Golf Top 18 Recent Courses Blog - Golf Top 18

Ending One Drought

8/30/2021

Eagle Falls Golf Course Review Picture

Being a California resident, I'm no stranger to droughts, including the major one we're in right now. I am happy to say, though, that my four month new golf course drought on the website is over with my review of Eagle Falls Golf Course.
Now, to be clear, I've played quite a few new golf courses over the last four months, but those reviews are still coming, so stay tuned so we can keep it "raining" new golf courses over the next few months.

Consistent Inconsistency

8/15/2021

PGA West Norman Golf Course Review Picture

One of the more difficult things for me to reconcile while adding or amending reviews is the "rating system". Like all such things, the system itself creates its own complications. Does one do a 5 star system, or a 10 star system or a 100 point system? For this website, there is the 5 star system, but there are half points/stars. Ultimately, it's a question of nuance, and, frankly, with over 300 golf courses played over a span of 30 years, I can honestly say that it's pretty likely that with golf course conditions, routings and prices changing as well as my style and outlook changing that the system, although honest, is not possible to stay consistently accurate over time, especially where I may not have played a golf course in a long time, and where it may have changed over that time.

So, my favorite part of doing this is still the non-rating focused part of the "reviews" where I just talk about the good holes and have pictures. That being said, when updating the PGA West Norman golf course, upon playing it for the first time in 11 years, I struggled with the rating and ultimately decided NOT to change it, which lends credibility to my previous rating, although even I might admit I would be somewhat mystified to compare it to other golf courses with the same rating, for good or for bad. I guess it goes back to what the website intro stresses, in that the review is based on nothing more than a feeling, and is more qualitative (mixing thoughts on enjoyment, difficulty, condition, value, etc.) in nature than purely quantitative, even thought it ends up with that one final rating.

Back in Time

7/31/2021

Terra Lago South Picture

I'm cheating...not at golf, but at time keeping as this update was meant to be posted in July, so I'm doing my best Doc Brown for this post with a minor update to the Terra Lago South Course from my trip to the desert way back in April; there are two more courses (one to update and one to add) that I hope to get to soon.

Lots of Golf, Not Much Posting

6/30/2021

Sterling Hills #3 Picture

In life, I've learned things ebb and flow; as a younger man I was able to more consistently keep my energy and focus up when the ebbs took place, but getting older has challenged that. One such manifestation is the consistent posting of these updates. The original goal for the website was two a month with a minimum of one, and, historically, I handled that well, and even might do more if inspired.

This year has proven difficult to keep up with the update posts, even though I've played some new and quite great golf courses, and have some interesting updates to others.

For now, I've posted a couple of minor updates to Sterling Hills and The Crossings at Carlsbad, but the treasure trove of new entries should be on the way this summer.

A New Move, A New Focus

5/1/2021

San Juan Hills Golf Course Review Picture

After spending 20 years as a resident of Los Angeles County, I had pretty much landed on a few golfing spots I defaulted to when wanting to play and tried to mix in a new golf course nearby when I could. I did a great job of that when younger, but less so when the children came, etc.

With my recent move to Orange County, and with my kids older and playing some golf with me, I find myself with less familiar and preferred haunts, and the adventuring out has been re-invigorated.

One such recent exploration was at San Juan Hills Golf Club that I had driven by hundreds of times but never played, but now has a golf course review.

Recent Rustic Review

4/26/2021

It's a busy time of year for me and work, but I was able to get out and play golf at one of my favorite spots in SoCal: Rustic Canyon. I had not updated my Rustic Canyon golf course review in a couple of years, which is now done, and I got to introduce my son to the golf course as well, which was great.

Rustic Canyon Golf Course Review Picture

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!