Whats the hardest course you have ever played?

[Obee]

Two courses, one a legitimately difficult course, and the other super tough for one tournament a year.

• Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, CA (7,190, 75.9/149)
  • Was my home course for nine years
  • From November to March, greens would run 13 to 14 and certain days would be rock hard. Couldn't find a pitch mark with a full wedge
  • Afternoon winds and dormant Bermuda fairways combined with spotty surrounds made for an adventure.
  • Played with Mickelson there when he was still top 20 in the world and he shot 70, 71.
  • Course plays so tough for a portion of the year that 8 - 10 handicappers can have trouble keeping their score in the 90's from the 6,450 yard tees! (71.8/138).
• Lakeside Golf Club in Burbank, CA for The Kelly Cup
  • Once a year, Lakeside becomes a mini U.S. Open
  • Par of 70 with only 2 par 5's, one of them unreachable at 575 except for the very longest of legit bombers
  • Rough grown thick and long -- heavy over-seeded rye that is sticky and nasty
  • Some of the smallest greens in the world (at least until they reclaimed lost green space a few years back)
  • 12.5 to 13 speed and firm
  • Pins tucked in the nastiest of places
  • Probably plays to a rating of 77ish for the tournament, par 70
  • 4 and 5 index golfers regularly shoot mid to high 80's to mid 90's.
  • Typically 40ish scratch/below golfers in the field. Usually 1 person will break par -- in one round -- for the entire tournament
• Honorable Mentions:
  • Any Bandon course when it is blowing 25 sustained, gusting to 50+
  • This course here when it's windy: https://www.amateurgolf.com/golf-tournament-news/27542/Gale-force-winds--WDs--and-a-12-putt--the-story-of-the-SCGA-TOC

[sprcoop]

Dove Mountain Tucson, AZ where they played the Accenture Match play a few years.  The slopes on the greens more than I could handle.  I four putt about once a decade.  Two four putts in a row that day.  Fairway bunkers everywhere you want to hit. I couldn't imagine playing that course in tournament trim with fast greens.

[samwm]

Western Gailes in sideways rain and 45km (28 mph) winds was, without a doubt, the biggest test I've faced. A complete s***-kicking, but enjoyable in retrospect. Something a lot of skiiers/climbers would refer to as Type 2 fun. 

 

 

[ThinkingPlus]

I will put in two here.  One was a tough course for me from the tees I chose to play.  The other was a tournament where the SCGA made a mistake and included me with the best SoCal amateur (men) club champions so I was playing the tips (I never would have tried this on my own at this course).

 

Tournament site of the SCGA Club Champions Championship was Salt Creek near San Diego (Men's 73.4/132, Women's 80.4/149).  I played poorly and shot a 92 (not DFL though) due to nerves and just being overwhelmed.  I was paired with a good low single digit and a plus 2 who was the club champion at Riviera.  The course played over 6900 yards if I remember correctly.

 

Other course was Redhawk in Temecula, CA (Men's 73.3/139, Women's 79/140).  Can't remember what I shot, but don't think I broke 80.  Lots of elevated, fast greens with deep bunkers.

 

In both cases I had to calculate the women's ratings and slope using the USGA lookup table method to compensate for the additional length beyond the closest tees rated for women.  The slope at Redhawk didn't seem reasonable given only a 1 point difference vs. the men's slope, but that was how the calcs came out.

[PixlPutterman]

Interesting to see a lot of responses include "in brutal weather"

 

While I imagine weather is something a good number of challenging courses are known for, I wonder how much easier some play on nice days?

[italianstallion]

Nobody asked for a list but I’ll give it anyway: 
 

1. Bethpage Black - I’ve been lucky enough to have played quite a few US Open venues. They all brag about being impossible but truthfully most can be handled with proper course management. Bethpage cannot. It’s brutally long, the rough is brutally sticky, the bunkers give brutal lies, and it’s a brutal walk. I’ve played it the most of any course on this list and even with all the knowledge I have of the place in the end it means nothing out there. Add in any sort of wind and I wish you good day sir. 
 

2. The Ocean Course - Played it once in late December. High was 45* and the wind was blowing a steady 20 mph out of the northeast. Downwind holes weren’t so bad, but the holes into the wind felt impossible. Fantastic golf course. 
 

3. Oakmont - Whereas Bethpage beats you down with long tee shots and approach shots, Oakmont offers variety in its challenge. There are plenty of difficult tee shots out there for sure, but proper course management off the tee can save you strokes. Full attention must be paid anywhere near the greens, and you must avoid missing them at all costs. 
 

4. TPC Sawgrass - The greatest mental crucible of a course I have ever played. The first time I played I ripped driver everywhere en-route to a 92. The next time I hit driver on only a handful of holes and shot 78. Better to play to the larger portions of the fairways and leave longer approaches in than to try and overpower this course. 
 

5. Kapalua Plantation - Put this course anywhere else and you’d be dissatisfied with anything other than your career best. But the views are infinitely distracting and the wind is infinitely unrelenting, so it gets an honorable mention on this list. 

[ronnbee]

Oakmont

[MattyO1984]

16 hours ago, samwm said:

Western Gailes in sideways rain and 45km (28 mph) winds was, without a doubt, the biggest test I've faced. A complete s***-kicking, but enjoyable in retrospect. Something a lot of skiiers/climbers would refer to as Type 2 fun. 

 

Great shout! So exposed out there on a bad day, nowhere to escape or hide for a moments respite from it.

[MattyO1984]

For me, the two toughest I have played are Carnoustie and Royal Aberdeen.

 

Carnoustie I played really well the time I was down. I ended up +4 from fairly sensible tees which were a mix of the back and one forward (it was early in the season). There was a wind but just about normal. I hit the best 3 wood of my life on 16 into the wind. It was straight down the flag but came up about 15 feet short.

 

Royal Aberdeen I played horrifically. Thank combined with a pretty decent gusting wind and firm bouncy conditions genuinely made it feel like you had to thread it through the eye of needle all day long. Unfortunately I would not have been able to thread a barn door that day so I was left completely punch drunk by the time we were done and not sure if it was because I was awful or the course just brutal.

[Nittynate]

La Purisima. Lompoc, Ca 

[CDLgolf]

On 9/1/2021 at 11:40 PM, grm24 said:

NE Ohio golfers will appreciate this or hated to be reminded LOL! In the mid 80's the original Thunder Hill layout in Madison, OH. Played it as a teenager. The original course was built on a fish hatchery that had around 100 water hazards everywhere on the course. The course was extremely long, had crazy water carries, difficult greens and was just insanely hard. Even from the correct tees. 

 

The course was redesigned in the late 90's and renamed The Reserve @ Thunder Hill. Around 30 water hazards were removed, had a few holes on the back with a routing change and the course really didn't play any easier. Played the course in the fall of 1999. Beautiful conditions. Played the tips at 7,500 yards. 152 slope and 78.5 stroke average. Both times I played it it was by far the most difficult course I've ever set foot on. But strangely fun as well.

 

This was well before the level of equipment we have today. Even at 6,400 yards or so the course sloped at 137, stroke average was 72.5. The course ended up closing in 2011 due to lack of play, diminishing conditions and poor management. The course is now all overgrown.

 

https://ohiogolfguide.com/page.php?page=courseindex.php&id=662&pagenum=9

https://tunagolf.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/courses-weve-played-thunder-hill/

 

 

Such a shame they closed Thunder hill. Although difficult it really was a beautiful course. I was a member there the last 6 years it was open and we had a great group of guys that played there.

[Obee]

On 9/10/2021 at 9:47 AM, Nittynate said:

La Purisima. Lompoc, Ca 

Any round there around par feels like a 65!

[A.Princey]

Greywalls at Marquette, 144 slope.

[lefthack]

I booked a round for my birthday in 2 weeks at the oldest course west of the Mississippi. A true links course on the beach at Gearhart, OR. It also looks especially tough for lefties, so I'm excited.

 

https://www.gearhartgolflinks.com/

[scruffynick]

Royal Birkdale, just a very hard difficult course. 

Lytham St Anne's, opening holes into the wind are brutal and the finishing stretch killed me.....just the 2 toughest tracks I've ever played 

[Jim53]

Fuego Maya in Antigua, Guatemala. Well it was anyway, it go buried when the volcano erupted. It was a Pete Dye Course and just crazy hard, we were walking up the 2nd hole I believe and the ground was shaking. It was serverly uphill and the green was a flat top the rejected balls back down the hill, I hit 4 shots that went back further by me each time from 100 yds. 

Beautiful place, the volcano was smoking that day and blew about a year later. That hole was a straight shot down the mountain and the club house was at the bottom, its all gone now.

[MikeW2]

The Shattuck in Jaffrey, NH 71.0/142 at only 6100 yards and The Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach the Tuesday after the Senior Tour Championship.

[Golf Pig]

Bear Creek Golf Club - Denver, CO - 74.8/146

 

Las Sendas Golf Club - Mesa, AZ - 73.4/145

 

Estancia - Scottsdale, AZ - 74.0/147

[Fairway14]

On 9/6/2021 at 6:41 PM, grm24 said:

Great description!

 

My understanding of Thunder Hill's history is that the property owner (Fred Slagel) designed the golf course himself. He had no background in golf but his idea was to create the world's hardest golf course. I believe construction began in the mid 1970's 's and was complete by about 1979.

I played Thunder Hill a couple of times in the summer of 1982 and at that time the course was in poor shape with only a couple of maintenance  workers and few people wanting to play there. The absurdly difficult holes included 220 plus yard forced carries, jungles of bushes and trees on both sides of extremely narrow fairways, odd shaped greens with severe slopes , small ponds of water on nearly every hole, etc....combined with neglected maintenance made it a place where I assume guys played once but did not want to return again.

[Fairway14]

On 9/10/2021 at 9:47 AM, Nittynate said:

La Purisima. Lompoc, Ca 

 

La Purisma holds an annual Impossible Open golf tournament including tee blocks as far back as possible, grown up rough, hole locations on slopes etc...

[Judge Smails]

I had the pleasure of playing Merion East once. Hands down the hardest course I've played.  When the US Open came and everyone said it would be too "easy" I knew that wouldn't be true!

 

I also played #2 from the tournament tees the year the same Open was played.  Fantastic test of golf and maybe my favorite round ever, but not nearly as challenging.

[nutmegchoi]

Bethpage Black.

For women playing 6,220 forward tee, it's 76.8/150.

 

I've played The Ocean Course, Pinehurst #2, Carnoustie, The Old Course but nothing comes close to The Black.

Edited September 14, 2021 by nutmegchoi

[TCGolfer35]

Dyes Valley at TPC. Brutal if you miss the fairway.

[Pete O'Tube]

1. Royal St George

2. Royal Dornoch

3. Carnoustie

Great courses, but they wear you down.

[mci711]

I've played a lot of courses in this thread - Bethpage, Erin Hills, Kiawah, Carnoustie, The Castle Course, PGA West, Whistling Straits etc.

 

None beat me up like the Pfau Course at Indiana University. Idk if it was bad luck or what, but I felt like I was scrambling to save my butt on every hole. Most frustrated I've ever been on a course. 

[teehilden]

On 9/1/2021 at 12:37 PM, golfortennis said:

A number of Florida courses I've had the pleasure of playing after a several week to several month layoff from golf thanks to the lovely northern weather.

 

Dye Course PGA Village

Champion course PGA National

 

 

Played PGA National in like 20mph winds... big yikes. Probably the toughest I've ever played. Or Mirasol Sunrise, right across the street.

[hammergolf]

Hands down, Cypress Valley golf course in Waskom, TX. It’s only 6700 yds Par 71, but really tight with tons of trees, tiny undelated greens, hilly, sharp doglegs, and cross camber fairways. I shot 70 there once and it’s def one of my best rounds of golf ever. Not sure if it’s even there anymore. There was another tough one in Panama City, FL called Lagoon Legend that at the time I believe had the highest slope rating. Water and OB everywhere. We used to take a trip there every year with my buddies I played on my college golf team with. I think in the entire group we only broke 80 a few times. Honorable mention would be the Bayonet course on old Ft. Ord in Seaside, CA.

[hammergolf]

3 minutes ago, teehilden said:

 

Played PGA National in like 20mph winds... big yikes. Probably the toughest I've ever played. Or Mirasol Sunrise, right across the street.

Those can both play tough.

[hammergolf]

5 hours ago, Pete O'Tube said:

1. Royal St George

2. Royal Dornoch

3. Carnoustie

Great courses, but they wear you down.

I’ve played Carnoustie many times. Yes the last 4 are all you want, but I’ve just never felt it was super tough. I’ve played many much tougher in my opinion.

[ode]

On 9/1/2021 at 1:00 PM, jwhite86 said:

The Bull in Sheboygan Falls... I've probably played it 30 times... it's almost never fun... 

Agreed, it's the hardest I've played....close second is The River at Blackwolf Run....it's a coin flip really.   I always have fun at The Bull.  You gotta get that house outta your head on #4😉

Edited September 15, 2021 by ode