Most difficult course you have played?

[mr_divots]

Not really one of the well-known courses at a national level, but locally, The Wilds in Prior Lake, MN may be the toughest I've played.
Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish design. Played the tips once (7,012, 74.4/154.) I played really well that day, hardly missing a shot it felt like, and walked away with an 81. Only complaint is that the course is tough AND it has a housing development all around it, so on top of the holes being tough, you have that "don't spray it through someone's picture window" feeling on more than a few holes. But the size and scale of some of the holes is impressive. I happened to walk it that day and it was a really tough walk too. Designed with carts in mind. Doable, but quite the workout.

Locally, the toughest I am aware of is Hazeltine National's Tournament tees, 7,674, 78.0/155. I haven't played it but got a chance to ride around it in a cart when it was shut down for maintenance and it looked pretty brutal.

[oldpalchamp]

I would say Rich Harvest is the most difficult course I've played. Some really quirky holes. Love the bunker rake system, though!

[One Gray GLI]

Bethpage Black and Lake of Isles (North Course) in CT when I went up for my dad's birthday at Foxwoods..Rees Jones course at Lake of Isles...never played a course with so many damn forced carries. Beautiful course, just quirky if you're playing it for the first time.

[Agent Jim]

Hawks Nest. They had the rough grown up this summer. Played from the blues 6,554y 72.2/140

http://www.hawksnestgolf.com/club/scripts/section/section.asp?GRP=15439&NS=CT

[Grapehunter]

In order of retarded to slightly less retarded:

- The Ranch Golf course San Jose
- The Bridges
- Olympic Club Lake Course
- Spy Glass Pebble Beach

All Blue Tees

[klausdude]

My hat goes off to The Badlands Course located in Vegas. I played late afternoon in the wind. It plays to roughly 73/149 from the back tees and had quite few blind shots into green complexes.

[aer127]

[quote name='Dasenergi' timestamp='1382543783' post='8045921']
The Prince course in Princeville on Kuai it's a beast from any of the back 2 tee boxes. I thought they were kidding when they told our group full of single digit handicaps to play up. I highly recommend it to keep your mental game grounded. 76.2/140, 7400 yards that plays like 9000 with the wind.
[/quote]

Just played there a couple months ago and I agree, very difficult course. I left the driver in the bag the whole round cause the course was tight and the wind was whippin that day.

[SilverBullets]

Spyglass literally ate me alive. Slope and rating wise it isn't near the toughest I have played. But from a playability stand point and for my game, it was brutal. I believe I shot 112 there. The next day I shot 37 on the front at Pebble after tripling the first hole. Fell apart a little on the back but finished with a 83.

I have played Muirfield Village and a couple other courses up in the high 140s/low 150s on slope rating and have never had the issues I had at Spyglass.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

I've played some courses that challenge the best players in the world from the way-back tees. But I usually play them from 6,000 to 6,200 yards and being a short but pretty straight hitter that often takes some of the sting out of them. A good example is the Ocean Course at Kiawah. Play it from 7,000+ yards and it can eat the lunch of plus-handicap amateurs. Play it from way, way back at the PGA Championship tees and it'll make major winners look bad. But I can play within a couple strokes of my handicap from 1,000 yards shorter. it is an excellent case of providing interest and challenge to a wide variety of golfer if they choose the correct tees.

A couple of the courses I've visited are on the British Open rota and if you catch them on a day the wind is 15mph or less they're tough but not humiliating. But again, the visitors tees are quite a bit shorter than the Open tees on most holes.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

[quote name='SilverBullets' timestamp='1382626785' post='8050931']
Spyglass literally ate me alive. Slope and rating wise it isn't near the toughest I have played. But from a playability stand point and for my game, it was brutal. I believe I shot 112 there.
[/quote]

I played Spy with a buddy whose a much better player than me. He found it somewhat in the "eat alive" category while I found it very playable. He's about a 6 handicap and did not break 90. I was playing off 22 back then and think I shot a 100 or 101 or something like that. I will say that over the course of a round I seemed to have every ball possible end up in a decent spot after a mediocre shot. My buddy was snakebit that day, he could hit a ball 5 yards offline and end up with a lost ball or unplayable.

Maybe he was just too aggressive or something but I think it was just "rub of the green". A few bad bounces and I'd have shot 110, a few good bounces and he'd have shot 85. It is definitely a course where my usual ultra-conservative way of playing a course I've never seen before probably paid off. Those greens complexes are so extreme that there's places you just do NOT want a ball to land, especially a long shot coming in.

[tocino]

The hardest course I've played was the bridges in san ramon, ca it had a slope rating of 144. You really needed to hit to specific spots for most of the holes otherwise you'll lose a ton of balls into the ravines and gullies that are all over the place.

[golfortennis]

Toughest I have played would probably be the Dye course at PGA Village. Tips out at 7,279 yds, 75.9/147. While it is relatively flat(it is Florida after all), there is mounding like crazy, and visually it is very deceiving. Odd thing is, the extra yardage over the 1 ups seems to be concentrated on about 5 holes. When I have played up, I've found most holes to be almost not fun because of hitting hybrids to avoid bunkers.

I would like to take a stab at Shepherd's Hollow in Clarkston, MI from the tips one day. I have played Katke-Cousins, but not from the tips(larrybud doesn't let us back there ).

[PGood]

Lonnie Poole @ NC State is the hardest course I have played. 72.9/138

[golfball323]

Butler National from the tips.

[2putttom]

Bayonet Black Horse. Gawd I woulda liked to shoot myself in the foot. Rated at 141 but geez played like 151 which I had a few of in the bar after my round.

[whiteout73]

My home course is Echelon Golf Club, north of Atlanta. Someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread. I've only played it from the blacks a couple times (they don't even put tee markers back there now), but from the black tees, it is 7558 yards, 77.8 Rating, 154 Slope. I normally play it from the gold tees, which are 7,076 yards, 74.9/150. I play it pretty well now (average around 76 or 77), but I don't think I've ever played a tougher course, statistically speaking.

[bogeypro]

Royal New Kent in Williamsburg, VA:
back tees: 7336 yds par 72 rating: 76.5 slope: 146

Robert Trent Jones the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, AL (both of these are impossible from back tees, I wouldn't do it again):
Schoolmaster back tees: 7971 yds par 72 rating: 78 slope: 143
Fighting Joe back tees: [b]8,092 yds [/b]par 72 rating: 78.7 slope: 138

[jldavis73]

[quote name='bogeypro' timestamp='1382639709' post='8052099']
Royal New Kent in Williamsburg, VA:
back tees: 7336 yds par 72 rating: 76.5 slope: 146

Robert Trent Jones the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, AL (both of these are impossible from back tees, I wouldn't do it again):
Schoolmaster back tees: 7971 yds par 72 rating: 78 slope: 143
Fighting Joe back tees: [b]8,092 yds [/b]par 72 rating: 78.7 slope: 138
[/quote]

Wow! I have heard about the difficulty of those courses. 8000 yards is nutty.

[sunbeltgolfer]

Ballyhack in Roanoke Va. Played from the tips there this Spring on a cool breezy day. It was a beautiful beast at almost 7300 yards, 76.1, 155. Seemed much longer to me, possibly the temperature and wind. I would love to play again and maybe move up a box. One of the prettiest courses I've played anywhere and worth the trip if you can get in.

I've also played Royal New Kent and it is a challenge, as well. A good warm up for Ballyhack.

[Holy Moses]

[quote name='whiteout73' timestamp='1382636923' post='8051841']
My home course is Echelon Golf Club, north of Atlanta. Someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread. I've only played it from the blacks a couple times (they don't even put tee markers back there now), but from the black tees, it is 7558 yards, 77.8 Rating, 154 Slope. I normally play it from the gold tees, which are 7,076 yards, 74.9/150. I play it pretty well now (average around 76 or 77), but I don't think I've ever played a tougher course, statistically speaking.
[/quote]

I'm thinking of just teeing it up from the back of the tee boxes just to see how it plays and say I've played a course with 154 slope. Jones just designed this course too well. There are really no gimmie holes on this course outside of the first hole. Bunkers right where you want to hit your drive. There have been days I must have driven into the fairway bunkers 6-7 times. Tons of elevation change and some really difficult uphill par 4s. Some of the gnarliest bermuda rough in the fairway and around the greens I have seen. What I like about this course is that I almost always play fast here. Almost always well under 4 hours.

[Bonesaw]

I liked harbourtown. Tough but fair. I would like to play from where the pro's play it. They had the tips at about 6900-7000 when I got to play this summer. That was a fun day. L
Someone mentioned Lonnie Poole, arnie messed that one up putting par 4 instead of 5 on #3. That is a tough course as well though almost unfair.

[golfjam]

PGA West Stadium Course.

[wbond]

Played Pebble a few days before they closed for the 2000 Open. Couldn't get out of that rough with a weedwacker.
Played Kapalua Plantation in the afternoon in the tradewinds. Easy 4 club wind difference (high ball hitter so it didn't help) and forget about putting, they break in the "wrong" direction and can be lightning fast one way and dead slow the other.

[golfdad907]

Sawgrass TPC from tips( [size="2"]76.8/155[/size]) and Blackwolf Run River course from tips (Black Tees: 76.2 / 151)

[jptruck]

1) Ocean Course, Kiawah
2) Princeville, Kauai
3) Torrey Pines

None are on the best 5 courses list for me, either.

[animalgolfs]

[quote name='tagman79' timestamp='1382542797' post='8045827']
Karsten Creek in Stillwater Oklahoma..greens are so fast if you run a put three foot by and catch a down slope or not get it over a ridge your ball could easily end up off the green. Tee shots are all optical illusions, if you don't play there much you can't possibly know where a safe place to aim is, and there is like fairway,y 10 yards of rough, after that your ball is in rattlesnake infested forest that you would be crazy to enter.
[/quote]

Played there more than once... Amazing 66 is course record with all that play regularly. Don't know if it's toughest I've played... But it's a good challenge regardless

[bub72ck]

[quote name='vbb' timestamp='1382473039' post='8041479']
Royal New Kent in central Virginia. It's consistently ranked among the various golf magazine's top 100 public courses, but it is stupid hard. The tips are a shade over 7300yds and the rating/slope is 76.5/147. From the tees that I play it's still a 73.1/141. If it is the first time you've played the course and you don't really know the layout, forget about it. If you're a mid-high capper, there are so many blind shots and trouble you can't really see that you're lucky if you don't lose 10 balls.

Everyone in my group was at least 10 strokes over their normal score at our various home courses.
[/quote]

I was getting ready to say Royal New Kent. That place is tough. I was at an insurance meeting a few years ago and they took us out there for a round. They paired me with the other low capper in the event and we were one of the few groups that finished playing. I shot 78 and played my butt off.

Others on my list are TPC Sawgrass and Pete Dye Golf Club.

[ljnes1]

[quote name='wbond' timestamp='1382728381' post='8057689']
Played Pebble a few days before they closed for the 2000 Open. Couldn't get out of that rough with a weedwacker.
[/quote]

Played pebble the last day before they closed in 2000. I can verify that the rough was completely insane. How Tiger ended up 12 under after 4 days is just mind blowing. The fairways were cut in so tight too. Wind was blowing about 20 mph that day. It was so hard that I just enjoyed touring around the course, and didn't keep score.

[Jim Clark]

I play tees appropriate to my handicap. These days that's between 6000 and 6500 yards. The new tips at my club are 7700 yards and we're in a flood plain so you get little or no roll. 250 yard par 3s and 500 yard par 4s.....no thank you.

I think the toughest I played (from appropriate tees):

Ocean Course at Kiawah
Prince Course at Princeville

The guys in the shop at Princeville tell you to take at least as many balls as your handicap, they're not kidding. Even if you're a scratch, you better have a couple of sleeves.

I thought the Old Course at St. Andrews was very difficult, mostly because of the blind shots and bunkers. That's a course you'd have to have played often to learn it.

A really fun course we played in Scotland was Crail (the original course). I asked the gentleman in the pro shop if it was OK for me to play the medal tees and told him I was a 14 handicap. He said that was fine, but that it would be the longest 6000 yard course I ever played, he was right.

[agray94]

by the numbers it says that blue top ridge in Iowa is the hardest, but for me turtle bay-palmer course played tougher. Now it was january, it was windy and I hadn't played or even hit outside in a month so that could add to the feeling
I was surprised that Top Ridge was rated tougher than TPC Deere Run also