....'s Top 100 courses!

[pmgolf]

You prefer fictional courses, ..... That's fine. I prefer real courses. My Top 20 Links Courses:

Augusta National 2009-2010
Crooked Creek HD
Whistling Straits HD
Valhalla Golf Club - PGA Edition
Pine Valley Golf Club
Wentworth West 2014 PGA
Kapalua Plantation 2009
Firestone-South Course 2016-18
Oakmont Country Club 2010 Beta
Torrey Pines South 2013
Bay Hill 2016 - TE
Harbour Town Golf Links
St. Andrews Old HD
Royal Melbourne GC
Bethpage Black HD
Hazeltine National Golf Club 2009
Pinehurst #2 Restoration HD
Bro Hof Slott - Stadium Course Final
Atlanta Athletic Club - Highlands Course
Close House Colt Course

I love the challenge of playing any of them! Great job, designers!

Pete

[gene_golf]

Crooked Creek by Wayne Hewitt is fictional. There is Crooked Creek-Fox Hollow that is real, but no where near Wayne Hewitt's design. Ian Wells, Glenn Braden besides Atlanta Athletic Club that mentioned and Francois Cristello put a couple of real ones out in past year also Eric Dorsey updated Colonial just to mention possible oversights.

[pmgolf]

Crooked Creek by Wayne Hewitt is fictional. There is Crooked Creek-Fox Hollow that is real, but no where near Wayne Hewitt's design. Ian Wells, Glenn Braden besides Atlanta Athletic Club that mentioned and Francois Cristello put a couple of real ones out in past year also Eric Dorsey updated Colonial just to mention possible oversights.

Thanks, Gene, but I said I PREFER real courses - I didn't say my top 20 courses were all real. 19 out of 20 kinda indicates a preference for real though. I already knew Crooked Creek was fictional. Thanks for your efforts, and I'll be sure to ask you to correct me if I need it.

Pete

[Still Linksing]

You prefer fictional courses, ..... That's fine.

I prefer courses that work well in Links.
I don't care if real or fictional. I have just found after grading them fictional are dominant.

Interesting looking at your list. There are only 4 courses that don't appear in my top 100.
You have included many MS remakes. MS remakes were excluded from being rated in my list and apart from those, there are only 4 courses not on my list.

[gene_golf]

Crooked Creek by Wayne Hewitt is fictional. There is Crooked Creek-Fox Hollow that is real, but no where near Wayne Hewitt's design. Ian Wells, Glenn Braden besides Atlanta Athletic Club that mentioned and Francois Cristello put a couple of real ones out in past year also Eric Dorsey updated Colonial just to mention possible oversights.

Thanks, Gene, but I said I PREFER real courses - I didn't say my top 20 courses were all real. 19 out of 29 kinda indicates a preference for real though. I already knew Crooked Creek was fictional. Thanks for your efforts, and I'll be sure to ask you to correct me if I need it.

Pete

I prefer real courses myself the ones where pros play as can play along week of tournament or ones that have acclaim, but many people never can play them or a tournament never has that course as its site. Pine Valley had a Shell's Wonderful World of Golf there in 1962 with a match between Gene Littler and Byron Nelson. Other than a few pictures of that course in say Golf Digest where it has been ranked as the #1 course in USA for many years going on now, that was all there was to go by until Robert Miller thankfully designed this course in Links to give a feel for the scenery and a feel for playing it. It is not a resort course where can afford travel to it and pay hotel as well as a high greens fee and is much like Augusta in that no matter how much money can shell out to play---that makes no difference as have to know right people that are members in order to play, in other words exclusive. In past year have seen Seminole and Shadow Creek host tournaments and be shown on tv. They are highly rated and have seen where Eric Dorsey is in process of doing Seminole. That course because lack of hole definitions on flat east coast of Florida I suspect will be tough to make it look good in Links. There are some fictional courses like Crooked Creek that wish were real and I could go play them myself.

[pmgolf]

You prefer fictional courses, ..... That's fine.

I prefer courses that work well in Links.
I don't care if real or fictional. I have just found after grading them fictional are dominant.

Interesting looking at your list. There are only 4 courses that don't appear in my top 100.
You have included many MS remakes. MS remakes were excluded from being rated in my list and apart from those, there are only 4 courses not on my list.

It's all about the golfing experience for me. I really love a well crafted course, and especially one where strategy and excellent shot-making are required rather than just brute strength. Whether or not it is a MS remake has nothing to do with it. When I finish playing a course and feel like I have really had to dig deep to hit the needed shots, and have also experienced a testing strain against my aging nerves - that's when I decide how good the course was. Professional golf course architects seem to always have the knack for creating the kind of challenge that I love!

Pete

[gene_golf]

You prefer fictional courses, ..... That's fine.

I prefer courses that work well in Links.
I don't care if real or fictional. I have just found after grading them fictional are dominant.

Interesting looking at your list. There are only 4 courses that don't appear in my top 100.
You have included many MS remakes. MS remakes were excluded from being rated in my list and apart from those, there are only 4 courses not on my list.

It's all about the golfing experience for me. I really love a well crafted course, and especially one where strategy and excellent shot-making are required rather than just brute strength. Whether or not it is a MS remake has nothing to do with it. When I finish playing a course and feel like I have really had to dig deep to hit the needed shots, and have also experienced a testing strain against my aging nerves - that's when I decide how good the course was. Professional golf course architects seem to always have the knack for creating the kind of challenge that I love!

Pete

Looking back to understand the topic being discussed and seeing where MS remake was a qualifying part of this discussion, I see this by Still Linksing, "Microsoft remakes.
I play Links LS 2000 and prefer to play these courses only in Links LS 2000." This leaves out these real courses that have had credible re-designs playable in Links LS 2003 in my opinion beyond what were once MS courses put out before Links LS 2000---Bay Hill, Banff Springs, Cog Hill, Congressional, Firestone, Harbour Town, Innisbrook, Kapalua Plantation, Oakland Hills, Oakmont, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst #8, Prarie Dunes, Riviera, The Belfry, Torrey Pines-South, Valderrama, and Valhalla. Pinehurst #2 is a totally different course since redesign, so would not fit in. Somehow Royal Melbourne an original MS course inadvertantly was included in top 100 original list even though wrote was dismissing them being on list since played MS courses only in Links LS 2000? Taking out Still Linksing's proclivity for playing these courses in Links LS 2000 and adding them in would mean more real courses to play for those Links players that do not have the Links LS 2000 version. Occasionally I still turn that game on to play it as well as Links LS 1999. Over the years since 1990 I have had most all Links games with exceptions of Links LS 1998, Links LS 2001, Links 2004 as did not have xbox and Links Extreme version that somehow then did not spark my interest to buy it.

[Still Linksing]

Somehow Royal Melbourne an original MS course inadvertantly was included in top 100 original list even though wrote was dismissing them being on list since played MS courses only in Links LS 2000?

Royal Melbourne is NOT a MS/Access Links LS 2000 course.
It is a Links 2003 MS course and not available for Links LS 2000.

The other MS real courses I wish to keep and play in one game only. I simply mentioned Links 2003 APCD versions of these courses were not taken into consideration for my top 100 list as neither were Sage's or John's courses due to their quantities. I never said none of these courses would make my top 100 list nor that others should not include these courses in their lists.

Any person who looks at my list, my decisions are clarified for them in the opening post. These people are free to download and decide on the courses I have not included for themselves.

Not sure what the issue is?

[gene_golf]

Still Linksing, I see release date for Royal Melbourne MS version in 2001 was after Links LS 2000 was available to play. You are correct and I made mistake only seeing it as an MS released course without checking its release date. Where you took time in thinking of best courses real and fictional leaving the other MS course releases out as most are real other than only about 3 fictional ones kind of short changes real course list possibility. But I see that you qualified your list to say that this was a certainty that would happen. Your providing list gives other Links players thoughts of possibly some courses that they do not have and might decide to possibly download them to play as a couple of other posters have also mentioned some other worthy courses as well to play and pass time of day. Playing Links is my favorite hobby and the last time I played real golf was about 15 years ago due to back issues.

[Still Linksing]

Your providing list gives other Links players thoughts of possibly some courses that they do not have and might decide to possibly download them to play as a couple of other posters have also mentioned some other worthy courses as well to play and pass time of day.

Yes, that's all the list is about, to give a starting point. With so many courses available and other lists totally out of date, I wanted a reference for myself and spent quite a lot of time compiling it.