For me, probably St Mellion - Nicklaus. Played it 3 times and each time it chewed me up.
St Mellion would be a good one but The European in Ireland was on a different level. Came in the middle of a long trip, has 20 holes, it was windy and my driving fell apart in the afternoon. It's one of those courses where you think after the 1st hole that this could be interesting/really hard and it was. Still loved it though which is a good sign
Spey Valley - it's hugely long, there's a number of huge green to tee walks to further tire you out, miss the fairway and it's heather and you're probably lost, exacerbated by the number of doglegs, and the poor greens means scoring round there is pretty tough.
I've played 36 on the European and quite enjoyed it. Mind you, I did manage to stay out of 'most' of those horrible bunkers.
It's great isn't it, fifth day of 36 holes might not have helped. We counted 20 holes to make our scores look a bit more respectable
We also played the 'extra' holes first time round, and didn't bother on round 2
When we arrived there wasn't anyone in the kitchen so we were asked to play the front nine, then come in to have breakfast. It was quite bizarre, but worked out well.
Another one for Silloth. It might have been Southerness, but that particular day was all weather related, where has Silloth was as much about the rough as it was about the wind.
We have a saying at my home club, if you are not on the fairway you are behind a tree. At Silloth it was, if you are not on the fairway you have lost your ball.
The worst thing about Silloth was, we never found any balls at all. There are probably hundreds of thousands of golf ball all nestling way down at the bottom of that incredibly lush, thick green grass, and we didn't find a single one.This was me at Deal
Lost balls that ‘must’ have been on the fairway too (all the borrows and humps and hillocks)...or would have been but when you walk 180 yards+ to where you think you ball is, it’s rolled into the thick rough...never to be seen again
Because Deal is so flat, and playing a twilight round looking at a bright sunlight behind a white sky, it was just hard to even pick out my ball in the air. Had a mare all round. Heel strikes all day ?
In contrast, I played the Hotchkin on the most benign weather conditions imaginable, and have never been so good off the tee before nor since
They can be found, when I played there my pal came away a net 6 balls richer. Rarely actually found his own ball though!The worst thing about Silloth was, we never found any balls at all. There are probably hundreds of thousands of golf ball all nestling way down at the bottom of that incredibly lush, thick green grass, and we didn't find a single one.
And, apparently it wasn't even that windy.
It was the 16th McKenzie Green, one of the best ‘chucks’ I have ever seen probably the best. i scored 2 points which was 33% of my score on the back 9. Bring on Royal Dornoch on Saturday!Depending on the green that could be a hell of a throw ?. It's one of the few courses I've played that claims to be a championship course and actually could be.
The V Club in Lithuania wins for me. my old company had a 4 day trip and we all had hired clubs which didn't help. I don't think I've ever seen so much water on a golf course and if you missed the fairway the ball was lost. one guy lost 26 balls and walked in after 14 holes!
i am hoping to go back at some stage with my own bats and see how i get on