The hardest golf course in the world
I’m a guy who pays attention to slope ratings, that number they give to golf courses that supposedly tells you how hard it is for the average hacker.
So I gasped a little when I played Mystic Rock at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania the other day. I played it from the blues, which are hard enough, but my playing partners pointed out some of the back tees – 7,533 yards from way back there – some of which were 100 yards behind the blues.
It got me thinking about the hardest golf courses in the U.S. and the world.
The Ocean course at Kiawah has the highest slope rating in the U.S. It’s a Pete Dye torture chamber, 7,356 yards long with a 155 slope, the maximum allowed. I’ve played it twice, once in a strong wind and by the end of the day, I felt like I had gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson in his younger days.
The International Pines Course in Bolton, Massachusetts has a slope of 154 – it’s 8,325 yards from the tips. Pine Valley in New Jersey has a slope of 153, but it has the highest slope from the middle tees at 150!
Ko’ olau in Hawaii used to have slope of 162. Imagine going out for a friendly game if you didn’t know what to expect.
Silvertip Golf Course in Canmore, Canada has 600 feet of elevation change, it’s 7,300 yard with a slope of 153.
The Dubai Country Club is a grassless track in the Arabian desert. It’s one, giant bunker with greens made of oil and sand.
The Rotorua Golf Club in New Zealand takes you through puddles of bubbling mud and steaming sulphur pits.
But, the hardest I’ve ever played was a course in South Africa called Skukuza. It’s inside the Kruger National Park, and you have to sign an indemnity form just to get on. There’s a big sign out front that says: “Beware, Dangerous Animals. Enter at your own risk!”
There’s warthogs in the fairways, but the scariest part is No. 1 and 9, where you have to hit over a lake full of hippos, their snouts barely visible above water. They come out in the late afternoons.
It’s said elephants and lions roam the fairways and puff adders hide in the bush. There’s some helpful information about climbing the nearest tree when the lions and leopards roam the course. I haven’t mentioned the crocodiles yet.
Give me the Ocean course. The only dangerous animals there are the tourists.
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16 comments
Some years back I played a course called "The Country Club of the Poconos" a few times. It's a new Fazio design course that is UNDER 6000 yards. Yet, it's tough. In fact, it is the toughest short course I've ever played. It has a slope rating of 142, which is higher than most.
One interesting thing about it is that it's a course you absolutely cannot walk. There are some really long stretches between holes; in fact, you have to drive about a mile (I'm not exaggerating) between two of them. It's certainly a course you don't forget.
I played Shawnee around the same time I played TCCOTP. It's also a nice course. Actually, I believe I played a bit at Shawnee when I was a little kid, as we used to occasionally vacation there over long weekends.
And, on a side note, I guarantee I can design an 18-hole course that is, oh, between 3,000 and 4,500 yards that would be so hard no one would ever, ever want to play it. Length does not equal difficulty.
My point is that there's something called the spirit of the game. And my attitude toward a course will hinge on whether or not it is in keeping with it.
For instance, I know a course in upstate NY that has a couple of extremely unrealistic holes. One is a par 3 that plays 200 yards and is basically surrounded by water. If you miss the green even by a smidgen, you'll most likely be in the water; in fact, you may even be in if you hit the side of the green and roll off.
Now, I'm not one to call courses unfair very often, but that qualifies. There's no transitional area, like bunkers surrounding the green, to catch mediocre shots. No, if you're just a bit off from 200 yards, you can be penalized harshly.
That's not golf.
The spirit of the game is that if you hit a slightly errant shot, you're penalized slightly; if it's egregiously errant, then you may be penalized harshly.
Having a hole such as the aforementioned does a disservice to the game because luck becomes too much of a factor. If two guys are playing such a course and hit the same number of equally errant shots but one does so at the "wrong time," he can lose big. I realize that timing is always a factor in golf, but this element shouldn't be magnified to a ridiculous extent. I mean, the hole in question doesn't even really have a bailout area. It would be fine if you could hit a wedge to 8-iron to the green, but from 200 yards? Forget about it.
I've been long-winded, but my point is that it depends on whether or not the course is realistic. You can always design a layout so tough that no one can play it well without getting lucky, but that proves nothing and isn't golf, in my opinion.
Yes, it's in the Catskills. It's Hanah Country Club. Most of the holes are fine, but they have a few (two in particular) that are a bit ridiculous.
I went to the Concord's website, and nothing indicated that the course is no longer in existence. Of course, that's not definitive, however.
If they did pave it over, though, wouldn't that make it the "hardest" golf course in the world?
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