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Top U.S. Counties with the Best Public State Park Courses?


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Well, yeah! The east coast of the U.S. was home base for a lot of golf architects. The Cleveland area isn't too bad with courses by Donald Ross, Pete Dye, Ed Ault, Bertie Way, and Stanley Thompson, and then include Youngstown with 36 holes of Donald Ross designed golf. Not too hard to find some really nice golf around here!

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When you specified State Park system, that pretty much eliminated Michigan.   We have some Metro Park courses north of Detroit but to my knowledge, the only golf in the state parks are disc golf.

From the land of perpetual cloudiness.   I'm Denny

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O'l Colony here in Tuscaloosa is run by the county park board, and is a great Jerry Pate design that peaks ~$50.  Once ranked Ranked "Best Public Course in Alabama" by Golf Digest and "Top 50 in the USA" by Golf Week.  Hosts UA's golf teams, and an NCAA regional last year.

It's one of my favorites designs that I've had a chance to play...gives the thinking player "smart" places to play to on each hole, but doesn't advertise it (you gotta figure it out).  Pretty well managed, too, and a great First Tee program.  But too darned crowded (especially with students) for me, so I had to go private.  I still love to play it when I can.

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Can't say that where I live in Texas that any of the surrounding counties are known for their courses owned/operated by the county.  

It has been a number of years since I live in Southern California but Los Angeles County did have a dozen or so regulation 18 hole courses in their park system as well as some 9 hole courses.  A lot of them were quality golf courses. 

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21 minutes ago, colin007 said:

What about the Bethpage courses on long island? Not sure what county, but that's gotta be up there.

Nassau.  Probably a good call because the Eisenhower Park Courses down the street are pretty nice as well.  Between them, that's 7 really nice muni courses (within about 5 miles of each other, no less)

Somewhat OT ... I was just reading the GD Top 100 course list and, man, are there a lot of courses from Long Island on that list.  (I think the rest are all private, but still)  Besides Bethpage, there is Shinnecock, National GL, Friars Head, Maidstone, Fishers Island (maybe that one doesn't quite count - I dunno)

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San Diego, Torrey Pines, two 18 hole courses, has a PGA tourney every year, has hosted a U.S. open and will host another in 2021.  Rates on the North course for residents, $40 weekdays, $50 weekend. Great weather year round.  Pretty hard to beat.  

But not qualified as it is a City Muni course.  Not in a "State Park", not sure why that matters.  Golf is golf, state park or not.

 

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1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

Nassau.  Probably a good call because the Eisenhower Park Courses down the street are pretty nice as well.  Between them, that's 7 really nice muni courses (within about 5 miles of each other, no less)

Somewhat OT ... I was just reading the GD Top 100 course list and, man, are there a lot of courses from Long Island on that list.  (I think the rest are all private, but still)  Besides Bethpage, there is Shinnecock, National GL, Friars Head, Maidstone, Fishers Island (maybe that one doesn't quite count - I dunno)

Eisenhower is Nassau county, but not run by the state I think. Bethpage is in Nassau county but run by the state. If you live in NYS but not in Nassau, you pay the out of county guest rate at Eisenhower, there's no state rate. You can live anywhere in NYS other than Nassau and pay the state rate at Bethpage.

I've only played Hominy, Howell and Charleston (they're all Monmouth right?) in Monmouth, they're a great combo but I have to give the edge to Bethpage.

In Long Island, there's I dunno, a dozen or two courses that are almost on par with your Shinnecocks that are out of the public eye - Sebonack is just north of it for example. There is stupid crazy old money here, the 0.00001% ters have built some amazing courses - and it seems like they're empty all the time. And right around the corner in Hudson and Westchester counties, same deal.

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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23 hours ago, DavidMatthew1978 said:

I grew up in Monmouth County NJ. I think our county courses are in the top 10 of the united states..

What other counties have beautiful courses at such low rates?

Why Monmouth?  What courses are part of the Monmouth County Park System? Architects?  National course rankings? Cost? Crowded? etc... I think a better variation on the question would be what County has the best Government/County/Municipal golf course collection?  But it is your question so we will go with that.

Based on your question, I think Oakland County, MI, has a decent lineup.  They have 4 full length 18 hole courses and a 9-holer. Their lead course is an Art Hills design named Lyon Oaks.  Set on 300 acres of rolling woodland.  Mid-season weekend rates at the various courses for 18 w/cart is $40-$60 with much better rates during the week for seniors, juniors and walking.

Other than Wayne County, which has a few run down places, most counties in Michigan are lucky to have a single County-owned course.

Brian Kuehn

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We have a couple of really nice city run courses out by me (SilverRock in La Quinta and Desert Willow in Palm Desert).

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The phrasing here confuses me a bit.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources does oversee a total of six courses across the state. None of them are particularly close to me and there are no more than one course in any particular county.

If you are simply asking about the quality (or quantity) of public golf found in a particular county, I hear a lot about Franklin County (Columbus) and Hamilton County (Cincinnati). If nothing else, there are many options in both places. Another is my old stomping grounds of Stark Co., Ohio. (Canton/Massillon). Stark has 20-some odd public courses (and a number of privates ones also), a pity I left there before starting golf..

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Fairfax County Park Authority, along with Northern VA Regional Park Authority here in VA have some good courses.

With Laurel Hill (which held the US Public Links Championship in 2013) being the best of the bunch. 

Laurel hill.png

Fairfax County has 8 courses (two are 9 hole courses and 1 is an 18 hole executive course) and the no va regional park authority has 3 courses, 2 which are pretty good and one that is OK.

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On January 3, 2017 at 8:37 PM, DavidMatthew1978 said:

I grew up in Monmouth County NJ. I think our county courses are in the top 10 of the united states..

What other counties have beautiful courses at such low rates?

There are some nice courses in the Monmouth county system ( i play howell park and shark river pretty regularly) but i wouldn't say any of them are that good... Definitely great for the price you pay, though. 

I grew up in Brooklyn, so i will always be partial to Bethpage when country systems come up. Even though they were cowpatches when i was a kid. You could take a train out there and play all day.  I learned how to play on those courses. I guess its just sentimentality. 

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On 1/3/2017 at 8:37 PM, DavidMatthew1978 said:

I grew up in Monmouth County NJ. I think our county courses are in the top 10 of the united states..

What other counties have beautiful courses at such low rates?

NJ is pretty good in general (except for my county of course :-(). Somerset, Mercer, and Monmouth all have a lot of solid courses at low rates for residents. I played Mercer the most back when I was using Golfnow.

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6 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

NJ is pretty good in general (except for my county of course :-(). Somerset, Mercer, and Monmouth all have a lot of solid courses at low rates for residents. I played Mercer the most back when I was using Golfnow.

The non rez rates are reasonable too.

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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On 1/5/2017 at 8:56 AM, mcanadiens said:

The phrasing here confuses me a bit.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources does oversee a total of six courses across the state. None of them are particularly close to me and there are no more than one course in any particular county.

If you are simply asking about the quality (or quantity) of public golf found in a particular county, I hear a lot about Franklin County (Columbus) and Hamilton County (Cincinnati). If nothing else, there are many options in both places. Another is my old stomping grounds of Stark Co., Ohio. (Canton/Massillon). Stark has 20-some odd public courses (and a number of privates ones also), a pity I left there before starting golf..

You have a point. I think the topic should be "government run golf courses". Some of them are very good, and some are very bad! A case in point was Seneca GC, owned by the city of Cleveland. It was a top track, but they let it turn into a goat ranch! About 5-6 years ago the county Metroparks took it over and started investing money.

The fact that it is only 3 miles from their premier course, Sleepy Hollow, ranked #1 in the state and #14 in the country, aided their decision. To have 2 outstanding courses located cheek by jowl enhances the value of the whole area!

On 1/5/2017 at 10:00 PM, natureboy said:

Likely quite a bit below Bethpage quality, but here's one in MA that has a Donald Ross pedigree.

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-boston/ponkapoag-golf-course.html

 

Ponkapoag?! Wasn't that the course parodied in a popular golf novel that was retitled Ponkaquog? AKA Ponky? If they can do that to a Donald Ross design, they can do absolutely anything!

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Note: This thread is 2521 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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