Whether it’s the habitual cutting of tall poppies, or due to a healthy dose of Australian scepticism, since returning from my tour of the world’s greatest golf courses, the most frequently asked question I get is which ones are the most over-rated?
It’s a reasonable enough question, and one that is easier to answer in a private conversation than a public forum like this. Largely, it depends on whether we are talking about courses that are undeservedly ranked high by golf magazines, or those that are famous and therefore enjoy the assumption of real quality. The two can be very different. In the United States, for example, both Torrey Pines South and Medinah No. 3 are prominent tournament venues but ordinary courses, one isn’t ranked anywhere on Golf Digest’s Top 100 in America, but the other was recently listed at number 11.
It won’t surprise regular readers of this column to learn that most of the courses I find over-rated are either celebrated championship venues or signature courses with a big reputation. Listed below are some prime examples by region.
Asia – Asia has more poor courses on great land than anywhere else, but worse are the courses here that are built on dull or listless property. For years the mentality has been to disguise shapeless ground with unnatural mounding. Surprisingly, some of the most highly regarded courses are completely overwhelmed by great big piles of dirt. One such example is Perry Dye’s Masters Course at Laguna National in Singapore, an awful track that was once ranked the best course in Asia. Other high-ranking disappointments here include the Garden Course at Tanah Merah (also in Singapore), as well as the Phoenix Country Club in Japan and the Thai Country Club near Bangkok, both uninspiring tournament tests built on flat ground with almost no redeeming features.
Further nominees in Asia include the Canyon Course at the Blue Canyon Resort in Thailand, which is especially disappointing considering the potential of the virgin site and Bali Handara, an ageing Thomson/Wolveridge course that somehow managed to crack the world’s Top 50 back in 1979.
Europe – The most disappointing courses on the European mainland are those built during the last 30 years by second-tier American and English designers, including St Leon Rot in Germany, Vilamoura in Portugal and Le Golf National in France, home of the French Open. The biggest surprise, however, is the general standard of golf along the Costa del Sol in Spain and the Algarve in Portugal, both coastal regions marketed toward British golfers who should appreciate quality design. In terms of championship courses, the most overvalued are Jose Maria Olazabal’s Real Club de Golf in Sevilla, Spain and Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland, which was reworked in 1997 by Seve Ballesteros. Ballesteros did an extraordinary job here, turning one of the most beautiful courses in the world into one of the most forgettable.
Great Britain & Ireland – Again it’s hard to look past precious tournament venues, Royal Lytham and Royal Troon are the least appealing of the Open Championship courses but substantially more fun and interesting than inland tournament hosts such as The Belfry in England, Mount Juliet in Ireland and Celtic Manor in Wales. Depending on which list you read, the ranking of Wentworth West, Turnberry Ailsa and Royal Birkdale might also seem a little high.
As can Muirfield, which as a club continues to provide visitors with an extraordinary golfing experience. The links are terrific as well, and sit comfortably within my personal Top 50, but they have been ranked as high as 3 in the world, which is preposterous considering the competition. These are brutal links, and were the requisite for great golf simply difficulty or tournament pedigree then Muirfield would warrant such a lofty ranking. If that were the case, however, the courses in proximity would be Medinah, Hazeltine and The Australian rather than Pine Valley, Cypress Point and St Andrews.
Africa – There are lots of underwhelming courses in South Africa, but the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City Resort is Africa’s most over-rated. The host venue for the annual Million Dollar Nedbank Invitational is not only charmless and lacking in originality, but it’s torturously difficult and unfriendly to play. This is a classic example of a course suffering because of its championship status; the lack of challenging design has forced the Gary Player Group to continually lengthen and narrow these holes to ensure they remain relevant for tournament play. As a result of all the tinkering, the layout is full of long, narrow holes that are bordered by dense rough grasses, the difficulty compounded by small, clover shaped greens that are rock hard and fast. Chipping from the chocking Kikuyu grass to these tiny concrete pitches can be next to impossible.
North and South America – Not surprisingly, there are more overvalued courses in America than anywhere else in this region, or indeed the globe at large. The likes of the Olympic Club (Lake), Torrey Pines (South) and Congressional (Blue) are all really disappointing, as is East Lake in Georgia, host of the season-ending Tour Championship on the PGA Tour. Others, like Baltusrol, Oak Hill, Castle Pines, Hazeltine National, Inverness and Oakland Hills are good courses but with slightly bigger reputations than their layouts deserve.
The undisputed king of over-rated golf, however, is Medinah No. 3 in Chicago, which has hosted several major championships in recent years and remains entrenched within Golf Digest’s Top 20. Personally, I doubt Medinah No. 3 would break into Australia’s Top 40 yet in 2007 it was ranked 11 in America and ahead of world-class gems like Sand Hills, National Golf Links of America and Pacific Dunes. That remains the most absurd ranking I have seen anywhere on my travels, the masterpieces beneath it are all blessed with sandy undulation, wonderful holes, great drama and strategic intrigue. Medinah No. 3 has none of these qualities, and is instead a repetitive and insufferably narrow test that features a number of really bad holes, and three par threes played essentially the same way across a lake. Despite its reputation, Medinah is no fun at all for the average golfer and the only reason to visit is to see first-hand where Sergio Garcia bent that 6-iron in 1999 or to stand where Hale Irwin dropped his bomb on the 72nd green during the 1990 US Open.
Australasia – Across the pond Kauri Cliffs is the obvious nominee in the over-rated category, chiefly because it presently features on GOLF Magazine’s World 100 and isn’t quite up to the standard of the others on the list. There aren’t many great courses in New Zealand, however, and few would argue that Kauri doesn’t belong somewhere in the country’s top 4 or 5.
Here in Australia, and it’s important to note that our recently published Top 100 ranking better reflects the collective preferences of our assembled panel than my own personal views on golf. That said, I do think we have a more credible system than elsewhere, and our ‘errors’ are less obvious and less ‘inaccurate’ as those made by overseas publications. In the top half of the list the two courses that continue to surprise me are Royal Sydney and The Australian, which have strong support from across our judging panel. I think both are fine clubs but, to me, neither course belongs in our Top 15, chiefly because they lack really exciting and strategic golf design. Royal Sydney is much tougher now and the conditioning has improved out of sight since Ross Watson’s redesign, but too many of the new greens, such as 11, 17 and 18, appear to have been arranged to make approach play harder rather than more interesting. I still think Royal Sydney is a beautiful place to visit, but it’s not a course that I would enjoy playing on a regular basis.
As I’m constantly reminded, golf course appreciation is a subjective business and the only really accurate rankings are your own. Mine are available on this very web site - the Planet Golf World 100 list is sure to generate much debate and discussion.
Darius Oliver, Architecture Editor Australian Golf Digest
