What Makes a Great Golf Course

There are certain golf courses that just suit your eye, where you know you are going to play well. And it doesn’t matter what standard you play at. 

Given the choice of playing any course on the planet, I am pretty certain that Rory McIlroy would want to tee it up at Quail Hollow for 52 weeks of the year, having won the Wells Fargo Championship there four times. And Davis Love III owned Harbour Town Links, home to the RBC Heritage, which he won five times. It was also a course that set up pretty well for Luke Donald, who finished runner-up there on five occasions.

So what makes a great golf course? It is a difficult question to answer and if you asked 100 golfers that question the chances are that you would get 100 different answers.

Is the Old Course at St Andrews a great course? This may be a controversial view but I don’t believe it is even the best course in St Andrews. 

But what makes it special is the history and the tradition. To be brutally honest, there are many holes that are instantly forgettable but anybody who has ever played there will tell you that there is nothing that comes close to standing on the first tee, playing the infamous Road Hole 17th and walking down the 18th fairway. You just can’t help but stop and think about all the greats of the game who have gone before you.

For me, a great course does not have to be 7,400 yards. I want breathtaking scenery. I want par threes that require thought rather than brute strength - the Postage Stamp at Royal Troon provides proof positive that a par three does not have to be 240 yards long to provide a stiff test. 

Have you ever played a 650-yard par five and gone home afterwards extolling its virtues? Me neither.

And a par four need not be 470 yards to make you stop and think. The par four 10th hole at The Belfry is one of the best par four I have ever played but measures only around 300 yards depending upon which tee you use. What makes it special is that it is a proper risk and reward hole. Go for the green and pull it off and you are putting for an eagle. But there is water on the left and trees galore on the right. It is a proper golf hole.

My favourite golf courses, in no particular order, are Aldeburgh, Kingsbarns, Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Secret Harbour in Perth, Australia, Wentworth and Pollok in Glasgow. And they could not be more different from each other.

I will never forget standing on the first tee at Pebble Beach. I had goosebumps. I actually didn’t want to spoil the day by playing golf. 

You will almost certainly have seen this magnificent course on TV but trust me when I tell you that you have to be there for an experience you will never, ever forget. TV does not come close to doing it justice. There are so many memorable holes. The par threes do not appear to be too difficult when you stand on the tee but then you hit the ball and realise that unless you strike it with pinpoint accuracy you are going to have no chance of making a par. 

And then there is the 18th hole, a spectacular par five with waves from the Pacific Ocean crashing onto the fairway from the left and a well-placed tree waiting to block out your second. It is a course where you come off the 18th green, turn back and look at the course you have just played and smile to yourself.

The Golf Courses That Are Still on My Bucket List

Pollok is a glorious parkland course in the city of my birth. The thing that makes this track stand out for me is that it is always in utterly magnificent condition. The fairways are lush and the ball sits up begging to be hit. And the greens are among the best I have ever experienced. It is hard to believe that such a spectacular course could possibly be located so close to Glasgow city centre.

Aldeburgh is my absolute favourite course in East Anglia. It is a proper heathland course. It is only when you finish for the first time that you realise that it does not feature a single par five. Aldeburgh is a par 68 but there is no more difficult golf course anywhere. The fairways are narrow and are lined by gorse bushes which look amazing when it full flower - but hit your ball in there and you can say goodbye to it. The greens have plenty of subtle breaks, many of the bunkers have railway sleepers and the views are wonderful.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

My favourite UK course is Kingsbarns. I was fortunate enough to play this incredible golf course back in 2015 on a beautiful July day, with a gentle breeze and blue skies overhead. And I had one of those days. I managed four birdies and did not miss a single fairway. But I am here to tell you that no matter how I had played that day this is a course that would have stayed in my memory forever. There is a story about Kingsbarns that I still find hard to believe. Nick Faldo was asked to design the course and was flown over the land in a helicopter and told the owner that he did not think it was possible to create a course there. Fortunately, Kyle Phillips did not agree and created a masterpiece that only opened in 2000 but feels like it has occupied its place in the world for at least 100 years.

Torrey Pines is another course you may be familiar with. It hosted the 2008 US Open, when Tiger Woods required 91 holes to see off Rocco Mediate and later revealed he had done so while playing with a broken leg. It is also the host course for the Farmers Insurance Open. 

The Americans laughingly describe it as a public course. It is like no public course I have ever played. You are announced onto the first tee by the starter. This would be pretty intimidating were it not for the fact that I got there an hour early and watched the standard of all the golfers who went before me, convincing me I had nothing to worry about.

The locals describe it as a links course - it is nothing of the sort. It is a parkland course that just happens to overlook the Pacific Ocean. And yes, it is a great course. Once again, the best hole is the 18th, a wonderful par five where the approach is played over water to a green that slopes severely from back to front - and is as fast as glass.

Secret Harbour is a course you will probably never have heard of but that doesn’t mean it is not a great layout. It is, with bells on. It is located a few miles from Perth in Western Australia and that means when you play there you are guaranteed fabulous weather. The greens are lightning quick, there are lots of water hazards and every single par three is a classic.

You will all be familiar with Wentworth, home to the DP World Tour and the BMW PGA Championship. I have been lucky enough to play it twice. The professionals make it look easy. It isn’t. It definitely isn’t! From the long and difficult par four opening hole to the brutishly difficult par five 18th there is not a single bad hole on this parkland course. You need to avoid water and constantly thread your drives through trees. And the greens are as good as you will ever come across.

So what makes a great golf course? All of the above - and probably a bit more besides that.

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