The Walking Scorer

Pine Dunes is the best course you can play in Texas, according to GolfWeek, and #2 in Golf Magazine, except that their #1 isn't one "you can play", unless you're a member or are staying at the resort.  Pine Dunes is better, anyway.  It is obviously a course where the most deserving golfers can score well. The first par 5 has a feature I haven't seen before, a line of big trees down the middle of the fairway. You can go either way.  Big hitters can take a short cut on the left side.  I went right, and made birdie with an accurate wedge. There are azaleas here, just like at Augusta. More Pictures .

This course in Delhi (pronounced Dell - High), Louisiana is rated the best you can play by Golfweek, and #3 in Golf Magazine.  It's on the Audubon Trail, located in a state park, and has an excellent grill room restaurant, the Champions Bistro.  I recommend the Creamy Cajun Sauce on anything you like. The fairway bunkers were all washed out, but the greenside bunkers all had been repaired, with new sand.  Otherwise, the course was in good shape.  The greens are mostly large, with lots of contour on them and in the fairways.  You almost need a guide, at least for the first round.  Lots of blind shots, and some that are impossible to know even which side of the fairway is correct, or what club to hit.  Here's the view from the 14th tee.  Par 4.  Can you tell where the green is?  The map shows a nearly straight hole, with a water hazard across the entire fairway, but it can't be seen from the tee.  How far away is it?  Here, ...

This one is not on any of the lists, but is a Donald Ross 1908 design, and a local favorite in Gulfport, so I had to play. It's a very flat piece of land, like all the land around here, ranging, I estimate, from 3" to maybe 6' above sea level.  Has to be flooded every hurricane that comes by.  The greens are all elevated in typical Donald Ross fashion, in this case also to protect them from the lesser floods.  The course has a bit of a linksy feel, since trying to grow a thick carpet of grass would also be futile.  That said, it is quite playable, and I never had a bad lie in the fairways. There are lots of big old trees that are the main hazard. and steep faces on the bunkers, of course. Some water, that I managed to avoid Maybe it's a tribute to the skills of the designer that he creates a fun, playable course with significant obstacles, using only the average-looking plot of land and not much bulldozer time.  They advertise the ocean views, ...

" Kino Springs Golf Course is located on the historic Estancia Yerba Buena Ranch... In 1691 explorer Father Eusebio Kino found sanctuary at Kino Springs on one of his many expeditions throughout Sonora and Arizona.    A half a century ago, Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons owned the 5,280-acre Yerba Buena Ranch and had frequent guests such as John Wayne and Elizabeth Taylor." The course was designed by Red Lawrence, who did several courses in Arizona.  It's a varied property, starting and ending with some fairly flat holes  but the middle 9 go up and down through the canyons .   The bunkers didn't have much sand in them, but were playable enough.  The greens seem readable, until a putt unexpectedly wanders 6 feet off line.  Then looking from the other side, I could see why that happened.  I guess playing any course for the first time this is to be expected.  Pace of play was good, even with a lot of waitin...