The Best Golf Course in America
Practice rounds of the U.S. Open are underway at Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh (NOT pictured above) and so is the complaining from the players. The set up is expected to be brutal on a course that is already considered brutal. It’s also a beautiful, impressive place. I’ve never played it, but I walked all over it in 2007, the last time it hosted the Open.
When it comes to golf courses I’m more six pack than champagne – I generally just like to play wherever I can. I love a great course but I don’t chase elite places. Cumulatively I’ve had more fun at a place called Mink Lake in Valparaiso, Ind. (also NOT pictured above) than any other course. It’s 9-holes, “stretches” 3,000 yards and has a humble slope of 102. Locals call it “Stink Lake.” It was perfect when some friends I would hack around in our early 20s.
All this said, I have through the years played some brilliant courses. Additionally, while working as a sportswriter covering major championships, I’ve repeatedly walked many others.
Oakmont, Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills, Torrey Pines, Merion, Winged Foot, Pinehurst No. 2, Southern Hills, Hazeltine National and so on.
That includes annual trips to Augusta National, the current No. 1 course in the Golf Digest rankings. I’ve never played it because I painfully refuse to enter the Masters media lottery out of some lost and misguided sense of journalistic integrity. (“A man got to have a code,” Omar always said, even if it’s probably a dumb one.) Still, I can pretty much imagine it.
This stuff is, by definition, subjective, but I recently played a course that is better than any I’ve ever played or seen:
Boston Golf Club.
And yes, that includes Augusta National. If you told me right now I could play Augusta or Boston Golf Club, I’d chose Boston (note: this is a hypothetical, of course, and if any Augusta National member wanted to challenge me on this … ).
Boston Golf Course is that good though. It’s as true of a golf course as I’ve ever seen; it lacks bells, whistles and pretentiousness, unless you consider its pretentiousness it’s lack of pretentiousness. And it is devastatingly difficult, like nearly every single hole.
Somehow Golf Digest has it ranked only No. 75 in America, a travesty worth fighting. So here’s my fight. (If it matters, I got to play by chance through a friend of a friend, no one at the club knew who I was, that I was there or that there was any chance I’d ever write anything.)
The place isn’t famous. It wasn’t even built until 2004. It’s low membership means very few people have been there. Not many people could even find it. Its entrance contains no sign, just the number 19 on a big rock by a meandering driveway off of little Old County Road in Hingham, Mass. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t know it was there … which is the point.
There are apparently no tee times, you just show up and play. The parking lot is basic. There isn’t some hustle of bag drop guys looking for tips. There are no dress code or rules other than one: use common sense.
There are almost no amenities. No pool. No tennis. No big clubhouse for weddings. This isn’t a country club. It’s all golf. There’s a grille room with a good deck but it’s nothing special. Everyone I’ve spoken to about BGC says its like Pine Valley in New Jersey (No. 2 in the Golf Digest rankings). I’ve never been to Pine Valley, but it sounds right. If I need to concede BGC is the second best course in American behind Pine Valley, then fair game.
It sure isn’t No. 75.
The layout is incredible, cut through the deep woods and undulating quarries of Boston’s South Shore. The grounds are not obsessively manicured, but they don’t need to be. The simplicity is a positive. The terrain is rocky and steep. The bunkers are savage, both massive sprawls and vicious pots. And on the greens, it’s good luck to you and the Red Sox.
A great golfer could play here and never lack a challenge. A guy like me was pummeled into submission at times, but the place was so awesome I didn’t care. When you tamed a hole, you felt a sense of accomplishment.
This was authentic golf, unadulterated golf.
It’s walkers only and while we carried our own bags, I’d recommend the caddies/sherpas because this is no easy hike (it’d be very, very difficult for seniors to play here even with a caddie). The “paths” are uneven.
There are no signs anywhere. You finish one green and look around for a trail through the woods that you figure might lead to the next hole. When you come upon a tee box, you just hope it’s the right one.
At one point you tee off next to the ruins of an old farmhouse. A green is next to a penned in herd of goats. A three-hole stretch goes through a mined out granite quarry. Stonewalls sometimes serve as OB markers. Other times there are just there. The rakes are made of wood. So are the ball markers. The 18th is a 187-yard, up hill par three, that sounds like a bad way to finish until you try to play it. It’s a white-knuckle gambling hole.
It’s perfect. Course designer Gil Hanse is a genius. Here’s a Boston Globe story on the place and its tragic and turbulent history (http://tinyurl.com/z3a8sfh). It includes the death on site of the founder and the time Donald Trump try to buy it. Mercifully he didn’t, although not because Trump doesn’t build and operate phenomenal clubs. He most certainly does.
It’s that BGC doesn’t need to be gold-plated. It needs to be what it is, just shut up and play; if you can’t figure out how great this is, then don’t come back.
I don’t know why the best course lists don’t agree with me. Golf Digest isn’t the only one vastly under ranking it. Golf.com has it 86th.
I’m sure those publications spend lots and lots of time on their lists (far more than I do). They have certainly been to more places than I have. They are missing this one completely though. My guess is that age, history and the hosting majors play a big role.
For instance, I’ve played Oakland Hills South (ranked No. 17) multiple times. It’s phenomenal. It’s not in Boston Golf Club’s class though. It’s just not even close and I don’t know anyone could disagree.
So until I get out on Pine Valley, I’m personally declaring Boston Golf Club the best course in America. If Golf Digest and Golf.com can have their list, I can have mine.