Hardest course you’ve played, and why?

[sunshine]

Any championship links course can become almost unplayable (for me) when the wind is up. The tee shots are so demanding: long carries to narrow fairways surrounded by knee deep rough which guarantee a lost ball. Add in driving rain and it is a real slog.

Taking weather out of the equation, hardest set up I have experienced was the London Club Heritage course the day after it hosted the European Open. Rock hard greens, tricky Sunday pin positions, rough left to grow and fairways narrowed. But what I found hardest was the thick fluffy rough around the collars of the greens: Quite a few times I just missed a green by a few feet (or my approach rolled off the hard green) into a position where I would normally fancy my chances of getting up and down, but instead I was in think stuff where the contact was a lottery. Really made me appreciate how good the pros are.

 

[Zig]

Same here, I was thumbing through some headwear and the bloke just said 'oh, just help yourself'

We were the only people playing the day we were last there. Mr Ruddy walked us to the first tee, and followed us down the first fairway.
We came back in, had lunch, and then headed back out for another 18. Mr Ruddy gave us the keys to two buggys free of charge, told us they could be driven anywhere on the course, and suggested we play as many holes as we liked, as we had the course to ourselves.

He's a golf enthusiasts dream. And living the dream. Great place!

 

[Red Mullet]

Southerness is nails!

 

[Zig]

The Centenary at Gleneagles was difficult - wet, so played very long. Carnoustie has bunkers which my ball managed to find even when I thought I'd hit the middle of the fairway.

Sandy Hills at Rosapenna is by far the hardest I'd played.

Until a round at Ballyliffin Glashedy. It was the one day a year they allow people to play from the tips (which they'd just had extended for the Euro Tour). I hit my Sunday best drive up the last and made the fairway by about two yards. I love Ballyliffin, but won't play from those tees ever again.

 

[richbeech]

Toughest course I've played is probably my home track; Wychwood Park in Cheshire. Under the new course rating system I believe it's in the top 5 hardest courses in the country. At this time of year when the rough is up, the greens are firm, fast and if a bit of wind gets up it is extremely hard indeed. Every single shot requires your full attention, even the lay ups on some holes are challenging. There is some long carries on several holes of 240-250 and there are 80 bunkers on the course. It's 6900 off whites and 7100 off the back tees. There was a funny post on the Rick Shiels Facebook page a few weeks back where a fella had put a post on saying how it had beat him up. Our handicap's have always 'travelled well' but now under the new WHS I just loose a shot on most other courses I play.

Second to Wychwood I would probably say JCB in Staffordshire is equally as difficult. Shares some similar traits to wychwood; very long with some big carries and if the wind gets up it's very very tough indeed as Rick Shiels found out recently.

3rd I would probably say Formby just because it's incredibly tight in places. I did also play West Lancs in 30mph+ winds which was a very very tough day but that was mainly down to the wind I would say and not the course.

 

[Rlburnside]

The hardest course I’ve ever played is my home course in Shetland which is very exposed, this particular round was borderline playable because of the wind and rain.

As for some saying they have played in 40-50 mph wind that’s just not possible to play golf with that much wind.

 

[IanM]

I've got some video of our mob on a February day at Burnham where a full gale was blowing and play was abandoned. We went and played to the 5th..just for comedy value. The crossed the dunes and played the last 3 in.

No way of making a score.

 

[Hobbit]

The New at St Andrews. I had a poor round, just too wayward with my approach shots.

Ganton ripped me apart on the front 9. I tried too hard, and it gave me a kicking. Back 9 I played ‘gently’ and ‘got it.’

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

Interesting point. Shouldn’t we just be looking for the highest course rating vs Par (for the scratch golfers) and highest slope (for the bogey golfers), and probably more importantly, is there a database view to allow us to see this?

You can search individual courses, ie. Burnham +4.2/Slope 130, or Wychwood Park +3.9/Slope 151, but I’d love to look through a sorted list of them all...

Royal St George’s is +5.2 course rating which is insane. But I think that USPGA Course (Kiawah Island) is the toughest, +8 course rating and 155 slope...

 

[NoLayingUp]

JCB Golf & Country club. Hardest course I’ve played by a mile.

Extremely long off the tee, very well placed strategic bunkers waiting to swallow up any rash shots. Water in play on a good few holes and the greens were absolute lightning. Running at around 11 on the stimp.

Not to take anything away from the experience as it’s a fantastic course and no doubt in my mind we’ll see it on the European Tour in no time, once it’s had a little longer to fully mature.

A true test of Golf, if you ever get the chance to tee it up there, don’t hesitate.

 

[Orikoru]

Interesting point. Shouldn’t we just be looking for the highest course rating vs Par (for the scratch golfers) and highest slope (for the bogey golfers), and probably more importantly, is there a database view to allow us to see this?

You can search individual courses, ie. Burnham +4.2/Slope 130, or Wychwood Park +3.9/Slope 151, but I’d love to look through a sorted list of them all...

Royal St George’s is +5.2 course rating which is insane. But I think that USPGA Course (Kiawah Island) is the toughest, +8 course rating and 155 slope...

That would bypass the 'you've played' bit of the topic title though..

 

[r0wly86]

Just the course St Mellion Nicklaus Course, super long and tight, quite easy to miss the fairway and lose a ball, even if you hit the fairway still a long iron into most par 4s

with weather Saunton East, incredibly strong winds, and driving rain at points, 1st hole 150 yards to carry the crap, just made it with a driver, I think 16th elevated par 3 playing into wind 160 yards, came up 30 yards short with a driver. Impossible to score in those conditions

 

[evemccc]

Interesting point. Shouldn’t we just be looking for the highest course rating vs Par (for the scratch golfers) and highest slope (for the bogey golfers), and probably more importantly, is there a database view to allow us to see this?

You can search individual courses, ie. Burnham +4.2/Slope 130, or Wychwood Park +3.9/Slope 151, but I’d love to look through a sorted list of them all...

Royal St George’s is +5.2 course rating which is insane. But I think that USPGA Course (Kiawah Island) is the toughest, +8 course rating and 155 slope...

I understand why holes and courses are objectively hard, obvs length, rough, tightness, bunkering, propensity for wind to affect things, green complexes etc etc...

But I don’t understand why / how a course could be relatively harder for a bogey golfer and not a scratch golfer

What I mean is, I get what Slope and Course Rating are in theory...But in practice, for example, how is XYZ Course, a harder course in terms of course rating than ABC Course (for a Scratch golfer), but ABC Course has a higher slope rating (so is harder for a bogey golfer) than XYZ...

Are there examples of a course being objectively harder (CR) than another but a comparative one being hard for a bogey? Are the hardest CR courses also be the highest Slope rating also?

What factors influence it?

And if anyone was bored, and wanted to make it, it would be great to see a database of all the Top 100 courses listed for SR and CR

 

[Dannyc]

Toughest course I've played is probably my home track; Wychwood Park in Cheshire. Under the new course rating system I believe it's in the top 5 hardest courses in the country. At this time of year when the rough is up, the greens are firm, fast and if a bit of wind gets up it is extremely hard indeed. Every single shot requires your full attention, even the lay ups on some holes are challenging. There is some long carries on several holes of 240-250 and there are 80 bunkers on the course. It's 6900 off whites and 7100 off the back tees. There was a funny post on the Rick Shiels Facebook page a few weeks back where a fella had put a post on saying how it had beat him up. Our handicap's have always 'travelled well' but now under the new WHS I just loose a shot on most other courses I play.

Second to Wychwood I would probably say JCB in Staffordshire is equally as difficult. Shares some similar traits to wychwood; very long with some big carries and if the wind gets up it's very very tough indeed as Rick Shiels found out recently.

3rd I would probably say Formby just because it's incredibly tight in places. I did also play West Lancs in 30mph+ winds which was a very very tough day but that was mainly down to the wind I would say and not the course.

Great track Wychwood and tough? I joined there just before the virus hit us as I was getting bored at my place as was looking at a change but ended up staying where I was cause of it I played it the other week was impressed

 

[HeftyHacker]

I understand why holes and courses are objectively hard, obvs length, rough, tightness, bunkering, propensity for wind to affect things, green complexes etc etc...

But I don’t understand why / how a course could be relatively harder for a bogey golfer and not a scratch golfer

What I mean is, I get what Slope and Course Rating are in theory...But in practice, for example, how is XYZ Course, a harder course in terms of course rating than ABC Course (for a Scratch golfer), but ABC Course has a higher slope rating (so is harder for a bogey golfer) than XYZ...

Are there examples of a course being objectively harder (CR) than another but a comparative one being hard for a bogey? Are the hardest CR courses also be the highest Slope rating also?

What factors influence it?

And if anyone was bored, and wanted to make it, it would be great to see a database of all the Top 100 courses listed for SR and CR

I'm opening myself up to ridicule here but I believe its things such as the placement of hazards, the length of rough, width of fairways, the length of holes etc.

For example, a fairway bunker at 220yards isn't likely to trouble the majority of scratch golfers but will be in play for a lot of "bogey" golfers. Similarly the rough will be visited more frequently by bogey golfers so how penal it is is more relevant to them.

Most scratch golfers wouldn't have much trouble getting to a 450 yard par 4 in 2 but bogey golfers would likely need 3 shots etc.

Thats my understanding of it.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

snip

A fairly good thread on one kind of example is Saunton East and West, on this thread(slope and par raking given) :-

Course index evaluation | Golf Monthly

I normally score worse on the 'easier' course, ie West, as some of the holes are trickey. For scratch golfers at Saunton East the hardness is in the length, hazard placements and the green complexs being more challenging on average (in my eyes, its a fairly forgiving course of the tee normally), so this leads to less birdies and ups/downs for par, which is more important for a scratch golf to score.

 

[Backache]

For example, a fairway bunker at 220yards isn't likely to trouble the majority of scratch golfers but will be in play for a lot of "bogey" golfers.

Wouldn't usually trouble me too much I'd generally be able to carry it with my second shot. ;-)
I think you are generally right but most courses are proporionately more difficult for higher handicappers than scratch golfers, in as much as what a scratch golfer will find difficult a bogey golfer will find more difficult . There are though afew features that do not usually trouble scratch golfers too much but cause a lot of problems for bogey golfers such as medium long carries 130-200 yds where falling short is heavily penalised by heavy rough or water.

 

[IanM]

Its all a matter of degree... some courses off the back tees, it might be less punishing if you can't reach the hazards!

BUT, if the length means you can reach the fairway.......

 

[Tongo]

Swindon in the West Midlands. Played it 3 times, all in the summer when it was bone dry. Tight, technical, no margin for error off of the tee and greens like lightning.

 

[Swingalot]

You should really ignore horrible weather imo. A pay and play local muni is a tough track when its blowing 40mph and lashing it down. If you happen to be on a top 100 links course on the day that bad weather comes, not only has ChrisD organised another Kent Links meet but also yes that course on that day is going to rank as one of the hardest you've ever played. Play it on a dry sunny day with no breeze, not so tough and therefore not so hard as others imo which are just pure tough courses no matter the weather.

My vote based on that goes to the Vale of Glamorgan. It is in absolute brute off the back and without a doubt the toughest course I've ever played and by some distance.