Top West Coast courses series begins

Road Holes — 21 December 2012 by Bob Sherwin

It’s that time of year when most of us have swung all that we can swing. The golf clubs are standing idle in the corner, the handicap has been locked in for the winter, you’re taking equipment inventory and reflecting on the year.

Maybe you’ve broken a barrier, 100, 90 or 80. Maybe you had an eagle or two, an ace or a round of a lifetime. Or maybe not.

It’s also time for golferswest.com annual assessment of top course within our coverage area, 12 Western states and British Columbia. Within that vast West Coast territory, we also break down the best courses within various regions or cities.

We’ll take of fresh look again at those regions and try to determine the Top Five best courses that anyone can play. Some areaes haven’t changed much, some we’ve juggled the order and some we’ve added and subtracted.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll break down our Top Five courses in the various states, in alphabetic order beginning with Arizona and ending with Wyoming.

We’ll begin the series Saturday with: Arizona: Phoenix

Mystic Links of Ireland: Trip Postscript

About Author

Bob Sherwin

Bob grew up in Cleveland, an underdog city with perennial underdog teams, and that gave him an appreciation and an affinity for the grinders in golf, guys such as Rocco Mediate, Jhonattan Vegas and star-crossed John Daly. This is the 53rd year for Bob as a sportswriter, the first 34 working for newspapers throughout the west, Tucson (Daily Star), San Francisco (Examiner) and Seattle (Times), and the past 19 years as a freelancer. He has covered just about every sport, including golf tournaments, Tucson Open, Bing Crosby/AT&T Pro-Am, the 1998 PGA Championship, the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, the 2010 U.S. Amateur the 2015 U.S. Open and the annual Champions Tour Boeing Classic. He also writes articles for Cascade Golfer Magazine and Destination Golfer. For most of his 20 years at the Seattle Times his primary beat was the Mariners. He then picked up Washington men's basketball in the winter. He also was the beat writer for the Sonics, including 1996 when they played the Bulls for the NBA title. After a lifetime hacking on public courses, he finally gave in and joined a country club in 2011, Aldarra near Seattle. Despite (or perhaps because) of his 14 handicap, he won the 'Super Senior'' (65 and older) championship in 2017. He has a pair of aces – 37 years apart – and in 2009 came agonizingly close to his ultimate golf goal of scoring in the 70s when he finished with an even 80. He lives in Seattle.