Golf.com's Ten Most Overrated Courses

No byline on this one, and it's hard to argue with a list of overrated courses including Sahallee (left...I know, looking a tad tired) and topped by Medinah No. 3. But this seemed way harsh Joe, err, I mean, whoever wrote this:

Admittedly, nice guys Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw had a tough act to follow in doing the third course at Bandon Dunes Resort, and on an inland plot at that. But those early raves have turned to furrowed brows for those who properly contemplate its back nine flaws, chiefly the ridiculous 14th hole and the inexplicably left-tilting landing area on 16.

Comments

[Hawkeye]

Reading that list makes me feel like reading a music critic's assertion that, say, The Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" is really not much more than a drunken jam session, or that it really is a pity that The Beatles' "Let It Be" album was put out at all. In other words, it was refreshing, with a recurring sense of "I wasn't the only one thinking that!" (especially on Pinehurst and Champions...).

[Four-putt]

Fair enough.

And now I'd like to present my list of the Ten Most Overrated Golf-related Web Sites:

1.Golf.com
2.Golf.com
3.Golf.com
4.Golf.com
5.Golf.com
6.Golf.com
7.Golf.com
8.Golf.com
9.Golf.com
10. Golf.com

4p

[shug]

Like Hawkeye, I found myself agreeing with many of the observations here. Harding Park is dreary and many holes at PB are plain ordinary. But what is a list for if not to annoy? So I have to say that I believe that I have "properly contemplated" the back nine (at least I have played it many times) and I look forward to the fierce, feisty little 14th. It's an "or else" hole -- you have to play a perfect shot or else. Geoff just had a quote up from C. B. Macdonald about hazards -- you know they're good when people differ strongly about their merits.

[shug]

Duh . . . forgot to say that I was referring to the 14th at Bandon Trails.

[mikeblake]

LOVED the 14th at trails. only played it twice though.


the only thing "ridiculous" about it is the walk to get to it.

[Seitz]

Is Torrey North so highly rated as to be overrated? It's a decent course, but I've never heard anyone rave about it to the extent where it needed to be taken down a peg. It was clearly the inferior of the two courses before the renovations to the South course.

[Trotsky's Icepick]

What, no Trump National Los Angeles on this list?

Geoff.... we need you on this case

[noz]

First of all who's course ratings are we going by? There are so many that are soo different they all invalidate eachother. Where does Sahallee rank?? I think Sahallee is underrated. It's a great strategy course and you'd better hit it into the right section of the green if you want to 2-Putt. This is the kind of golf course the PGA of America should get back too because bomb and gouge won't work around there at all.

[Jed C.]

TPC Scottsdale, TPC Louisiana, TPC Four Seasons, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Sugarloaf, TPC Southwind, TPC River Highlands, TPC Deere Run, TPC Summerlin, TPC Boston.

[Smolmania]

TPC Sawgrass overrated? Well, I haven't been there since the big "renovation," but for my money Sawgrass was as much fun as you can have on a golf course. I also don't think you can criticize Pinehurst #2 because it's too short for the pros. I'll take 18 holes with a caddy there any day of the week, month or year. . .

[86general]

I consider myself a decent golfer (10.9 index) and have been a very avid reader on all golf subjects through the years, including reading 3 books about golf architecture, and 2 more "reviews" of great golf courses in the world.

Those who read my posts know I like stating an opinion. However, I cannot understand how to rate/rank golf courses, and openly confess to being an idiot in this area. To me, it's like ranking beautiful women (or men, for the ladies out there...). It's in the eye of the beholder, and is impossible to define.

I can recognize good conditioning, or at least lush conditions that correspond to what we see at over-green, over-groomed US courses, and I know what picturesque land and countryside is, but I am at a loss to even begin ranking hole shot values, etc.

To me, the golf _shots_ are what seem most pretty and memorable. Some of my all-time favorite courses include several which do not rank in anyone's listing of top courses in a state or the US. They are up in my personal ranking because of memorable rounds there, memorable shots, good times, etc. Like my first hole out from a fairway, when, as an 18 hcp who'd been playing for 3 years, I decided to try to fade a 7 iron shot, and proceeded to hit it right into the hole. The more I play a golf course, the more I tend to like it, just as one often begins to like a song after hearing it many times, and begins to see more beauty in a face, the more familiar it becomes.

Overrated? To me, they're all "over" rated, in that I can't rate any of them at all.

[bogey boy]

As the old saying goes "those that can - do and those that can't - teach" How about "those that can - design and those who can't - make lists"?

[P. Smith]

My impression is that the author is being a shoddy journalistic hack with a piece such as this. Take all the dogmatic pot shots you want at iconic courses - just cause you say it's so don't make it so.

Geoff - you're better than this....much better.