Golf Top 18 Recent Courses Blog - Golf Top 18

A Sad Sunday in Spring

3/21/2021

top oahu golf Picture

Spring is my favorite season and normally this is one of my favorite days, but I learned recently that, due to CoVID-19, Ko'olau Golf Course in Oahu closed permanently recently. This means that this golf course will eventually be removed from my list of favorites (and reside on the Honorable Mentions page) but, for now, much like the Prince Course in Princeville, that is hopefully not permanently closed, but certainly is at present, it staying put as a lasting homage to these great golf courses.

Feast or Famine: The Third Best Holes

2/18/2021

After adding a "Third Nine" to my Favorite Courses listing to start the year, I began the daunting task of updating my Favorite Holes to include a new Third 18, to back up the Dream 18 and Second 18 lists. While fun, this really opened up a can of worms for several reasons:

1 - I realized I had not taken a close look at these lists in 2 years and there were some fairly great golf holes I had played that had been overlooked or where my opinion changed a bit, which leads to point 2.

2 - Sometimes a golf hole really stands out, or maybe two stand out and they make it on the lists easily. However, often that is not the case. I can easily say that most of the time I'm really only seriously considering at most 5 holes for these three lists. HOWEVER, when stepping back and looking at it years after starting the list, either from playing other holes or passage of time, things tended to shift and I actually had some holes go up or down the lists as I gained new perspective.

3 - Finally, I realized there are a couple of hole numbers that are a little more sparse in "great" ones. The one that stands out the most is hole #9. I think that is for a couple of reasons. First, usually, if there is going to be a great closing hole, it usually is left to be the finisher by the architect (#18). Secondly, a lot of nine holes head back to the clubhouse and lose some points for being "trapped" in that regard. I was happy to find three holes that really stood out, but I had to search for the third one for awhile as there were far less ones that stood out to me.

4 - Several Honorable Mention holes were un-retired, which was great, although one was added due to a bumping from the Par 5 Listing.

Do You Like Having a Third Nine?

1/9/2021

Living in Luxembourg, there was a nearby golf course that had three nines that I played a bit; the upside was that it was rarely too busy out there with the third nine providing extra room. However, if you didn't know the timing of what tee times started where, you could get frustrated at not playing the combo you wanted. Well...

No such problem here as I've likewise made room for a "Third Nine" in my Favorite Courses List since I've now played more than 300 golf courses. There will be no timing issues here though. Some courses were rescued back off the Honorable Mention List (for now) and some came on as more recent plays when I refreshed my mind-set.

I had vowed to do this in 2020 but like so many other things in 2020, it didn't go according to plan. I will be updating the Favorite Holes listings too sometime soon.

I'm excited for 2021 golf as this year I will get to play several new courses that are highly touted and a few old haunts I have not seen in over a decade as well.

Wrapping it Up

12/5/2020

The Ledges Golf Utah Picture

One would think, during CoVID, that I might have more time to do reviews timely, but it has not proven so, with other distractions taking precedent. That being said, here we are, three months later, and I'm finally reviewing the final course in my September golf trip, The Ledges in St. George Utah. Enjoy!

Golf without A Building in Sight

11/15/2020

Built about 40 minutes to the north of Las Vegas, Coyote Springs is a desert oasis and worth the drive to play it. However, it is not easy so don't expect to go low unless you have your A-Game. The fun part about the course, other than trying to avoid the water and desert, is the fact that other than golf course related properties, I don't think there is any buildings in sight from any hole in any direction, which is refreshing in this day in age.

las vegas golf review Picture

Trick or Treat

10/31/2020

Strawberry farms golf review Picture

For Halloween you get a small update to Strawberry Farms, which I played for the first time in 13 years. Ironically, normally I'm fairly aware of my previous ratings and do meaningful updates. This time, due to me playing in a tournament of sorts, I did not deliver on as many golf hole updates as I would have liked to, but it is an update nonetheless and my overall rating didn't change. To be fair, the golf course is actually better than it's rating (which is still a decent rating), but the sur-charge that orange county seems to put on most of it's golf courses usually harms golf courses in that area for being over-priced relative to value and keeps them from being truly outstanding as, even I who enjoys good golf, have a hard time paying the prices they want and usually settle for cheaper local golf if I can find it.

A Planning Pinnacle

9/20/2020

Sand Hollow Golf Course Review Picture

I just got back from a "socially distant" golf trip for 2020 that featured some desert golf. The only course on our rotation that I had played before was the Championship Course at Sand Hollow, in Southern Utah.

I played it back in April 2014 with my daughter along for the ride. The golf course was great but the weather was very overcast and chilly. But, I knew the golf course was great and the weather in September was likely to be much warmer.

The pressure I put on myself to organize good golf trips involves several things beyond my control (weather, how well people play, etc) but golf course choice is always presents the risk of polarization and/or the general feel that time could be wasted, if the golf courses don't get general approval. I can say, without question, this day was one of the most gratifying experiences I could have had as a golf trip planner. Not only did we get cloudless sky, but there was limited wind and the temperatures were actually quite pleasant. It was so enjoyable that half of our group elected to do a replay while the other half headed over to the nearby state park for an enjoying swim in the lake.

It's great when a trip can come together and I'm very pleased that my golf buddies (some of whom only see each other once a year) got to enjoy a golf experience that exceeded even my planning expectations.

An unusual review

9/5/2020

I'm not normally negative on my reviews of courses, but Rancho San Joaquin golf course earned an initial 1.5 stars. To be fair, the course was in disastrous condition, which maybe has something to do with CoVID, but between that and some of the most unusually ridiculous greens on planet earth, I had to deliver this very low review. I've never been happier to birdie the 18th hole, as I shot 79, which, in my own skewed mentality, means i don't have to go back...

An Update for an Update

8/26/2020

When I played Edgewood in June with my son (pictured here), and updated the review, I realized that the 8th hole picture was out-dated, still having the old green before the re-design. However, due to CoVID, we re-configured our summer vacation plans and went to Tahoe a second time, and I was able to snap an updated picture on this hole, albeit from behind the front tee box.

Edgewood Golf Course Review Picture

Another Unexpected Update

8/15/2020

I can honestly say that when I played Pine Mountain Lake golf course for the first time nearly a decade ago, I didn't envision coming back. That had nothing to do with the golf course, but the community is set about 1 hour northwest of Yosemite and would mean that we'd be doing a multi-day Yosemite trip and wanting to stay outside of the national park. We like camping and our first trip to this area was due to a family friend offering up their vacation home for us to stay, which we took. The community is nice and the lake there is great for swimming and the golf course is fine, with lots of deer roaming its hills. However, it just wasn't in our conscious plans. Enter CoVID, which led us to wanting to take driving vacations to nature, but camping in Yosemite, being heavily restricted, was out of the picture. So, we returned here, which was fun to be able play with my son, who was too young the last time we were there. The course also got an upgrade in the reviewing system.

Pine Mountain Lake Golf Course Picture