Let’s try a fun exercise. Think of the top five lists for all the golf courses you’ve ever played. Here’s mine, what are yours?
Top Five Courses:
- Port Royal Golf Course, Southampton, Bermuda. The most scenic, greatest ocean-side course I’ve ever played.
- Congressional Country Club, Blue Course, Bethesda, Maryland. Site of the 1964, 1997, and 2011 U.S. Open. Also hosted the 1976 PGA Championship. Just a great old-fashioned superb test of golf.
- Carnousti Golf Links, Championship Course, Carnousti, Scotland. Home to seven British Open Championships and 7,421 of the most brutal yards of links style golf.
- Columbia Country Club, Chevy Chase, Maryland. Quiet oasis inside a major metropolitan area. Very challenging and has some great holes with significant changes in elevation. Hosted the 1921 U.S. Open.
- Burning Tree Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland. Along with Augusta National, probably one of the one or two most exclusive old-style private clubs in the country. Take a caddy and tee it up where all the big shot presidents were members. Doesn’t even have a website!
#16 at Port Royal, Bermuda
Five Most Fun Holes
- Par-3, #16 at Port Royal in Bermuda. 235 yards of the most breathtaking golf shot you will ever see.
- Par-4, #18 at True Blue in Myrtle Beach, SC. 437 yards of dog leg left with a forced carry over water and water framing the entire hole down the left side. Great finishing hole.
- Par-5, #7 at Eagles Landing in Ocean City, MD. Three shot par-5 measuring 528 yards that doglegs 90 degrees and finishes with a shot to the green set out in the marsh adjacent to the Sinepuxent Bay.
- Par-5, #9 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. Measures 602 yards from the tips and the third shot has to carry a large ravine to an elevated green. Super hole requiring three great shots to get home.
- Par-4, #9 at The Legends, ParklandCourse in Myrtle Beach, SC. At 311 yards this is a brutally tough risk-reward play with the green high on an unprotected hill. When the wind blows you can put up some big numbers on this little daredevil.
#18 True Blue, Myrtle Beach, SC
Top 5 Courses in Myrtle Beach
- True Blue
- Heritage
- Leopards Chase
- Tigers Eye
- TPC Myrtle Beach
Top 5 Public Courses in the Mid-Atlantic
- Eagles Landing, Ocean City, Maryland
- Whiskey Creek, Ijamsville, Maryland
- Rasberry Falls, Leesburg, Virginia
- Blue Mash, Laytonsville, Maryland
- Swan Point, Swan Point, Maryland
Top 5 Practice Facilities
- Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst, North Carolina
- The Legends, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland
- Blue Mash, Laytonsville, Maryland
- Little Bennett, Clarksburg, Maryland
