11 Weird And Wonderful Golf Course Names

Jeremy Ellwood unearths 11 American courses that struggle to really deliver on that front

Weird And Wonderful Golf Course Names
Don't tell Michelle Wie, but there really is a golf course called Kissing Camels in Colorado Springs (Getty Images)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Golf course names should inspire and entice, shouldn’t they? Jeremy Ellwood unearths 11 American courses that struggle to really deliver on that front

11 Weird And Wonderful Golf Course Names

Yes, all these weird and wonderful golf course names really do exist across The Pond…

In a world where branding is deemed so important, it’s hard to fathom how some of these American golf course names got through the board room vote. Some are down to the vagaries of local geography, but even so…

Dismal River

Okay, this Nebraska course is a Jack Nicklaus design and is situated by the Dismal River. But even so, synonyms of dismal include dingy, dim, dark, gloomy, sombre, dreary, drab, dull, desolate, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, depressing, grim, funereal, inhospitable, uninviting and unwelcoming.

Due Process Stable

This ultra-exclusive 1990s New Jersey club takes its name from the former horse farm it was built on apparently.

Dead Horse Lake

East Tennessee’s public course of the year in 2004. Legend has it that an explorer travelling through the area on horseback got his horse stuck in quicksand in the swampy area by today’s 3rd hole, with the dead horse filling the sinkhole and allowing what is now known as Dead Horse Lake to gradually form over the years.

Useless Bay

This Golf and Country Club lies on Whidbey Island, Washington. The bay got its name because it was too shallow for the tall ships of the early explorers.

Devils Knob

According to its website, ‘players leave Devils Knob, Virginia remembering narrow fairways, consistently excellent turf conditions and unsurpassed vistas’… and that name too, of course

Furnace Creek

Located in Death Valley, in the summer temperatures can reach 130 degrees! The name makes sense then...

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Three Little Bakers

This tweely named course in Wilmington, Delaware has an excellent reputation locally. No knead to book; just roll up (sorry)…

Possum Trot

One of a vast swathe of virtually side-by-side golf courses in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, this quaintly name golf facility is apparently knows as, ‘The Friendliest Course on the Grand Strand’.

Kissing Camels

This 27-hole complex is just one of scores of courses in the spectacular Colorado Springs.

Spooky Brook

This relatively flat, senior-friendly course in Somerset County, New Jersey is named after a stream running through the Hutcheson Memorial Forest.

Walking Stick

Not quite sure where the name comes from as the website photos suggest an almost pancake-flat layout in Pueblo, Colorado.

If lists are your thing check out our weather-related golfers' names and top 10 winner's jackets too.

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Jeremy Ellwood
Contributing Editor

Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly. He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts. He reached the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course. Put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content.

Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf


Jeremy is currently playing...

Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 55 S shaft

3 wood: Ping G425 Max 15˚ (set to flat +1), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 65 S shaft

Hybrid: Ping G425 17˚, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft

Irons 3-PW: Ping i525, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚, 12˚ bounce, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Putter: Ping Fetch 2021 model, 33in shaft (set flat 2)

Ball: Varies but mostly now TaylorMade Tour Response