. The opening par five hole shows the strategic use of bunkers that are present throughout the course. The three bunkers on the right side make the only safe shot one that lands in the middle of the fairway, right of the clump of trees guarding the left side of the hole.

3rd green at Chantilly

The 159 meter par three, third hole shows off the great bunkering at Chantilly. The routing at Chantilly is varied and interesting, and although you are in a dense forest the fairways generally aren't choked with trees (the fifth hole below is an exception).

The tee shot on the narrow fifth hole

The World Atlas of Golf describes looking down the fairway from the fifth tee (seen above) as the golfing equivalent of looking down a gun barrel. It plays as the #1 handicap at Chantilly and is a tough hole through a tight chute of trees. I was very pleased with my par.

The dog-leg right seventh hole reminded me of playing at Garden City on Long Island and Myopia Hunt Club in Massachusetts, with its flat terrain, fescue and bunkering.

Both the front and back nines at Chantilly have back-to-back par fives. The back nine is the clearly superior of the two, with the six stretch of holes twelve through seventeen being very good. The thirteenth hole was my second favorite on the course (after the 17th). It is a 400 meter dog-leg left (below) that demands you hit your tee shot over two large cross-bunkers. Your second shot is then to an elevated and well-bunkered green.

Like at Morfontaine, the feeling on the course is one of complete solitude and isolation since it is located in a dense forest.

13th green from the front

13th green from behind

The sixteenth hole is a dogleg left that starts out simple enough. As you walk up to your ball you see that you have to hit your second shot over a ravine to the green. The ravine is interesting, it is about 50 yards long and, unusually, has a fairway at the bottom of it. The second shot plays through the trees toward the clubhouse in the background.

16th approach to green over ravine

Chantilly now offers a startling discovery. It is hard to describe just how good the seventeenth hole is at Chantilly. For those that remember the original Planet of the Apes movie with Charlton Heston, remember the sensation, the chills, and sense of surprise you got when the camera pans over and you see the top half of the Statue of Liberty. The same type of feeling overtakes you here when you realize there is a hole located where the seventeenth is. Shock and awe. It is a stunning par three that plays 199 meters from the back tees down into a tight tree-lined valley.

Par three 17th from the tee

There is an extremely steep hill on the left side of the hole and a large slope on the right side. It is somewhat reminiscent of the par three fourteenth hole at Pine Valley, but without the water in front. Chantilly is basically a flat course, but when you get to the seventeenth tee, the hole is at least sixty feet below you in an enchanted setting. Like both the Valliere course at Morfontaine and Cruden Bay, it shows off Simpson's absolute genius in hole design. How he pulled this off is amazing. The World Atlas of Golf describes this hole as being located in a "secret dell," and I think it is an apt description. The prior sixteen holes give no hint of what the seventeenth hole will be like. It really is surprising and inspiring.

Unfortunately, I got stains on my pants when I dropped to my knees after seeing the hole and started to shout, "Damn you, you maniacs...," but there were tears of joy running down my face!

17th par three as seen from the side

The next hole, the par four finishing hole, has the most difficult walk to a tee box anywhere in the world (you can see it in the back right carved into the trees in the picture below). The walk to the tee box is without the benefit of a stairway. You have to walk up a steep mountain to a tee located behind the seventeenth green. There is a small rocky path winding up through the trees that gives your calves a workout. After you hit your tee shot over the seventeenth green to the fairway on the other side of the valley, you have to navigate your way back down the sharp incline, across the valley and then up the other side of the steep hill to get to the fairway.

After playing seventeen, eighteen is a bit of an anti-climactic hole, but none-the-less, Chantilly is a great place to play golf.

The rustic Chantilly locker room

Chantilly dining room

Chantilly clubhouse

Like at Royal Dornoch, Chantilly only allows two balls before eleven in the morning. It really is a great way to play and the pace of play is fantastic. I played some of my best golf at Chantilly, and our two groups were essentially the only four people on the course in the morning. It was easy to get into a rhythm playing this fast with no distractions. We played on a damp, misty and un-seasonably warm autumn day shrouded in heavy fog that lifted about halfway through the round. Although I shot a good score, the other two people on the trip with us, who were playing in front of us, played off-the-charts. How is a 64 from the back tees? Well done, Mark!

Either French people don´t play a lot of golf or Morfontaine and Chantilly are really exclusive clubs, since we barely saw anyone on either course during our mid-week rounds.

We stayed for lunch after our round, and although the clubhouse at Chantilly doesn't have the same charmed feel as Morfontaine, it is a nice quaint clubhouse that overlooks the vast property. In England or in the U.S. you often see people having a couple of beers after a round, in Scotland during the round, and in a classic French move, here, it's a bottle of Bordeaux after the round. While we lunched on French fries with vinegar several members were lounging around having a leisurely lunch over a bottle of red wine.

Chantilly's web-site is helpful, but a bit rough on their translation into English. Among other things stated in the dress code are "no long-line bra nor straps for women."

Perhaps short-line bras or strapless bras are permitted?

Hello?

Vive la France!

Golf de Chantilly's web site

The second hole, seen from the tee above, is a downhill par five with a snaking fairway.

7th fairway

The seventh fairway, seen above, shows the signature Coore/Crenshaw look, similar to their masterpiece at Sand Hills. At Friar's Head, on virtually every hole, there is a severe penalty for missing the fairway on the wrong side of the hole. On the fifth hole, missing to the right puts you in a waste area. Similarly, on the sixth and seventh holes, missing left puts you in the same waste area.

Also consistent with the Coore/Crenshaw design philosophy, there is usually a driveable par four on every course. At Friar's Head, the fifth hole is a short par four (280-290 yards if I remembered from the caddie correctly), with artfully placed, and difficult bunkers in the fairway in front of the green for those that dare go for it and miss.

10th hole par 3

The tenth hole, pictured above, starts off the back nine with a jolt. It is a very interesting par three that plays about 200 yards to a green that is semi-blind with a couple of very large sand dunes guarding the front. It took a great deal of imagination to design this hole. It would not be immediately intuitive that a hole would fit in this narrow corridor. The Long Island Sound is behind you when you are on the tee, and the wind is very tricky on this particular part of the course. This is exacerbated by the alley effect that is created between the rows of trees on either side of the green. It was also a brilliant decision to leave the over-sized sand dune on the left side, in front of the green.

The hole is all carry. Being just a few yards short leaves you in serious trouble, as I can personally attest to. Do I hear seven, anyone?

I thought that the back nine was clearly superior to the front nine. I thought the front, which is on the flatter terrain away from the water, was not as interesting. I absolutely hate to say anything negative about Coore or Crenshaw, since they are such gentlemen, and I love their overall design philosophy, but the front didn't grab me.

The best stretch of holes on the course are numbers fourteen through seventeen. This brilliant succession of holes include the par five uphill 14th, the downhill, signature par four 15th, the blind tee shot, par four 16th, followed by the postage-stamp, par three 17th.

14th hole

The fourteenth hole, pictured above, is a hole reminiscent of the second hole at Gullane's #1 course in Scotland. It plays up a big hill and the fairway gets narrower as it rises up. To the left of the hole is a massive blown-out sand dune. The green is interesting and, consistent with Coore/Crenshaw courses, has many humps and bumps.

Stairway to heaven

When you leave the fourteenth green, you walk up an infinity staircase, seen above, which looks like it rises to the heavens. Like all Coore and Crenshaw designs, everything fits into the natural surroundings beautifully.

The par four 15th hole

When you finish climbing the stairs after playing the fourteenth hole and continue walking up the hill, you then walk through a clearing of trees. You are now at the most dramatic vista on the golf course, which is the fifteenth tee box. The hole from the tee is pictured above.

15th green

The shot from the fifteenth tee plays down a large hill into a valley with the dog-legged fairway stretched out below you. Your second shot approaching the green plays uphill and has a false front, as do many of the greens at Friar's Head.

Fourteen and fifteen are as good a pair of back-to-back holes as you'll find in the world of golf. They are beautifully designed, challenging and offer great risk/reward options for all levels of golfer.

The seventeenth hole is a short par three with a postage-stamp size green and a dramatic fall off on the right side of the hole. As with many holes at Friar's Head, the penalty for being short or on the wrong side of the hole (the right side in this instance) is serious. Local lore has it that Raymond Floyd took double digits on this hole.

postage stamp par three 17th

17th green

The Golf Bubble

Clubhouse at Friar's Head

The clubhouse at Friar's Head, which is still under construction, is pictured here, and it's a real monstrosity. There are also six cabins being built near the clubhouse for overnight stays. The clubhouse seems over the top to me. Everything else about Friar's Head is understated, but this looks like some sort of 21st century Gatsby contraption. The Eastern end of Long Island has always been a show place for Wall Street money, and when building becomes excessive it usually means it is not sustainable. This second 'golden age' of golf course architecture has been fueled by gangbusters economic growth in the world over the last 20+ years, allowing the new generation of newly-minted money-men to spend vast fortunes building their dream courses and clubhouses.

The building of a clubhouse like this seems to me to signal that we are probably getting near the end of the party, and the punch bowl will soon be taken away. The excesses of wealth have reached obscene proportions and the bell is ringing to indicate the end of the bull market. Not that I'm complaining about this, since its been one hell of a run and I've been privileged enough to experience many of these new world-class courses first hand.

Personally, I prefer the quaint, older and more understated original buildings and shingle style of architecture found on this part of Long Island. But then again, I have always preferred something like the clubhouses at Bandon Dunes or the under-stated style of clubhouse found at a place like Sunningdale or Royal Liverpool.

The current pro shop at Friar's Head

Friar's Head has been rocketing up the world rankings since it was built in 2002. It made its debut at #71 and, on the most recent ranking, jumped all the way up to #33. Even though I am a major fan of Coore and Crenshaw designs and think that Sand Hills is probably the best course in the United States, I think Friar's Head is getting way ahead of itself. Having now played all the top courses on Long Island I would rank them in order: 1) National Golf Links of America; 2) Shinnecock; 3) Bethpage Black; 4) Garden City; 5) Sebonack; 6) Maidstone; 7) Friar's Head; 8) Piping Rock; and 9) Fishers Island.

No doubt there will be complete unanimity among my fan base regarding my well thought out rankings.

My next couple of posts, coming soon, will feature Friar's Head on Long Island, Chantilly in France and my first attempt to make a tee time in Japan.

I haven't managed to play it yet, but if you want to invite me my email address is top100golfer@comcast.net. Am flexible as to date and time.

The 1st tee at Merion

By any measure 2007 was another banner year on my quest for golf's holy grail. I'm never quite sure how many courses I will be able to line up in advance with any certainty, but this year I was able to play eleven new courses on my list of the world's top one hundred. I visited five countries on my travels and have now completed playing 71 of the top 100.

It's interesting how certain themes develop each year, depending upon the mix of courses I end up playing. One of the themes this year was Jack Nicklaus. I visited the course he played as a young man, Scioto, and two courses he co-designed: Sebonack and Harbour Town.

Another theme that remained constant this year is that lovers of Fishers Island still think I'm an asshole. I've received more invective comments on my Fishers Island post than any other, although the comments on my Royal Troon polemic are piling up fast as well.

I visited the lowcountry of South Carolina and have now completed playing all three world-ranked courses in the state - Yeamans Hall, Harbour Town and the Ocean Course at Kiawah. Yeamans Hall was a discovery I shall remember for a long time. The understated elegance and majesty of the plantation setting, coupled with an absolutely world-class golf course, make it a special place.

The 15th at Friar's Head

Although I was not able to complete the Shinnecock-National-Maidstone triumvirate this year like I have in the past two years, I did manage to play an equally awesome triumvirate in Sebonack-National-Friar's Head. I have said it many times before, but will repeat it once again in case you didn't hear me: Long Island has the best collection of golf courses in the world.

I managed to access some very private clubs this year - Yeamans Hall, Chicago Golf and the cynosure of private clubs: The Links Club, arguably, three of the hardest clubs to gain access to. I also ran into Charles B. Macdonald again and again. His baronial statue looked right at me as I walked into Chicago Golf Club; his imposing portraits stared down at me from The National Golf Links, The Links Club and The Mid Ocean Club. Charley liked to create monuments to himself and if you undertake a similar journey you will no doubt keep running into him as I have.

The Valley Club of Montecito was a special treat for me not only because it is an Alister Mackenzie beauty but also because it's nice for me to be able to play golf in January in Southern California, when I can't play at home. St. George's in Canada also proved a worthy spot among the world's great golf courses.

I achieved another stretch goal in 2007 by crashing the gates of Morfontaine and managing to play this world-class French jewel. In addition, I played at Chantilly near Paris, which I will post soon, and made a discovery worthy of shouting about. My French journey was such a success, that I am now working on my dinner invitation to the Élysée Palace. I got such good feedback from the series of posts detailing my attempts to gain access to Morfontaine that for 2008 I am toying with the idea of doing a similar series on another course.

14th green at Somerset Hills

2007 represented several other milestones in my golfing education. I have now played all eight A.W. Tillinghast courses on the list including three under-the-radar courses that I liked: Baltimore, Somerset Hills and Quaker Ridge. I have also now completed playing all fourteen courses in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on the list.

The phenomenon continues of interested readers who appreciate a farcical sense of humor, coupled with an eagle-eyed, on-the-ground assessment of many of the world's elite golf clubs. Last year I had readers in sixty countries; this year, I'm up to over 119 countries including such obscure places as Burkina Faso and Brunei Darussalam.

3rd green at Bermuda's Mid Ocean

I also retain a special place in my heart for emails that I receive from the Byrn Mawr-ivy-league-private-jet-pied-a-terre-finishing-school crowd who are appalled that someone as crass as me has managed to infiltrate so many of their special places. Most of this crowd doubt the veracity of my trips. I can assure them, despite their loathing, everything I do is real.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I also played the #1 ranked golf course in the world last year: Pine Valley. That alone made 2007 a banner year all by itself and something most golfers dream of being able to do. I don't for one minute take any of this for granted and count my blessings every day.

I look forward to an equally productive 2008 where my travels may include a visit to the land of the rising sun.

God speed to all you traveling golfers out there!

P.S. - Congratulations to the good looking schlog in Ft. Collins who won his senior club championship and introduced me to Monica and Windmill Bob in 2007. His victory celebration at the Marine Hotel will be rememered for a long time.

#2 Redan - hard start to the round

Tillinghast went with the 'difficult start' philosophy at Somerset Hills. The first hole, "Orchard" plays through an old orchard and is a very testing 448 yard par four that doglegs to the right. The second hole is a classic "Redan" hole, seen above, and it's a beauty. At 175 yards it has all the classic elements of a Redan and it plays very difficult, even though it is rated as the #15 handicap hole.

Uphill approach to the 3rd green

The third hole, named "Bunker Hill", is a shortish, 378 yard par four that plays to an elevated green that is well protected by bunkers.

5th green with the big hump cutting across

The fifth hole, oddly enough named "Nairn" (I guess it reminded Tillinghast of the town in Scotland?) has a green design that Tillinghast used on several holes at Somerset Hills. As can be seen in the picture above, there is a very large hump running across the green. As a short course by modern standards, Somerset Hills is by no means an easy course. Part of the reason is green designs such as this, and also, very fast greens.

Old race-course running through the 6th hole

I liked the par five, sixth hole ("Plateau"), which has the outline of the old racetrack still running through the fairway. You can see where the track winded around the edge of the property, through the sixth and seventh ("Racetrack") fairways and where it turns at the end of the seventh fairway and heads back toward the clubhouse. You can see the big dip in the fairway in the picture above.

You can still imagine the races running through the 6th hole

Many thanks to my caddy for providing the proper perspective and sense of scale to this unique hazard. You can get a good feel in this picture of how Tillinghast used the racetrack to great effect. It was a brilliant design decision on his part.

Some courses have a front and back nine that are reasonably similar in feel and style. Somerset Hills does not. It has two distinctly different sets of nine. The front nine is relatively flat and plays on relatively open ground in the area where the former racetrack was situated. The back nine is set within the forest, has many tree-lined holes, and has much more change in elevation.

Approach to the 11th green

The eleventh hole, aptly named "Perfection", is rated as the #4 handicap hole at Somerset Hills, but in my book is clearly the most difficult hole on the course. It is a 412 yard par four that requires the golfer to hit his/her tee shot through a narrow chute of trees to a landing area that slopes left to right down a hill. Shots hit too far to the right are blocked out, leaving no approach to the green, so the tee shot requires precision and the appropriate position.

11th green

The hole is a sharp dog-leg to the right after the tee shot. The second shot plays from an uneven lie, over a creek, to a difficult, elevated and well-bunkered green.

View from 11th green back up to clubhouse

In addition to being a difficult and brilliantly designed golf hole, the eleventh hole is also scenically beautiful. There is a pond left of the green and right of the green is a sharp hill that rises to the clubhouse and is covered in fescue (seen above).

#12 par three named "Despair,"

The next hole, a 151 yard par three named "Despair", shows off a design feature Tillinghast didn't use often, which is a green set within/around water. It requires a precise shot because the area you hit from is narrow and there are trees encroaching on the right side.

#13 green

The thirteenth green, above, shows that even on relatively straight forward driving holes, there is no letup at Somerset Hills, given the big undulations used strategically by Tillinghast. This one looks like a wave rolling in from the sea.

The par four fifteenth hole, named, "Happy Valley," joins a small list of truly world-class holes that I have found in my travels playing these elite courses. See the entire list here. The 407 yard par four is seen from the tee below.

15th from tee "Happy Valley"

You can see the strategic options off the tee, which allows a player to hit safely to the left, or to choose a bolder line over the bunker and be rewarded by cutting off the corner of the dogleg and advancing the ball significantly down the hill toward the green.

15th hole sloping fairway

You can see the big left to right slope in the fairway as it plunges down the hill toward a small green protected by water in front and on the left side by both water and a weeping willow tree.

15th small green down in the valley

It's during this stretch of the course that I realized why I like Tillinghast routings like this one, Quaker Ridge and Baltimore Five Farms. There is so much change, variation, brilliant use of terrain and character to his routings that they just charm you into submission. I appreciate this type of layout more than a Winged Foot or Baltusrol where so much of the character and challenge is in the greens only.

Par three 16th "Deception" green

The back nine meanders through the hills. The fifteenth plays down the big sweeping hill. The next hole, the 170 yard par three sixteenth, is carved into the side of a hill. The hole after that, the seventeenth ("Quarry"), a par four with a blind tee shot over a hill, features a second shot down the hill to a tough green. The back nine has a set of holes that fit together like a glove and are as good as any you'll find.

The eighteenth is a short, 335 yard par four that plays up a big hill toward the clubhouse and is not that hard. It is the only hole that is worthy of the slightest bit of criticism on the back nine.

Getting everything right at a golf club is more art than science, but at Somerset Hills they have it all figured out. The small locker room and bar, the discrete, respectful staff and a refined approach to everything. Maybe it was hard for me to be objective playing here. As you can see from my pictures, I played it on such a nice fall day that the course really shined. I love to golf during the fall with its shorter days, crisp weather, diffused light, the sound of leaves crunching under your spikes and the sound of birds flying south (yes, I'm still a fan of Canadian Geese despite what they've done to Medinah). Since this was a home game for me I made it back home in time for dinner to appease my delightful wife who is becoming increasingly irascible about my golfing travels. I wonder why?

After having now played all of A.W. Tillinghast's courses, I would personally rank them in the following order: 1. San Francisco; 2. Somerset Hills; 3. Bethpage Black; 4. Baltimore (Five Farms); 5. Quaker Ridge; 6. Winged Foot (East); 7. Winged Foot (West); 8. Baltusrol (Lower).

A.W. Tillinghast

4th at Bethpage Black

I didn't experience any of the legendary waiting in line that the course is famous for. Nor did I have to sleep in my car the night before. I played with a friend who is a New York state resident and can book tee times up to a week in advance. I would comment that the Long Island male, though, is a unique breed. They are a cross between two distinct and not necessarily complimentary personality traits. Half the time charming, funny and entertaining and the other half in-your-face obnoxious. Staying to have a beer in the clubhouse after the round is mandatory so you can soak up the true attitude of the Long Island male in all his regal splendor. You will no doubt remember it.

4th at Bethpage from the tee box

Winged Foot

The opposite end of the universe from Bethpage from a social status standpoint is the Winged Foot Golf Club located above New York City in Westchester County. Along with St. Andrews, Pebble Beach and Pinehurst, it is an undisputed golf Mecca. When you turn off Mamaroneck road, Winged Foot has an impressive winding entry drive and a dramatic, beautiful clubhouse that sits in the middle of the site surrounded by tall trees. You know you are someplace special when you arrive at Winged Foot.

Winged Foot has perfected that uniquely American art of the country club. There is a ritualized process to everything about the club. You arrive and the caddie master takes your clubs out of your trunk and welcomes you. After you park, you go into the locker room where the attendant organizes a locker for you and offers to change your spikes if needed. While playing, he cleans your street shoes off. Next, your caddie awaits to guide you around the course. After the round, you enjoy some food and drink in the grill room where the elegant wooden boards proclaim the past winners of championships held at the course. You are served by employees that have perfected the art of service and making you feel at home. Winged Foot is known for being very generous with its employees, many of whom have been in long service at the club and are treated like family. When Henry Longhurst wrote "one of the great unpurchasable assets in any golf club is the continuity of staff", he must have been thinking of Winged Foot.

The entry drive at Winged Foot

Winged Foot is the only club with the distinction of having two courses ranked in the top 100. I played the East and West courses at Winged Foot on different days and at different times of the year: The West on a brilliant summer day. The East on a cool, drizzly, fall day. Both times I very much enjoyed sitting around the clubhouse, the first time on the outdoor patio, under the awning, with its signature green-and-white stripes near the 18th green, at the end of a great day's golf. The second time, in front of the over-sized fireplace in the grill room with the fire crackling as the outside temperature dropped and a slight drizzle was falling. Sitting in that room with the dark woods and rich tones is a nice way to take the chill off and savor the overall Winged Foot experience.

Winged Foot Clubhouse

Despite the grandeur and majesty of the club, however, I would not rank the West Course at Winged Foot as one of my personal favorites. After the round as I tried to think back about the holes, many of them blend together as being tree-lined par fours and fives with slight doglegs. I know certain fellow aficionados and technical analysts pile on to anyone who doesn't love Winged Foot West. They will sight how the genius of the course is in the green complexes, and I understand how dramatic and artful they are. But even if you take that as given, it leaves 80% of the golf course as being not all that distinctive and somewhat repetitive.

I don't hate the West course. I think the par threes are among the best in the game, especially the 3rd and 10th holes. And the 11th hole is a very interesting and memorable hole. Sixteen is also quite a good hole as well. Thus far, it is my only eagle playing the top 100. Overall, I didn't come away awe-struck by the West Course. When a course ranks in the top 25 in the world, I think it should have a distinctiveness that jumps out at you like at Merion, Sand Hills, National Golf Links or Crystal Downs.

Even if you disagree with my assessment of the West Course, you must admit, points are to be subtracted from any club that has Donald Trump as a member.

Baltusrol

In the same vein, Richard Nixon was a one-time member of Baltusrol. The club is also old, exclusive and proper and like Winged Foot has a brilliant club-house. Baltusrol, along with Cypress Point, Augusta, Los Angeles Country Club and San Francisco Golf Club requires long pants to play, although they recently loosened up the rules so that you can wear shorts between the 4th of July and Labor Day. The Lower course at Baltusrol is a lot like Winged Foot West. A lot of relatively straight tree-lined holes without much variety, in my view. Again, yes, interesting and challenging greens, which is why the USGA likes both courses.

These two courses are frequent hosts to major championships and have revered history and no doubt I'm missing something, but to me, they lack that special quality that distinguishes them from some of the other really good and interesting courses on the list. Both get an A+ for conditioning and fast greens, but I wouldn't put either on my short list of courses to play again quickly. Bethpage Black is a course I would return to. It has better terrain, more change in elevation, a more varied and interesting routing and is a more imaginative design.

The East Course at Winged Foot, by comparison, is an under-rated course, especially compared to the West. I found that the East Course had more shot variety and more interesting holes. I especially liked the par three 13th hole with its elevated green and massive fingered bunkering.

On my own personal rating scale I would place the courses in a different order in the world rankings and rank the West Course somewhere in the thirties or forties and the East in the fifties. If I returned to Winged Foot, I would play the East course again ahead of the West. I would rank any number of courses ahead of both Winged Foot West and Baltusrol Lower including Carnoustie (#26), San Francisco (#27), Kingsbarns (#65), Sunningdale Old (#44) and Royal St. George's (#32), to name a few.

Like at Baltimore Five Farms, Quaker Ridge and Somerset Hills, I feel that some of Tillies best work was done on courses that are not as well known as those that play host to major championships.

I am blessed to live within a three hour car ride of fourteen of the top one hundred golf courses in the world. For someone seeking golf's holy grail, there is no better place to live. I recently played Quaker Ridge Golf Club (ranked #61 in the world) on a beautiful, crisp fall day. I have now completed playing all eleven of the world-ranked courses in New York.

Quaker Ridge is located in New York's Westchester County, immediately adjacent to Winged Foot, in Scarsdale, New York. Scarsdale is an extremely affluent suburb of New York and has a bit of a New England feel to it with its rolling terrain, low stone walls bordering many properties, and its stately, mature trees. Quaker Ridge takes its name from a group of Quakers who used this land for farming beginning in 1726. The "ridge" part of the name becomes obvious when you play the course. Quaker Ridge is blessed with much better terrain that its nearby neighbor Winged Foot, which is on more-or-less flat ground.

Quaker Ridge is one of the least well known of the world's great courses. I like to research courses prior to playing them and had a hard time finding much information about Quaker Ridge. They have published no club history; it is hard to find pictures of the course and they shy away from publicity. As is their right, the members like to keep it a low-key affair.

John Duncan Dunn designed a nine hole layout here in 1916, and A.W. Tillinghast was brought in during the 1920s to redo the course and expand it to eighteen holes. Tillinghast is responsible for the course we find here today. The course was rebunkered, and some other minor alterations were made by Rees Jones before the 1997 Walker Cup matches, which were held here.

The defining characteristics of Quaker Ridge are the trees, the out of bounds and the greens. The greens are very good, subtle and very fast; sixteen of them slope back to front. The course is in many ways a typical course found in Westchester County, which are all tree-lined. I mean this in no way to be a negative, because Quaker Ridge can hardly be described as a typical course. The other thing you notice about Quaker Ridge when you begin playing is that the angles you take coming into the greens are of paramount importance. This is the sign of a brilliantly designed and thoughtfully laid out course.

Approach to the 4th green

A good example of why the angles coming in the green are important can be illustrated with the fourth hole above. The fourth is a 384 yard par four with a narrow fairway and a green that falls sharply off a hill on the left side. As you can see above, if you are on the right side of the fairway, the trees come into play, making your approach shot likely to fall off left of the green in a large bunker. In the interest of good blogging, I actually field tested this scenario (by design, of course!) and ended up in the bunker.

4th fairway from the tee

The smarter play on this hole is to hit the ball to the left side of the fairway off the tee. Well, that's easier said than done. When you stand on the tee, you see a big grass bunker that slashes across the fairway, creating an intimidating line that you have to hit over to a blind landing area. This is a good example of the type of strategic Tillinghast design you will find at Quaker Ridge.

The same principles apply at the signature eleventh hole. There are two trees on the left side of the fairway that block your shot to the green if you are not correctly positioned on the right side of the fairway. The shot to the green tightens up your anus ever so slightly because you hit to a narrow green guarded by a stone-wall lined creek (burn for all my Scottish fans) that meanders in front of the green. Meander might be too nice a word to use because it is quite a menacing little stream, seen below.

11th green

My guess is that if Charles Blair Macdonald ever played at Quaker Ridge he would have had a tough go of it. Macdonald was famous for designing his courses to favor a slicer, a category he was prominently featured in. Piping Rock, The National Golf Links of America and Chicago Golf Club, all Macdonald designs, penalize those that hook the ball, but are friendlier to the slicer. The first eight holes at Quaker Ridge have an out-of-bounds along the right side of the hole.

The first eight holes circle the property in a counter-clockwise fashion, which is the mirror image of Chicago Golf, which circles in a clockwise fashion. The next six holes at Quaker Ridge circle back in a clockwise fashion, before play goes back toward the club house. I know that Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) is probably the most famous world-renowned course that has a lot of O.B. Having played both courses, I think Quaker Ridge is a much sterner test of trying to keep the ball in play. At Hoylake, the O.B. really doesn't come into play unless you are truly wild. At Quaker Ridge, it comes into play if you are only mildly off line.

App