Played Any Quirky Courses? Name and Details!

[Jeremie Boop]

13 hours ago, billchao said:

I played Crystal Springs once with @Jeremie Boop and the course was peppered with mounds. They're dumb.

They keep sending me email deals and I'm tempted to sign up for their rewards program but then I remember I didn't really enjoy the course enough to want to see the others.

The other courses are much better, it's worth trying them. The one I played the day after we went to that course was really nice. I can't remember the name, but I am pretty sure I posted pictures of it on the forums here.

 

[sjduffers]

Not sure whether it's been mentioned: Lake Chabot in the hills above Oakland, CA.

Your first inkling of quirkiness is as you drive your car towards the club house, crossing the side of this seemingly huge hill... until you realize that there is grass on both sides of the road and that you are in the middle of a fairway!

Then you have your typical up and down holes, with big doglegs, some blind shots and an overall very hilly track, crossing the aforementioned road several times. At one point, you reach a par 3 and you go: "where is the green?", until you look down, way down, between some trees that you have to go over, and there it is, looking like a postage stamp. There is also a short par 4 with an absolutely incredible view of the Bay and the San Francisco skyline, so much so that you are guaranteed to not pay much attention to your tee shot, and that would be bad with OB everywhere...

The icing on the cake, a 650 yards par 6 (yes, par 6), that start going down, way down, a huge hill with switchbacks in the cart path in the middle of the long fairway, then you reach a deep valley and the other side is a huge hill, I don't think a 200 yards from the bottom reaches the top, and it's like a 20 degree slope! You can never see the green until you get close to the top.

All in all, a very hilly and quirky course.

[Slim_Pivot]

I played Twisted Gun when I was a jr. The top of a mountain was cut off (old mining mountain) and it resembled linx golf. Fescue, tiny flag sticks due to the wind up there, and 9/18 shared a green. Nicest/coolest course I’ve ever played. It was near the WV/Kentucky boarder. 

[Bucki1968]

Not sure if it I would call it "quirky" but I like playing Brooksville CC (In Brooksville, Fl.), because the course starts out, on the front 9, as your standard country club (pretty straight forward) and then completely changes on the back 9. The back 9 plays through an old phosphate mine area and you get some great elevation changes and some tricky shots. It's like playing two completely different golf courses.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 10/12/2018 at 11:03 PM, billchao said:

I played Crystal Springs once with @Jeremie Boop and the course was peppered with mounds. They're dumb.

They keep sending me email deals and I'm tempted to sign up for their rewards program but then I remember I didn't really enjoy the course enough to want to see the others.

Reminds me of Eaglesticks near Zanesville, OH. It's hilly anyway, and there are mounds on top of mounds right next to more mounds! I, and a couple of buds, went there on a 3 day stay & play deal with a bunch of other guys. It was a drought Summer, and the course was burned out and hard as iron! You'd hit an approach that would barely miss the green, and watch the ball clang off one of these rock hard mounds and end up a mile away! 

There was a daily group skins game, and we found it odd that every evening the organizer of the trip would had us an envelope with cash in it! Despite our less then stellar play! We enjoyed ourselves, but we've never been back.

[sophia K]

Rockland Lake Exec or Millburn Township Course, they are near NYC for quick plays.

Edited February 8, 2019 by sophia K

[imsys0042]

On 10/13/2018 at 11:36 AM, billchao said:

Crystal Springs has a couple of spectacular holes but a lot of the experience for me was ruined by the mounds and OB being on half the holes being so close due to houses.

Yea I'll have to go back for Ballyowen one day.

Ballyowen is a great course.   Crystal Springs, what in the world were they thinking?   Not only are the mounds silly, but the grass (when I played it) was long enough that it would stay on the side of the mound. The other courses in the complex are waaaayyyyyy better

[imsys0042]

The golf course in Moon Township, PA is one of the craziest courses I've played.   I played it with my father-in-law, so that just adds to the hilarity.   He has a nice slow burn until he's had it and then just collapses in a pile of pity, anger and overall pathetic-ness.

Anyway, the first hole is a "short par 4" that reads 250ish on the card and I hit a 5-iron right near the green.   It also is tight to a road (quite a theme on this course).   So one shot in, I almost beaned someone when the starter said "go ahead, it's farther than it looks".   Hint:  It's not!

There is a par three where you hit over a road.   Not a dirt road.  A paved road.  With telephone and power lines running across as well, for good measure.   One of us hit over an old Honda Accord IIRC.

The whole course is a shooting gallery.   We almost got hit several times because the fairways are narrow and about as adjacent as two people making out.   And if you are looking to feel like you are playing an old. traditional course then look not further!  It has several double greens that host two holes.   Yes, huge greens so that you can have two physical golf holes on the same green.   Which is great when you are playing with a bunch of hicks who have lousy distance control.   Yes, we almost got hit on the greens as well.

Finally, the last thing that I remember is that one of the holes on the back nine has a huge downhill slope to the green, but then shoot back up almost 90 degrees.   The thing is, the slope is quite lot of the length of the hole, fairly steep to hit a golf ball off of, and when we played it, the grass was long.  So no chance of rolling to the flat.   Fortunately there was enough clover to give me a fluffy lie to a hideously elevated green.

Granted it was not the Western PA course where I was mooned by the people in front of me, that one was actually a somewhat saner layout.

 

[gbogey]

The Equinox in Vermont is a Walter Travis jewel that is really fun but lots of quirks.  There's a hole that goes over an active road - it would be difficult to hit a shot such that it hit a car on the road but I'm sure it's possible.  But its a great course and lots of fun.

[Hoganman1]

Years ago a now deceased golf course designer named Mike Stranz built some courses here in NC that were unique and quirky: The Pit, Tot Hill Farms, and Tobacco Road. I only played the first two, but they were very unconventional. The Pit is no longer open. I understand from friends that Tobacco Road is different, but not as weird as the other two. Apparently, Stranz had a great imagination and people either love or hate his creations.

Oop! I just learned that Stranz didn't design the Pit. Also, it wasn't weird.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Hoganman1

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Hoganman1 said:

Years ago a now deceased golf course designer named Mike Stranz built some courses here in NC that were unique and quirky: The Pit, Tot Hill Farms, and Tobacco Road. I only played the first two, but they were very unconventional. The Pit is no longer open. I understand from friends that Tobacco Road is different, but not as weird as the other two. Apparently, Stranz had a great imagination and people either love or hate his creations.

Strantz didn't build The Pit. Dan Maples did.

It wasn't all that weird a course, either.

https://thesandtrap.com/b/courses/north_carolina_trio_the_pit_tobacco_road_and_mid-pines

[nevets88]

Oh yeah, The Equinox, I know that hole through the road. I don't think I played a nice course in the mountains that I ever liked, design perspective. Furry Creek near Vancouver. The Killington golf course in Vermont. Wasn't crazy about Tot Hill Farms either but that's not in the mountains. Maybe my perspective has changed and I'll view it differently now. But when there are telephone or electric wires that your ball might hit (Furry Creek, par 3), not a fan.

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Strantz didn't build The Pit. Dan Maples did.

It wasn't all that weird a course, either.

https://thesandtrap.com/b/courses/north_carolina_trio_the_pit_tobacco_road_and_mid-pines

I think the Pit was one of the better Dan Maples designed I had played, lots of them are really similar.  I do remember some of the really small greens, and some of the severe slopes on the greens, but it was always fun.  I think the reason it got called weird at times was due to the old sandpit areas with wind-rows of waste soils left behind the mining operations, very intimidating compared to the sandy scrub that's more common to the off-fairway areas around there. I believe Pinehurst bought the property, but I haven't heard of any plans to put a golf course back in.

[iacas]

24 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I think the Pit was one of the better Dan Maples designed I had played, lots of them are really similar.  I do remember some of the really small greens, and some of the severe slopes on the greens, but it was always fun.  I think the reason it got called weird at times was due to the old sandpit areas with wind-rows of waste soils left behind the mining operations, very intimidating compared to the sandy scrub that's more common to the off-fairway areas around there. I believe Pinehurst bought the property, but I haven't heard of any plans to put a golf course back in.

They had remediation of waste problems or something like that.

[boogielicious]

Red Tail was built on the former Army Base in Devens, MA. I'm not sure quirky really describes it, but interesting. The holes have interesting names like "Tank Crossing". There are some deep drop offs near some of the greens that make it challenging and some of the fairways as well. I really like the course, but it is pricey.

Hole By Hole Tour

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Red Tail Golf Club - Devens, MA

 

[NCGolfer]

On 2/19/2019 at 2:37 PM, Hoganman1 said:

Years ago a now deceased golf course designer named Mike Stranz built some courses here in NC that were unique and quirky: The Pit, Tot Hill Farms, and Tobacco Road. I only played the first two, but they were very unconventional. The Pit is no longer open. I understand from friends that Tobacco Road is different, but not as weird as the other two. Apparently, Stranz had a great imagination and people either love or hate his creations.

Oop! I just learned that Stranz didn't design the Pit. Also, it wasn't weird.

Tot Hill Farms is the most quirky...Tobacco Road has a lot of weirdness to it as well but not as severe.  I personally don't care for either of them all that much.  Tobacco Road has its moments though.

At least both of them (normally) are in good shape.  🤷‍♂️

[ChetlovesMer]

I have a quirky golf course for you.

Little Bear Golf Club in Lewis Center, Ohio.

www.littlebearvillage.com

First of all it's 11 holes. Front 5 and Back 5 with a challenge hole. (The challenge hole is the signature Island Green.) 

The course is all par 3s. You can play the whole thing in 30-60 minutes. The longest hole is 165ish "from the tips" the shortest is like 75ish. 

Okay, so par 3 courses are by nature a little quirky. 11 holes instead of 9 or 18 is a little quirky. A "Challenge Hole" Island Green is a little quirky. But wait for it... You can conceivably play the whole course without your ball ever touching grass! Now, that's QUIRKY! 

Yeah, the tee-boxes and greens are all 100% synthetic. 

[DaveP043]

2 hours ago, NCGolfer said:

Tot Hill Farms is the most quirky...Tobacco Road has a lot of weirdness to it as well but not as severe.  I personally don't care for either of them all that much.  Tobacco Road has its moments though.

At least both of them (normally) are in good shape.  🤷‍♂️

For those who like the work of Mike Strantz, I just got an email today saying that Royal New Kent, east of Richmond VA, will be re-opening in late March.  Royal New Kent has suffered from financial issues for a while, and closed a year ago or a little more.