A few months back I played a round in Tasmania, Australia at Barnbougle Dunes. The course is so aesthetically captivating but yet very unforgiving. I’m not a top golfer by any means and do swing a few balls wide now and again… so as you can imaging my score was a little higher than I am normally used to. So in one hand the course was so nice but the other hand it was not a course I could shoot my best score on.

After getting back home to the Gold Coast and having a few rounds on my usual courses I felt quite the reverse of the experience in Tasmania. I was shooting much better scores but the courses that I was playing were no where near as ‘nice’.

The other feature that always comes to mind is the green fee’s. I think Barnbougle Dunes was like 3 times the costs of the courses I play at home…!

Now if I eliminated the green fees from the equation I think I would sacrifice the good scores and in turn lose a few more balls to regularly play at Barnbougle but if I incorporate the x3 green fees, I would definitely be more inclined to stay at home.

I guess what I’m trying to get at by the above is how would you rate a course? As in what aspects would you use to give it an overall ranking or define the appropriate course for 1) the social golfer 2) the seasoned golfer and 3) the pro… or something similar.

Here is a few that I have mentioned above that we should be able to add onto:
1) Green Fees
2) Aesthetics (aww factor)
3) Difficulty, which could probably be broken down further like:
Layout, length, water
Unforgiving-ness…
Undulation / Flatness of greens and fairways

P.S. This is what we were doing for ‘some’ of the day at Barnbougle haha…

Holy crap…that stuff is chockers with Tiger snakes.

Why would you want to rate a course for anyone other than yourself, unless you’re writing a review to be published?

As for green fees, it depends on whether that’s an issue for you. Some people have ‘disposable income’ to cover frequent green fees at better courses, but for others green fees can be a vital consideration.

So, if you want to add a ‘course review’ to the forum, make points about what was important to you.

A few months back I played a round in Tasmania, Australia at Barnbougle Dunes. The course is so aesthetically captivating but yet very unforgiving. I’m not a top golfer by any means and do swing a few balls wide now and again… so as you can imaging my score was a little higher than I am normally used to. So in one hand the course was so nice but the other hand it was not a course I could shoot my best score on.

After getting back home to the Gold Coast and having a few rounds on my usual courses I felt quite the reverse of the experience in Tasmania. I was shooting much better scores but the courses that I was playing were no where near as ‘nice’.

The other feature that always comes to mind is the green fee’s. I think Barnbougle Dunes was like 3 times the costs of the courses I play at home…!

Now if I eliminated the green fees from the equation I think I would sacrifice the good scores and in turn lose a few more balls to regularly play at Barnbougle but if I incorporate the x3 green fees, I would definitely be more inclined to stay at home.

I guess what I’m trying to get at by the above is how would you rate a course? As in what aspects would you use to give it an overall ranking or define the appropriate course for 1) the social golfer 2) the seasoned golfer and 3) the pro… or something similar.

Here is a few that I have mentioned above that we should be able to add onto:
1) Green Fees
2) Aesthetics (aww factor)
3) Difficulty, which could probably be broken down further like:
Layout, length, water
Unforgiving-ness…
Undulation / Flatness of greens and fairways

P.S. This is what we were doing for ‘some’ of the day at Barnbougle haha…

All the “proper” questions and analytical ones aside I normally ask myself the following when rating a new course I’ve played:

1/Was I excited to get to the next tee and see what was next
2/Can you remember every hole without really thinking about it or getting lost trying to re-play the routing in your head
3/Could I play the course as the only one for the rest of my days and not get bored

When I review a course I put a high priority on the number of clubs I’ve actually used to go around it.

For me a “good course” is one which offers me the chance to hit every club in the bag.

A “great course” ....... gives me the same thing, only in say 14 holes or less.

Another thing I look for is ...... How many times have I hit Driver off the tee?

If I’ve hit driver on every par 4 and 5 ….... then I won’t rate the course as highly as courses that have made me pick a different option at times.

Another thing I find important is the variety of hole direction.

A case in point, Eagle Ridge on the Mornington Peninsula has 16 holes which run either north / south or south / north, and only two that run east west, so you’re generally playing “up and back” and either hitting into the wind, or hitting with it.

Play the front 9 at St Andrews Beach (which is just 5 minutes down the road) .... and after 9, you’ve already hit in every possible direction ….. so that course I rate much higher than ER.

Par 3’s, I look for variety in length, so long, short, and mid iron lengths etc.

Par 4’s …....... a good course will have a couple of short par 4’s, ones that give you multiple choices off the tee, and force you to pick the right option.

Par 5’s should be close to reachable with your two best shots, again, risk vs reward, rather than be so long and unreachable, that they are just boring 3 shotters.

The more times you are faced with “risk vs reward” during a round, the better the course in my opinion.

I also enjoy holes that ask you to shape the ball off the tee, rather than just holes that are continually arrow straight.

If I can have a lot of variety in the round, and hit lots of different type shots, and use all my clubs …..... then I’m usually a very happy camper, no matter what score I’ve shot.

Like Nikey Ho above, you could add my +1 to his comment of ........... “Could I play the course as the only one for the rest of my days and not get bored”.

One thing about cost though, and I think that its relative to the standard of course you play.

For Royal Melbourne you’d want and expect a bloody good course, but for your local public course, your expectations for the course itself should be appropriate to the cost of a round.

I’ve played a lot of courses, and for “dollar vs enjoyment”, Royal Melbourne would be well down on my list, whereas somewhere like Trentham for instance …..... would be very high on my list of courses.