For me, probably St Mellion - Nicklaus. Played it 3 times and each time it chewed me up.
Hardest course you’ve played, and why?
- Thread starter evemccc
- Start date
nickjdavis
Head Pro
Royal St. Georges for me.
Went there on a club trip, weather wasn't awful but was windy but just couldnt get any sort of scoring going. Didnt help with some of the blind shots (I hate them, whether they are tee shots or approaches) and the fact that there were no ladies tees so the ladies with us had to play off the yellows which meant that there were more than a handful of carries to the fairway that they just could not make so we spent a lot of time looking for their balls...in addition to our own errant and wayward shots!!
Post round meal was good though!!!!
Went there on a club trip, weather wasn't awful but was windy but just couldnt get any sort of scoring going. Didnt help with some of the blind shots (I hate them, whether they are tee shots or approaches) and the fact that there were no ladies tees so the ladies with us had to play off the yellows which meant that there were more than a handful of carries to the fairway that they just could not make so we spent a lot of time looking for their balls...in addition to our own errant and wayward shots!!
Post round meal was good though!!!!
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
Banchory Buddha
Well-known member
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.
That was my other consideration. Played it off the back tees, no buggy so just loads of long walks and in the persisting rain. The result; a miserable 19 points.
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.
Same here, I was thumbing through some headwear and the bloke just said 'oh, just help yourself'
Voyager EMH
Slipper Wearing Plucker of Pheasants
Pennard in the wind and rain when I was a nipper.
D
Deleted member 21258
Guest
Love hard courses, must get to St Mellion, heard alot of people talk about that.
Without the elements to blame, I think its a toss up between JCB Golf in Staffordshire and The European Club in Ireland.
With elements take your pick of almost any of the links courses
Without the elements to blame, I think its a toss up between JCB Golf in Staffordshire and The European Club in Ireland.
With elements take your pick of almost any of the links courses
evemccc
Well-known member
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
Golfnut1957
Newbie
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.
HeftyHacker
Well-known member
They can be found, when I played there my pal came away a net 6 balls richer. Rarely actually found his own ball though!
Sandy Hills at Rosapenna was pretty tasty, take lots of balls and some very comfy shoes
Backache
Assistant Pro
I guess given tough conditions of wind and rain and cold weather most courses can be pretty tough particularly if you're not on your game.
Generally speaking long courses find me out as I'm a short hitter.
I found Dundonald pretty tough the time I played it.
I played Chart Hills at the end of a golfing week away, from tees that were a bit too far back for me and was a bit beaten up by it.
Generally speaking long courses find me out as I'm a short hitter.
I found Dundonald pretty tough the time I played it.
I played Chart Hills at the end of a golfing week away, from tees that were a bit too far back for me and was a bit beaten up by it.
3offTheTee
Tour Rookie
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!
Karl102
Journeyman Pro
Southernerss as already mentioned was a brute that day. I nutted driver on that par 3, and came up well short!
Didn't somebody score 36 pts with the next closest being 24 or something ??
On another note, I played St Annes Old Links and struggled to crack a 100 (off 14 at the time) as did many others in their bank holiday trophy. Rough was up, wind was showing its teeth and greens were rapido.... notable mention to Stu C who parred the first 3 holes!
Played it plenty of times since and have scored well around there.... sign of a good course IMO
Didn't somebody score 36 pts with the next closest being 24 or something ??
On another note, I played St Annes Old Links and struggled to crack a 100 (off 14 at the time) as did many others in their bank holiday trophy. Rough was up, wind was showing its teeth and greens were rapido.... notable mention to Stu C who parred the first 3 holes!
Played it plenty of times since and have scored well around there.... sign of a good course IMO
fundy
Ryder Cup Winner
Canfordhacker
Q-School Graduate
I can think of a number that have beaten me up when conditions were tough. But St Mellion on a fairly calm day just had me wondering how the hell i was going to get the ball to where I wanted/needed it to be. 16 of us there that day, and we all struggled.
