What is a Championship Golf Course?

[matty]

I often see on Golfing World or the Golf Show a review of a course. There is always the obligatory line, 'The par 72 Championship Golf Course.....'

Out of curiosity I'd like to know what, if anything, makes a championship course? Self declaration, holding the club champs, some top level comp?? Is there a procedure?

[sms316]

Marketing tripe.

[matty]

Thank you. As I suspected.

[Daves]

http://golf.about.com/od/golfterms/g/champcourse.htm

[timinsa]

IMHO if your club hasn't held a national championship it shouldn't be able to use the title. It's like calling Lara Bingle a Super model.

[Puji]

Its where champions play.

[sms316]

IMHO if your club hasn't held a national championship it shouldn't be able to use the title. It's like calling Lara Bingle a Super model. Like how Harden holds the Australian 2 Man Ambrose Championship?

[timinsa]

Exactly.

[Andrew]

It's one of the most stupid terms in golf. It has ruined thousands of courses (good, bad & ugly) as clubs strive to be considered as a championship course. Unfortunately, people consider ‘championship course’ to mean difficult. No club is immune to the insecurity that their course may not be difficult enough, hence some of the awful work that has been done on some of our best courses.

Club & developer insecurity and a misplaced understanding of what golf should be by the general public is a real problem in Australia. England doesn’t suffer anywhere near as much as they have so many quality courses that many clubs like Woking, Swinley Forest & St Georges Hill are happy to leave well enough alone, even though they are not the most difficult courses.

Interestingly, Bonnie Doon has recently stated that they are aiming, after the reconstruction of the entire eighteen holes, to be Sydney’s top non-championship course. I assume the committees collective tongues were in the cheeks when they penned that.

[LarryLong]

I thought it was measured by the height of the fountain in the lake on the signature hole?

[Ferrins]

It means the course has held a state or national championship.

[Bruce]

It means the course has held a state or national championship.

No it doesn't. It means that they have delusions of potentially hosting a championship at some point and therefore they need to be tough in order not to be made a mockery of by the Pros' low scores. Hamilton Island claims championship status in its' marketing - what championships has it hosted?

Like Andrew, I rate it as the word that has done the most to create utter stupidity in golf course design and layout.

[Rod Morri]

Mike Clayton summed it up best: "I don't know what a Championship course is but I've played a lot of championships on awful golf courses."