BATTLE 18 So many golf courses, so little time. And so many opinions as to which are the best. To simplify matters, we assembled an expert panel of players, commentators, architects and critics and asked them to name their favorite public-access layouts at home and abroad. Check OF THE out their selections and start planning. Tee times are available, but there’s no time to waste.

BY JOSH SENS ICONS BY CALEB BENNETT GREENS

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KEY 3

Resort Course KEN VENTURI U.S. Open champion, former lead golf analyst, CBS Sports Walker Friendly

DOMESTIC Pasatiempo Golf Club M Carts Required Santa Cruz, Calif.

Spectacularly Scenic

Artful, alabaster bunkers. Buckled, Oceanside Views multitiered greens. This emerald gem in the Santa Cruz Mountains bears the unmistakable imprint of Alister

Culinary Programs * MacKenzie, the man behind Augusta National and Cypress Point. The difference is it’s open to the public. “That’s one of the things I love about it,” Venturi says. “It’s Caddy Program a great MacKenzie course that anyone can play.” Green fees: $220 to $250, * Offerings beyond the usual (831) 459-9155, www.pasatiempo.com clubhouse fare INTERNATIONAL DIFFICULTY Old Course at Lahinch The at Fancourt. Golf Club M Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland E Easy* M Moderate * D Difficult

1 2 *(Yeah, right) . GARY PLAYER “I’m an honorary member at Lahinch, and I

Nine-time major champion, golf-course architect Two-time major champion, golf-course architect just love it,” says Venturi, who appreciates and member of the and lead golf analyst for NBC Sports the quirks of traditional links golf. Here you get them all: blind shots, crisscrossing DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL fairways and mounds that carom shots in M M

Pebble Beach Golf Links The Links at Fancourt PEBBLE BEACH: © JOANN DOST The Ocean Course at Kiawah Dunluce Links at Royal all directions — some cruel, some kind. It’s Pebble Beach, Calif. George, South Africa Island Golf Resort D Portrush Golf Club M a natural fun house by the sea. Kiawah Island, S.C. Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland Green fees: $135 to $170, 011-353-65- 7081003, www.lahinchgolf.com (*Advance booking recommended)

“You can’t have a list like this and not Granted, Player’s biased; he designed Dunluce Links’ 14th hole. include Pebble,” Player says of this fabled this . But you understand his This famously challenging Pete Dye The only course in Ireland to host a British five-time host of the U.S. Open, which cuts feelings the second you lay eyes on these design metes out punishment of the most Open, this brawny layout turns especially along the bluffs of the Monterey Peninsula lovely links, which tilt and roll through an pleasurable kind, etched as it is through a bearish when stiff winds swirl in from on land that serves as nature’s gift to golf. unscathed landscape that could almost wind-swept oceanside dunescape. “It’s just the sea. If you can’t enjoy golf in these “Given the combination of history, scenery pass for , just with a warmer a very beautiful, demanding test of golf,” rough and raw conditions, odds are you and shot-making demands,” Player says, climate. “But, of course, you’ve got those Miller says. The PGA Championship, the can’t enjoy it anywhere. “I love everything “it’s hard to do much better than this.” mountains,” Player says. By which he fourth and final major of the tour season, about it,” Miller says. “The way it plays, its Green fees: $495 (includes cart for resort means the golden slopes of the Outeniqua will be staged here in 2012. rugged wind-swept look. This is what links guests), additional $35 for a cart for range, beautiful reminders of where you Green fees: $237 to $338, (800) 654-2924, golf is all about.” Pebble Beach’s sixth hole. nonresort guests, (800) 654-9300, really are. Green fees: $226, 011-27-44- www.kiawahresort.com Green fees: $221 to $246, 011-44-28-7082- PREVIOUS SPREAD: MILLERBROWN PHOTOGRAPHY, L.C. LAMBRECHT. THIS PAGE, HALLERAN/GETTY IMAGES SCOTT VENTURI: UNIVERSAL; NBC MILLER: PREVIOUS PAGE, PLAYER: JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES. THIS PAGE, DUNLUCE LINKS: DONALD FORD; www.pebblebeach.com 804-0030, www.fancourt.co.za Pebble Beach®, Pebble Beach Resorts®, Pebble Beach Golf Links®, Spyglassdistinctive Hill® Golf images Course, are trademarks, and their respective service underlying marks and trade dress of Pebble Beach Company. All rights reserved. Used by permission. 2311, www.royalportrushgolfclub.com

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Fairmont Banff Springs.

Spyglass Hill. 6 BRANDEL CHAMBLEE AFFORDABLE GEMS Former PGA Tour player You don’t have to pay top dollar to play top courses. and lead analyst for the Golf Channel Here are 10 world-beaters that won’t break your bank.

DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL Pinehurst No. 2 D Kingsbarns Bayonet Golf Course. Pinehurst, N.C. Golf Links M St Andrews, Fife, Scotland *

Just up the road from the 5 1. BETHPAGE STATE PARK BLACK COURSE Farmingdale, N.Y. RICKY BARNES Legendary architect Donald lies a classic links that feels / $65 to $150 / Not many munis are big and brash enough to Former U.S. Amateur Ross designed hundreds of as if it’s been around for host a U.S. Open. This Long Island monster has hosted two. champion, current courses. But, as Chamblee eons. “You’d be hard-pressed www.nysparks.com/golf-courses PGA Tour star says, “When you think Ross, to find a more spectacular 2. PINE BARRENS COURSE AT WORLD WOODS GOLF CLUB the first course you think of setting,” Chamblee says. “It’s Brooksville, Fla. / $40 to $119 / Located a little over an hour DOMESTIC is Pinehurst 2.” More than a just stunning, overlooking north of Tampa, this flawless Tom Fazio layout cuts through a D century old, the iconic course the firth. And after the round, rustic landscape of pines and dunes and is widely regarded as Spyglass Hill Golf Course the public’s Pine Valley. www.worldwoods.com Pebble Beach, Calif. recently underwent a sweeping you sit in this understated restoration to return it to the clubhouse looking out at your 3. BLACK MESA GOLF CLUB La Mesilla, N.M. / $62 to $89 / Craggy ridgelines and sandstone foothills frame the fairways way Ross originally intended. surroundings. It’s the perfect of this beautifully rough-cut course just north of Santa Fe. “The green complexes are place for fish-and-chips www.blackmesagolfclub.com so unbelievably subtle and and beer.” 4. BAYONET GOLF COURSE Seaside, Calif. / $60 to $120/ One of the host venues for the heralded challenging,” Chamblee says. Green fees: $303, Once overshadowed by the fabled courses of nearby AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, this “The experience just imprints 011-44-1334-460860, Monterey, this taut, treelined layout is finally getting its due, stout layout plays like two courses in one, itself in your mind.” www.kingsbarns.com thanks to a recent multimillion­-dollar overhaul. www.bayonet starting out in a coastal dunescape before Green fees: $329 to $410, (800) (*Advance booking blackhorse.com plunging through a forest of Monterey pines 487-4653, www.pinehurst.com recommended) 5. PECAN VALLEY GOLF CLUB San Antonio / $48 to $89 / To — and there’s no letting up along the way. play this classic course is to walk in the footsteps of greats like 4 , who lost the 1968 PGA Championship to Julius “I like challenging courses that make you Boros on the 18th hole. www.pecanvalleygc.com JOE PASSOV think your way around from start to finish,” 6. RUSTIC CANYON GOLF COURSE Moorpark, Calif. / $39 to Architecture and course-rankings editor, Golf Magazine Barnes says. “Spyglass is exactly that.” $63 / Built without detailed blueprints, this Los Angeles–area Green fees: $360, (800) 654-9300, layout lives up to its name with holes that curl and roll with the DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL www.pebblebeach.com natural contours of the land. www.rusticcanyongolfcourse The Plantation Course at The Fairmont Banff Springs .com Kapalua Resort M Golf Resort M INTERNATIONAL 7. PAPAGO GOLF COURSE Phoenix / $44 to $59 / The host Maui, Hawaii Banff, Alberta, Canada Old Course at of the 1971 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, this Royal Golf Club D character-rich municipal course was recently lengthened to stand up to the modern game. www.papagogolfcourse.net Troon, Scotland 8. CRUMPIN-FOX CLUB Bernardston, Mass. / $36 to $77 / Designed by golf architect Roger Rulewich, this sleeper of a layout winds through a postcard New England backdrop of Televised images of this course, which “The setting here just staggers you,” Passov pine forests and meadows. www.golfthefox.com hosts the first event on tour each season, says of this Rocky Mountains jewel, which 9. CIRCLING RAVEN GOLF CLUB AT THE COEUR D’ALENE beam across the ocean like electronic sits in the shadows of snowcapped peaks One of the regular venues on the British CASINO RESORT Worley, Idaho / $65 to $95 / Wow is the postcards from Hawaii. But get this: The with the bubbling Bow River running Open rota, this seaside course is as rich in word that first comes to mind when you step onto the first tee site is even prettier than it looks on TV. along its flanks. Nature did its job, as did variety as it is in vistas, with holes ranging of this expansive, scenic golf course spread on 620 acres in ru- “It’s a course with amazing contours, ocean the great Canadian architect Stanley from a famous, 123-yard postage-stamp- ral Idaho. Just over an hour southeast of Spokane, Wash., it’s a setting with a stunning sense of remove. www.cdacasino.com backdrops and jungle edging the fairways,” Thompson, whose artfully placed bunkers size -3 to a par-5 that stretches nearly Passov says. “And it all adds up to a wide, shine against a golfing backdrop that is six football fields. “It’s just a great, tough 10. SOUTHERN DUNES GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB Maricopa, Ariz. / $50 to $125 / Originally home to an orange grove, this wild and windy ride.” unlike any other in the world. links course,” Barnes says. superb course offers the beautiful bones and pristine condi- Green fees: $158 to $268, (877) 527-2582, Green fees: $155 to $225, (403) 762-6801, Green fees: $185 to $249, 011-44-1292-311- tions of a high-end private retreat. www.golfsouthern

www.golfatkapalua.com www.fairmont.com/banffsprings 555, www.royaltroon.com PASSOV: ANGUS MURRAY; SPYGLASS HILL: © JOANN DOST; BARNES: ANDREW REDINGTON/GETTY IMAGES CHAMBLEE: COURTESY GOLF CHANNEL; BAYONET: JULIO RODRIGUEZ, JR.; PINEHURST LLC dunes.com

Pinehurst No. 2’s 12th hole.

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7 DAVID WOOD Author, Around the World in 80 Rounds

DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL M Chambers Bay Weiskopf Course at Kauri Cliffs. University Place, Wash. Vista Vallarta M Puerta Vallarta, Mexico

8

GARY McCORD About 15 minutes outside of Tacoma, this Deep ravines and tangled jungle define Former PGA Tour player, site with humble roots (it used to be a the edges of this design as on-course commentator, CBS Sports gravel mine) has given rise to a municipal it dips and lifts through a hilly landscape. course of such acclaim that it’s been Though the course is set back from the chosen to host the 2015 U.S. Open. “It’s in ocean, its layout, with a lofty elevation, DOMESTIC the Pacific Northwest, but it feels like the offers postcard views of the coastline Pacific Dunes Course M kind of true links-style course you’d find in along Puerto Vallarta. And there’s plenty Bandon, Ore. the British Isles,” Wood says. “It’s joyous of beauty in the course itself. “Outside of to play.” Augusta, with its dogwoods and azaleas, I Green fees: $69 to $205, (877) 295-4657, can’t think of a course that’s filled with a www.chambersbaygolf.com greater quantity and variety of flowers.” Green fees: $136 to $196, For a mix of quality and quantity, nothing www.vistavallartagolf.com comes close to Bandon Dunes Resort, a coastal Oregon retreat with four 18-hole courses, all ranked among the top 20 in the world. (A fifth layout, a par-3 course, opens next year.) “Going to Bandon Dunes isn’t like going to one concert,” McCord says. “It’s like going to a venue where a bunch of great bands are playing. They’ve got four courses, and they’re all spectacular. But for the combination of scenery and shotmaking, you can’t top Pacific Dunes.” Green fees: $75 to $225, (888) 345-6008, www.bandondunes.com

INTERNATIONAL Kauri Cliffs Golf Course M Matauri Bay, Northland, New Zealand

Financial titan Julian Robertson could have built a golf course almost anywhere. So, he chose a stirring oceanside site on the North Island for the site of the sister CORD: MONTY BRINTON/CBS; CHAMBERS BAY: MILLERBROWN PHOTOGRAPHY MILLERBROWN BAY: CHAMBERS BRINTON/CBS; MONTY CORD: course to dramatic Cape Kidnappers. c “You step onto the first tee here, and your heart skips a beat,” McCord says. “You almost can’t believe the setting is real.” Chambers Bay. Green fees: $221 to $316,

011-64-9-407-0060, www.kauricliffs.com WOOD: BRAD KEVELIN; M

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Harbour Town. THE BUCKET LIST If you’re going to dream, dream big. And if you ever get invited to play one of these very private 10 courses, count yourself among the lucky few. MARTY K AUFMANN 1. PINE VALLEY GOLF CLUB Pine Valley, N.J. / Year after Travel editor, year, in every major ranking system that matters, this hush- Golfweek magazine hush George Crump and H.S. Colt layout ranks at the very top of the heap. (856) 783-3000 DOMESTIC 2. CYPRESS POINT CLUB Pebble Beach, Calif. / The par-3 D 16th hole, a 200-plus-yarder that plays over an ocean inlet, is Wolf Creek Golf Club widely regarded as the greatest in the world. The other 17 ain’t Mesquite, Nev. shabby either. (831) 624-2223 3. AUGUSTA NATIONAL GOLF CLUB Augusta, Ga. / To serious golf fans, the home of the Masters looks as familiar as their own backyard. Sigh! If only. www.augusta.com This exhilarating course 90 minutes 9 4. SHINNECOCK HILLS Southampton, N.Y. / You want his- tory? This Long Island masterpiece has hosted the U.S. Open north of Las Vegas cuts through a desert TOM WEISKOPF four times — in three different centuries. (631) 283-1310 badlands of stark sandstone formations. Former British Open champion, 5. MERION GOLF CLUB East Ardmore, Pa. / If you’ve seen Throw in a slew of dramatic elevation golf-course architect the famous image of Ben Hogan’s epic one-iron on the 18th changes (the second tee, for instance, hole of the 1950 U.S. Open, then you’ve seen the 18th hole at stands roughly 11 stories above the desert Merion. You’ll get another glimpse when the U.S. Open returns DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL in 2013. www.meriongolfclub.com floor), and you’ve got a unique montage Harbour Town Golf Championship Links of arresting looks. “It’s perhaps the most 6. SAND HILLS GOLF CLUB Mullen, Neb. / The aptly named Links at Sea at Royal County club cuts through dramatic sand dunes in central Nebraska, a unusual golf landscape in the country,” Pines Resort D Down Golf Club D surreal backdrop to some of the world’s most spectacular golf. Kaufmann says, “but don’t take that to Hilton Head, S.C. Newcastle, County Down, (308) 546-2237 mean it’s gimmicky. It’s difficult to think Northern Ireland 7. ROYAL MELBOURNE GOLF CLUB Black Rock, Victoria, of another course that presents players Australia / Alister MacKenzie, the man behind Augusta and with the chance to hit so many memorable Cypress Point, also worked Down Under. This stirring layout, shots.” Green fees: $85 to $195, which will host the 2011 Presidents Cup, was one of the results. (866) 252-4653, www.golfwolfcreek.com www.royalmelbourne.com.au

8. CRYSTAL DOWNS Frankfort, Mich. / Wildly sloping INTERNATIONAL greens provide the grand defense for this MacKenzie course, M which is buffeted by winds on a sandy bluff overlooking Lake Laucala Island Michigan. (231) 352-7979 Fiji So many modern courses try The Mountains of Mourne, a 9. WINGED FOOT GOLF CLUB West Mamaroneck, N.Y. / to beat you with brute length. soaring backdrop for Royal Not only is it private, it’s intensely punishing. At the 1974 U.S. Not this Pete Dye triumph County Down, served as Open, the so-called Massacre at Winged Foot, Hale Irwin won. and regular tour venue. It’s inspiration for C.S. Lewis’ And he was 7 over par. www.wfgc.info an examination based on Chronicles of Narnia, which is 10. RIVIERA COUNTRY CLUB Pacific Palisades, Calif. / “If money is no object,” Kaufmann says, subtlety. “It’s a shame that we fitting given that the beauty Even Larry David can’t curb his enthusiasm for this George “this is an experience you’ll never forget.” don’t see more courses like of the course is otherworldly. C. Thomas Jr. and Billy Bell design. He isn’t just a member; his He’s referring to a far-flung course carved house overlooks the course. www.therivieracountryclub.com this,” Weiskopf says. “It defines Weiskopf loves the setting and through the dense jungle of a South Pacific strategic demands hole after the layout, which routinely island, where turquoise waters wash up hole, and it doesn’t even reach ranks among the top five in the Riviera Country Club. against sugary white beaches. The views 7,000 yards.” world. He also loves the ever- are breathtaking, and, depending on your Green fees: $210 to $260, (800) shifting conditions. “The back bankroll, so are the prices. You’ve got to 732-7463, www.seapines.com and front nine have entirely stay there to play there, and one-bedroom different characters,” Weiskopf suites start at $3,800. Green fees are says. “Given the way the wind included, along with meals, a spa treatment works across the course and and range of island activities. 011-679-888- the changes in direction of the 0077, www.laucala.com design, it never plays the same way twice.” Green fees: $82 JOSH SENS is a contributing writer to Golf Magazine. His to $295, 011-44-28-4372-2419, work has also appeared in the New York Times and in

www.royalcountydown.org HARBOUR TOWN: ROB TIPTON/BOOMKIN PRODUCTIONS; RIVIERA: JOANN DOST TRACY WILCOX/GOLFWEEK the anthology The Best American Sportswriting of 2003.

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