6. Champions (Cypress Creek Course)
HOUSTON, TEXAS
Site of: 1967 Ryder Cup; 1969 U.S. Open; 1990, '97, '99, '03 Tour Championships
• Jumbo-sized flat fairways paired with similarly scaled greens are accented by a smattering of low-key creeks and ponds and vise-like Bermuda rough.
7. Tanglewood Park (Championship Course)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.
Site of: 1974 PGA Championship; 1987-2002 Champions Tour events
• Its status as one of the best bargains around for Joe Public doesn't make it exciting. They could remove 100 bunkers and no one would notice.
8. Southern Hills
TULSA, OKLA.
Site of: 1958, '77, '01 U.S. Opens; 1970, '82, '94, '07 PGA Championships
• It's a pleasant parkland walk, but the reverse cambered fairways and tree cover that looks the same from hole to hole get old in a hurry. What's more, the tame topography belies the club's name. They should call it Southern Flats.
9. Carnoustie
SCOTLAND
Site of: 1931, '37, '53, '68, '75, '99, '07 British Opens
• As golf writer Jim Finegan puts it, "Walk to the fourth tee and prepare to enter a vast meadowy plain, a landscape monotonously pedestrian, covered with holes that, too often, are neither memorable nor inviting."
10. Olympia Fields (North Course)
CHICAGO, ILL.
Site of: 1928, '03 U.S Opens; 1961 PGA; 1997 U.S. Senior Open
• Jim Furyk won the U.S. Open in style here four years ago. But can you recall one hole in the closing stretch?
* Disclaimer: A lack of flair doesn't make these courses unworthy. It just means they're about as memorable as Caddyshack II.
