Favorite Course on Tour

[kasting333]

Out of the regular tour stops (non-majors) which is your favorite course to watch pros play?

 

Here is my terrible list: 

 

1. Bermuda - love watching the pros fight the wind on this course. Wish the field was better. 

2. Kapalua - wind and elevation plus a great field. Probably the event that makes me want to go out and play golf the most. 

3. Copperhead- I am biased bc I live in the area and compare my shots to the pros. It does have good finishing holes and pros struggle on it more than I would expect. I wish the field was better here too. 

 

Honorable mentions: Harbour Town and Pebble Beach.
The celebrities ruin Pebble Beach for me but that’s obviously a great watch otherwise. This past year when Berger won was a great watch without the pro-am. 

[smashdn]

Riviera

 

Down the list, Old White, Austin CC, Colonial.

[Abh159]

I like watching them play courses I've also played - Bay Hill, CC of Jackson, TPC Scottsdale, TPC Southwind, and Sea Island

 

 

If I had to choose one that I've never played though it would be a tie between Pebble Beach (for the scenery) and Quail Hollow (because it always just looks like it's in perfect condition).

[JD3]

Liberty national. Views of lower Manhattan are incredible, course looks good too. 

[mat562]

On the PGA Tour my picks would be Muirfield Village, Riviera (I'm not cool enough to call it 'the Riv'), Harbour Town and Sherwood. Lots of very bland, forgettable ones now, though, Majors aside.

 

Europe? Hmm. Again, so many bland, modern, long, samey layouts, so it's hard to pick any now. The recent Seniors Open at Sunningdale was a treat and harked back to the good old days. Wentworth's been somewhat spoiled with some over-zealous design changes in recent years, but the essence of a great course is still there for the BMW PGA. Other than that, Crans-sur-Sierre is always a treat, as much for the scenery as anything; albeit it's a quirky, short course that just works beautifully as a venue for that week's event.

 

I always used to enjoy old style courses like Noordwijkse and Hilversumsche, but they've gone the way of the great English courses now as far as top level tournament golf is concerned. Same story with Barsebäck, up in Skåne. The Irish and Scottish Opens are still trying hard though, with a few great venues in recent years like Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Gullane and Loch Lomond to break up the modern trend of It's 7800 yards off the back tees, looks like it was built last year on top of an old colliery site that we bought for a song, and yes, we know the trees haven't really grown yet, but  it was designed by so-and-so who's a big/legendary/up-and-coming name in overly-bland modern tournament golf course design, so you can't say that's it's samey, uninspiring and uninteresting and looks like every other European Tour venue in Austria/Germany/Sweden/England/etc.

Edited August 28, 2021 by mat562

[mat562]

Oh, and Pebble Beach, obviously.

 

[RainShadow]

Riviera, Pebble, Muirfield Village are a few of my favorites to watch.

Shadow Creek was spectacular, but I suspect we won't be seeing it very often.

[elwhippy]

Riviera, Copperhead, Harbour Town.

[farmer]

I have played Colonial enough to be familiar with how it sets up, so my favorite has to be Colonial.  As an aside, I played Colonial on Sunday before the tournament.  Played really well, 78 from as far back as we could.  First round, some tour guy showoff shot 63.

[bekgolf]

Pebble Beach.  Mostly because we attended a US Open there.  Walking the course and seeing the elevation drops, bunkers, and ocean in person was quite different than watching on tv.

[T.B.]

Muirfield village and harbor town. 

[NJBigFish22]

TPC Sawgrass, TPC Scottsdale, TPC River Highlands and Harbour Town.

[iBanesto]

Crans-sur-Sierre GC.

 

 

 

[woodriff]

Riviera. Love #18. Natural amphitheatre. I’ll never forget Corey Pavin hitting a 5 wood into that green for a win. 
Pavin wasn’t a long ball gorilla, but man he could work that draw. 

[MattyO1984]

Riviera is always one that I enjoy more than the others. Interesting to look at, it’s slot in the schedule reminds those of us in the the more northern reaches of the northern hemisphere that warmer days are on the way and it’s usually a pretty stellar field - win, win, win for me watching.

 

Beyond that Muirfield - not necessarily because of the course more the pristine conditioning that they seem to achieve year after year.

[caniac6]

Harbor Town and Sedgefield.

[Ferguson]

English Turn

[gvogel]

Augusta National is not on Tour, but I really enjoy watching golf there.

 

Pebble, Riviera work for me.  Copperhead and Quail Hollow are nice.

 

Bethpage Black and Shinnicock are fun when majors are there.

 

In Europe, St Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Portrush are real treats.

 

I don't particularly like Torrey Pines at all.

[ChrisL52188]

Monterey Peninsula Country Club

Edited August 30, 2021 by ChrisL52188

[kasting333]

On 8/27/2021 at 10:04 PM, iBanesto said:

Crans-sur-Sierre GC.

 

 

 

Imagine staying in a chalet in the Swiss alps and getting paid to play that course. 

[doublehans]

Riviera 

 

I also like East Lake, but admittedly am biased towards the subtleties of the course from having been to the event several times, and would probably but pebble up there if it wasn't for the pro-am format being so slow.

 

 

[vandyfan]

Not a regular stop but I really enjoyed Concession. Loved the remote location and wild greens. I generally prefer short grass around the greens with steep runoffs rather than thick rough, hospitality tents and other backstops that make golf much more boring. Truly a wonderful sight to see a tour player pitch back and forth across a slick green. VERY RELATEABLE. 

[Mr.Cleeks]

I really like watching tournaments at Riviera and Copperhead both courses are around 7200-7300, but the winning score is usually around -12. Nice to see courses where accuracy is somewhat required.

[golfortennis]

I was a little disappointed the ET moved from Doha Country Club to the new place.  I always enjoyed that course, especially the 15th I believe it is, where there is a huge rock you can drive over to a blind green.  Not sure what the motivation for the move was.

 

I enjoy the Abu Dhabi and Dubai Desert Classic courses as well.  Considering what they can do in the desert, they are some pretty impressive layouts.

 

When the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco was played in the course within the palace walls, that was quite the scene.  

 

Obviously the usual suspects(St ANdrews, Gullane, etc), but some of the above are some darkhorses for me.  

 

In the US, Muirfield Village is the top.  I've played Detroit GC, so that has a bit of interest, as well as PGA National.  Innisbrook is a great course.  Harbour Town as well, but we are usually driving during that tournament so I haven't seen it in a few years. 

 

I really miss Westchester CC.  

[Superfast2.0]

Riviera, Pebble Beach, Muirfield Village

[tiger-vs-me]

Riviera, Shadow Creek, Austin CC

[Mr.Cleeks]

On 8/26/2021 at 8:52 AM, JD3 said:

Liberty national. Views of lower Manhattan are incredible, course looks good too. 

Too bad the tour is replacing Liberty National with Memphis

[iutodd]

I feel like I enjoy all the Florida courses.
 

Bay Hill, Copperhead, TPC Sawgrass and PGA National all look good on TV and they all have pretty great finishing stretches.  The 18th at Bay Hill is pretty famous, Copperhead has the Snake Pit, TPC Sawgrass is a no brainer, and PGA National has the Bear Trap followed by the fun 18th.  
 

Outside of FL it’s hard not to pick Riviera.

 

My wildcard picks would be TPC River Highlands and Sedgefield CC for the Wyndham.  

[markheardjr]

Riviera since I got to play there, and watched several years worth of tournaments in person.

Torrey since I played there probably 20 times, first place I saw Tiger in person.

Firestone when it was a stop, I also got to play there. I grew up in NE Ohio.

Pebble obviously

TPC Scottsdale

TPC Sawgrass (I'm hoping to play next year.)

Sea Island because I got to play there a week before the 2019 RSM

Wild Card....PGA National & Bay Hill. Hoping to play them soon also.

[Soloman1]

On 8/30/2021 at 9:31 AM, ChrisL52188 said:

Monterey Peninsula Country Club

 

Agreed. I like it better than Pebble Beach. I'm sure I'll be scolded for say it out loud...

 

How good is the 14th on the Dunes course? You tee off with spectators behind you who parked their cars just to enjoy the view.