Local man’s quest to golf the best
Published 9:08 pm Wednesday, April 28, 2010
SEATTLE — Simon Spratley is a collector, but his hobby does not involve coins, stamps or baseball cards.
No, the 43-year-old Lynnwood man collects great golf courses.
From a whim that grew to a desire and then to a full-fledged dream, Spratley is attempting to play the top 100 golf courses in the United States and the top 100 courses elsewhere in the world, as determined by Golf Digest magazine. New lists are published every two years, so Spratley — the former general manager at Mill Creek Country Club and today the GM at Seattle’s Sand Point Country Club — is sticking with the magazine’s 2008 rankings.
Click here for links to all the courses in Golf Digest’s Top 100 courses in the U.S.
His quest began eight years ago following a chance encounter with the president of Pine Valley Golf Club in Pine Valley, N.J., which was then — and is again today — the No. 1 course in the country.
The club president invited Spratley to play Pine Valley, which is a little like being asked to dinner at the White House. It doesn’t happen to everybody. And when it happens to you, you say “yes.”
One month later, Spratley was playing the pristine fairways and greens at Pine Valley and savoring what was, he said, “an amazing experience.”
“Pine Valley was magical for me,” he said. “Every golf hole is like a post card. And then I thought, ‘It would be cool to do more of this.’ So from there I started planning my vacations around the lists.”
Last fall he traveled with a friend to New York’s Long Island, where he played Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and the National Golf Links, both in Southampton; Fishers Island Club in Fishers Island, Maidstone Club in East Hampton, and Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale. All are on Golf Digest’s Top 100 U.S. list.
So are three courses he played in March while on a long weekend in central California — the Lake Course at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, Monterey Peninsula Country Club in Pebble Beach, and the Preserve Golf Club in Carmel.
In October, Spratley will check off seven more when he again travels to the East Coast to play Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., the East and West courses at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y., Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., and Garden City Golf Club in Garden City, N.Y.
And next spring he hopes to visit Ireland and play five courses on his Top 100 Outside the U.S. list.
As exciting as all this is for Spratley, getting to play great golf courses is sometimes challenging. Although public courses like Bethpage and California’s Pebble Beach Golf Links require only a phone call, permission to play private courses can be chancy, and anywhere from a little bit to a lot.
Professional courtesy opens many doors — Spratley, after all, is a top official at one of Seattle’s premier clubs — but some courses are quite prickly on the topic of guests. And that includes two of the most exclusive clubs on Golf Digest’s Top 100 — Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., and Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach, Calif.
“Right now, I’d say my chance of playing Augusta is one in a thousand,” Spratley said. “But if you’d asked me about my chance of playing Pine Valley before meeting their president, I’d have said one in a million. So who knows. I might meet someone through my work. … And if I feel the need to pull on someone’s heartstrings a bit, I’ll do it.”
The experience of playing a new golf course begins for Spratley when he arrives in town. He enjoys getting a feeling for the community and the neighborhood around the course, and he continues absorbing the scenery and ambiance as he enters the actual grounds.
“I find the drive into these courses fascinating,” he said. “You never know what it’s going to be like. You never know what (will stand out). Sometimes it’s the clubhouse. Sometimes it’s the look of the first tee. … And by the time I get to the first tee, the golf almost becomes ancillary because the experience leading up to it is such a joy.”
Similarly, he said, “the culture and traditions of a club really appeal to me. I like that part of it a lot.”
From his lists, Spratley has played 26 U.S. courses and 19 world courses — he actually has a third list, too, of the top 100 U.S. public courses — so he still has plenty yet to see. But of the ones he’s played, some were obvious standouts. Pine Valley was overwhelming, of course, and so was Shinnecock Hills, site of four U.S. Opens.
“Shinnecock gave me goose bumps,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful piece of property and it was really a special walk for me. I could’ve walked the golf course and not played, and still enjoyed it just as much. It was one of the most special walks I’ve ever had in my life.”
Other highlights came last spring when Spratley traveled with friends to Scotland, where they played 11 courses, including seven on his top 100 world list.
Click here for links to all the courses in Golf Digest’s Top 100 courses outside of the U.S.
Great memories from that trip include being on the first tee of the Old Course at St. Andrews — “That was a really special moment,” Spratley said — and a visit to the artifact-filled clubhouse at nearby Muirfield.
For a video of the Old Course at St. Andrews, click here
“We weren’t allowed to see all of (the clubhouse), but I saw most of it because I was sneaking around,” he said. “It’s literally a museum.”
Spratley estimates he has played 600 golf courses in his lifetime. He finds some overrated, such as Scotland’s Carnoustie Golf Links, which he called “a big disappointment.” And other unranked and largely unknown courses deliver terrific golf and fantastic memories.
Of the ones he’s seen, Spratley has two co-favorites — Shinnecock Hills and the Old Course at Sunningdale Golf Club in Sunningdale, England. “If you told me I could only play one course for the rest of my life, I’d have a hard time picking between those two,” he said.
By his own admission, Spratley is less than a great golfer. He once had a 5 handicap, but it’s now in double digits because of infrequent practice and play. “The quality of my game is nowhere near the quality of the courses I play, unfortunately,” he admitted.
That said, whatever score he shoots — anywhere from the 70s to the 90s — fails to diminish his appreciation for the marvelous courses he sees.
“What I’m doing has always been meaningful,” he said. “I really, really appreciate it, and I don’t take it for granted on so many levels. I don’t take for granted the fact that I get access to places most people never do. I don’t take for granted the fact that my wife lets me do this. I don’t for granted my (good) health. And I don’t take for granted that I work in this business.
“I’m a lucky guy, and I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given.”
