Golf courses played: a new feature

Mostly out of curiosity I decided to customize a Google Map with markers for all of the golf courses that I have played.  Then, to take it a step further (or is it farther, I can never remember my general grammar) I started writing short descriptions.  That didn’t quite seem to spark my fancy so I added some ratings to each course as such:

Experience Rating:  The overall feel of a course and how approachable it is from a walking point of view.  Influencing factors on the “feel” are the aesthetic of both the course and club house, location of the course (remote in beautiful woods or holes along busy streets), noise pollution and scenic views.  The walking point of view is more about what you may see while playing and if the course has a nice flow to it.  Walking long distances from green to tee through busy neighborhoods takes away from this and having a feeling of one continuous journey of a round adds to the rating.

DanPlan Rating:  This one is more straight forward.  How good is the course for practicing.  A perfect 10 (Did I mention these are 1-10 scales?) would have a year around grass range, at least two putting greens with undulation, a chipping green that has a couple of bunkers, a pitching area that is at least 120 yards long for wedges, a par 3 course, and a large variety of different manufacturers’ gear to try out on a ball flight monitor.  Pretty simple, right?  I have yet to find a 10 out there, but Columbia Edgewater comes in pretty close with a rating of DanPlan 9.

It will take some time to finish this, but I have listed at least the first 20 courses.  The tab is up above this post, but you can also click here:   Courses Played

I am not sure if there is any value to this right now or down the road, but it’s fun to remember all of these courses and seeing as I will be playing different tracks for the next years to come I might as well keep tabs on them publicly.

There are at least 30 more courses to add from a few different states.  Maybe one day this map will be all filled up.  I wonder how many golf courses are in North America?  And the world?