Highest rated course ever?

[deronsizemore]

Crooked Stick is in Indiana I believe. Maybe The Preserve? Thats a private course in Carmel, CA and I've heard is extremely difficult.

Ah... idiot.

I didn't read it clearly enough. Crooked Stick is in Carmel, IN; not CA.

[ThomasG]

What does rating and slope mean?

Let's just go off of this persons example:

Erin Hills in Wisconsin? Site of the 2011 US Amatuer

80.5 is what a scratch golfer should shoot there. 154 is what I should shoot there!

J/K. I'm sure someone can give the true explanation.

[jamo]

I'd love to play Kiawah Island from the front tees. It would a really short course, but i bet it would still be challenging.

[PiustheDrGolf]

I recently read an article about Ko'olau GC at Oahu, Hawaii. Here is the quote.

When the Ko'olau golf club opened, the local section of the Professional Golfers' Association sent representatives to rate the difficulty of the course. They came up with a "slope rating" of 162. PGA headquarters said that was unlikely, since the upper limit for difficulty is usually 155. So it sent a delegation from the national office to amend the rating. The delegates ranked it even higher, at 172. Though the course underwent alterations in 1998 to make it easier to navigate (it's now rated 155), the 80 bunkers and six rain-carved ravines still inspired former U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson to declare it "the hardest [course] I've ever played. It's a monster and it's beautiful all at the same time."

[kennay92]

I recently read an article about Ko'olau GC at Oahu, Hawaii. Here is the quote.

close

http://www.koolaugolfclub.com/golf.cfm

[groovezilla79]

I just played Valhalla a couple weeks ago from 7540. Rating of 77.6 and a slope of 152. Extremely long and difficult course. That's the highest I've ever played. I believe the highest possible rating is 79, but could be wrong.

Take me with you next time!

I've been to all the tour stops there but have never had the opportunity to play. I guess it's all in who you know.

[deronsizemore]

Take me with you next time!

Would love to have you!

It's actually not that difficult to get a tee time there. If you know a PGA Pro from your local course, they can just call and likely get you a tee time. You'll be looking at one of the last tee times of the day on a Sunday probably. It's a great course though. I took a beating, but loved every minute of it.

[WUTiger]

Did anyone play the Cog Hill #4 - AKA Dubsdread - near Chicago?

The eighteen is 7,554 yards long from the back, and can be par 71 or 72. This has a course rating of 77.8 and a slope rating of 151. In the 1980s, I heard tales of this course as having 500-yard par 4s, well before that was trendy. The Cog Hill site says Dubsdread has been refurbed recently, but I don't know how much they stretched the tees.

Here's the CH / Dubsdread site:
http://www.coghillgolf.com/sites/cou...725&page;=40334

Super Par 5... One golf course out in Arizona (?) or somewhere in the desert has a 750-yd. par 5. The hole was featured in one of the big-name golf mags (Golf Digest?) a few years ago.

( Note: Someone also built a Dub's Dread course near Kansas City in the 1960s. It is a mere 6,900 yards long)

[OCdude12]

So it was a couple weekends ago we went up and I have to say playing a golf course that is over 7800 yards is one of the most ridiculous and most fun things I've done in golf. To top it off the wind was blowing about 25-30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph making it just that much "easier". Teed off at 9 in the morning, but even that was not early enough to miss any wind as this course is in the middle of nowhere right off I-5 near Chico, CA.

Started off great, parring 3 out of the first 4 holes including a 262 yd par 3 where the club felt like a sail on the backswing the wind was so bad. After that, it was all downhill. To top it off, these greens were by far the fastest greens I have ever played on. At some points, with the wind, the ball would start rolling as soon as you replaced it on the green, and not just a little wiggle waggle you sometimes see on windy days, I mean like full rolling away from you. There was only 1 putt outside of 10 ft made all day in our foursome.

Yes, we probably should not have been playing from the John Daly tees with the wind like it was, but how many other chances do you get to play a course that long? On a regular day I could see the distance being much more manageable, but not this day. Too put it in perspective, on 17 a 470 yd dogleg right par 4, I hit a good drive (I probably hit it 270 on a normal day) then another driver off the deck that was struck pretty solid and that was just enough to get it greenside. Too bad greenside left (by only about 10-15 yds) was a hazard and I had to take a lost ball which led to another double. To end it all, the 18th is a 709 yard dogleg left par 5. Sure it was downwind, but it still played like a complete beast with one guy in our group actually making par.

I would definitely recommend this course to anyone passing through maybe on the way down from Oregon to SF. From appropriate tees, theres a great mix of holes that are challenging but fair. Theres no trees on the course except for one hole, so they make up for it with lots of doglegs, couple blind ones and a couple risk/reward types off the tee. With no wind, I would love to play on greens like that any chance possible as they rolled like a dream. I guess if you're a golf course in the middle of nowhere (onsite Indian casino a big plus for the overnighter) you gotta make it worth coming to and they do a real good job of that. I'll be back...when theres no wind.

[iammpspeer]

Take me with you next time!

Yea me too!

[FLOG4]

I seek out tough courses. From what I've garnered Koo'lau may be toughest but I haven't been.
My list: Each over 150
Kiawah Ocean-I hope they punish the pros in 2012 at PGA and stick all the tees back...
Wolf Creek-Mesquite- Backs are over a 150. Visually stunning.
Reserve at Thunder Hill- Ohio 7800 with 150+ slope. Gotta think a couple times just to find the backs....
International from Tiger Tees...named prior to our #1 golfer. You will not break 90. Unless you're a + handicap.
Shattuck-NH- short 6700 but every shot target. and targets small...
Tobacco Road- NC-Mike Strantz best. Play it just for that reason.
Concord Monster-Catskills-NY The original This Course Is Too Long Course.....
But for all the 150+slope tracks I've played my alltime toughest was Muirfield Scotland a few weeks after Open with a stiff breeze.
We played via local rule....Doug's rule...Me. Lost ball in 3 ft high heather. drop in vicinity no stroke....Still shot 102 with 6 handi at time.
These newer tracks with stupid yardages....Yea....Stupid.
If you get chance though Kiawah Ocean is special...