My top golf courses you should play more than once

When I take golf trips for this gig, they are often times full itineraries with little time to slow down and soak things in. I'll roll up to the car park minutes before my tee time and dash off to another course not long after. That probably explains why when we take family vacations I plan virtually no activities or dinners ahead of time.

But Tim Gavrich is right: we should all try to resist the impulse to play as many courses we can on one trip, and instead become intimately familiar with one or two courses. I meet golfers who play the Old Course in St. Andrews once and feel a little underwhelmed, and that's understandable because its genius isn't wholly revealed until you've played it multiple times in different wind directions and new pin locations.

Articles

5 Min Read

Are you playing too many courses on your golf trips?

April 18, 2019

One or two great layouts can be enough.

By Tim Gavrich

Few courses are as architecturally complicated as the Old Course. But there are many that are worth playing again and again. The ones I've selected - though certainly not a complete list - are courses have at least a few of these elements:

- Walkable (it's much tougher to feel such a strong connection to a course the first time when in a golf cart)
- A distinctive sense of place
- A "live" ball when it lands on the fairways or greens
- Risk-reward decisions to make
- Maybe a blind shot or two

I've gone through my list of courses and pulled out a few that are certainly worth at least one replay round, and ideally more. I've done my best to spread the architecture names and eras around.

If you're the Buddy Trip Captain for your next golf trip, I encourage you to, at the very least, find a neat course with an unlimited golf rate or "day ticket" that allows you to play 18, have lunch, then head out for another go. Better yet, play the same course on different days to see how new pins and conditions change the experience.