9 Hole Favorites

aQuick9 · Apr 30, 2019

New forum member and I'd like to hear some of your favorite regulation length 9 hole courses. I know they're not for everyone, but I love 'em and would like to hear about yours.

Member at Sakima CC in South Jersey -- private 9 holer -- pace of play is awesome... during the week can easily play 18 holes in 2.5 hrs. And we own our carts so we play all winter (if there's not snow on the ground) with cart covers and propane heaters. It's like Florida ... at least inside the cart.

2BFAST · Apr 30, 2019

Welcome to THP!

Top of the Rock south of Branson, MO is pretty killer. The one you mentioned seems pretty legit also!

Snickerdog · Apr 30, 2019

Welcome to THP.

Billy889 · Apr 30, 2019

Welcome

B81Smith · Apr 30, 2019

Welcome. I like Indian Oaks Country Club (semi private) and Heather Ridge Golf Course. Both in Illinois. Both worth the stop. Especially in early July as that’s when the greens role fastest.

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aQuick9 · Apr 30, 2019

B81Smith said:
Welcome. I like Indian Oaks Country Club (semi private) and Heather Ridge Golf Course. Both in Illinois. Both worth the stop. Especially in early July as that’s when the greens role fastest. ]

Both look very nice. Anything in particular you enjoy about them?

aQuick9 · Apr 30, 2019

2BFAST said:
Welcome to THP!

Top of the Rock south of Branson, MO is pretty killer. The one you mentioned seems pretty legit also!

While I prefer regulation 9 holers, I admit that a 9-hole par 3 course can be a lot of fun to play. But at $135, I think I'd take a pass!

aQuick9 · May 1, 2019

Amazing YouTube video of Sweetens Cove (TN) by Eric Anders Lang. Well worth the watch!

2BFAST · May 1, 2019

aQuick9 said:
While I prefer regulation 9 holers, I admit that a 9-hole par 3 course can be a lot of fun to play. But at $135, I think I'd take a pass!

Iv been there, its flat out awesome. And yes $135 for 9 hole par 3 course is steep, its worth it to play it once. Its $165.00 or so for 18. Like I said, I can say I played it and I highly highly enjoyed it

aQuick9 · May 1, 2019

2BFAST said:
Iv been there, its flat out awesome. And yes $135 for 9 hole par 3 course is steep, its worth it to play it once. Its $165.00 or so for 18. Like I said, I can say I played it and I highly highly enjoyed it

I get it. Just got back from Pinehurst, where my wife and I played #1 & #5, which I thought were fun and a bargain at $125 compared to their others, like $285 for #'s 6 thru 9. I've played plenty of Fazio, Nicklaus and Rees Jones layouts and didn't feel the need to pay that kind of $. Played #2 four yrs ago with a member... $250 plus caddie fee. Last week they wanted $585 for #2... and $485 for #4. No thanks.

B81Smith · May 1, 2019

aQuick9 said:
B81Smith said:

Welcome. I like Indian Oaks Country Club (semi private) and Heather Ridge Golf Course. Both in Illinois. Both worth the stop. Especially in early July as that’s when the greens role fastest. ]

Both look very nice. Anything in particular you enjoy about them?

Click to expand...

They’re challenging and in nicer condition. In my experience a 9 holes usually means poor conditions, no flair, straightforward and no elevation at all. Basically a piece of crap. But not all 9 holers are crap and when you find a good one it’s an exception to the rule.
Indian oaks has different tees and routes for the second go around so you get completely different yardages and shots in. A par 5 becomes a par 4, etc. a par 3 measuring 160 becomes 210 the second time around from a completely different angle. Just stuff like that. Being a member there years ago I loved playing in the club championship, Calcutta, interclub matches between rival clubs, the Lincoln Highway golf tournament (one of the oldest tourney in the USA at 96 years) where about 10 or so clubs all send their best to compete in, and the cream of the crop The Dirty Dozen.

The dirty dozen is a 13 man field that plays 9 in an elimination format. 2 worst scores on holes 1-3 are eliminated and then 1 per hole after that with two guys coming down the 9th. Payouts only going to the top 3. Previous years champ gets in, the top 12 qualifiers and the last is drawn out of the hat out of the folks who didn’t make it into the tourney. The players are auctioned off in what used to be really big money averaging around 1100/player. The player has opportunity to buy back 50% of themselves if they want. Talk about pressure when a single bad shot gets you eliminated especially if you dropped 600 to buy half of your stock back. Lol. It’s all gone unless you make it to top 3 which is hole 8. Any ties get handled by blind chip off closest moving on. Usually a par is good enough to move forward but not always. One year we had a 7 man chip off on the first hole to determine the worst two so they could be eliminated. Everyone plays in a massive group where all members, friends and family are following. So large galleries - check. Usga rules strictly apply. First hole takes about 1 hour to play, then 40 minutes for the second, then about 30 minutes for the third. Entire thing takes about 4.5 hours. You may have 30 minutes between swings. It’s super fun. I’ve won it and took 2nd twice in a span of 3 years. Some of the best times of my life. But they had raised prices past what I was willing to pay to keep a membership and it became too far to drive each week to play. BUT it’s definitely one of the coolest tournaments I’ve heard of and played in. Winning used to mean a check for like 6k.
Winner got 40% of purse, 2nd got 30%, 3rd got 20% and the remaining 10% going to the club. Everyone got a dozen balls of their choosing with their name printed on them. It was so cool.

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aQuick9 · May 1, 2019

Awesome answer. Aside from the competition, I agree with you that too may 9 holers are in mediocre-to-bad condition. Something about that doesn't bother me- I like the purity of golf without all the extraneous trappings. But it does annoy me in a way because 9 holers already have a bit of a stigma to overcome.... and it shouldn't be that hard to to clean up the rough edges.