[PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was a reporter for the Daily Astorian (in Astoria, Oregon) and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as an Oregon state government manager and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing pubic policy – to what I write. If you are reading this, thanks for doing so and please don’t hesitate to respond so we can engage in a dialogue, not just a monologue.]

As the prelude to this blog indicates, golf is one my passions. So, it seems logical for me to provide a list of my favorite courses, both around the world and closer to home where I live in Salem.

I share this Top 10 list, not because it carries any acknowledgment as being perfect. No. It is just a personal list.

You will note that there are a number of “links-style” courses on this list. That is because I have had the privilege of playing links golf mainly in Scotland, as well as occasionally in this country, and I have become addicted to its special charms.

Before my list, permit me to provide a definition of links golf, which is an often-misunderstood term. A traditional links course will have many – perhaps all – of the following features:

• The course is built along the seaside;
• The soil is sandy and drains easily;
• The course is laid out naturally, so that unusual bumps and slopes in the fairways and greens remain, rather than being smoothed over;
• The rough features natural seaside grasses;
• Bunkers are numerous, and while they range from very small to very large, are typically deep (to keep the seaside breezes from blowing the sand away)
• Fairways are rarely (if ever) watered – except by nature – and play firm and fast;
• Links courses usually have few if any trees;
• The course very often (though not always) routes out and back. The No. 1 hole begins at the clubhouse and the front nine plays straight out so that No. 9 is farthest hole from the clubhouse; the direction turns back in at No. 10 and the course ends with No. 18 back at the clubhouse.

Now, on to the list.

1. ILLAHE HILLS GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

This is my home course in Salem, Oregon and one that I never tire of playing. That’s good because I live three houses from the first tee. Dating back to 1960, the course was designed by a relatively famous Oregon designer, Billy Bell. It has undergone a number of renovations since it was first built, but it remains essentially the course it was back then. A key step occurred about 10 years ago when nearly all of the greens were re-built, a step required by the rainy climate here that risked even having green turf remain in place. The project made the greens acknowledged as some of the region’s best.

2. ROYAL DORNOCH

I have had the privilege of playing this world famous course several times over the years, the first time with my son who, everyone knows, is a far better golf then I am. It was a memorable father-son golf experience on this track, which dates back to 1877. It is acknowledged as one of the best courses – yes, a links course – in Scotland, prompting American golf pro Ben Crenshaw to proclaim that playing it “was the most fun I’ve ever had on a course.”

3. OLD COURSE, ST. ANDREWS

Again, I have had the privilege of playing this iconic course several times, the first company of my son and the last time with my daughter and son-in-law. The first tee lies hard at the side of the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse, a fact that, along with the course’s proximity to the town of St. Andrews, means that various folks will be there to see everyone tee off.

Here’s a great quote from one of my favorite golf writers, George Peper, now editor of Links Magazine:

“No matter who you are, to stand for the first time on the 1^st tee of the Old Course is to experience the greatest natural laxative in golf. So intimidating is the opening that Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star general who once held the fate of the free world in his hands, couldn’t handle the pressure. He slinked to the second hole.

“There you are, barely a dozen steps from the front porch of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the full weight of its four-storied grayness upon you. Thirty-two clubhouse windows face that tee, and you can feel eyes piercing from everyone one of them, especially from the Big Room – front and center on the ground floor – where the blue-blazered members sip their gin and tonics and peer imperiously through graduated bi-focals.

“You feel their eyes, lasered into your temples. You feel the eyes of every golfer in your group, every golfer waiting to play, every lurking caddy, raking greenkeeper, and passing motorist, every shopkeeper, dog walker, street cleaner, beachcomber, and windsurfer, every gull, snipe, and pigeon, every fisherman on every trawler in the North Sea. Most of all you feel the eyes of Old Tom Morris and Harry Vardon, of Henry Cotton and Bobby Jones – of every great player, live or dead, who has ever walked these fabled links. And you don’t want to disappoint them.”

On our last trip to the Old Course, the good news is that my daughter, worrying she would be sick, piped a great drive down the middle of #1 and we had a great time traversing a course which earned this quote from Jack Nicklaus: “I fell in love when it the first time I played it. There is no other golf course that is remotely close.”

4. MANELE BAY

This course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, sits on the water on the island of Lanai, just across about a 45-minute boat ride from Maui. Playing it is a great experience.

5. THE LODGE AT KOELE

This course, designed by Greg Norman, sits up on a hill about a half hour from Manele Bay on the same island, Lanai. It is a very different course than Manele, weaving it way through hundreds of trees and water features.

6. BAY COURSE AND PLANTATION COURSE AT KAPALUA

I list these two courses in the same paragraph because they are part of the same development in West Maui. The Bay Course, is a straightforward parkland style venue, with impressive views of the ocean. Its signature hole, a par three, requires a full shot over that ocean.

As for the Plantation Course, it is beast, dsigned by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore in a manner that enables it to be played best in the dominant trade winds. The par 5 18^th hole, famous because of coverage of an annual PGA tournament there, is all of 650 yards down hill and, even at that distance, many of the pros reach the green in two shots.

7. MACRIHANISH

This course in Scotland is famous for at least one major reason – the tee ball on the 1^sst tee requires a 200+ yard shot over the Atlantic Ocean to a fairway that then heads toward the green another 200 yards ahead.

Playing Macrihanish, a links-style course, is a quiet experience. Usually, all you can see are your playing partners and hills and hummocks that make shots challenging.

The first hole, though, remains a sharp memory. It has been voted often as the “best opening hole in golf.”

8. ROYAL ABERDEEN

This course, in Aberdeen, Scotland, earns very well its title, “Royal,” which is reserved only for courses so designated by the Royal Family. It is an out-and-back links style course, which happens to be situated adjacent to its lesser-known neighborhood, Mercar.

The courses are so close together and look so similar that it has been reported that some groups tee on #1 at Aberdeen and then finish at Mercar.

9. BANDON DUNES

This development on the South Oregon Coast – four major, world-renowned golf courses, another par 3 course and a practice area that sparks envy from many visitors – represents a huge economic boom for a remote area beset by sagging timber and fishing fortunes.

Before the courses were carved out of the seaside land, Michael Keyser, an executive who had made a fortune in Chicago in the recycled greeting card business (whatever that it is?), was reported to have gotten in a plane, flown over the South Coast and said to a realtor, “I want to buy that tract of land.”

He did and the rest is history under the moniker “golf as it was meant to be.”

10. PUMPKIN RIDGE

In 1992, a group of three men decided to embark on a venture which has come true: Create a golf destination that could, eventually, serve as the venue for major United State Golf Association (USGA) national events.

Success. A number of USGA events have been held on Pumpkin’s Ridge’s two courses, Ghost Creek and Witch Hollow. Plus, the parkland-style layouts – one private and one public – continue to attract both memberships and public play.

There. That’s my Top 10 lit of golf courses. How about yours