This is a list which almost certainly nobody will agree on. There are plenty of courses on the PGA and DP World Tours which are nowhere near the quality of the below ones but the point of this is to highlight that there are chinks in what many of us perceive as must-play courses.
What the courses below do have in common is that they all hold significant spots on the calendar, some are Signature Events packed with the best players, and the niggle is that we all have to watch them on a yearly basis and they can be very ordinary viewing.
Any rankings mentioned are from the Top 100 Golf Courses website.
1) Pebble Beach
What?! If Jack Nicklaus could play anywhere in the world, then it would be here. What about all those US Opens, with Watson and Tiger thrilling us? What about the 7th? What about the most spectacular run of holes, along the ocean, and those views? The paragliders and the surfers.
But what about the opening tee shot? What about the turn for home where it suddenly becomes increasingly dull?
Maybe it’s the tedious pro-am nature that has taken the shine off Pebble or maybe it’s the exorbitant green fee.
One friend, who plays off +2, commented on his Pebble experience: “Once you’ve gotten over the fact that you’re at Pebble Beach and done the customary walk to the 18th green and taken in the amazing views, you are quickly hit by obligations to part with money at every turn! It is a massive money-making enterprise with countless people dropping a small fortune.
It’s one of the most underwhelming courses i’ve ever played. There are so many bland holes which you get plenty of time to ‘enjoy’ during the six-hour round playing behind someone who has probably only just christened their first set of clubs.”
Yes, it finishes with an enormous bang at 17 and 18 but the holes preceding these don’t belong on a course that sits inside the top 20 in the world.
2) East Lake
Things have been tweaked here but it remains a crying shame that the Tour Championship has been returning here since 2004. Over 20 years of the same holes, which are formulaic enough anyway, and good enough for the fourth best in Georgia.
Again, this does not feature in the best 100 courses though it’s closer than others on this list.
If you want history and a clubhouse packed with all the good stuff, then East Lake is remarkable. But it’s another where we’re struggling to piece together different holes – everything still feels like a glut of par 4s that run alongside one another – and the 18th, where players’ drives happily run into the rough, is a dull finish to the course and the PGA Tour season.
3) Torrey Pines
This is not a US Open venue. Again, the views are off the charts but, despite the setting, it’s almost fairly monotonous. This is the 30th best course in California and it doesn’t even get close to the Top 100 in the States.
In fact Golf Digest run a Top 200 US Courses and this even misses out here.
Maybe I have a problem with water but the 18th is the hole that irritates me more than it should. If you need a par to win most of us would fancy our chances here.
The good news is that it’s a municipal though it will be north of £200 to get 18 holes in here.
Interestingly visitors are often pointed in the direction of the North Course for a more enjoyable 18 holes.
4) Bay Hill
We all love Arnold Palmer and returning here to remember his good times is almost essential. But this is everything that we don’t want to watch but we’re going to get it every year anyway.
I think it’s the 6th, the par 5 that has the largest lake in the middle of it and where Bryson hit those ridiculous tee shots, that really grates. It’s so boring
I’ll sit through this year after year and struggle to name a hole where I look forward to the best players take it on. Even the 18th, the scene of all those Tiger putts and Arnie’s driver off the deck, niggles.
5) Trump National (Doral)
This is ranked as the 35th best course… in Florida. Expect water and lots of high scoring and, despite all the tour stops here since the 60s and now try and tell us five holes that sit in the memory bank? Now picture Riviera and we can trot out half the holes.
You would imagine the conditioning and everything about the course is perfect but it’s so unmemorable and that tells us plenty.
Once upon a time naming a course The Blue Monster might have been a great thing, these days we’ve thankfully moved on from that.
6) Wentworth (West)
Don’t get me wrong, if anyone were to offer me 18 holes around the West Course I’d bite your hand off. The old Burma Road is charm personified with big, brutish par 4s coming home and playing endless holes between the trees.
But where things fall apart, in my head at least, are the back-to-back par 5s to finish. The camber of the 17th off the tee is part of British golfing folklore but there was always the chance to whip one round the corner, flirt with the out of bounds and chase it on. Now it just seems to be a collection of awkward chips if anyone does try and take it on
The 18th is, to my eye, unfathomably ugly. Things might have softened since the redesign but a meandering water feature still doesn’t sit right.
Again, the green fee might play a part here.
7) The Renaissance Club
This is among some of the best courses on the planet in East Lothian. What a pity then that the Scottish Open returns here, year after year. Yes, it looks and is stunning in places but plenty of it is quite ordinary.
From memory of playing it the first three holes were among some of the best but they’ve now gone. This is ranked as the 24th best course in Scotland, which is generous, and we understand that the best courses don’t equal the tour stops but it would be great to see the Scots’ national Open move around more and to better courses.
PS And yes, there is always The Belfry.
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