Quotes about the Top 21 Courses in the World – #5 is Classic!

1. Cypress Point Club, Pebble Beach, Calif.

“Cypress Point is such a beautiful place, but it’s also very exclusive. They had a very successful membership drive last month. They drove out forty members.” — Bob Hope

2. Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pa.

Photo: Fred Vuich

“(Oakmont possesses) all the charm of a sock to the head.” — Gene Sarazen

3. Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.

Photo: Dreamstime

“Augusta National is like playing a Salvador Dali landscape. I expected a clock to fall out of the trees and hit me in the face.” — David Feherty

4. Ballybunion Golf Club (Old), Ballybunion, Ireland

“After playing Ballybunion for the first time, a man would think that the game of golf originated here.” — Tom Watson

5. Merion Golf Club (East), Ardmore, Pa.

Photo: John Mummert/USGA

When Lee Westwood first saw the course he said, “I’d been told there are 10 difficult holes and eight impossible ones. I’m still trying to work out which the 10 difficult holes are.”

“If it were human, Spyglass would have a knife in its teeth, a patch on its eye, a ring in its ear, tobacco in its beard and a blunderbuss in its hand.” — Jim Murray, Hall-of-Fame sportswriter

8. Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minn.

When asked during the 1970 U.S. Open what the course lacked, Dave Hill famously responded, “Eighty acres of corn and a few cows. They ruined a good farm when they built this course.”

9. Oak Hill Country Club (East), Rochester, N.Y.

“If I owned a Rembrandt and it had some dull colors, I don’t think I’d go put reds and yellows in there just to brighten it up. I feel the same way about old golf courses. When you have a masterpiece, I sure wouldn’t tinker with it.” — Raymond Floyd, ahead of the 1989 U.S. Open, commenting on Tom Fazio’s pre-1980 changes to the course

“It should almost be a prerequisite to play Castle Stuart before you’re allowed to design golf courses nowadays.” — Phil Mickelson at the 2011 Scottish Open