Picking the best golf courses is a lot like asking if Marilyn Monroe rivals Lady GaGa. The both have/had gorgeous credentials but come from different eras that keep them more than an arm's length apart. The Old Course at St. Andrews is ancient compared to the renovated Bethpage Black golf course in New York – it was completely changed and reopened in 1998. Each has exhibited the unique characteristics that separate the courses from each other in the physical sense, but also keep them united as severe, fair challenges to anybody's golf game.

The Masters' venue, Augusta National, is famous for its pin placements on Sunday. The greens are hard, nerves are on edge and the wind plays tricks with a player's sense of direction. Coming down the stretch, including Amen Corner, demands all their golfing wisdom from those who would lead to the end. A slight mistake can put a player in deep trouble and cancel any dreams of wearing the Green Jacket.

Another great golf course, Pebble Beach, offers beauty and demands precision in return. Everybody interested in the game remembers watching Arnold Palmer explore the rocky sea-shore in search of an errant golf ball. Other pros have experienced the same feeling of frustration as the strong winds coming off the Pacific Ocean turn a well-hit shot into a catastrophe.

Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey has consistently been officially ranked as America's number one layout – when it wasn't number one, it was within a couple of spots from the top. The course has probably the finest collection of par fives and par threes in the world. It boasts a course rating of 155 from the championship tees, and has never hosted a major tournament because the club refuses to change itself in order to accommodate thousands of spectators. One of the more colorful holes is the par three 10th, where a very deep sand-trap has been dubbed "The Devil's Asshole." Many a player has muttered worse things about Pine Valley.

In Belgium, there is a monstrous facility known as The Royal Course at Waterloo – not far from where Napoleon was routed by British forces. The layout has two great 18-hole regulation courses and one 18-hole executive course. An added feature deserves mentioning. Near the entrance of the club house stands a full-size bronze statue of a young lady swinging a golf club. She had been the European amateur champion. The statue presents her completely in the buff. Encountering her nude likeness is certainly an interesting way to begin a day's round.

But what makes a truly great golf course? Maybe it's how those running the place treat you. Caddies rule St. Andrews. One shank-plagued Texan on the Old Course uttered "F++l me!" after a bad shot. His caddy replied, "Oh, tis a test pilot in a whore-house we are now." The man's round ended when the caddy marched his clubs off the course at number 16.

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