My Bucket List of Golf Courses for the Next Ten Years

If you come here for food, I'm afraid today you are going to be a bit disappointed because today's post is all about my other passion, golf.

This past weekend was one of my favorite tournaments of the PGA tour season, the ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am, also known as the Crosby Clam Bake, after Bing Crosby who was instrumental in bringing high profile stars to Pebble Beach to play golf with the Pros in the 30s.

The scenery along Monterey Bay, where Pebble Beach, Spy Glass and the Monterery County Club, the three courses that are played during the ATT are located is legendary and even non-golfers enjoy walking these courses. For the serious golfer, getting a chance to tee it up on any of these courses is a treat but playing at Pebble Beach is like visiting the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo for the painter, baking alongside Julia Child for the baker, having a private driving lesson with Mario Andretti for the lead foot, and winning the lottery all rolled into one.

Watching one of my favorite players, Phil Mickelson, win this past weekend in that fabulous setting, got me to thinking about my bucket list of golf courses I want to play before I hang up the 5 iron for the last time. More importantly, it got me to thinking about the courses I want to play in the next five to ten years with my father before he is too old to travel and enjoy playing them.

So, here is my bucket list of the courses I want to share with my best partner on the course, my dad.

1. Pebble Beach - Pebble Beach, CA
2. Cypress Point Golf Club - Pebble Beach, CA (This was my father in law's favorite course of all time too)
3. TPC Sawgrass: Players Stadium Course - Ponte Verde, FL (Most famous island green in golf)
   
4. The Jewel - Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MI
5. Wawashkamo Club - Mackinac Island, MI (Gem of a little course, still use sand tees)
6. Royal St. George's - Sandwich, Kent England
7. Old Head Golf Links, Kinsale, County Cork Ireland
8. Carnoustie, Scotland
   
9. Seaside Course, Sea Island, GA
10. Retreat Course, Sea Island, GA
    
11. Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, MI (Walter Hagen was the first head pro)
12. Forest Dunes, Roscommon, MI
13. Harbour Town, Hilton Head Island, SC
    
14. Spyglass Hill - Pebble Beach, CA
15. Links at Spanish Bay - Pebble Beach, CA
16. Lakewood Shores Resort, Oscoda MI
17. Elk Ridge Golf Course, Atlanta, MI
18. Magnolia, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL
19. Sun Valley Resort, Sun Valley, ID
20. Black Lake Golf Club, Onaway, MI (15 minutes from my folk's home in N. MI)