Writing about the best golf course is a joy and problematic. How do you pick? It’s like asking someone to name their best friend, favorite hotel or restaurant. In each case “best” is subjective, and must answer the question of “in what context?"

When it comes to golf courses, “best” can mean many things: The hardest, prettiest, the hot architectural design, and of course there is “the best golf experience.” The golf experience includes the traditions, exclusivity of the course, caddies, food, locker rooms, golf partners and setting. And competitive golfers always claim the best course is the one where they just won.

Seeking the best

I took up golf just as I was creeping up on age 50 as a way to entertain clients. Playing golf at different courses nationwide also allowed me to escape the travel burnout that faces business travelers at one time or another.

Rather than join other weary road warriors on the 5 p.m. Friday flight out of say, Cleveland, Ohio, I found the “best” golf course in the area, and returned home early Saturday morning—a more civilized way to travel.

Three years after adopting this plan, I had played over half of the top 100 public courses, as ranked by Golf Magazine. At that point I started planning vacations in Michigan where I could polish off six more of the top 100, and long weekends where I drove, played golf, drove, played golf . . . well you get the idea.

I played all 100 in 2004, with the magazine featuring me in a section devoted to obsessed golfers. At that time, my “best” courses were Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Mauna Kea in Hawaii, Blackwolf Run (River Course) in Kohler, Wisc., and, of course, Pebble Beach.

And the world’s best

For a golf and travel aficionado, playing golf in the U.S. only whets your appetite to play golf outside the U.S. I have been fortunate enough to play some of the world’s great courses. Who knew there was a Memorial Park of Venice, Italy where you traveled by gondola to play?

My three “best” golf courses are Old Head, Cruden Bay and Kauri Cliffs.

Old Head is located in Kinsdale, on the southwest corner of Ireland. It resembles Pebble Beach without the houses, but is even more dramatic. Built in the middle of a cemetery, the holes snake out on isthmuses with steep drop-offs to the raging Celtic Sea. When the weather turns nasty as it often does and the fog reduces visibility to nothing, the rangers come herd the golfers back to the clubhouse lest they fall off one of the cragged edges. The course can be easy when the weather is good or impossible when the gale force winds blow. While Old Head may not be a true links course or as difficult as other European courses, there is a reason Links Magazine ranked it as one of the “10 Most Spectacular Courses in the World.”

Cruden Bay, north of Aberdeen Scotland on land almost tipping into the raging North Sea, is also a “best.” The haunting ruins of Slains Castle, hanging ominously on the edge of the sea, provide a spirited backdrop to Cruden Bay, having inspired Bram Stoker to pen Dracula! Although it does not get the publicity its sister course Saint Andrews does, Cruden Bay embodies the spirit of golf and is an example of what a course created primarily by nature should look like.

Opened in 1899, there are no houses, no hotels . . . just an exciting test of golf. There is a mystical, otherworldliness about the course. My husband and I played Cruden Bay in driving rain and fog. Out of the fog emerged an old man and his dog . . . “the hole is that way,” he intoned, and then disappeared into the fog.

When we returned to the clubhouse and asked about the old man and dog, we were told there are never dogs on the course. To this day we believe it was an apparition. Despite the remoteness of its location, or perhaps because of it, Cruden Bay is ranked in the world’s top 50 golf courses.

When I turned 60, my husband asked what golf course I wanted to play. Forget jewelry, it was and is all about golf. Only one answer—Kauri Cliffs—which is located four hours north of Auckland, New Zealand, on a working sheep farm.

Fifteen holes view the Pacific Ocean, and six are played alongside cliffs which plunge to the sea. Because there are only 22 room guest suites coupled with its location, and high daily tariff, it is not uncommon to have the entire golf course to yourself. Although the course is challenging, its beauty brings you to your knees. When playing Kauri Cliffs, all feels right with the world and it is easy to see why it is ranked in the world’s top 100 golf courses.

And of course (pardon the pun) there is no place like home

Although Houston doesn’t enjoy the natural beauty of Ireland, Scotland or New Zealand, it does not lack for spectacular golf courses. My home course which is also a “best” is Shadow Hawk in Richmond. When the course designed by Rees Jones broke ground in 1998, I thought “why would anyone drive 30 miles to play golf?” And that is precisely why the course is so special.

Once you enter the facility, it is about golf and people who love golf. The course is the best because of what it doesn’t have: No swimming pool, tennis court or beverage cart and few social activities. There are also no cell phones and long rounds of golf. What you find is a golf course in perfect condition, a highly acclaimed golf pro, Paul Marchand, who reveres the traditions of the game, people walking and playing golf in under four hours.

The course is a tough test of golf — indeed several national tournaments have been played there — yet the course is so interesting that after 12 years and many rounds of golf, I see something new each time. And while many people play golf for the social aspect, at Shadow Hawk I can savor the solitude and the spiritual experience of bowing to nature as this woman with sticks chases the little white ball into the setting sun.