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The World Greatest Golf Course is now entering the Elite Eight.
Here is the thread to show the full pool and all the results. You decide on which is the World's Greatest Golf Course.
https://www.thehackersparadise.com/...ss-greatest-golf-course-in-the-world.8916364/
(1) St. Andrews Old Course
The Home of Golf
The birthplace of golf features blind bunkers, huge double greens, quirks such as the Road Hole and Hell Bunker and strategic options that vary with the day’s wind. The emphasis on variety and strategy became the foundation for strategic designs that followed, including Augusta National. The Old Course might well possess the fastest, best turf in all of golf (despite, or perhaps because of, its constant use) and no design possesses the flexibility in allowing a 10-year-old, 30-year-old, 50-year-old and 70-year-old to enjoy themselves as a group. Modern architects, take note!
Amid great excitement and almost unbearable tension on the Old Course, The 144th Open featured one of the event's best-ever finishes in which American Zach Johnson eventually triumphed in a four-hole play-off against 2010 Champion Golfer Louis Oosthuizen and Australia’s Marc Leishman.
The Open at St Andrews is always a special occasion and the 2015 edition started on the perfect note with Peter Thomson and Arnold Palmer starring in the Champion Golfers’ Challenge prior to The Open proper.
Drama aplenty unfolded as the world’s best players took on the game’s greatest challenge of playing for the Claret Jug and Dustin Johnson powered into the lead with a 65 on the first day.
The second round was notable for dramatic weather, with flooding on Friday closing the Old Course and gales on Saturday stopping play, but also saw the memorable farewells of Sir Nick Faldo – donning the sweater from his 1987 victory – and five-time Champion Tom Watson, for whom thousands lined the final fairway as darkness descended.
Ireland’s Paul Dunne highlighted the strong amateur challenge by sharing the 54-hole lead before Monday’s absorbing finale – only the second Monday finish in the history of The Open.
That saw Johnson and Leishman make superb charges before Oosthuizen also joined a play-off that Jordan Spieth – the Masters and US Open Champion in hot pursuit of a Grand Slam - and Jason Day only just missed.
Johnson birdied the first two extra holes and finished one ahead of Oosthuizen to become the sixth former Masters champion to win at St Andrews – joining Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods.
The 39-year-old from Iowa said afterward: "I'm grateful. I'm humbled and I'm honored. This is the birthplace of the game and that Jug means so much in sports."
Twitter: @TheHomeofGolf
Website: https://www.standrews.com/Play/Courses/Old-Course
(2) Royal County Down Golf Club
No Laying UP!
This 1889 Old Tom Morris creation is one of the most handsome tests in the world. A collection of golf's most fearsome-looking bunkers populate the course. The game’s best front nine includes the 217-yard, par-3 4th and the blind par-4 9th with its views of the Irish Sea, the Mountains of Mourne and the red-brick steeple of the Slieve Donard Hotel.
On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf. The design is attributed to Old Tom Morris but was refined by half a dozen architects in the past 120 years, most recently by Donald Steel. Though the greens are surprisingly flat, as if to compensate for the rugged terrain and numerous blind shots, bunkers are a definite highlight, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather.
In fact, pictures seldom do the scene justice. For one thing, the Mountains of Mourne are much closer and rise far more dramatically than people imagine; also, the colors are even more vivid than the best trick a modern camera can effect.
So the scenery and the setting can exceed expectations, but is the golf links really “more beautiful than Turnberry” and “more spectacular than Ballybunion?” Even on a dull day when clouds envelop the mountains and hills, Royal County Down is a stunning place. This is because the golf course itself is stunning. There is no famous lighthouse and no Ailsa Craig sitting off the coast of Dundrum Bay, nor is there a sequence of Oceanside holes like the fourth to the 10th at Turnberry, or ones that resemble the rollercoaster 11th and 17th at Ballybunion—but Newcastle doesn’t want for them. It has several holes capable of sending the pulse into overdrive.
After hearing the crash of the sea as you walk along the first and second fairways, pause on the very back tee of the 473-yard third: You are as close to the ocean as could ever wish to be on a golf course, and what a thrilling hole confronts you! The third at Royal County Down has been featured in many a panel’s “greatest 18 holes.” For its entire length, it runs parallel to the shore and is distinguished by an ever-narrowing split-level fairway—when the wind is against, it is a ferociously difficult par-4. Then, honoring that vow, climb to the top tee of the 217-yard fourth to savor one of the world’s finest short holes, and where a sea of heather and gorse (never mind 10 bunkers!) awaits the mis-hit shot; be teased by the sharply dog-legging fifth; enjoy the wonderful sea views from the sixth tee and permit your jaw to drop with dignity at the ninth. At this instant, you will be completing what no lesser a judge than Tom Watson reckons to be “as fine a nine holes as I have ever played.” The five-time British Open champion, like everyone, was particularly struck by the 486-yard, par -5 ninth. Here is where an exhilarating uphill tee shot must be targeted at the mighty peak of Slieve Donard—undisputed king of the Mountains of Mourne—and followed (assuming the drive has successfully flown the hill and descended into the valley below) by a long second to a plateau green.
On the back nine, clamber up the giant hill at the 11th to experience the relief of seeing your ball nestled safely in the middle of the fairway; prepare to be amazed by the character and challenge of the long, curving 445-yard 13th with its splendid amphitheater green—another of the links’ world-famous two-shotter; dare to go for the flag a the precipice style 15th; and dare to go for the green at the chasmic 16th, a tiny four-par of 265 yards.
Twitter: @RCDgolfclub
Website: https://www.royalcountydown.org/
Here is the thread to show the full pool and all the results. You decide on which is the World's Greatest Golf Course.
https://www.thehackersparadise.com/...ss-greatest-golf-course-in-the-world.8916364/
(1) St. Andrews Old Course
The Home of Golf
The birthplace of golf features blind bunkers, huge double greens, quirks such as the Road Hole and Hell Bunker and strategic options that vary with the day’s wind. The emphasis on variety and strategy became the foundation for strategic designs that followed, including Augusta National. The Old Course might well possess the fastest, best turf in all of golf (despite, or perhaps because of, its constant use) and no design possesses the flexibility in allowing a 10-year-old, 30-year-old, 50-year-old and 70-year-old to enjoy themselves as a group. Modern architects, take note!
Amid great excitement and almost unbearable tension on the Old Course, The 144th Open featured one of the event's best-ever finishes in which American Zach Johnson eventually triumphed in a four-hole play-off against 2010 Champion Golfer Louis Oosthuizen and Australia’s Marc Leishman.
The Open at St Andrews is always a special occasion and the 2015 edition started on the perfect note with Peter Thomson and Arnold Palmer starring in the Champion Golfers’ Challenge prior to The Open proper.
Drama aplenty unfolded as the world’s best players took on the game’s greatest challenge of playing for the Claret Jug and Dustin Johnson powered into the lead with a 65 on the first day.
The second round was notable for dramatic weather, with flooding on Friday closing the Old Course and gales on Saturday stopping play, but also saw the memorable farewells of Sir Nick Faldo – donning the sweater from his 1987 victory – and five-time Champion Tom Watson, for whom thousands lined the final fairway as darkness descended.
Ireland’s Paul Dunne highlighted the strong amateur challenge by sharing the 54-hole lead before Monday’s absorbing finale – only the second Monday finish in the history of The Open.
That saw Johnson and Leishman make superb charges before Oosthuizen also joined a play-off that Jordan Spieth – the Masters and US Open Champion in hot pursuit of a Grand Slam - and Jason Day only just missed.
Johnson birdied the first two extra holes and finished one ahead of Oosthuizen to become the sixth former Masters champion to win at St Andrews – joining Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods.
The 39-year-old from Iowa said afterward: "I'm grateful. I'm humbled and I'm honored. This is the birthplace of the game and that Jug means so much in sports."
Twitter: @TheHomeofGolf
Website: https://www.standrews.com/Play/Courses/Old-Course
(2) Royal County Down Golf Club
No Laying UP!
This 1889 Old Tom Morris creation is one of the most handsome tests in the world. A collection of golf's most fearsome-looking bunkers populate the course. The game’s best front nine includes the 217-yard, par-3 4th and the blind par-4 9th with its views of the Irish Sea, the Mountains of Mourne and the red-brick steeple of the Slieve Donard Hotel.
On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf. The design is attributed to Old Tom Morris but was refined by half a dozen architects in the past 120 years, most recently by Donald Steel. Though the greens are surprisingly flat, as if to compensate for the rugged terrain and numerous blind shots, bunkers are a definite highlight, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather.
In fact, pictures seldom do the scene justice. For one thing, the Mountains of Mourne are much closer and rise far more dramatically than people imagine; also, the colors are even more vivid than the best trick a modern camera can effect.
So the scenery and the setting can exceed expectations, but is the golf links really “more beautiful than Turnberry” and “more spectacular than Ballybunion?” Even on a dull day when clouds envelop the mountains and hills, Royal County Down is a stunning place. This is because the golf course itself is stunning. There is no famous lighthouse and no Ailsa Craig sitting off the coast of Dundrum Bay, nor is there a sequence of Oceanside holes like the fourth to the 10th at Turnberry, or ones that resemble the rollercoaster 11th and 17th at Ballybunion—but Newcastle doesn’t want for them. It has several holes capable of sending the pulse into overdrive.
After hearing the crash of the sea as you walk along the first and second fairways, pause on the very back tee of the 473-yard third: You are as close to the ocean as could ever wish to be on a golf course, and what a thrilling hole confronts you! The third at Royal County Down has been featured in many a panel’s “greatest 18 holes.” For its entire length, it runs parallel to the shore and is distinguished by an ever-narrowing split-level fairway—when the wind is against, it is a ferociously difficult par-4. Then, honoring that vow, climb to the top tee of the 217-yard fourth to savor one of the world’s finest short holes, and where a sea of heather and gorse (never mind 10 bunkers!) awaits the mis-hit shot; be teased by the sharply dog-legging fifth; enjoy the wonderful sea views from the sixth tee and permit your jaw to drop with dignity at the ninth. At this instant, you will be completing what no lesser a judge than Tom Watson reckons to be “as fine a nine holes as I have ever played.” The five-time British Open champion, like everyone, was particularly struck by the 486-yard, par -5 ninth. Here is where an exhilarating uphill tee shot must be targeted at the mighty peak of Slieve Donard—undisputed king of the Mountains of Mourne—and followed (assuming the drive has successfully flown the hill and descended into the valley below) by a long second to a plateau green.
On the back nine, clamber up the giant hill at the 11th to experience the relief of seeing your ball nestled safely in the middle of the fairway; prepare to be amazed by the character and challenge of the long, curving 445-yard 13th with its splendid amphitheater green—another of the links’ world-famous two-shotter; dare to go for the flag a the precipice style 15th; and dare to go for the green at the chasmic 16th, a tiny four-par of 265 yards.
Twitter: @RCDgolfclub
Website: https://www.royalcountydown.org/
