Larry Berle

I did it! What an accomplishment! There have been days when I thought this 10-year journey would never end. My quest ended at Atlantic Golf Club on Long Island in Bridgehampton. Designed in 1992 by Rees Jones, it was ranked No.100, and that is a good spot for it. There’s no doubt that Atlantic is great, but it’s one of the least of all greats. I was lucky to have completed the Top 100 at this location. First, a Long Island newspaper published a story on my quest. Second, Long Island is the home of golf in the United States. Third, I played with two friends. We were required to play with someone from the pro shop. Pro-shop assistant Rusty Ripenberger stepped up. The course record was 67 before we tee off, and Rusty shot 33/33 for a 66, a course record (although he tried to play down its “officialness” because some of the tees were not all the way back). Larry Berle

Baltimore Country Club was designed by A.W Tillinghast, who had several courses on the Top 100. He is also credited with Bethpage Black, but recent evidence seems to refute that. He most certainly designed Baltimore and he did an outstanding job. Baltimore Country Club is over 100 years old, although this particular course was not built for the club until 1926 and has hosted five major championships. All of the holes have been named, and those names clearly (if not poetically) describe each hole. Number 4, a par 3 called Plateau, has a huge green sitting high on a plateau. A few holes later is a par 5 dogleg left called the Barn. In its June 2006 issue, Sports Illustrated rated 18 of Tillinghast’s best holes. Number 6 and Number 14 (called Hell’s Half Acre), both par 5s, made that list. The course is beautiful – definitely one of Tillinghast’s best – mostly because of the way it relates to the trees (something that Tillinghast probably had very little to do with). Greens are set in forested amphitheatres that frame the holes, but you never feel like you’re on tree-lined fairway after tree-lined fairway. Number 17, the final par 3, is called Picturesque. Enough said. Larry Berle

Several years after I played Winged Foot East, I finally got an invitation to play the West course… The average green at Winged Foot is 5,100 square feet, small by today’s standards. In his book about Winged Foot, Doug Smith says that there are basically two types of golf course architecture: strategic and penal. Penal is basically one line to follow to your target; if you don’t follow it you’re penalized. A strategic course is one where the golfer has several options to meet his goal, as long as the ball stays in play. Smith says both Winged Foot courses are classic strategic courses. The East course has more water and more doglegs than the West course. Many members swear the greens are tougher on the East, but the West hosts all the big championships and therefore gets all the notoriety. It’s a busy place, but the club has a no-tee time policy. Just show up and play. I had a good round, shooting in the low 90s and putting very well. By the fourth hole, all of us had chipped one in from off the green. By the end of the day, Steven had invited me to play golf at the private estate of his Rockefeller family, which I haven’t had a chance to take him up on, but you bet I will. Ninety-eight down, two to go. Larry Berle

It’s a challenge to get to the Homestead if you don’t live within driving distance of it. We flew to Roanoke and then drove an hour-and-a-half to get there. But it was well worth the time and effort, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially families. There’s plenty to do other than golf. The rooms were wonderful, the food delicious and abundant and if that was not enough, 18 United States Presidents – from George Washington to Bill Clinton – have stayed at the Homestead. It’s amazing that Cascades stays on the Top 100 at only 6,679 yards with a rating of 73 and slope of 137. The first few holes are very plain. On the third tee we looked at each other and wondered how the course rated Top 100 status. We never asked ourselves that again, because the course just kept getting better and better. Tee-shot accuracy is essential. In addition to the overall elevation changes, there are many fairways with severe left and right elevation changes as well; a drive landing in the wrong spot could easily cause your ball to roll all the way across the fairway into the rough on the other side. You could spend a lot of time looking for a golf ball that you were sure was right under your feet. Cascades has five wonderful par 3s (including the closing hole, which is unusual) and only three pas 5s, but the par 5s are fantastic – especially 16 and 17, which have a creek running through them and spectacular mountain ridges on either side. The greens were in great condition for so early in the season. Larry Berle

Along with Double Eagle in Columbus, Ohio, the Quarry at La Quinta may be one of the best conditioned courses I’ve ever played. Most greens in the West are bent grass; most greens in Florida are Bermuda grass. Golfers tend to prefer bent grass because it is far less grainy. The Quarry’s greens are a new strain of Bermuda and they putt like bent grass. They’re simply fantastic. Our group had a forecaddie who not only sanded every divot with green sand/seed mixture, but he picked up the divot pieces after each shot and put them in a bag that he disposed of at the end of the round. The fairways were spotless. The Vintage Club, where we met for breakfast, is exclusive, beautiful and expansive. The Quarry is small, just 54 home lots, and very expensive to join: $225,000 initiation for an individual membership; your wife’s membership privileges will cost another $225,000. The course has many elevation changes and generous, beautifully sculpted fairways in a breathtaking mountain setting. Number 8, a 138-yard par 3, must be as far down off the cliff as it is long. Four beautifully hit 9-irons yielded four pars. Fortunately, Number 9, a 614-yard par 5, was slightly downhill and downwind the day we played. Tom Fazio is my favorite golf architect, and the Quarry is a great course, but not nearly his best. Larry Berle

Wade Hampton is in Cashiers, North Carolina, where the rich of Atlanta, eastern Tennessee, and Florida come to escape the summer heat. It’s another fine fall day, and Wade Hampton is another fabulous course designed by Tom Fazio. Fazio has 10 courses on the Top 100, more than any other architect, and I loved <A href="/golf-course/shadow-creek-north" target=_self>Shadow Creek</A>, <A href="/golf-course/victoria-national" target=_self>Victoria National</A>, <A href="/golf-course/world-woods-pine-barrens" target=_self>World Woods</A> and <A href="/golf-course/black-diamond-ranch-quarry" target=_self>Black Diamond Ranch</A> – all of which he designed. Since Fazio lives in Hendersonville (about 40 minutes from here), I had to ask if Fazio might be at the club today. His wife was playing, as it turns out, but not Tom… Wade Hampton is set up in two very different mountain valleys. The holes had generous landing areas, but plenty of trouble around the greens. As my host drew his approach shot towards the pin on Number 1, he announced in his Southern drawl, “That ball had good towards, which is better than havin’ yonders.” The par 3s are wonderful: Number 6 is a short downhill over a stream surrounded by water, Number 17 is very interesting with two steward trees that look like goalposts in front of what looks like an average-size flat green until you get up there and see that it’s gigantic and far from flat. It’s one of the most challenging greens on the course. After the turn I heard that Tom Fazio – a man I would love to meet – had come to pick up his wife. I’d just missed him. Larry Berle

Fishers Island was designed by Seth Raynor in 1926. Similar to Shoreacres and Camargo, the course features those trademark Seth Raynor greens that almost look like they are sitting up on benches. Yet the large, raised, geometric-shaped greens are in perfect harmony with the ocean horizons, and you can see the ocean from nearly all the fairways. Neither the fairways nor the rough at Fishers Island are watered. Only tees and greens are irrigated, so the fairway conditions are completely dependent on rainfall and weather. When we played the course, the grass was dormant and your lie, even in the fairways, was a chancy thing. If you land in a divot, too bad, divots might not grow back until there’s enough rain. As on Shoreacres, there are many ravines, so you’d better know the distances necessary to carry them. The rough is surrounded by gorse, making Fishers Island feel very much like a links course of Scotland –especially with views of the Long Island Sound on 15 of 18 holes. There’s only one fairway bunker, which I noticed because I was in it. It was a clam day, which is unusual on this course, and with the dormant grass on the fairways, you could get lots of roll. When the wind blows, we were told, this course gets some serious teeth in it.One thing I have come to expect at exclusive clubs is distinctive clubhouses and locker rooms. Fishers Island has no locker room. On the front wall of the golf shop are a couple dozen cubbyholes. That’s it for locker room facilities: You simply leave your street shoes in a cubbyhole…I didn’t like the lack of fairway conditioning. Other than that, most of the holes are spectacular because of their views of Long Island Sound, the Yacht Club, and Long Island. Barclay loved Fishers Island, and he should have. He shot 73, but he likes to tell how he couldn’t sink his two-footer on 18 because it was 5:45 and we had to run off the course to make the last ferry of the day at 6 p.m. Larry Berle

It’s a beautiful day in the Allegheny Mountains of North Carolina. We’re in Linville, home of Grandfather Mountain Golf & Country Club at the base of Grandfather Mountain. It took us a few hours to drive from Charlotte over the twisting mountain roads, but the drive was worth it. Grandfather Mountain, designed in 1968 by Ellis Maples, is the third Maples course I’ve played. He’s a brilliant designer who’s never gotten enough acclaim. It’s peak leaf weekend here in the Allegheny Mountains, the temperature is a sunny 65 degrees, and the colors surrounding this special golf course are brilliant. The course meanders up and down foothills at the base of Grandfather Mountain, with many streams winding through the trees. There are wonderful elevation changes on this course and the greens are very challenging – sometimes too challenging. It’s hard to really pick out the most beautiful hole, but Number 7 really got our attention. After a slightly downhill tee shot that puts you at the bottom of the valley, you look up to see the fall splendor of Grandfather Mountain topped by a swinging bridge at its peak. What a view! The club is private, but I got on simply by calling the head pro. If you are ever in North Carolina, make a call and see if you can get on. It’s well worth it. Larry Berle.

Big greens are a prominent feature of Raynor’s courses; his greens often are square or rectangular in shape and sit on raised plateaus that appear flat, or almost flat, at first glance. Looks, however, are deceiving; the breaks are subtle and can leave your first putts a long way from the hole if you’re not careful. The par-3 6th hole at Shoreacres is a perfect example: Here, the green is more than 200 feet deep (the equivalent of 70 yards, or three-fourths of a football field). There isn’t a field-goal kicker in the NFL who could make a field goal of that length. Depending on pin placement, there could be a five- or a six-club difference in club selection. Big greens are not specific to Shoreacres. At the Raynor-designed <a href="/golf-course/camargo" target="_self">Camargo</a>, the practice green was closed, so two practice holes were cut on the back of the 18th green, which didn’t seem to interfere with play in the least.There are significant elevation changes on Shoreacres, mostly in the form of ravines, with a few on the front nine and several on the back nine. Thank goodness for our great caddie! He knew what club we needed and where to aim every time. Knowing your carry distances is crucial here because the bottom of one of these ravines is not a good place to be. Some of these ravines have mowed, playable areas at the bottom, and one even has a patch mowed to fairway length, but for the most part, if you hit into one, it’s kiss your ball goodbye. If you’ve read Golf in the Kingdom, you’ll know what I mean when I say that some of those ravines on the back nine could be the home of Seamus McDuff.At Shoreacres, the lake breezes definitely come into play. Oddly, the clubhouse is the only place at the club that is directly exposed to the lake, and you can’t see the lake from anywhere on the golf course. Larry Berle.

Victoria National is one of the courses that I was able to get on with a phone call from the pro at my club. It was founded by Terry Friedman, who had bought a former coal mine with a golf course in mind. If you had asked me whether I was in favour of strip-mining a few weeks before my visit, I would have said, “No way.” But I have seen what Tom Fazio did with a former strip mine, and it’s fantastic. This is a tremendous example of turning lemons into lemonade… Victoria National has only 52 bunkers, but it has 114 different tee boxes. Relatively small amounts of dirt were removed here, and water comes into play on 15 holes, so sand bunkers become less relevant under those circumstances. Many of the holes run parallel to the spoils mounds, which creates lots of privacy from hole to hole. The cart paths are almost invisible (due to Fazio’s great skill), and people paths make this a very walkable course. The course is not connected with any housing development, which is unusual in golf course construction today… I didn’t play my best at Victoria National, but I remember standing on the 16th tee after I hit my tee shot into a stripper pit and declaring proudly that it was the first ball I had lost that day. Terry made me feel a little better when he said that the first time he played Victoria National he lost seven balls. Today, Terry shot two under par... I loved this course, and it is easily in my Top 10. Larry Berle

When I finally got to the front of the line, at 6:00 a.m., I had a 10:30 time and four-and-a-half hours to kill. I made friends with the starter as best I could (he was a busy guy), and at 10, there was a cancellation. “Grab your clubs,” he said, “you’re up.”… I chose the white tees, as did Joe, Cal and John, and we were off. It was damp and even a bit chilly and threatening rain. By the time we walked up the 18th fairway more than five hours later, the drizzle was beginning. Of all the par 4s, only four were less than 400 yards and many were 420, 430 and 440, too long for me. But it is a beautifully designed course and in very good shape. Just how it stays in such good condition when it gets played from dawn to dusk every day is a mystery to me. It has lots of elevation changes, many heroic carries over fescue to the fairways and small heavily bunkered greens. In fact the bunkers give this course its character. A WWII veteran once wrote. “I have seen no bomb craters that I’ve studied as anxiously as that bunker guarding Number 2 of the Black Course. They do come bigger. When the ruins are cleared away, plenty of them look more like the third hole from tee to green.” Long, thick rough abuts the fairways, with long fescue and many trees just outside of that. The Black Course demands long accurate play to small, well bunkered greens… No comment on how the front nine went, but I shot a 45 on the back and was damn proud of it. My short game was on through the back because most of the par 4s were unreachable for me. Larry Berle

I know that feeling of anticipation well. In 1989, Shadow Creek debuted at No.8, the highest debut in the history of the Top 100. The course was dreamed up by casino guru Steve Wynn and designed by Tom Fazio. If Shadow Creek doesn’t prove Tom Fazio’s design genius, I don’t know what does…Unfortunately, we had a cloudy day at Shadow Creek, so the shadows that are a large part of the design were not in play. Larry, Jeff and I were picked up by the limo at 10 a.m. Yeah baby! All three of us were greeted by name as we stepped out of the limo at Shadow Creek. We entered the elegant clubhouse, were assigned lockers labeled with celebrity names, and we were off to the practice area. The practice area should not be confused with a driving range. It is divided by stands of trees into areas that hold four people each, so your group can practice in privacy. (God forbid that Michael Jordan should look over and see us.) Everyone hits to the same set of targets. What a concept. We had an 11.30 tee time but were told we could go whenever we were ready. There was one foursome out on the course, and a pair of twosomes scheduled to play around lunchtime. We checked the scorecard to determine which tees we were going to play. There were only two choices: 7,239 yards and 6,701 yards (women have it tough here). It was an easy choice for us, and we were off on our adventure…Let me describe for you three of Shadow Creek’s par 3s. Number 5 was the first par 3 we encountered: 170 yards across a pine-tree-filled abyss. In fact the hole is called “The Abyss.” As they dug the Abyss, Steve Wynn kept saying “deeper, deeper” until they were 66 feet deep, with a tee box on one side and the green on the other. The Abyss is filled with mature pine trees. As I stood on the tee box, I could see the green on the opposite hillside surrounded by pine trees – not exactly a typical desert setting.Number 8 looks like it belongs at Augusta National. Steve Wynn calls it “Shangri-La,” inspired by the secret hideaway in the book Lost Horizon. Completely isolated from the rest of the course, the garden hole is 150 yards and filled with thousands of exotic flowers. You enter and leave it via entrance and exit tunnels. The experience is like walking into a painting. Shangri-La was one of the many surprises along the way.Number 17 would be a signature hole on any golf course, but at Shadow Creek it is one of many signature holes. The 130-yard par-3 hole plays from a ridge 30 feet above the very small putting surface. It is framed at the back by a massive waterfall cascading into a creek that drains into a lake in front of the green. Just close your eyes and imagine that for a moment. This particular creek was called Michael’s Creek, named for Steve Wynn’s father, and had a plaque to identify it. One of the first actions of the new owners was to remove the plaque and change the name of the creek. (It must have been a very friendly sale. Not!)…Shadow Creek is a wonderland. I know $500 is a lot of money, but not in Vegas economics, where people lose more than that in the casino in minutes. It was well worth the cost. Larry Berle.

This club is the home of the annual Colonial Invitational. Annika Sorenstam played against the men here and just barely missed the cut. (I’m sure you read about it – it was covered ad nauseam.) Most important, Colonial was the home course of the legendary Ben Hogan. The Hogan room on the first floor of the clubhouse is filled with memorabilia, photos, trophies, and even his old locker. It’s an awe-inspiring place to ponder the likes of Hogan walking these halls. A wonderful statue of Hogan overlooks the 18th green, leaving you with one last reminder of the great one before you retire to the clubhouse. Colonial is a great test of golf. It is dominated by rows of dense trees on almost every fairway, and the player who is able to control the shape and trajectory of his shots will do well here. I had barely gotten warmed up on the front nine when I came to “The Devil’s Horseshoe” (Colonial’s version of Amen Corner): Numbers 3, 4, and 5. In 1983, Tour Magazine called Number 5 the toughest par 4 on the PGA Tour. Cary Middlecoff had this to say about it: “First I pull out two brand-new Wilson balls and throw them in the Trinity River. Then I throw up. Then I go ahead and hit my tee shot into the river.” Number 5 is a 470-yard par 4, with the Trinity River running up the entire right side of the fairway. It was Brock’s only bogey on the front nine. I made seven. The course was designed by John Bredemus in 1933; Colonial is the only course he designed, as far as I know. Its putting greens are seeded with a new strain of bent grass called A-4, bred to withstand Texas summer heat. I was doing very well in Colonial’s greenside bunkers – up and down three of five times. Larry Berle.

Perry Maxwell designed Southern Hills, and he excels at making a course look easy and play hard. The course was rated No.25 on the Golf Digest list. During the summer of 1999, just two years before the club was scheduled to host the U.S. Open, Southern Hills’ greens were vandalised. Using strong herbicides, vandals spelled out profanities against the newly hired greens superintendent who had just fired most of the greens crew. What a welcome, eh? My planned trip to Southern Hills that summer was abruptly cancelled when the course was closed from August 1999 until June 2000 (although there were still nine holes that members could play). Holes were lengthened; bunkers and greens were rebuilt. In fact, the par-5 Number 5 was lengthened to 615 yards in order to “Tiger-proof” it, but several guys got there in two during the Open anyway. Tony and I went back and tried to play it from 615. He made six; I made nine. Southern Hills has Bermuda grass fairways and greens. The greens are overseeded in late fall, and the Bermuda fairways were dormant when we played the course. The grass looked dead and ratty. Larry Berle.

The Sanctuary has no members and no public play. So, how exactly do you arrange to play the course? The Sanctuary’s owners Dave and Gail Liniger are founders of RE/MAX Realty. Why not just call Dave Liniger and ask if you can play in his backyard? I called the clubhouse (yes, there is one) and told the pro what I was trying to do. (At that point I had played 82 of the Top 100.) The pro said Mr. Liniger hosts five or six RE/MAX events a year for his top-performing employees and than Mr. Liniger donates the course for charity events 15 to 20 times each year. “I can fax you a list of upcoming charity events and you can sign up for one of them,” he said. There was a range of events from $200 to $1,000. I called the Colorado State Highway Patrol to sign up for the Chiefs Challenge Charity Golf Tournament, which was the cheapest and most convenient date for me. I was faxed an application, I sent it with my money, and Bart and I were in. I still don’t know what this charity does, but if Dave Liniger is prone to speeding on Colorado Interstates, his annual donation probably gets him some preferential treatment… Wow, these are some interesting greens. In the mountains, prevailing wisdom tells you that all putts break toward the valley but, in this case, it was hard to determine which valley. There were valleys everywhere… From an aesthetic point of view, the Sanctuary may be the most beautiful I have been on to date. The highest point on the course is 6,590 feet; the lowest point in 350 feet lower. Fourteen of the 18 holes play downhill, and quite a bit downhill at that. From nearly every green you climb to the next tee. Thank God for golf carts. The club has had its golf carts modified for more power and added a more extensive charge for the batteries, because you are always riding up hill. Larry Berle.

Howdy had many Palmer tales to tell. The best story was about the day Arnie shot a hole-in-one with him at Wilmington Country Club; Howdy told it as we stood on the 13th tee where it happened. (It is one of 17 holes-in-one that Palmer has had in his career.)

As you might guess, Howdy is a big Howdy Doody fan, and a few years ago he played a round with Buffalo Bob Smith, who led every show with, “Hey kids! What time is it? It’s Howdy Doody time!” Howdy visited Bob’s house and had his picture taken with the original Howdy Doody puppet. I don’t think he met Clarabell though.

My golf game was still on vacation, and I did my best not to let it get me down. So my round at Wilmington was all about relationships and being the most entertaining guest I could be. Telling my Top 100 stories and listening to Howdy’s Arnie stories was so much fun that I can barely remember the golf course. Larry Berle.

Designed by Bob Cupp and John Fought, Sunriver Resort was ranked as America’s best new resort course in 1995 and debuted at 89 on the Golf Digest Top 100 list, The high-desert course sits in a valley of forested meadows and preserved wetlands surrounded by the Cascade Mountains; the Deschutes River threads its way through the course several times. The snow-covered peak of Mount Batchelor always seems to be in view. The course is also a wildlife habitat and in 1999 it was named a member of the Audubon Sanctuary Program, one of only 150 courses in the U.S. at that time to be awarded that distinction. Crosswater plays up to 7,683 yards (the longest course I’ve ever seen) with par 5s of 582, 635, 687, and 598. I did not play those tees, but even from my tees, these were cripplingly long par 5s. There was hardly anyone around, so I played alone, which was a nice break from the past two days when I was with large groups of people. I had been playing poorly, and I faced some of those demons on this round. When I hit bad shots, I just dropped another ball and hit until I got it right. Leisurely soaking in the beauty of this course was a wonderful solitary experience. I shot 91, which wasn’t bad, and I had a chip in, a couple sand saves, and most impressive to me, an up and down from a bunker 125 yards away. Larry Berle.

Bandon Dunes feels like a Scottish links course, as well it should. It was designed by an unknown Scottish architect named David McLay Kidd (his father was a golf course manager at Gleneagles in Scotland). Kidd insisted that the clubhouse be built inland, saving the coastline for the golf course. (Rumor has it that this was a big factor in Kidd’s hiring; the other architects all recommended giving the clubhouse and ocean view.) In fact, when David McLay Kidd showed up for his interview and saw the formidable lineup of well known golf architects he was competing with, he was ready to pack it in and head back to Scotland. Thinking he didn’t stand a chance of getting the job, he went to the interview with a list of conditions, such as the clubhouse’s inland location, no homes or buildings on or near the course, and the feel of a traditional “British Isles” links course. He left feeling sure he’d never hear from the club again, but a couple of weeks later, Mike Keiser called to say, “You’re hired.” Kidd either is a fantastic golf architect or this may be a case of “God as golf architect” with Kidd doing the routing, but Bandon Dunes is magnificent. It has six wonderful holes on the ocean, with gorse, heather, rolling hills and plenty of sand dunes. It is a walking-only course, so be prepared to walk and be prepared for some breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean. Larry Berle.

It seems to be a Bobby Jones weekend. But how could it be anything else, since Atlanta was the man’s home. It is another glorious day in Atlanta. I am staying in a northern suburb, socially and economically about as far from East Lake as you can get. Peachtree’s membership consists of the longstanding blue-blood families of Atlanta, so exclusive I could find no sign on the front gate whatsoever. Peachtree was designed by Robert Trent Jones. It is one of his finest courses and jump-started his career as a golf architect. And guess who worked on the club with him? Bobby Jones (no relation), the founder and first president of Peachtree. Jones is credited as a co-architect of the course, just as he is credited with co-designing Augusta National several years later. Peachtree looks and feels like Augusta, with similar rolling terrain and vegetation. You may be interested to know that the clubhouse, the old Samuel House Plantation house, served as General Sherman’s 1864 headquarters in his march through Atlanta to the sea. Larry Berle.

As I approached the course in my rental car, you could see that the club and surrounding grounds had a spanking new look that contrasted with a neighborhood in transition. The more I learned about how Tom Cousins had used this club renovation to turn around this neighborhood, the more impressed I became. Bobby Jones grew up across the street from the 13th tee box, and I had my picture taken in front of his house. I was hoping that standing in front of his house would cause some of his skill to rub off on me, but that didn’t happen. The clubhouse is a tribute to the great Bobby Jones and worth a trip all by itself. East Lake now hosts the Tour Championship every year. Watch it on TV. Larry Berle.

It was just Jeff, me, and our caddie, Brian. Brian was a 4 handicap and had caddied for Arnold Palmer dozens of times. He’d even played a few rounds of golf with Arnie. He was a great caddie and made a special day even more special. On the 6th hole, Curt, the head pro, came by in his cart to make sure everything was going all right. Talk about service! Jeff and I both fell in love with Laurel Valley, which is set in the foothills of Pittsburgh. This piece of land was a golf course waiting to happen. The immaculate course is more about discovery of great holes than about creating great holes. Laurel Valley easily makes my Top 10, but unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the course gets little notoriety among golfers, especially compared to <A href="/golf-course/oakmont" target=_self>Oakmont</A>, its neighbor 40 or 50 miles down the road. Laurel Valley’s membership is corporate, and the club has terrific guesthouses, fantastic food, good meeting space, and awesome golf. We had lunch with Curt, who introduced us to Sandy, Arnie’s sister. Like many great golf courses, Laurel Valley is the vision of one man – George Love – and it’s a testament to his unrelenting drive for excellence. Arnie lives 15 miles from here at Latrobe Country Club, where he grew up and his dad was the greens keeper, but Arnie plays Laurel Valley quite a bit and is a serious presence here. Jeff and I went to Latrobe Country Club and checked it out before we returned reluctantly to the airport to fly home. Larry Berle.

Double Eagle is known for its superior condition, and I would wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. It felt like we were walking on plush carpet for 18 holes. The greens are true and quick. There are no traditional tee markers; you just walk up to the yardage plates and hit from there. If the turf is a bit worn, you move forward or backward a pace or two. Double Eagle was designed by Tom Weiskopf, a Columbus native, and Jay Morrish, and there are some wonderful holes here: a couple across lush ravines and a couple with double fairways or distinctive alternate routes to the green. Another feature here at Double Eagle is Number 19, a playoff hole for matches tied at the end of 18. Weiskopf and Morrish were a fantastic design team, and I wish their partnership had not dissolved. I was very happy with the 89 I shot that day. Gary shared an interesting story on the 17th tee, a 355-yard par 4: Head pro Don Shimko scored a hole-in-one on 17, the only hole in one in his life and the only double eagle ever scored at Double Eagle Golf Club. The dues structure at Double Eagle is also a bit unique. There are no monthly dues, just one bill at the end of the year after the year’s expenses are tallied up. Larry Berle.

One call from my pro and we had a tee time at Valhalla, the site of the 1996 PGA Championship. It took us about three hours to fly to Louisville, Kentucky, where we got a courtesy car from the airport and drove to the course. The PGA of America has bought a substantial interest in Valhalla, so it has several major championships to its credit, including the 2000 and 2004 PGA Championships and the 2008 Ryder Cup. Designed by Jack Nicklaus, Valhalla has a beautiful variety of holes and some very challenging greens – too challenging, according to my friend Jeff. Larry Berle.

Sand Hills is all about the golf. “Golf courses are built for many reasons,” Bill Coore said over lunch months later. “The main ones are demographically driven: to support real-estate development or public play and, in some case, purely for golf.” Bandon Dunes and Sand Hills are two leading examples of the pure-golf scenario.

“Dunes land is the foundation of golf,” Coore continued. “This is the land that golf architects like me look for: wind, sand base, random contours on the land. Sand Hills was site-driven not demographically driven. It was built for the sake of golf and no other reason. It’s a place where millionaires can play next to local rancher members. Golf has its deepest roots in this kind of land.”…

The course terrain is rolling, with fescue surrounding the fairways and hardly a tree in sight. It was calm and hot when we started and very windy when we finished. As we ate lunch outside, it was a challenge to keep our food from blowing off the plates. Jeff, Todd, and I all agreed that there are no memorable holes at Sand Hills, but the experience is one that we’ll never forget. Larry Berle.

Baltusrol holds a cherished place in golf’s rich history. It has hosted 16 national championships. The giants of golf have walked its fairways for more than a hundred years: Bobby Jones was here. So, too, were Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and, of course, Tiger Woods. Talk about Founding Fathers! Even George Washington maneuvered troops over this land during the Revolutionary War. Baltusrol has the distinction of being the only 36-hole facility to host a U.S. Open on both its courses. Jack Nicklaus won two of his four U.S. Opens on the Lower course (the one I played). Even with such an illustrious history, Baltusrol isn’t nearly as well known as places like Shinnecock or Pebble Beach… Baltusrol is not a course with many memorable holes. It has no ocean, lake or mountain range to frame it. Rees Jones said it perfectly: “You may not remember a lot of the holes, but you remember they are interesting and challenging to play.” Even Lee Janzen said, “It’s strange, but I went back after winning the U.S. Open there, and I didn’t remember all of the holes.”… After we hit a few balls, Bob and I and our caddie were off. The caddie’s dad had been a career caddie at Baltusrol, and he had been there eight or nine years himself, so he knew the place like the back of his hand. I needed it, too. The breaks of the greens are clearly affected by Baltusrol Mountain, and the greens are very tricky with extremely subtle, hard-to-read breaks. As helpful as my caddie was, I had a poor score, but it was a fun day overall. Larry Berle.

Shoal Creek hosted the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championships; the 1990 Championship brought notoriety to the club that it much rather would have avoided. A month before the championship, Hall Thompson, founder of Shoal Creek, stated in an interview that black members would never be admitted to his club, “That’s not done in Birmingham,” he said. Civil-rights leaders threatened to picket the championship, and major advertisers pulled millions of dollars from the telecast sponsorship. It quickly became a national issue, and soon the PGA and USGA announced that no future tournaments would be held at clubs that discriminate. Shortly thereafter, Shoal Creek invited a black member to join, and <A href="/golf-course/augusta-national" target=_self>Augusta National</A>&nbsp;recruited a black member prior to the 1991 Masters. According to Thompson, recruiting black members at that time was a challenge. Very few blacks could afford the initiation, he said, and of those who could, not many wanted any part of the place. Shoal Creek is a wonderful Jack Nicklaus design cut from a rich forest cradled in the lap of Oak and Double Oak Mountains at the southern end of the Appalachians. It features towering pines, dogwoods, azaleas, and a meandering creek and feels a lot like Augusta National. Larry Berle.

It was very windy (two to three clubs of wind) the day I played the Country Club, but I had an excellent front nine. I shot 40, followed by a 46 on the back nine for an 86 on the day. Then Ed showed me the card from the course record held by Peter Jacobsen: a 64 with 30 on the front including a string of seven straight 3s. Suddenly my 40 didn’t look so good anymore. The Country Club appears to be a small village of yellow clapboard buildings with white trim. It has a traditional looking clubhouse and locker room. It has a guardhouse but no guard; it does, however, have a stuffed uniform sitting in the guardhouse that at first glance looks like a guard. I don’t know if this is intended to have the “scarecrow” effect or if it’s someone’s idea of a joke. I found it hilarious. Larry Berle.

Salem Country Club was designed by Donald Ross. I’m usually not a big Donald Ross fan, but there are two or three of his courses I really like and Salem is one of them. Ross must have spent a lot of time here, because the course has a terrific layout and is fantastically manicured. I was teamed up with Buzz and Larry, both retired and in their late-70s. The course was deserted but for the three of us and a couple of foursomes. The U.S. Senior Open was scheduled to take place at Salem in 2001 and someone from the USGA was out on the course taking photographs. Larry and Buzz played from 5,800 yards, hit it nice and easy, and were a hundred yards down the middle all day. I played from 6,500 yards, and they both marveled at how far I hit the ball. I glowed a little inside each time they commented on the length of my shots because I’m usually the shortest hitter in my foursomes. On the 3rd hole Larry said, “ I can’t take a longer backswing because my arm hits my pacemaker.” We got around in about three hours. We were joined for lunch by four members of their regular golf group, all retired except one. He was 91, still practiced law and played golf two days a week. He was a real inspiration to me. I hope I am still playing golf at age 91. I shot 87, including a 9 on number 15. Don’t ask; I’ve blocked it out. Larry Berle.

The Golf Club was founded in 1967 by Fred Jones. Rumour has it that Jones wanted to get into Scioto but couldn’t get an invitation, so he decided to build his own club and hired a virtually unknown Pete Dye to design it…Fred Jones had a vision and was not about to be deterred from it. The Golf Club was to be a private sanctuary in which his friends could play golf and cards whenever and however they wanted. He slowly acquired 400 acres, most of which was signed over to him on crumpled handwritten notes and napkins he kept in his pocket. When one of his friends asked him if he’d had surveys done on the land, he retorted, “Of course not!” In the end, he turned all his notes and agreements over to a real-estate attorney who put everything in order for him…The Golf Club caters to its members. It’s available whenever a member wants to use it, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The club has 150 members. Why 150? “We only have 150 lockers,” is the stock answer…A couple of Pete Dye’s signature design elements may have first appeared here: A coyote skull lies in a waste bunker on the second hole, and until recently a hangman’s noose hung from a tree near the 16th hole. The noose was removed after one of the grounds crew was mowing the grass close to the creek. His riding mower lost traction, slid down the steep embankment, turned over, and pinned him face down. He drowned in 16 inches of water. The noose was taken down out of respect…The Golf Club is a difficult course, make no mistake about it. The fairways are tight, the greens are severe, and the terrain is rugged. Although the fairways and greens are in terrific condition, the surrounding woods look natural. I shot a 94, respectable for a tough course like this, and birdied Number 15. Larry Berle.

The greens were in beautiful condition with very subtle and hard-to-read breaks. The front nine was the warm up to a hilly and exciting back nine with some great holes and elevation changes. Number 16 is a truly outstanding par 5 that meanders 590 yards. Our caddie said that the elevation change from the 17th tee to the 18th green is the equivalent of walking up a seven-story building, but the incline is so gradual that you would never guess it. Larry Berle.

I was the only one there, save a couple of employees. The sun, a massive orange ball, greeted me as it rose slowly over the end of Long Island. I took my time touring the locker room’s photos and views and thinking of all the great golfers who have sat on these benches and used these lockers. The room had a magical feeling to it. I found the pro shop, met my caddie Bobby, and went to hit balls on the driving range. I am hitting balls where Arnie or Jack once stood, I thought. About a half-hour later another foursome showed up, so Bobby and I decided to get going, so as not to get in their way. I parred Numbers 1 and 2 and was hitting the ball quite well as we moved quickly along the dew-swept fairways. Then, as we walked off the 8th green, Bobby turned to me and said, “These holes were just a friendly welcome to Shinnecock. Now the real golf begins.” And so it did. From the fairway below, the 9th green looked like it sat up on a pedestal, and it was as hard to hit as it looked. Now I knew why the course was not just called Shinnecock. The hills of Shinnecock Hills were coming into play… As we stood on the 12th fairway, Bobby said, “See that big mound on the left side of the green? You’ll never see a pin over there, because there’s a horse buried under there and it’s sacred to the Indians.” The course sits on the Shinnecock Indian reservation. When the club was founded in 1891, it signed a 100-year lease with the tribe. When I first played there in 1998, its renewal was still unresolved… When we were done with the round, Bobby and I headed back to the 10th tee and played 10, 11 and 12 again. Shinnecock Hills is a wonderful place and playing it alone was a truly magical experience. Imagine having one of the world’s greatest golf courses all to yourself for a few hours. Larry Berle.

There are three rules at Garden City: 1. No women; 2. Wear a sport coat in the clubhouse; 3. No cell phones on the course. That’s it! Anything else goes. Word has it that no one cares whether or not you wear a shirt on the course. Garden City is a terrific track, designed by Devereux Emmet. I don’t know if he ever designed another golf course, but he did a fantastic job on this one. The signature of the course is the thick rough and the grassy mounds. Many tees shots demand forced carries of more than 150 yards, camouflaging hidden trouble and proper line of play. Garden City was built to spur growth of a model community, and it has hosted the 1902 U.S. Open, four U.S. Amateurs, and a Walker Cup. Every hole was unique and memorable. The Travis Invitational, one of the New York area’s major golf tournaments, was being hosted by Garden City the next week, and the course was being set up with high rough and fast greens to prepare for it. The rough was a real problem. I had a great front nine (5 over par) with several one-putt greens. The back nine was another story. I was in the rough too many times and ended the day with a 93. Larry Berle.

I had heard from several locals that the course would be in terrible shape, and parts of it were, but most of it was fine. The day was overcast and rain was predicted, but as I stood on the first tee box, it was dry. I liked Harbour Town, especially the short par 4s. There are three holes that are 330 yards or less, and each of them offers a unique challenge. The overall length is only 6,500 yards (short by today’s standards), with postage-stamp greens and very strategically placed trees and pot bunkers. I hit irons off the tee on these three holes and had only wedges in, but each approach had something very challenging about it, especially if wasn’t in the right spot on the fairway. Of course, walking up 18 was a trill as I drove it to the right of the salty marsh and approached the famous red-and-white-striped lighthouse behind the 18th green. Every morning in <A href="/golf-courses/north-america/usa/south-carolina" target=_self>South Carolina</A>, I awoke to predictions of rain, but no rain fell until the 17th hole of Harbour Town, when it started raining and kept raining until I got on the plane at 5 p.m. Larry Berle.

We were in for more Pete Dye golf at Long Cove, but this course was a treat, even though I was a bit tired since it was our second 18-hole round of the day… The first hole had water all down the left side. Finally, on Number 4, we came to a hole without water directly in play. But that didn’t last long. We soon discovered that water or marsh came into play on much of Long Cove. Yow! Keep it straight.
Long Cove is long, narrow, and challenging with water in play on 12 holes. It plays like three different courses: tree-lined holes, almost desert-like holes, and holes with marsh and Intracoastal Waterway. It’s quite impressive. The houses are set back unobtrusively and the grounds are home to wildlife galore; it’s a bit like walking through a bird sanctuary. I would love to return to play here one day when I am fresh. Larry Berle.

In Bury Me in a Pot Bunker, Pete Dye writes that because Kiawah Island lies east to west off the Carolina coast he was surprised to learn there is no prevailing wind. It blows alternately from the east and the west. Don’t get that confused with “not much wind,” however, because there is plenty of wind on Kiawah Island. Such a wind pattern significantly affects both length of holes and green sizes for golf architects, so this posed a perplexing problem for Pete Dye. He had to build larger more receptive greens than he might have otherwise, and he had to build multiple tee boxes to allow for changes in hole distance depending on the wind. As a result, the length can be varied daily with a tee-box change. The greens are not similarly adjustable… When we arrived, it was spitting with rain, which continued on and off for most of our round. Although the wind usually blows at Kiawah, it wasn’t much of a factor that day, and everyone said how lucky we were. But I still though the place was very hard. (The rain didn’t help my attitude, I’m sure.) The tips play more than 7,700 yards, and the course recently had been overseeded (as it is every fall with grass that grows better in the cooler winter weather), so the greens and fairways were shaggy and slow. If you have never been in a waste area or waste bunker, then by all means visit the Ocean course; there are hundreds of yards of them. I won’t tell you my score – not because I am embarrassed, but because I blocked it out of my mind long ago. But by all means, you should test your golf skills here. (By the way, this is where The Legend of Baggar Vance was filmed.) Larry Berle.

Alister MacKenzie, in my opinion, is the greatest golf architect to ever shape raw land into a golf course. He designed <A href="/golf-course/augusta-national" target=_self>Augusta National</A>, <A href="/golf-course/cypress-point" target=_self>Cypress Point</A>, <A href="/golf-course/pasatiempo" target=_self>Pasatiempo</A>, <A href="/golf-course/valley-club-of-montecito" target=_self>Valley Club</A>, and <A href="/golf-course/crystal-downs" target=_self>Crystal Downs</A>, among others. He and Robert Trent Jones Sr., are the only two golf course architects to have been inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame… I had heard nothing but great things about Crystal Downs in Frankfort, Michigan, and I was looking forward to it with more anticipation than any other course on the Top 10 list. Finally I pulled up the entrance drive to the soaking wet, nearly deserted golf club on the shore of Lake Michigan. As I feasted my eyes on Crystal Downs, my thoughts of “beautiful day, beautiful drive, even if I don’t get to play” went right out the window. “This place looks awesome and I really want to play here,” I thought. The clubhouse is underwhelming, and the pro shop is simple and functional. Crystal Downs is all about the course, not opulent amenities, and it’s one of golf architecture’s relatively unheralded masterpieces. Larry Berle.

Ben Hogan called it the “Monster” and the name stuck. Oakland Hills, located in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, has two courses, North and South. That’s probably about as much as you need to know about the North course. In fact, that is all I know about the North course – it exists. The South course exudes tradition and history. The club was founded by a former Ford Motor Company executive and designed in 1918 by Donald Ross, who never saw many of the courses he designed. But Ross must have spent some time at Oakland Hills, because it’s a masterpiece that regularly rates in the Top 10, and it clearly deserves the honor… I sure loved this golf course. It was in fantastic condition, and the holes were as beautiful as those on a parkland course could be. Number 16, for example, is a 400-yard par 4 with a pond at the front right of the green. It’s a shallow green with a ridge running from front left to back right. An approach shot hit long to avoid the water will risk catching the back of that ridge and finding one of the four bunkers behind the green. I shot an 88 that day and felt like I had brought the Monster to at least one knee. My 88 was the best of the foursome… This course is definitely in my Top 10. Larry Berle.

Course #3 has three tee boxes: 7,508 yards, 7,096 yards, and 6,776 yards. We played the short 6,776 tees (yeah right, real short). Course #3 is cut out of woods, one long tree-lined hole after the other. It is lined with more than 4,700 specimens of oak and other species. Each tree is catalogued and labeled for type and age. The grounds crew anticipates the life of each tree and begins to grow a new tree nearby that will be maturing when its neighbour dies. Several hundred replacement trees are planted each year. Course #3 is challenging, but somewhat dull because most of the holes look alike and three of its four par 3s play at approximately the same length across Lake Kadijah (named in honor of Mohamed’s wife). Of course, the fact that I shot 101 might have tainted my view somewhat. Larry Berle.

Aronimink is another Donald Ross design, and the plaque on the first tee states, “Donald Ross thinks this is his best work to date.” The course was in fabulous shape, although a few of the holes were undergoing renovations. The fairways are now mostly tree-lined, but that was not the case when Ross designed the course. I wonder what he would think if he saw this and many of his other courses today. Aronimink, which was named after the Indian chief of the Lenape tribe, hosted the 1962 PGA Championship and the 1977 U.S. Amateur. The course plays to par 70 for men and par 74 for women; the distance issue was solved by adding par 5s for women. Larry Berle.

I assumed Congressional would be overrun with members of Congress, but I don’t think that’s the case (although I think it was the case when it was founded). There are two courses, Blue and Gold (go figure), and the list of golf course designers who have worked on these two courses at various times is too numerous to mention… The course was not in very good shape, and from what I understand, that is often the case. Washington, D.C., lies in a transitional area as far as grass for putting greens is concerned; too far north for Bermuda and too far south for bent grass. Congressional was founded in the 1920s by two Indian Congressmen as a place where Congressmen could play golf and entertain friends. Early members included John D. Rockefeller, Charlie Chaplin, and William Randolph Hearst. It has quite a list of past honorary members including at least half a dozen presidents. Larry Berle.

Sahalee, located in a suburb of Seattle, Washington, was designed by Ted Robinson, his only entry on the Top 100. Caved out of the tall cedar and Douglas fir trees that are native to the Northwest, Sahalee (which means “high heavenly ground”) opened in 1969. In 1998, the course hosted the PGA Championship. I invited my friend Larry, who lives in Seattle, to play the South and North nines, which are the courses rated for the Top 100. As we crossed Lake Washington, we could see the home of Bill Gates being built on the shore. Massive is the word that comes to mind. It was a typical wet northwestern day, and even when it wasn’t sprinkling, the course was soaked and produced no roll. It was an uneventful day, except for the fact that Sahalee was my 50th course. Next course I’d be on the back 50. Larry Berle.

Seminole was designed in 1929 by Donald Ross and sits right on the ocean in North Palm Beach, Florida… I’ve played many Donald Ross courses now, and some are outstanding (Seminole, <A href="/golf-course/oakland-hills-south" target=_self>Oakland Hills</A>, <A href="/golf-course/salem" target=_self>Salem Country Club</A>, for example) and others are just so-so. Ross was a very prolific designer with 413 golf courses to his credit. So many, in fact, that it is doubtful that he actually had time to visit and design all the courses he is credited with in his lifetime. Ross, who died in 1948, probably designed one-third of his courses from photos or topographical maps and never actually saw the land or visited the sites. Another one-third he visited only once or twice. Therefore, there is great variation in the quality of Donald Ross courses across the United States. I am sure Seminole is one where he spent some time… The locker room may be the best I have seen so far. Tradition just screams out at you when you walk in. Its walls are lined with dark, old wooden lockers and pictures and placards that depict the history of the game in America. The names that surround you are Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Ben Hogan. In fact, Seminole became Hogan’s winter digs… Scott told us an amazing story as we stood on the 4th tee, a par 3 of 161 yards. His wife had been a five-time Tennessee amateur champion and had played in the Curtis Cup. One day, years earlier, he and his three buddies were playing at Seminole, while his wife and her three friends played in the foursome in front of him. Number 4 is 141 yards for women, and the four women had a combined score of six. Think about it; two birdies and two holes-in-one. Scott saw the entire thing and says he heard one of the women who had scored birdie walking away from the green mumbling, “What do you have to do to win a hole around here?” The odds against such a feat are astronomical. Larry Berle.

George Fazio (Tom Fazio’s uncle) designed the course in 1970 with Tom’s help. Although it’s called Jupiter Hills and the clubhouse sits on the highest point in the county, most of us who don’t live in Florida wouldn’t call it hilly. It was windy, however, two to three clubs of wind all day, but otherwise pretty nondescript. It’s certainly a good course, but not one that I would hurry back to play again. I shot in the low 90s (the wind was really a challenge). Larry Berle. 

It seldom rains in Santa Barbara; in fact, it hadn’t rained in two months, but it rained that day, almost all day. It began raining on the second hole and never let up. After Number 5, Annie quit and went in; Tom, Lawrence and I struggled on. At the turn, Tom said, “When I get back to the office, no one will believe me when I tell them where I have been.” It seems there are so few bad weather days in Santa Barbara that no one in his right mind keeps playing golf in the rain. On the 15th hole, Tom’s club flew from his soaking wet hand as a duck hook flew off the tee. “That’s it for me – you guys can finish without me.” Lawrence and I moved like drowned rats to the 16th hole and turned it into an adventure to make it to the finish. It was wet, it was sloppy, the holes were full of water, and standing water was beginning to accumulate on the greens – but we were gonna get it done and we did… The Valley Club is a gem with immaculate greens and truly beautifully designed holes. Even in all that slop and muck, I shot 88. I would love to play this gem on a beautiful day. Larry Berle.

This course is on everyone’s Top 10, but to be honest I don’t know why. I liked it but I didn’t love it… Ross is probably the most prolific designer who ever lived; he designed more than 400 golf courses, a third or a quarter of which he never set foot on. At the peak of his career, he employed approximately 3,000 people. Eleven of his courses are on the Golf Digest Top 100. Eighteen U.S. Opens have been played on Donald Ross courses. Although he was bitter after losing the bid to design <A href="/golf-course/augusta-national" target=_self>Augusta National</A>, he then devoted himself to making Pinehurst No.2 the greatest golf course in the nation. He lived at Pinehurst for many years, and he was constantly tinkering with the design of No.2. Most people say it is his best design. I have played several of his other courses (<A href="/golf-course/oakland-hills-south" target=_self>Oakland Hills</A> and <A href="/golf-course/salem" target=_self>Salem Country Club</A>) that I liked much more, but I am clearly in the minority. The price to play Pinehurst had not yet skyrocketed, so we played it two days in a row. The rough was dormant in the fall so it was not particularly scenic. No.2 is not only challenging from tee to green, but almost every green is crowned, so even a well hit shot onto the green may roll off into a collection area, and there are many of those, which can become frustrating. If you’re a good chipper and putter, then you can score well on this course, because you’ll be doing a lot of chipping. If not – well, have a nice day. Larry Berle.

I just dropped a three-foot putt for par on Number 12 at Augusta National, my first par of the day. I am at the apex of Amen Corner, a place I never dreamt I would be standing. Jack Nicklaus calls this “the hardest hole in all of tournament golf.” Gary Player calls this 155-yard hole “the hardest par 3 in the world.” The 12th green at Augusta was the first temperature-controlled green in the world; water pipes were installed underneath the green to keep its surface temperature at a constant 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The 12th hole at Augusta National may be the most recognizable hole in golf because it is viewed on TV by millions of golf fans every year during the spring ritual that is the Masters Tournament. Every golfer dreams of playing this hole. But not many do. The day I played Augusta National was one of the club’s busiest, with six foursomes on the grounds. I know because there is a board in the clubhouse that lists “members on premises.” If playing golf at Augusta National is the most coveted four hours of every golfer in America, how did I get on? I got lucky when I met a member of Augusta early in the third year of my quest… Suddenly my dream day came to a close as we strolled away from the 18th green, where I had watched the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat so many times on the final Sundays of the Masters. I spent $250 on logo merchandise in the pro shop, and I’m guessing that amount was lower than what many guests typically spend. A quick shower and change and my driver pulled up to whisk me back to the airport. As I threw my clubs in the trunk, my driver lowered his voice and said, “One last thing, Larry, when you wake up tomorrow, remember this really happened. It was not a dream.” Larry Berle.

I was ready for a difficult day of golf. Everyone said I would never break 100 on my first visit here. But I parred Number 1 and ended the day with a 92. This is one hard course, par 70 with a rating of 74 and a slope of 153, and it’s only 6,667 yards. I didn’t think the USGA gave out slope ratings that high.
On number 2, Barclay, who was a 4- or 5-handicap at the time, hit a perfect drive down the middle of this 375-yard hole. Then hit what appeared to be a perfect 6-iron, but it barely rolled over the back edge of the green. The green is severely sloped from back to front and the pin was all the way in the front. After a very delicate chip onto the green, he was surprised to hear his caddy say “Bye-bye,” as it slid off the front into one of the famous waste bunkers of Pine Valley, where he stayed for eight shots. Two putts later, Barclay was writing down a 12 for the hole. Number 7 is home to what may be the most famous hazard in golf. “Hell’s Half Acre,” a waste bunker that stretches from the 285-yard mark to the 380-yard mark on this par 5. The 10th hole seems to be a benign 145-yard par 3, but it has what appears to be a tiny bunker in the front left called “The Devil’s Asshole.” Lots of balls seem to find it, and many golfers get very exasperated in there. Enough said!
Number 15 is a 590-yard par 5 uphill into the wind. Whew! I hit driver, 3-wood, 3-wood, and 6-iron, and two putted for a 6. They were all pretty good shots too. It was exhausting. One famous Pine Valley story is about a golfer who had made a substantial bet that he could play the course without losing more than 10 golf balls. He was seen putting his ball across the bridge over the stream on 16, in order to win his bet and keep his ball for three more holes. The caddies at Pine Valley are invaluable, and they have eyes like hawks. The good news is a caddie can find almost any ball that finds its way into the scrub. The bad new is, he stands there and expects you to hit it. Bastard! Larry Berle.

We drove to Wheaton, a small suburb northwest of Chicago, and as we were looking for the entrance drive, we finally saw what may be the smallest sign ever made for a golf course. I don’t want to give you the impression that this place enjoys its privacy, but if the sign were any smaller you would need a microscope to read it…Chicago Golf Club has hosted three U.S. Opens, but that was many years ago. The course has one set of men’s tees at 6,574 yards par 70, so its length prevents it from hosting any major tournaments these days. There are no plantings either: What you play is what you get. There is minimal service in the clubhouse, and the snack shack at the turn is self-serve on the honor system: Take what you want and write it down.The summer of 1995 was unseasonably hot and humid, and the weather took its toll on CGC. The course lost many of its fairways and some of its greens, which were just growing back. The day started with a 450-yard par 4 into a screaming wind, and it was a challenge from there. On much of the course, we played on dead grass, nearly on dirt. I shot 89 that day and was damn proud of it. I didn’t get to see CGC anywhere near its best. This is one course I would love to play when it’s in optimal condition, but I doubt I’ll ever get another invitation to play. Larry Berle.

Maidstone was created in its current form in the 1920s by Willie Park. It lies in East Hampton and, to some people’s thinking, may be the most exclusive club on Long Island. The south end of this peninsula is framed by a thousand-yard stretch of sand dunes with the Atlantic Ocean just over the other side. The soil is sandy throughout; it truly looks and plays like the links courses in Scotland: windy, windy, windy, with sun-baked, non-irrigated fairways and plenty of dunes in which to lose your ball. It’s one of the most understated clubs that I have played, giving the impression that, “no one has any money here,” but only the very elite can get in. Go figure. Some detractors of the course point to the fact that it is only 6,400 yards, but when the wind is blowing, they are 6,400 challenging yards. Larry Berle.

After my lunch at Quaker Ridge, I met up with my host and we were off to the Stanwich Club for a one o’clock tee time. The Stanwich Golf Club is in Greenwich, Connecticut (about 20 miles from <A href="/golf-course/quaker-ridge" target=_self>Quaker Ridge</A>). Two courses, two different states, one day: It felt like a landmark. Stanwich Club was founded in 1964 and designed by William and David Gordon, names I had never heard of before or since. Long, tight, and relatively flat, with trees lining all 18 fairways, Stanwich is truly and imposing test of golf. Perhaps its most memorable features are the Gordon-style greens, some say the fastest on the metropolitan area, canted severely from back to front and bunkered tenaciously at their front corners, with lakes and streams that come into play on eight holes. Larry Berle.

Before I embarked on my Top 100 quest, I’d spent a lot of time in New York City and I’d never once thought of golf. But many of the Top 100 golf courses are near New York City; in fact, 18 of them lie within a 75-mile radius of the Empire State Building. In the summer of 1995, I went back to New York City to play three of them: Quaker Ridge, Stanwich and Maidstone. Quaker Ridge, often referred to as “Tillie’s Treasure” (after its golf architect), shares a fence line with its famous neighbor, Winged Foot… As lore has it, during the Revolutionary War, George Washington slumbered near his beleaguered continental troops under a great oak as he prepared to do battle with the British troops. That oak grows to the right of Quaker Ridge’s 10th hole. Quaker Ridge is every bit as challenging as either of the Winged Foot courses and is a far more beautiful course. However, the club largely has avoided the spotlight of hosting national tournaments. Larry Berle.

Whistling Straits is a walking course only. I played it with one of the top-ranking amateurs in Wisconsin. The caddies were helpful even though the course had only been open for a few months, and watching my partner negotiate that course from the tips was a thing of beauty. I had a tough day in the trees. Next to Pebble Beach, Whistling Straits may be the best golf resort in the U.S. It came on the list almost immediately after it was built in 1998 and in 2004 hosted the PGA Championship. It is the first course to get such an award prior to being completed. It, too, is a stern test of golf, until the wind dies down and the beast becomes somewhat tamer. The par-3 17th directly borders Lake Michigan. It is protected by wooded planks in front and a 20-foot plunge to the lakeshore on the left. The 500-yard finishing hole requires a monstrous and accurate drive just to reach the fairway, and then you must negotiate a cloverleaf green that, according to Darren Clark, “depending on the pin placement could leave players with dogleg putts.” All of the holes have names: 17 and 18 are called “Pinched Nerve” and “Dyeabolical,” respectively. Shaun Michael, the defending PGA Champion in 2004, said, “I had a few words of my own I wanted to call them.” Larry Berle.

Shortly after I introduced myself to my host at Milwaukee Country Club, he asked, “How did you like <a href="/golf-course/blackwolf-run-river" target="_self">Black Wolf Run</a>?” I shared my opinion, and he then revealed that prior to becoming executive director of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, he worked for Herb Kohler and was in charge of developing the two golf courses. Oops! Open mouth, insert foot. I was not off to a good start with this guy I thought.MCC was fantastic. When Pete Dye was asked about MCC, he thought for a few moments and then said, “Great grass.” MCC is in pristine condition, featuring streams, fast greens, and challenging bunkers. On Number 11, I hit into a greenside bunker on such a steep face that I could hardly get a stance in the trap to hit the ball, but I got it on the green and two-putted for my bogey. My host and I became friends, and a few months later, he invited me back to play in the MCC Invitational. We played in both his and my invitationals for three years, and I went with him to the Tournament Players Championship for three years in a row… He and I subsequently played a few other Top 100 courses together, and through him I met Johnny Koss (the Koss headphone Koss), who is also working on playing the Top 100, but he still has a way to go. Larry Berle.

If you’ve never been to Kohler to play golf, you must go. In the late-‘80s, Herb Kohler decided he needed a golf course and hired Pete Dye to design it; he named it Black Wolf Run, in honor of the chief of the local Winnebago tribe. Kohler has four courses now and all of them are terrific, as is the American Club, the only five-diamond resort in the Midwest. The town also is the home of the plumbing-fixture dynasty Kohler, whose showroom alone is worth the trip… I loved the River Course, but I walked away thinking, why would they make a resort course so difficult? Most people see it once or maybe twice in their lives. They don’t want to lose lots of balls and they don’t want the round to take forever. If I were the developer, I would make it more forgiving and enjoyable for the average player who has never seen it before. In Bury Me in a Pot Bunker, Pete Dye seems to have agreed with me. Herb Kohler really wanted a variety of high wild grasses along the fairways creating the same look of Scottish links. Pete did everything he could to dissuade Herb, arguing that golfers would spend all their time looking for balls in the high grass. “My scepticism that public golfers would dread playing a course that featured such conditions was, as Herb continued to remind me, dead wrong,” Pete writes. I guess I was wrong too. Larry Berle.

LACC sits on a very expensive piece of real estate – it wouldn’t surprise me if its land is the most valuable of any golf course in the U.S. It is surrounded by Century City, Beverly Hills, and Holmby Hills. Its address is 10101 Wilshire Boulevard. To those that know their way around L.A., that says it all. But as soon as you pull into the club, the hustle and bustle of L.A. quickly disappears. Two interesting details about LACC: We walked and took caddies. At the 4th hole, the caddie said, “See that wall? That’s the backyard wall to the Playboy Mansion.” Even I thought about boosting myself up on that wall to see what eye candy might lie on the other side, but it was a bit high for that, and the caddies said the wall has electric wires on the top. Once, as a practical joke, they convinced a new caddie to let them give him a boost to look over the wall. When his hand reached the top, he got a big shock and was pissed at those guys for rest of the day. Near Number 14 (a par 5 of 528 yards) was the home of famous TV producer Aaron Spelling. It ran the length of the fairway (more than 500 yards), and makes the LACC clubhouse look like a guesthouse. Larry Berle.

Merion Golf Club has two courses: the West course and the more famous East course. Club members sent architect Hugh Wilson to Scotland to study the best courses. He came back and fitted the holes onto the land as compactly as a jigsaw puzzle. Merion East opened in 1912. Hugh Wilson also brought back the idea of wicker baskets atop the pins, rather than flags. No one knows where this idea originated, but if you’re accustomed to looking at flags for some indication of wind direction or speed, it’s not possible at Merion. Number 1’s tee box is so close to the outdoor dining-room patio that you feel like you have to watch your follow through so as not to hit anyone with your club. Number 3 is a long par 3, a terrific reproduction of a redan hole. A stream runs through the property and Hugh Wilson makes excellent strategic use of it. It comes into play in the darndest places. Back by the clubhouse, Number 13 is a 120-yard par 3. That seems short, especially for a championship course, but it requires a deadly accurate tee shot. I have only played Merion once, and I hope to play it again some day. If I could play only a handful of places in the world for the rest of my life one would be Merion and the other would be <A href="/golf-course/cypress-point" target=_self>Cypress Point</A>. Larry Berle.

I played Oakmont to complete the Top 100, but I have no desire to go back. I can’t understand why anyone other than the best of golfers who really enjoy being tested would want to join Oakmont. In my opinion, this collection of 18 holes is more like a penal colony than a golf course.Oakmont was founded and designed in 1903 by Henry Fownes and his son William. Their goal was to build the most difficult golf course possible, and they succeeded. After the course was built, the Fownes boys would watch golfers play the course, and whenever they saw a player hit over a fairway bunker or hit a poor shot that went unpunished, they would instruct the greens keeper to excavate another bunker. At one time they had directed the installation of more than 350 bunkers. The Fownes’ design philosophy was that “a shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost.” The golf world should be damn glad that this was the only course they designed. Larry Berle.

The first time I played Desert Forest, it began hailing after eight holes and that was that. The following week, my host had me back, but I never got out of the clubhouse because it was cold and rainy. Three years later, I got another chance when a friend from Minneapolis said, “My father-in-law is a member at Desert Forest.” So I finally got my round in. The father-in-law was the mayor of Cave Creek, so I met everyone we ran into that day, and they were all impressed with the fact that the mayor was playing with someone who was on a quest to play the Top 100. The mayor apologized for the course because, for the past few seasons, the fairways had not been overseeded in the winter, so it was brown. It played fine, but its appearance was a hot debate point among the members. It’s a bit strange to hear your playing partner say, “Good shot, you’re in the brown stuff.” This is one of the few clubs in Arizona that is not a real-estate development, so each hole is not surrounded by homes. It’s golf-only, no swimming pool or other activities. Members’ average age is 66 years old, and the course only gets around 17,000 rounds a year. The greens may be the fastest in the Phoenix area, and many people think it has the best greens in Arizona. Larry Berle.

It was my second experience playing a Top 100 course alone in wet conditions, but it was wonderful. Every putt left a trail on the green, and I took this opportunity to practice green reading. When I missed putts, I went back and putted again, with the dew trails teaching me their mysterious lessons. The overcast sky and mist-filled atmosphere made it feel like I was playing in a dream. I encountered Pete Dye’s famous railroad ties and something I hadn’t seen before, his equally famous bridges over streams made from railroad boxcars – very cool. I discovered that Mr. Dye lives in a house near the 18th green. On the opposite side of the fairway from his house was a pond that hugged the entire right side of this dogleg. In the middle of that pond was an island of no more than 50 square feet. On that island was a mailbox with a sign on it: “Club Suggestion Box.” Are you supposed to swim to it with your written suggestion clutched in your teeth? I laughed myself silly… Crooked Stick is where Dye began experimenting with the creation of dips, swales, hollows and undulations throughout the fairways and greens. He also notes an interesting illusion that he created “where golfers appear to be playing down toward an illusionary elevated green. Most of the greens are really at ground level, but with so much earth removed in front, they appear elevated in the mind’s eye.” There is a saying among the members: “Sooner or later the Stick will get you.” Larry Berle.

Prairie Dunes, designed by Perry Maxwell in 1937, is a Scottish style course with hardly any trees and lots of trouble. God forbid they should put up a few trees to protect you from the wind. There are basically two velocities of wind here; windy and windier. On that rare occasion of calm, this would not be a very difficult golf course, so how difficult with wind you ask? Jack Nicklaus, in eight appearances here, never broke par. Sam Sneed, after his first look at the narrow fairway on Number 1, turned to the gallery and said. “Okay, folks, we’ll have to walk single file today.” I bogeyed Number 1 and made a 60-foot putt for par on Number 2. Number 8 was picked by Sports Illustrated for its “Best 18 Holes in America.” I got a double bogey. On Number 9, Jack Nicklaus once scored an 8, and I actually beat Jack Nicklaus on that hole. Wait till I tell him. Number 11 is a 442-yard downwind par 4. I am not a big hitter, but I was a 9-iron away. According to the yardage book, “The approach shot must negotiate a knob in front of the green that is specifically designed to prevent roll-up shots.” I hit my 9-iron high and short in front of that knob. The wind was so strong that my ball went up and over that knob onto and off the back of the green. Now that’s windy. Larry Berle.

You’ll never find the Honors Course without specific directions – go past the third light, and when you see the large propane tank on the right, quickly look left and you’ll see the entrance road – but I found it just as the head pro described it to me: a small road leading to a wooden split-rail gate with a speaker box on it. The Honors Course sign was so small you had to look twice to see it. Why didn’t they just put up a big “Go away!” sign? I pressed the button, and someone in the pro shop acknowledged me and buzzed me in. Late, shamte. There are no tee times at the Honors Course. A big day is 10 foursomes (the typical public course can host that number in less than two hours), so it’s just show up and play. No one can play the Honors Course without a member or at least someone from the pro shop. I was paired with an assistant pro named Dave for the first 12 holes. He had a hot date that night and had to leave, so on the 13th tee box, a female pro came out to complete the round with me. The course was designed by Pete “golfers love torture, that’s where I come in” Dye in 1983. It is 7,000 yards from the tips and has a rating of 75.4 and a slope of 151. To the best of my knowledge, 151 is the highest slope that the USGA has given out, and this course is as challenging as it gets. This little hideaway, which sits in a valley at the foot of White Oak Mountain, was the brainchild of Coca-Cola magnate Jack Lupton, who wanted to honor the amateur golfer and create an indelible impression on each and every player; I would say he succeeded. The only thing missing from the course is railroad ties, one of Pete Dye’s “trademarks,” because Lupton didn’t want any, but even that omission doesn’t make it any easier. Among all this difficulty I did find one rather fun element; the “echo bunker.” If you speak into the bunker behind the 6th green, it echoes back to you, which is not such a good thing if you are swearing a blue streak after a bad sand shot. I had a lovely afternoon with my two pros as we wound our way through the 18 holes set in 400 acres of the Tennessee hills. Larry Berle.

The course sits on a crescent-shaped beach where the pure white sand meets the shimmering aqua water. It has dramatic elevation changes, with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and the snow-capped Mauna Kea mountain peak that towers over the island. Sixteen of the 18 holes play inland, but the two ocean-side holes are spectacular. Our favorite was Number 3, a 200-yard hole starting from a cliffside tee above a raging ocean inlet in which surging water races to meet the rocky, lava-strewn shoreline. Number 11 is just as spectacular. The view from the tee, which sits some 100 feet above the green, is breathtaking with the Pacific Ocean as its backdrop. Larry Berle. 

The Princeville Resort was luxurious and the golf course was like walking through a painting of a rain forest, with an emerald path cut down the center. It climbs, slopes, and careens up and down hills. The fairways looked generous, until the wind got hold of a stray shot and suddenly they seemed as narrow as bowling alleys. The trade winds blow constantly. The course is named for Prince Albert, son of King Kamehameha IV, former king of Hawaii. Four holes were particularly memorable. Number 1 is in Golf Digest’s Top 10 starting holes and may be the toughest opening hole I have ever played. Not a very friendly welcome to the course – but it just kept getting better. Number 7 is a par 3 sitting right on a 300-foot cliff over the Pacific Ocean and one of the windiest places I ever have tried to hit a golf ball. Number 12 tees off from a cliff a hundred feet above the fairway. You stand above the treetops, with rain forest on three sides of you and a lush green strip of fairway in front of you. A well-struck tee shot has a hang time that any NFL punter would die for. Number 13 has the opposite effect. At the end of this par 5, you face a green cut into an amphitheatre with a 180-degree, 75-foot-high wall of rain forest surrounding you. At the back is a waterfall pouring into a small creek. Simply breathtaking! Larry Berle.

When most people think of Arizona courses, they think of the desert courses of Tucson and Phoenix. But Flagstaff, two hours north of Phoenix in a completely different climate, is home to what may be the best golf course in the state, Forest Highlands. Forest Highlands could easily make my Top 10 list. Designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, the property is nestled in among tall pine trees that frame the snowcapped San Francisco Peaks in the distance. Elevation changes abound at Forest Highlands, and many of the holes play downhill through those towering pines. The course is only open in the summer, and we were blessed with a perfect day. We were blown away by this golf experience. Larry Berle.

Hazeltine and Interlachen are the two Minnesota courses on the Top 100. I have played both several times, and somehow I don’t think about them as courses on my quest, but they are no less important than the others I’ve played. Interlachen, in the suburb of Edina, is my favorite course in Minnesota, but I don’t get to play here as often as I would like. Although I know several members, invitations are rare. The setting is very serene; beautiful rolling hills, lovely lakes and ponds, many of which are framed by lush weeping willows. It’s a Donald Ross design and by far one of his better ones, with plenty of elevation changes and lots of water that comes into play. In 1930, Interlachen hosted a U.S. Open, the third of Bobby Jones’ grand-slam victories that year, when he skipped his ball over the water onto the 18th green for a spectacular finish. A few months later, he won the U.S. Amateur at Merion to win an unprecedented grand slam. Larry Berle

Hazeltine and Interlachen are the two Minnesota courses on the Top 100. I have played both several times, and somehow I don’t think about them as courses on my quest, but they are no less important than the others I’ve played. Hazeltine is certainly the best known of the two. Named for the lake on which it sits, the course was founded in 1962 by Totton Heffelfinger, whose ultimate goal was to host a national championship in Minnesota. The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and hosted a U.S. Open in 1970, which brought it plenty of negative press when competitors such as Dave Hill said, “The only thing that Hazeltine is missing is 80 acres of corn and a few cows.” Hazeltine is a golf-only club – no tennis, no swimming pool. Every hole is a strong test of golf. I have played it several times and have several friends who are members. My favorite holes are the holes in which water comes into play. Number 7 is a par 5 with a pond fronting the green. Number 8, is a beautiful par 3 with water on both the front and right side of the green. The 10th and 16th greens jut out into Lake Hazeltine. Number 10 is a severe dogleg left that tumbles down the hill to a green that sits on the lake. Number 16 is the signature hole, formerly a par 3, now converted to a par 4, with the green sitting on its own peninsula on Lake Hazeltine. Larry Berle.

Lake Nona is where the famed golf instructor David Leadbetter lives and does most of his teaching. I was hoping that a trip there would improve my game. Maybe a little of Leadbetter’s aura would rub off on me. No such luck. Lake Nona was designed by Tom Fazio in 1986. It is one of his earlier works and Fazio certainly has done more masterful work since. The course is deserving of Top 100 status, although it has dropped off the list. Many tour professionals live here, including Annika Sorenstam, Ernie Els, and Sergio Garcia. A one-day event called the Tavistock Cup pits the tour pros who live at Lake Nona against the tour pros who live at <A href="/golf-course/isleworth" target=_self>Isleworth</A> (Mark O’Meara, Tiger Woods, etc.). I went in 2005 and discovered that it is one of the few events where you can get anywhere near Tiger because the galleries are so small. All 12 players in the event played from 7,200 yards, and Annika beat half of them. Larry Berle.&nbsp;

Inverness has hosted four U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, and a U.S. Amateur. A few of these tournaments have brought some notoriety to the course. In 1931, Billy Burke and George Von Elm were tied at the end of regulation play. After a 36-hole playoff, they were tied again. Billy Burke won the subsequent 36-hole playoff by one stroke. It still stands as the longest playoff in the history of golf. The 1979 U.S. Open is remembered fondly because of a tree. The 528-yard eighth hole was designed as a classic three-shot par 5, with a severe dogleg left and five deep bunkers in proximity of the green. Where others saw trouble, Lon Hinkle saw an opportunity when he discovered, during practice, that nothing prevented a player from hitting a tee shot through a narrow opening of trees onto the adjacent 17th fairway, then lofting a long second shot over the trees onto the eighth green, a shortcut that cut 80 yards off the intended track. The USGA was not thrilled about his strategy, which compromised the integrity of the three-shot hole and the safety of the gallery on the 17th hole. After Hinkle revealed his shortcut on day one, a very tall tree was planted in the middle of the night to the left of the tee box to plug the gap. Today you can still see what is now fondly referred to as the Hinkle tree blocking the former route through the 17th fairway. The question still remains: Is it legal to alter a golf course during the course of a championship? Inverness is well designed and challenging, but I favor courses that have beauty and terrific views. Yet for its challenge alone, this course deserves its spot on the Top 100, even if it lacks the magnificence of <A href="/golf-course/pebble-beach" target=_self>Pebble Beach</A>, <A href="/golf-course/cypress-point" target=_self>Cypress Point</A>, or even <A href="/golf-course/black-diamond-ranch-quarry" target=_self>Black Diamond Ranch</A>. Larry Berle.

My favourite hole in all golf is here, so much my favourite that I built my home here. Alister MacKenzie, course designer. In 1993, Pasatiempo was rated No. 100 on the list. Would it still be on next year, or the next? I wondered. Was it worth the chance that it might drop off? An unusual combination of public and private, it’s not cheap to join but allows public play. It’s located in Santa Cruz, California, about 50 miles up the coast from the more famous <A href="/golf-course/pebble-beach" target=_self>Pebble Beach</A>, <A href="/golf-course/spyglass-hill" target=_self>Spyglass Hill</A> and <A href="/golf-course/cypress-point" target=_self>Cypress Point</A>. I was in the vicinity, so I decided to play it. Am I glad I did! I’ve been back twice and would play it again in an instant. Holes Number 1 and 2 work their way downhill toward the pacific, framing the ocean with Cypress trees the entire way… As you walk up the 6th fairway, approximately 100 yards from the green, you see the home in which MacKenzie once lived, a fitting shrine for the world’s greatest golf course architect. Number 16 was MacKenzie’s favorite hole in golf, which is saying something since he designed some of the most famous par 3’s in existence. “The 16th green is a garden spot,” he once said. “After playing a drive over the point of the hill, you hesitate to spoil the delightful quiet of this grassy velvet nestling in the trees. It is indeed a beautiful par 4.” None of the other courses MacKenzie designed are public. So if you get a chance to play Pasatiempo, don’t hesitate! Larry Berle.

Black Diamond Ranch was one of the early courses on my quest, yet I knew relatively little about it. With a little research I found out that it’s located in Lecanto, Florida, about 90 miles north of Tampa in an area known for horse ranches. Stan Olsen, an aggressive real-estate developer, bought one of the horse ranches to build this development. He hired renowned golf architect Tom Fazio to build the course in 1987, and it was on the Top 100 as soon as it qualified. I played it shortly thereafter. The front nine of the course is terrific, but nothing compared to the back nine. The holes are artfully designed and the course was in fabulous condition, featuring generous, sculpted fairways. Fazio may be the best golf course architect of his time. His courses are challenging for good players, yet fun for less skilled players. It’s a win-win combination. Unlike most similar developments, the homes here do not encroach on the golf course, and unlike most developers, Stan Olsen maintained the natural beauty of the course’s surroundings. Black Diamond also may be the first golf course built in an abandoned quarry. The five holes in the quarry have brought notoriety to Black Diamond Ranch. Tom Fazio later told me on the phone that during his first inspection of the property, Stan Olsen had not bothered to show him the quarry; it never occurred to him that it would be part of the golf course. When he finally saw it, Fazio knew the quarry would be an integral part of his plan. Suddenly, Fazio told me, other developers and golf course architects were looking for abandoned quarries. I would love to play this place every day. In fact, I liked it so much I would rank Black Diamond in my Top 10. Larry Berle.

Riviera was designed by George Thomas in 1926 and sits in a valley surrounded by the expensive homes of Pacific Palisades perched on the cliffs above. The grass is kikuyu, which I had never played on before. It’s a very coarse grass with stiff, strong blades (so stiff that your ball sits up beautifully in the fairway, almost like it’s teed up). The rough, however, tangles around your club mercilessly. My playing partner and I came around the corner to Number 6, the most famous hole on the course. It’s a par 3 of 142 yards with a sand bunker right in the middle of the green – that’s right, in the middle of the green! Pros have been known to chip over the trap when necessary, but the sign by the green makes clear that this is not acceptable. I made bogey here, landing my tee shot on the wrong side of the sand trap and 3-putting around the trap. Oh well! As we left the green, my playing partner pointed to a house high above the 6th green. “That’s where I live.” Riviera is not a club of celebrities like <A href="/golf-course/bel-air" target=_self>Bel-Air</A>, but there are a few. O.J. was a member until his trial. And there’s the story about Dean Martin and two of his pals getting ready to tee off when Buddy Hackett spotted them and hurried over to join them. “Sorry, Buddy,” Dean said, “We already have a full threesome.” Larry Berle.

Olympic Club is a much-storied course, just a few miles down the road from San Francisco Golf Club, Olympic was founded in 1893 as an athletic club in the city of San Francisco. In 1924, the club acquired land bordered by the Pacific Ocean and Lake Merced to build 36 holes of the Lake and <A href="/golf-course/olympic-club-ocean" target=_self>Ocean</A> courses. The Lake has hosted four U.S.Opens [now five] and the Tour Championship in 1993. Because there are no water hazards and only one fairway bunker, some call the 6,808-yard par 71 Lake course one of the world’s longest short courses. Larry Berle.

As I headed out the door, a friend I was staying with in Carmel, said San Francisco Golf Club does not deserve its notoriety: “I’ll be interested to see if your assessment of it is the same as mine.”… My friend believes San Francisco Golf Club – only 6,600 yards from the tips and par 71 – is not in the same league as <A href="/golf-course/olympic-club-lake" target=_self>Olympic Club</A>, which has hosted many major championships. However, given the chance, I would much rather play San Francisco Golf Club. It sits higher up in the city, with occasional views of both the Pacific and the Bay to the east, and its many elevation changes offer terrific city views. A.W. Tillinghast designed the course in 1918, and I have become a real fan of his work. San Francisco membership is very small, and they like to keep it that way… If you ever have the opportunity to play there, do so. Larry Berle.

If I had to choose to play on only one course for the rest of my life, I would play Cypress Point… I was a very popular person with my golf buddies at home in the weeks leading up to my Cypress Point tee time. Cypress Point allows two unaccompanied foursomes every morning between 7:30 and 8:30, so I could bring three friends of my choosing to play on one of the most beautiful courses in the world. Alister MacKenzie, one of golf’s great architects, designed Cypress Point in 1928. Even though it breaks many of the basic tenets of golf course design – the first hole plays across a road I’m sure didn’t exist in 1928, and there are two back-to-back par 5’s on the front nine and two back-to-back par 3’s on the back nine – Cypress Point ranks consistently in the Top 5 of every golf publication’s top courses list. Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Monterey Peninsula is the most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation.” Its emerald-green fairways wind through the rugged hills and dunes of the Monterey Peninsula lined with beautiful pine and cypress trees. Many deer and elk call these fairways and greens home. There are three par 5’s on the front nine and all are risky, though not long. Holes 8 and 9 are on everyone’s list of great par 4’s. Number 8 is a 345-yard, 90-degree dogleg right, cut through the rolling dunes to a plateau green. Number 9 is less than 300 yards, but 300 of the most challenging yards in golf, especially when the wind is blowing, as it usually is. Larry Berle.

Every fairway at Winged Foot is lined with trees, and if you’re not in the fairway – in many cases on the correct side of the fairway – you’ve got problems. On Number 17, our host hit an incredible 1-iron shot 225 yards to within five feet of the par 3’s hole. His was the only ball in our party to hit the green, but when we got up there, we found two balls on the green. The other one had landed, drifting from another fairway. The golfer who showed up to claim it was Donald Trump, hair disheveled and growing a gut. Our host knew him and introduced us to ‘The Donald,’ who said, “I’m playing with a guy from Golf Magazine. He’s doing a story on me.” Larry Berle.

Golfers who are familiar with the great courses of Long Island claim that the National is a much better golf course than <A href="/golf-course/shinnecock-hills" target=_self>Shinnecock Hills</A>. Its ranking suffers because it’s not long enough for PGA Tour play, and because Golf Digest panellists are not allowed to play without a member. Fewer panellists who vote means lower ratings. We found the National to be a fantastic course with a hole that plays over a road (patterned after the famous Road hole of St Andrews), and with bunkers so deep that you enter and exit them via a small stepladder. (Not that I got in one, but I did drop a ball in a couple of them to see how menacing they were, and they were plenty menacing.)… The course features many holes with blind shots, double fairways, deep bunkers, and plenty of wickets just off the fairways… C.B. Macdonald re-created some of the famous holes of Great Britain at the National. The Road hole from <A href="/golf-course/st-andrews-old" target=_self>St Andrews</A> (Number 7) and the Redan from <A href="/golf-course/north-berwick-west">North Berwick</A> are his most well known designs. Many of America’s early golf architects frequently visited the National to study its challenging and enduring features. The redan, for example, is probably one of the most copied holes in history. You may have played one without knowing it: a medium-length par 3, the green running diagonally from front right to back left, with a large, deep bunker fronting it. The contour of the green falls away in the rear, so the forward right pin position is very difficult to reach. Number 10 is called Shinnecock, as it shares a fence line with its famous neighbor. I strained to see as much as I could across that fence line, not knowing if I would play there tomorrow or some day in the future. Larry Berle.

At Castle Pines, Jack Nicklaus built a challenging course with elevation changes, mountain ponds, and babbling brooks strategically placed to gobble up your ball. Golf balls fly about 10 percent farther in the thin Colorado air. Number 10 is a 485-yard par 4 and almost as many yards down. Number 18 features another of Nicklaus’ signature concepts: the double fairway, with a riskier route for longer hitters and a safer route for shorter hitters. I didn’t do well on the back nine [we played the back nine first], but the front nine was another story.

Number 1 is a breathtaking downhill par 5 of 644 yards, then the longest hole on the PGA Tour. You could stand on that tee box all day just to drink in the fantastic vista. I hit a long sweeping drive that had a hang time over these mountains that would have made even an NFL punter proud. My 3-wood was equally well struck, and there I was 130 yards from the green and still more downhill to go. I hit a 9-iron to 20 feet and drained that 20-footer for birdie. “Yes! I birdied the longest hole on the PGA Tour. Take that Jack Nicklaus.” My partner joked, “Where were those shots on the other nine?” Larry Berle.

Cherry Hills has a tame front nine followed by a challenging back nine. As the four of us stood on the 10th tee, I had to stop for a moment and take in the glorious view of the pristine fairway before us with the Rockies towering in the background under that incomparable Colorado blue sky… Ben Hogan picked Number 14 as one of the finest par 4s in America, and Golfing Magazine called Cherry Hills’ final four holes “four horrible hussies who revel in luring noble men to destruction.” How challenging is 16? So challenging that in 1938 Ray Ainsley had the highest single-hole score on it in the history of the Open (it was the first U.S. Open held west of the Mississippi). He hit his 5-iron approach into the creek and spent an eternity getting it out. He finally 3-putted for a 19. I could have beaten him that day. Larry Berle.

I have played many Jack Nicklaus designs, but Muirfield Village is by far his best. It is fantastically manicured, hardly a ball mark or a divot, or an unattended blade of grass. Number 18 is a beautiful 390-yard par 4 dogleg right with black walnut trees lining the left side of the lush rolling fairway. I hit my tee shot into the right fairway bunker, directly below Jack Nicklaus’ house. “I hope he’s not watching me through his front window,” I thought as I bladed my sand shot into the lip of the bunker and watched it dribble out onto the fairway. Then I hit a crisp 8-iron to that elevated green about 15 feet from the flag. “I hope you’re looking out that front window now, Jack,” I whispered as I proudly strolled up the fairway, imagining thousands of cheering fans surrounding this green on the final day of the Memorial Tournament. Were they cheering me on to make the putt? Or were they cheering Vicki for surviving a round of golf with her mother? Larry Berle.

Spyglass Hill’s first few holes are exciting and interesting as you play along the sand dunes of the Pacific Ocean. With barking seals in the background, the course seems quite lovely. However, after the fourth hole, it moves up into the woods, away from the ocean, and it becomes just plain difficult. The fairways and greens of the back nine are home to many deer. Some have so little fear of humans that you have to shoo them off the tee boxes. I was surprised to find this course on the Top 100, but Spyglass Hill has stayed on the list and remains in the Pebble Beach pro-am rotation. Larry Berle.

Spanish Bay, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., represents target golf at its finest. Nearly every tee shot requires a forced carry over the wetlands. Similar to <A href="/golf-course/pebble-beach" target=_self>Pebble Beach</A> and located just down the road, it sits right on the Pacific Ocean, with many stunning ocean views. Because most of the tee boxes have very limited views of the fairways, you have to be accurate to play here and I found it frustrating. When I started studying the Top 100 list, I was surprised to find Spanish Bay on it. It wasn’t long into my quest that it was dropped from the list. Larry Berle.

It is widely known that Jack Nicklaus has always considered Pebble Beach to be his favorite golf course. He’s won five times here, including the 1961 U.S. Amateur and the 1972 U.S. Open. He even talks about how he has hit every club from 4-iron to pitching wedge on Number 7. The tiny 7th is one of the most photographed par 3’s in existence and the shortest hole on any championship golf course. It is a 95-yard par 3, downhill to a green that sits on a spit of land jutting out into the Pacific Ocean. On a calm day, it’s a wedge shot. On the windiest days, it can be a 3- or 4-iron. On this calm day, it was a wedge and an easy par. There should be a sign on this tee box that reads, “Welcome to Pebble Beach,” because this is the heart of the course. Larry Berle.