We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Hardest Golf Course you’ve played

wubears71

wubears71

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Jul 23, 2014
Messages
14,796
Reaction score
8,581
Location
Webster Groves, MO
Handicap
8.1 GHIN
I’m curious what is the hardest course you’ve ever played and what made it so hard?

Yesterday I was in Bloomington, IN for work and afterwards played the PFAU course, which is the University of Indiana’s home course opened last year. To say it’s difficult is an understatement. I found it impossible. While the course was beautiful, there was no room to miss and also required a lot of course knowledge just to understand where to hit it and how far you could hit it. And if you missed the fairway, forget about it. Finding the ball felt like a freaking miracle. There were 3 holes that I lost 3-4 balls on. If it wasn’t for ESC I would have posted a 121 in GHIN. The course was just stupid hard.

Here is the scorecard.
33C6DB47-99F2-4F8F-9278-B497819DA8D3.jpeg
I played the blue tees and it kicked my butt.

This was typical of the bunker complexes. If you landed between the bunkers you likely lost a ball 02750F7C-838A-4467-910C-82A8E2412747.jpeg
There was fairway, a first cut, rough, extra rough and then don’t even bother looking rough

C774A2AF-12B8-447F-B8A7-4CA8259D0964.jpeg

This is a very typical fairway - extremely narrow with lots of slope. I can’t tell you the number of times I was on the tee box thinking “what do I even aim for???”
D0B2FABE-3490-49C0-A179-9A284A448C15.jpeg
The greens were hard as a rock and must have rolled at least a 13. Any mid to long iron into the green meant landing it short and let it roll out. I hit a beautiful 5i into the 200 yard par 3 and it landed 5’ on the front of the green and still managed to roll all the way to the back of the green uphill!
59292BEA-C725-4DCC-9519-78A821052466.jpeg

If I ever see a University of Indiana golfer in the NCAA championships, I’m betting the farm on them. If you can score here, you have a stellar game
 
Last edited:
In or around 2000 I played the Ocean Course at Kiawah. It was glorious. I played the blue - because why not. I shot (and I remember to this day) a 97 and felt like a world conquerer. I think the course is harder today - but I can't really explain why. I did make 1 birdie, and when the wind was in your face it was easily a 2 or more club wind (and it felt like it was in our face the entire back nine).

And, I'd play it again if I could - but today I think it's around $500 then it was about $125ish - and no caddies were required.

Edit, I also played a course in New Mexico that was fantastic - I forget the name of it, or for that matter how I scored, it was not great, I remember leaving a lot on the driving range. Oh well. It was a course that Phil Mickelson played in college (for an event or regular school play?) and they said there was par 5 that was over 600 yards that he eagled - this was again around 2000-2003 - so he was incredibly long even then - I think he was still yet to win his first major at that time.
 
Mona Kea in a downpour and 30 MPH winds. Lot of gusts as well and sometimes I could not standup when hitting. Never played in that kind of weather for 18 holes. The course itself was not that hard it was the conditions that were brutal.
 
Old Corkscrew outside Fort Myers, FLA. Only played it once, and it was really windy, but there was water/hazards absolutely everywhere. If you were not in the fairway or on the green, you were in big trouble. The wind certainly made it harder, but still very difficult.

Pretty sure it was like a 145 slope and that was only from 6500 yards
 
When I was playing my best golf, two courses always kicked my back side in a royal fashion. Nothing I could do could ease the butt kickings I recieved.

Out west, it's Spyglass Hill, which is part of the Pebble Beach area. Even with a caddy it was way tougher than my ability. Played it several times. My putting was atrocious.

On visits to Ft Worth Texas, a course called Rockwood, humbled me beyond belief. The course didn't look hard, it just played hard....for me. For no particular reason. Perhaps it was a different type of grass. Idk.

Funny part was, when in both areas, I always looked forward to playing these two courses.
 
Without extenuating circumstances like weather or coming out of a winter it would have to be The Blue Monster at Doral. The par 3s were very hard.
 
Most difficult was Tower Ranch Golf Course in Kelowna, BC. Slope rating of 126 off the blue tees, but that required significant local knowledge and playing against serious mountain winds! I lost so many balls down the canyons, or in deep, unforgiving grass. Interestingly though, it wasn't supposed to be the hardest course.

The Bear Course at Okanagan Golf Club - 133 Slope. Second most difficult course by rating, but was very fun! Nice wide fairways with plenty of bail out room on bunker shots. Smooth, consistent rolling greens.

Aviara in Carlsbad, CA - 135 Slope. Definitely wasn't playing my best golf here, but the experience with THP and Project X was second-to-none. I had an amazing time being on this course. The grass was stunning, and plenty of gorgeous holes to keep your eyes busy! Definitely lost a few balls in the rough here.
 
Probably Bethpage Black. @ddec may or may not agree
 
Easy. Firestone south. From the tips 8 days before tournament. Absolutely brutal


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Home - Fire Ridge Golf Club | Grafton, WI | Public Championship Course (fireridgegc.com)

Its not that tough as a pga course but it will trick you and be sneakily tough.
When I played it I wasnt playing golf much but it would tough because of its unfriendlyness. Maybe they didnt take good care of the fairways, the greens fast, par 3s are an average of 192.5 yds. rating is a 74.5 slope rating is 136. Its sooooo unfriendly, with tall grass close to the fairways and the greens are DIFFICULT now that i remember. Check out the photos cause the pin placements are difficult like they can be by water or some of the greens could leave you a 150 ft putt.

It was probably windy that day.

I left thinking, this course is TOO hard. I played a course next to it, The Bog-Arnold Palmer which has a higher course rating and slope rating but it wasnt nearly has hard so maybe they need to re evaluate this one.
 
Last edited:
I have played many of the courses listed as the toughest courses in the world. Once I played Carnoustie the summer before they were having The Open there, and they were growing the rough up. Hard fast greens, deep rough and trouble everywhere.
 
A few years back I played TPC Sawgrass from the tips. CR is 76.4 with a slope of 155.

Last fall I played Kittansett with a CR of 75 and a slope of 145 in a steady 25 mph wind with gusts to 40. That was bananas.
 
I haven't played a lot of courses really, but I have to say Chambers Bay was the toughest for me that I can recall. More because I was horribly out of shape when I played it and the walk was brutal on me than anything. I really struggled and other than the company I was with, it was the most miserable round of golf I have ever played. I need revenge one of these days.
 
Star Pass -Tucson AZ

1CD1161A-5882-42A5-9229-D67C46848A85.jpeg
 
mtbloco said:
Star Pass -Tucson AZ

View attachment 9013322
Click to expand...
Hard to disagree with you. @Wildcat4life and I played Rattler/Roadrunner from basically the tips (black tees were set up with the gold tees for some reason) last weekend, and it was the best 95 I’ve ever shot!! lol Even slight misses off the fairway are punished. Brutal course…even tougher than Dove Mountain! I’m going back next weekend to receive more torture!
 
The toughest one I can remember is The Golf Club at Dove Mountain, in Marana, AZ. It's a Jack Nicklaus design that hosted the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship from 2009-2014, and even the PGA Tour pros complained about how difficult it was (they specifically hated the greens because of their difficulty). It's a butt-kicker of a course and was pretty humbling to play.

Edit after reading @mtbloco and @Roadrunner's posts above - I've played both Starr Pass and Dove Mountain (only once for each of them), and I thought Dove Mountain was the more diabolical of the two (I didn't play either one from the tips, though!). Jack was just evil when he designed that course.
 
I have posted this before in a thread but....Monday at Olympic Club - Lake Course in US Women's Open conditions. The setup was roughly similar distances, right around 6500-6600. But the rough, the rough, and more of the freaking rough. This made it hard for me.

I'm sure there are a bunch of you who either have played or are members at Olympic Club, so the course itself may not be the most difficult layout. But the US Open conditions just did it for me.
 
Muirfield Village. There’s about 6 holes that I just hate, mainly due to angles you have to be at to access the green and/or the insane greens complexes. Don’t miss wrong. Just don’t.
 
Smiter said:
Muirfield Village. There’s about 6 holes that I just hate, mainly due to angles you have to be at to access the green and/or the insane greens complexes. Don’t miss wrong. Just don’t.
Click to expand...
where is it located?
OH?
can you post a scorecard or pic? it asks for a login.
 
Not necessarily the hardest course, but I played the Colt Championship course at Close House just after a European Tour event had been hosted there

Greens were running true and very quick, rough was thicker than I had seen before and they had pins in difficult spots
 
Firestone South. Maybe because I only hit one fairway the entire round.
 
Snowman said:
The toughest one I can remember is The Golf Club at Dove Mountain, in Marana, AZ. It's a Jack Nicklaus design that hosted the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship from 2009-2014, and even the PGA Tour pros complained about how difficult it was (they specifically hated the greens because of their difficulty). It's a butt-kicker of a course and was pretty humbling to play.

Edit after reading @mtbloco and @Roadrunner's posts above - I've played both Starr Pass and Dove Mountain (only once for each of them), and I thought Dove Mountain was the more diabolical of the two (I didn't play either one from the tips, though!). Jack was just evil when he designed that course.
Click to expand...
I have played Dove Mountain a few times, never from the tips. I spent a lot of time with the Saguaros searching for my balls and rattlers.
 
Oak Tree National from 7400 beat me up in every way possible.
 
Snowman said:
The toughest one I can remember is The Golf Club at Dove Mountain, in Marana, AZ. It's a Jack Nicklaus design that hosted the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship from 2009-2014, and even the PGA Tour pros complained about how difficult it was (they specifically hated the greens because of their difficulty). It's a butt-kicker of a course and was pretty humbling to play.

Edit after reading @mtbloco and @Roadrunner's posts above - I've played both Starr Pass and Dove Mountain (only once for each of them), and I thought Dove Mountain was the more diabolical of the two (I didn't play either one from the tips, though!). Jack was just evil when he designed that course.
Click to expand...
Jack is evil in pretty much all of his course designs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top