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Ranking The Yardage Books- Halfway Point

I started playing golf in the 1990s. Digital was just a twinkle in the eye at that time so if you really wanted to know a course you had to get your hands on a physical yardage book. Of course during my Coore Crenshaw quest, you know I was going to collect as many yardage books as possible. Since we are living in modern, digital times, many golf courses have phased out the physical yardage book but those that I do have I figured, why not rank em?  These rankings are COMPLETELY subjective and only reflect the yardage books I have collected on my quest at the halfway point. Once my quest is finally over, I hope to have a definitive ranking (I can tell you are all waiting with baited breath for that one). Courses NOT ranked because no books were printed or available at the time of my visit include Sand Valley and Barton Creek. Here we go! 10) Tie We-Ko-Pa and Talking Stick Sigh Arizona. I know you are like 1,000,000 degrees during the Summer so yardage books made out of p
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Cabot Cliffs

The one word that comes to mind when thinking about the Cliffs course is DRAMATIC (like "hitting you in the face with a cold mackerel" dramatic). Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw structured the routing to wring every inch of sea views, to squeeze every inch out of quirkiness out of lands in the dunes, and to maximize every natural feature on the holes that didn't have much of the first two. In other words, this course is cranked up to an 11 when the knob only goes to 10. That isn't a bad thing. The 18 starts off with a gentle handshake of a par 5 (the course has an even distribution of holes, 6 par 5s, 6 par 4s and 6 par 3s) with rumpled fairways and C&C's classic blown-out bunker looks. The second hole is a superstar, all-world golf hole with an elevated tee shot to a tidal plane surrounded by dunes and pine trees. The second shot is to an elevated green with awesome disguising features. I loved this hole and even though I hit 4 iron both ti

2019 Plans

So the last few years on this quest I have been going after courses pretty hard. Now that I am halfway through the quest, the courses are getting further and further from my home base in California and I am thinking 2019 might be more of an in-between year rather than getting another 25% checked off. Be that as it may, here is what I am trying to line up for this year! Several of these courses are private so any help on obtaining an invite would be greatly appreciated. As always, you can contact me at peterflanigan@hotmail.com and discretion is assured! Cabot Cliffs! Since it opened, this course has zoomed to the top of all the golf rankings. It might be the most lauded public track C&C has designed and is certainly one of the most spectacular after Kapalua. I love going to far flung places and Inverness Nova Scotia is perhaps the most far flung golf destination you could go to. I want golf coming out my fingers and lobster coming out of my ears when I go here in 2019.

Barton Creek

When people think of Coore/Crenshaw courses their minds typically drift to the more fantastical routings like at Sand Hills or the vistas at Kapalua. However, I put it to you that the specialness of Coore & Crenshaw can really shine through in a resort course like Barton Creek which often doesn't get lauded as much as other picture-ready courses in C&C's portfolio. The course was renovated throughout the summer and fall of 2018 and was in great shape when I played it. It starts and ends by playing over Barton Creek and with a few forced carries on the day, the track is reminiscent of We-Ko-Pa in that while the forced carries create tension in the brain but in reality all can be navigated by most golfers. The rest of the front 9 is what I would consider be "resort" golf. The C&C course is one of 4 courses part of the Barton Creek resort and the front nine is there for guests to get their "sea legs" under them as the course has slight

Bandon Trails/Preserve

When you think of the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort you think of wild golf holes set by the raging Pacific with the gorse on full display a la Royal County Down. What you get at Bandon Trails is something all together different and taken as a whole, Coore and Crenshaw have created another gem in their portfolio. C&C does give the golf a bit of the dunes magic by running the first two holes through the dunes starting with the first hole which is very similar to how the first hole at Sand Valley starts with a short par four running slightly uphill to the left. The second hole sets the tone for the rest of the par 3s on Trails and that tone is spectacular. While I greatly enjoyed Trails, the par 3s are the belles of the ball with each one giving you all you could want visually and challenge you all you could want strategically. Here is the second hole: Isn't that just a feast for the eyes? It is downhill with hidden bailouts to the right and allows the golfer to go birdi