Golf magazine's top 100 courses in the world list is out.
And if you are anything like me, when it comes to these lists, you're like,
all these courses are great.
But what makes them great? Great. I've got good news for you guys.
I asked the people who make these lists that,
that question, the course, panelists, the course Raiders,
what makes a golf course great.
Here is what they said first, it needs to have variety,
great courses have variety and that can mean like variety and land movement.
Of course, if you go up and you go down
like Augusta National land movement, it's incredible.
But really ran Morris said,
the governor of our list says golf courses need
to have a variety in obstacles and hazards.
Think about the first hole at the old course at Saint Andrews.
You have to hit over this snaky little burn.
It's frankly the best water hazard in the world if you're asking me.
But then on the 17th hole, you have to hit over this old railroad shed,
even maybe over the corner of a hotel.
Think about Royal Liverpool, the first
hole in the 16th hole,
you have to bend around the corner and maybe hit
over the out of bounds of a driving range.
Think about North Barrack where you are asked to hit over rock walls,
centuries old rock walls, you have to do it three different times.
Sometimes it's really tricky to get over the wall.
Other times it's really simple, but
the bottom line is a variety of obstacles,
offers you a variety of strategies and it makes you think and suddenly
you are asked to show off
a variety of skill sets.
It is all about variety, great courses also have magnificent greens, great greens,
if you will.
And by greens,
we mean green complexes like not just the shortest moan turf on the property but
where the greens are located, the height of the green, the ridges of the green,
how they judge what is a good shot from a great shot or a good shot from a bad shot?
I asked one of our Raiders, his name is Philip
G.
Why greens are so important to a great golf course?
And he said, take it straight from CB mcdonald.
Now that is one of the greatest golf architects of all time.
Mcdonald said, putting greens to a golf course are what the face is to a portrait.
In other words, the course is the body
and the face, the greens, they tell the story and the character of that course.
We love that quote from Mr mcdonald. But let's let his work
on greens, do the talking.
And for that,
we go right to Chicago Golf Club right there is the double
thumb print on the 10th hole is the short little par three.
These thumb prints in the green,
they reject these high lofted nine irons and wedges.
There's the punch bowl 12 which you hit a little wedge up to an area.
You're not quite sure where the pin is.
Then you take a walk and you see how close you got. Find out what awaits you.
There's the Bears
and its epic dip
between these two putting platforms.
And as far as beer
hits greens around the world go, this one is kind of tame,
but that's not the point. The point is you are going to walk off that property
and you are gonna think about that beer hits green.
You are going to think about the greens at
Chicago Club the third time you play the course,
the seventh time you play the course.
They will always be top of mind when you play that golf course.
Now, thirdly great courses fit into their natural surroundings.
We've all heard that phrase before, but what does it look like? It looks like Tara
course writer Steven Lapper says a great course
needs to be quote fine tailored for its environment
and look at what Tara Edie's environment is.
The fairways move like the waist area, moves the mounds
on the course. They heave just like the dunes, heave Tara.
It looks like
there was a golf course underneath all this scruff and you
took one gigantic razor blade to find where the fairways are.
The different levels of topography at Tara.
They blend so seamlessly, right?
You have fairway that drops right off into the sand of bunkers.
You have sand that runs right up under the dune, grasses and shrubs.
None of it looks man made. It looks as if it's been there for a very long time.
The irony of course is Ted hasn't even celebrated its 10th birthday yet,
but it looks like it's been there for half a century.
And lastly, this is a big one.
Great golf courses. Have a special setting.
You can't quantify this but does a golf course have,
have a sense of place.
It takes a long travel day to get to Bandon dunes, to get to Cabot cliffs.
These are on opposite ends of North America. But by the time you arrive,
you feel like you are somewhere, the setting of these courses up against the ocean.
It brings you a sense of place and you could say the same
thing about the tall pines and the sandy waste areas of Pinehurst.
They constantly remind you that you were in the sand hills of North Carolina
Cruden Bay across the world. It places you
at the foot of this small seaside, cute little town.
It fits among the dunes of a very specific part of Scotland.
You play between them and into them and you even
find yourself out of breath when you scale their peaks.
Royal Port rush up at the tip of northern Ireland. It's no different.
You weave among the dunes for these various holes.
And then suddenly one of the holes has a
green that essentially falls off into the Atlantic Ocean.
This is a golf setting that you are never gonna
forget once you visit it for the first time.
Now, is there any one course in the world that's gonna check all these boxes? Maybe.
I mean,
Pine Valley has been number one for decades and decades and decades and there is
no one that is really gonna vote Pine Valley outside of the top three,
but it is not a unanimous number one
for a reason, right? We have 100 19 Raiders.
They are all different, they all view courses differently.
And if this is a competition of sorts,
it's a subjective one where there are judges that
really love pristine conditions and presentation and then other judges
who are obsessed with the flow of a golf course.
Thomas Brown highlighted Pebble Beach's flow,
especially in certain corners of it.
Like
the sixth hole,
this par five that goes up to this green followed by this short little
par three that goes down to this landing zone playing in the wind.
The next hole is epic par four. A true two shot or two important shots.
That's the eighth hole, the flow of Pebble Beach is incredible.
So depending on who you are talking to. The checklist of a great course is not
these four things. It's probably six or seven, maybe even a dozen things.
But it starts here with magnificent greens, a seamlessness with its surrounds,
a real sense of place and then a wicked variety
of features that ask unique questions of all its visitors,
check all those boxes and you are on your way to something truly special.