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GOLF DIGEST AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST 2 0 1 9 / 2 0 2 0 golfdigest.com | february 2019 • A L O T I A N • ARCADIA BLUFFS • ARONIMINK • A U G U S T A N A T I O N A L • B A L L Y N E A L • BALTUSROL : LOWER / UPPER • B A N D O N D U N E S RESORT : BANDON DUNES / BANDON TRAILS / OLD MACDONALD / PACIFIC DUNES • BETHPAGE BLACK • BLACK ROCK • BLACKWOLF RUN • BOSTON GOLF CLUB • BUTLER NATIONAL • C A L U S A P I N E S • C A M A R G O • C A N Y A T A • CASTLE PINES • C H E R R Y H I L L S • CHICAGO GOLF CLUB • CONGRESSIONAL • THE COUNTRY CLUB • CROOKED STICK • CRYSTAL DOWNS • CYPRESS POINT • D A L L A S N A T I O N A L • DIAMOND CREEK • DOUBLE EAGLE • E R I N H I L L S • ESSEX COUNTY • E S T A N C I A • FISHERS ISLAND • F R I A R ’ S H E A D • GARDEN CITY • THE GOLF CLUB • GOZZER RANCH • H O N O R S • HUDSON NATIONAL • INTERLACHEN • INVERNESS • K I N L O C H • KITTANSETT • L.A. NORTH • MAIDSTONE • M A Y A C A M A • M E D I N A H • M E R I O N • MILWAUKEE • MONTEREY PENINSULA : DUNES / SHORE • MUIRFIELD VILLAGE • MYOPIA HUNT • NATIONAL GOLF LINKS OF AMERICA • O A K H I L L • OAKLAND HILLS • O A K M O N T • O A K TREE NATIONAL • OCEAN COURSE • OLD SANDWICH • O L D T O W N • OLYMPIA FIELDS • OLYMPIC CLUB • P E A C H T R E E • P E B B L E B E A C H • PETE DYE GOLF CLUB • PIKEWOOD NATIONAL • P I N E HURST NO. 2 • PINE VALLEY • PLAINFIELD • P R A I R I E D U N E S • THE PRESERVE • QUAKER RIDGE • QUARRY AT LA QUINTA • R I C H H A R V E S T • R I V I E R A • SAND HILLS • SAN FRANCISCO GOLF CLUB • S C I O T O • S E B O N A C K • S E M I N O L E • SHADOW CREEK • S H I N N E C O C K H I L L S • SHOREACRES • SLEEPY HOLLOW • S O M E R S E T H I L L S • SOUTHERN HILLS • SPRING HILL • SPYGLASS HILL • T P C S A W G R A S S • V A L H A L L A • VALLEY CLUB OF MONTECITO • V I C T O R I A N A T I O N A L • WADE HAMPTON • WHISPERING PINES • W H I S T L I N G S T R A I T S • WINGED FOOT : EAST / W E S T • Y E A M A N S H A L L 2013, George Waters, then an aspiring golf- course architect and now the manager for the United States Golf Asso- ciation’s Green Section Education, wrote a book titled Sand and Golf: How Terrain Shapes the Game. It’s marvelously instructive, one of many books on our recom- mended reading list for Golf Digest’s nearly 1,500 course-rating panelists. ▶Waters starts with the premise that “sandy terrain lies at the heart and soul of the game,” a simple dec- laration that explains the ascension of many of the courses listed on the 2019 renewal of Golf Digest’s biennial rank- ing of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. tk gutter credit golfdigest.com | february 2019 NO. 1 : PINE VALLEY : 12TH HOLE gutter credit tk gutter credit Photograph by Dom Furore chop away a brushy hillside of overgrown trees along the left side of the short, splendid par-4 12th (previous pages), reintroducing a daunting canyon of sand scars and pits. In 2010, Waters had been part of the re- It starts at the top of the list, with No. 1 construction crew that, under the direction pine valley in New Jersey, where irregular of architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, fairways framed by acres of exposed sand pulled out all the Bermuda-grass rough present a compelling 18 holes of challenge from pinehurst no. 2, now ranked 29th, to and reward. Fifty-three years ago, when expose the sand beneath. The goal was to Golf Digest first introduced the concept of restore what they believe original architect course rankings, Pine Valley was considered Donald Ross intended, a rough of sandy the ultimate in penal golf-course architec- hardpan dotted with wiregrass. Waters calls ture. These days, it’s considered highly today’s Pinehurst “an interesting twist on strategic, a change in attitude brought about playable rough . the perfect balance be- in part by experts like Waters, who writes tween penalty and playability.” That rough that Pine Valley “was the first course in also provides distinctive visuals that many America constructed in a truly naturalistic panelists favor with good scores in our Aes- style” and celebrates its sandy wastelands thetics category. as superior to flanking fields of ankle-deep The concept of sandy rough is now a manicured rough. characteristic of several America’s 100 “Golf is a game of recovery,” Waters Greatest courses. Coore and Crenshaw says, and points out that the low-nutrient have recently implemented it in their content of sand results in sparsely grassed remodeling of No. 12 seminole in South rough that gives even below-average golfers Florida and No. 67 maidstone on the a chance of finding their way home. Atlantic shoreline of Long Island in New But even in sand, something will eventu- York. It’s also a primary feature at the ally grow, be it weeds or trees. Considerable Grand Slam of layouts at Oregon’s Bandon effort has been made to re-establish Pine Dunes Resort: No. 17 pacific dunes, No. 36 Valley’s naturalistic rough. Just last year, bandon dunes, No. 50 old macdonald consulting architect Tom Fazio had a crew and No. 69 bandon trails. WHEN SAND IS GRAND : MANY OF GOLF DIGEST’S 100 GREATEST COURSES DISPLAY TERRAIN THAT “ LIES AT THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE GAME .” gutter credit tk gutter credit NO. 89 : SLEEPY HOLLOW : 16TH HOLE NO. 27 : PRAIRIE DUNES : 18TH HOLE WHEN SAND IS GRAND : MANY OF GOLF DIGEST’S 100 GREATEST COURSES DISPLAY TERRAIN THAT “ LIES AT THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE GAME .” On California’s Monterey Peninsula, Sandy rough is even found far from the concept is used a bit more sparingly, the coastlines, in the middle of the given the rocky nature of the area. Sandy country, at courses like No. 9 sand hills rough is not a natural characteristic at in central Nebraska, another Coore and No. 7 pebble beach, whose name suggests Crenshaw layout, and No. 46 ballyneal, a coarser foundation, but clusters of holes designed by Tom Doak in northeastern in sand dunes are prevalent at other area Colorado. courses: No. 3 cypress point, No. 45 spy- Exposed sand is also a dominant fea- glass hill and two courses at monterey ture on several courses in our ranking of peninsula country club, No. 56 shore America’s Second 100 Greatest, particularly and No. 79 dunes, the latter one of four at Florida’s Streamsong Resort, built from additions in 2019 to America’s 100 Greatest sand spoils deposited by phosphate strip- (see accompanying list). mining operations. streamsong red is On the Atlantic coast, Pete Dye’s design ranked No. 112, the blue is 138th and the at the ocean course at Kiawah Island in two-year-old black is 169th; all use sand South Carolina, ranked 24th, has always as much as grass. The Gil Hanse-designed featured holes surrounded by natural sand Black was Golf Digest’s Best New Public dunes merged with man-made bunkers. At the 2021 PGA Championship, all sand will again be played “through the green,” just as it was in the 2012 PGA, allowing contestants to ground the club anywhere. On the north shore of Long Island, No. 15 friar’s head, by Coore and Cren- OPEN TO SEE shaw, has a back nine in magnificent AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST coastal dunes. Its front nine also has sandy GOLF COURSES rough but was actually reshaped from old potato fields. “In spots where soil was AND AMERICA’S SECOND heavy,” Waters writes, “they flipped it over 100 GREATEST ▶ ▶ ▶ to expose gravelly sandy soils beneath.” prairie dunes: andy johnson • sleepy hollow: jon cavalier Course of 2018 and is one of 23 courses new to our Second 100 Greatest list (see accom- panying list). Among those newcomers are No. 110 sand valley, yet another Coore and Cren- shaw design, in dramatic sand barrens of central Wisconsin, and its companion mammoth dunes, a David McLay Kidd design ranked 145th. (Mammoth was Best New runner-up to Streamsong Black last year but is now ranked higher because of additional panelist evaluations received before our 100 Greatest deadline.) Another Kidd design, No. 180 gamble sands, stretches across the sand-dune highlands of northeast Washington. Even on courses with conventional turf- grass rough, Waters writes, a base of sand will provide firm-and-fast turf conditions (the essence of Golf Digest’s Condition- ing category) and irregular terrain that poses stance and lie as strategic elements: random hazards dug from natural sand; unusually contoured putting surfaces; A BASE OF SAND WILL PROVIDE FIRM-AND- interesting wrinkles off greens; and, more often than not, prominent wind, because FAST CONDITIONS, T H E E S S E N C E O F wind most commonly deposited the sand on such sites in the first place.

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