Plus, Second Greatest 100 / 100Greatest Public Courses
2015 / 2016
A SUPPLEMENT TO GOLF DIGEST AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST COURSES
PLUS, SECOND GREATEST 100 / 100 GREATEST PUBLIC COURSES 2015 / 2016
100 greatest courses A SUPPLEMENT TO GOLF DIGEST AUGUSTA NATIONAL, PINE VALLEY, CYPRESS POINT CLUB, SHINNECOCK HILLS, MERION, OAKMONT, PEBBLE BEACH G. LINKS, NATIONAL G. LINKS OF AMERICA, WINGED FOOT, FISHERS ISLAND CLUB, SAND HILLS, SEMINOLE, CRYSTAL DOWNS, CHICAGO G.C, MUIRFIELD VILLAGE, OAK HILL (East), OAKLAND HILLS (South), PACIFIC DUNES, THE COUNTRY CLUB, THE OCEAN COURSE, WADE HAMPTON, WHISTLING STRAITS, FRIAR’S HEAD, RIVIERA, PRAIRIE DUNES, LOS ANGELES (North), THE ALOTIAN CLUB, PINEHURST AMERICA’S 100 RESORT (No. 2), SOUTHERN HILLS, GOZZER RANCH, THE HONORS COURSE, SHADOW CREEK, THE OLYMPIC CLUB (Lake), PEACHTREE, SAN FRANCISCO G.C., THE GOLF CLUB, BANDON DUNES, SEBONACK, MEDINAH (No. 3), CASTLE PINES, BALTUSROL (Lower), ERIN HILLS, GREATEST COURSES BETHPAGE STATE PARK (Black), PIKEWOOD NATIONAL, VICTORIA NATIONAL, BUTLER NATIONAL, TPC SAWGRASS (Players Stadium), 4 America’s 100 Greatest A FEW FAVOrITE WEST COAST COURSES: Courses Shake-up SPYGLASS HILL, GARDEN CITY, SCIOTO, OAK TREE NATIONAL, There’s a new No. 1. by ron whitten 20 2 Seasons of CAMARGO CLUB, PETE DYE, BALLYNEAL, OLD MACDONALD, Bandon Dunes Learn the best time to get away to KINLOCH, INTERLACHEN, BALTUSROL (Upper), WINGED FOOT (East), 12 Top 20 Map Oregon’s leading golf resort. Take a tour of select courses using by Charles mc grath CANYATA, DALLAS NATIONAL, MILWAUKEE, THE G.C. AT BLACK the interactive links. ROCK, YEAMANS HALL CLUB, ARCADIA BLUFFS, OLYMPIA FIELDS 25 OREGON HOMAGE Discover Bandon Dunes fourth and (North), MONTEREY PENINSULA (Shore), WHISPERING PINES, newest course – Old Macdonald. Rankings: by RON WHITTEN INVERNESS CLUB, THE ESTANCIA CLUB, QUAKER RIDGE, PLAINFIELD, SOMERSET HILLS, BANDON TRAILS, BOSTON, DOUBLE EAGLE CLUB, 7 BEST IN STATE 29 what you might not know about pebble beach THE QUARRY AT LA QUINTA, MOUNTAINTOP G. & LAKE CLUB, OLD How this breathtaking course was 12 100 GREATEST COURSES transformed from a pile of rocks, and many other stories. SANDWICH, CHERRY HILLS, RICH HARVEST LINKS, CONGRESSIONAL by RON WHITTEN 16 SECOND GREATEST 100 (Blue), THE VALLEY CLUB OF MONTECITO, KITTANSETT CLUB, FLINT 41 san francisco love story HILLS NATIONAL, HAZELTINE NATIONAL, THE PRESERVE, CALUSA 19 100 GREATEST PUBLIC A native son reflects on why The Olympic Club is so special. PINES, EAGLE POINT, ARONIMINK, BLACKWOLF RUN (River), by jaime diaz LAUREL VALLEY, CROOKED STICK, DIAMOND CREEK, HUDSON NATIONAL, THE PETE DYE CSE. AT FRENCH LICK RESORT, VALHALLA, MAIDSTONE CLUB, SHOREACRES, STREAMSONG (Red) click here for the PRINTER FRIENDLY format. ▶ For the golden anniversary of our ranking, Augusta National is the new No. 1. T hat’s just a start of the changes. by ron whitten
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FANTASTIC FINISH ▶ Pine Valley ranks No. 1 in Shot Values, Resistance to Scoring and Design Variety. Here, the 483- yard, par-4 18th hole. t k t k g utter cred i g utter cred i
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7 PEBBLE BEACH
click here for the the TOP 20 PHOTO GALLERY see stunning ▶ Top 20 Map helps you locate the 20 greatest golf photos and important course details for the top 20 in the America’s 100 Greatest 2015-2016 ranking, or visit: GolfDigest.com/ courses in America. Plus, click on the course tour links golf-courses/2015-02/100-greatest-top-20-photos#slide=1. 1-10 and get a detailed view of individual holes.
Rank (2013 rank in ParenthesEs) Yards Par Points THE COUNTRY CLUB 1 (2) AUGUSTA NATIONAL G.C. 7,435 72 72.1589 Augusta, Ga. Chestnut Hill, MA Alister MacKenzie & Bobby Jones (1933) Willie Campbell 2 (1) PINE VALLEY G.C. 7,057 70 71.9818 CRYSTAL OAKLAND (1895) / Alex Pine Valley, N.J. DOWNS HILLS Campbell (1902) George Crump & H.S. Colt (1918) WINGED FOOT Frankfort, MI Bloomfield 7,350 yards, 3 (3) CYPRESS POINT CLUB 6,524 72 69.4448 Alister MacKenzie Hills, MI Mamaroneck, NY Par: 70 Pebble Beach, Ca. & Perry Maxwell Donald Ross OAK HILL C.C. A.W. Tillinghast Alister MacKenzie & Robert Hunter (1928) (1931) (1918) (1923) PACIFIC Rochester, NY 4 (4) SHINNECOCK HILLS G.C. 7,041 70 69.2522 DUNES FISHERS Southampton, N.Y. / William Flynn (1931) OR 6,518 yards, 7,445 yards, Donald Ross 7,258 yards, ISLAND CLUB Bandon, OR Par: 70 Par: 70 (1925) Par: 72 5 (6) MERION G.C. (East) 6,592 70 68.2949 Tom Doak (2001) Fishers Island, NY Ardmore, Pa. / Hugh Wilson (1912) 18 SAND HILLS 7,145 yards, Seth Raynor & 6 (5) OAKMONT C.C. 7,255 71 68.1868 6,633 yards, Mullen, NE CHICAGO G.C. Par: 70 Charles Banks Oakmont, Pa. Par: 71 Bill Coore & Wheaton, IL (1926) Henry Fownes (1903) VIEW ▶ 16 19 Ben Crenshaw C.B. Macdonald 13 COURSE TOUR NY MA 7 (7) PEBBLE BEACH G. LINKS 6,828 72 67.6226 (1994) 6,566 yards, (1894) / Seth Par: 72 Pebble Beach, Ca. Raynor (1923) 10 Jack Neville & Douglas Grant (1919) 7,089 yards, MI Par: 71 8 (11) NATIONAL G. LINKS OF AMERICA 6,957 72 66.9500 PEBBLE BEACH 6,846 yards, 17 9 8 NATIONAL G. Southampton, N.Y. / C.B. Macdonald (1911) G. LINKS Par: 70 LINKS OF AMERICA Pebble Beach, CA 4 9 (8) WINGED FOOT G.C. (West) 7,258 72 66.6801 CA VIEW ▶ 14 PA 5 Mamaroneck, N.Y. / A.W. Tillinghast (1923) Jack Neville & 11 COURSE TOUR 6 NJ Southampton, NY 10 (10) FISHERS ISLAND CLUB 6,615 70 66.4241 Douglas Grant NE OH C.B. Macdonald Fishers Island, N.Y. (1919) (1911) Seth Raynor & Charles Banks (1926) MUIRFIELD 15 OAKMONT 2 7,041 yards, IL VILLAGE G. C. Oakmont, PA 6,935 yards, Par: 70 Par: 72 Dublin, OH Henry Fownes
7 ▶ VIEW Jack Nicklaus (1903) COURSE TOUR & Desmond SHINNECOCK 11-20 Muirhead (1974) 7,255 yards, HILLS Par: 71 Southampton, NY 7,366 yards, THE OCEAN ▶ ▶ VIEW William Flynn Rank Yards Par Points CYPRESS Par: 72 COURSE 3 POINT CLUB COURSE TOUR (1931) 11 (9) SAND HILLS G.C. 7,089 71 66.2401 Kiawah Island, SC Mullen, Neb. / Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (1994) Pebble Beach, CA Pete Dye (1991) 7,041 yards,
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12 (13) SEMINOLE G.C. 6,836 72 65.7391 Par: 70 MacKenzie & ▶ Juno Beach, Fla. / Donald Ross (1929) 7,356 yards,
Robert Hunter Par: 72 VIEW 13 (12) CRYSTAL DOWNS C.C. 6,518 70 65.6944 (1928) ▶ COURSE TOUR Frankfort, Mich. SC VIEW Alister MacKenzie & Perry Maxwell (1931) 6,524 yards, 20 COURSE TOUR 14 (18) CHICAGO G.C. 6,846 70 65.6429 Par: 72 PINE VALLEY Wheaton, Ill. C.B. Macdonald (1894) / Seth Raynor (1923) GA AUGUSTA Pine Valley, NJ 1 NATIONAL George Crump & 15 (14) MUIRFIELD VILLAGE G.C. 7,392 72 65.4631 H.S. Colt (1918) Dublin, Ohio Augusta, GA Jack Nicklaus & Desmond Muirhead (1974) Alister MacKenzie 7,057 yards, 16 (17) OAK HILL C.C. (East) 7,145 70 65.2247 & Bobby Jones Par: 70 Rochester, N.Y. / Donald Ross (1925) (1933)
17 (20) OAKLAND HILLS C.C. (South) 7,445 70 65.2165 7,435 yards, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Par: 72 MERION G.C. Donald Ross (1918) Ardmore, PA 18 (19) PACIFIC DUNES 6,633 71 65.1748 Hugh Wilson Bandon, Ore. / Tom Doak (2001) FL SEMINOLE (1912) 19 (24) THE COUNTRY CLUB 7,350 70 64.9493 (Clyde/Squirrel) Juno Beach, FL Donald Ross 6,886 yards, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 12 (1929) Par: 70 Willie Campbell (1895) / Alex Campbell (1902) 20 (21) THE OCEAN COURSE 7,356 72 64.9282 6,836 yards, Kiawah Island, S.C. / Pete Dye (1991) Par: 72
12 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses CONTINUED ▶ ▶ ▶ 100 greatest courses 2015 / 2016
42 ERIN HILLS
5 MERION 35 SAN FRANCISCO
21-30 41-50 61-70 81-90
Rank (2013 rank in ParenthesEs) Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points Rank (2013 rank in ParenthesEs) Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points
21 (22) WADE HAMPTON G.C. 7,302 72 64.7895 41 (35) BALTUSROL G.C. (Lower) 7,400 72 63.1650 61 (60) DALLAS NATIONAL G.C. 7,372 72 62.0630 81 (73) RICH HARVEST LINKS 7,715 72 61.3452 Cashiers, N.C. / Tom Fazio (1987) Springfield, N.J. / A.W. Tillinghast (1922) Dallas / Tom Fazio (2002) Sugar Grove, Ill. 22 (16) WHISTLING STRAITS (Straits) 7,790 72 64.7378 42 (New) ERIN HILLS G. CSE. 7,812 72 62.9110 62 (53) MILWAUKEE C.C. 7,094 72 62.0331 Jerry Rich & Greg Martin (1999) Haven, Wis. / Pete Dye (1998) Erin, Wis. River Hills, Wis. 82 (77) CONGRESSIONAL C.C. (Blue) 7,278 72 61.3438 23 (28) FRIAR’S HEAD G.C. 7,049 71 64.6514 Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry & Ron Whitten (2006) H.S. Colt & C.H. Alison (1929) Bethesda, Md. / Robert Trent Jones (1962) Baiting Hollow, N.Y. 43 (42) BETHPAGE STATE PARK (Black) 7,366 71 62.8630 63 (58) THE G.C. AT BLACK ROCK 7,130 72 62.0190 83 (112) THE VALLEY CLUB OF MONTECITO 6,744 71 61.3133 Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2002) Farmingdale, N.Y. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Montecito, Calif. 24 (23) RIVIERA C.C. 7,040 71 64.6025 Joseph H. Burbeck & A.W. Tillinghast (1936) Jim Engh (2003) Alister MacKenzie & Robert Hunter (1929) Pacific Palisades, Calif. 44 (45) PIKEWOOD NATIONAL G.C. 7,588 72 62.8133 64 (New) YEAMANS HALL CLUB 6,808 70 61.8511 84 (84) KITTANSETT CLUB 6,811 71 61.2982 George C. Thomas Jr. & W.P. Bell (1926) Morgantown, W.Va. Charleston, S.C. Marion, Mass. 25 (25) PRAIRIE DUNES C.C. 6,940 70 64.4624 J. Robert Gwynne & John Raese (2009) Seth Raynor & Charles Banks (1926) William Flynn & Frederic Hood (1922) Hutchinson, Kan. 45 (47) VICTORIA NATIONAL G.C. 7,239 72 62.8098 65 (57) ARCADIA BLUFFS G.C. 7,300 72 61.8071 85 (72) FLINT HILLS NATIONAL G.C. 6,906 71 61.2690 Perry Maxwell (1937) / Press Maxwell (1957) Newburgh, Ind. / Tom Fazio (1998) Arcadia, Mich. Andover, Kan. / Tom Fazio (1997) 26 (41) LOS ANGELES C.C. (North) 7,236 71 64.4357 46 (50) BUTLER NATIONAL G.C. 7,523 71 62.7981 Rick Smith & Warren Henderson (2000) 86 (94) HAZELTINE NATIONAL G.C. 7,137 72 61.2548 Los Angeles / George C. Thomas Jr. (1921) Oak Brook, Ill. 66 (62) OLYMPIA FIELDS C.C. (North) 7,205 70 61.7926 Chaska, Minn. / Robert Trent Jones (1962) 27 (15) THE ALOTIAN CLUB 7,480 72 64.3292 George Fazio & Tom Fazio (1974) Olympia Fields, Ill. 87 (79) THE PRESERVE G.C. 7,067 72 61.2421 Roland, Ark. / Tom Fazio (2004) 47 (44) TPC SAWGRASS 7,215 72 62.7181 Willie Park Jr. (1922) Carmel, Calif. / Tom Fazio, 28 (40) PINEHURST RESORT (No. 2) 7,565 72 64.2727 (Players Stadium) 67 (66) MONTEREY PENINSULA C.C. (Shore) 6,873 72 61.7821 J. Michael Poellot & Sandy Tatum (2000) Pinehurst, N.C. / Donald Ross (1935) Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. / Pete Dye (1980) Pebble Beach / Mike Strantz (2004) 88 (81) CALUSA PINES G.C. 7,203 72 61.2374 29 (30) SOUTHERN HILLS C.C. 7,184 71 64.1204 48 (48) SPYGLASS HILL G. CSE. 6,960 72 62.7138 68 (75) WHISPERING PINES G.C. 7,473 72 61.7403 Naples, Fla. Tulsa, Okla. / Perry Maxwell (1936) Pebble Beach / Robert Trent Jones (1966) Trinity, Texas / Chet Williams (2000) Michael Hurdzan & Dana Fry (2001) 30 (27) GOZZER RANCH G. & LAKE C. 7,317 72 63.9136 49 (55) GARDEN CITY G.C. 6,922 73 62.6825 69 (54) INVERNESS CLUB 7,255 71 61.6908 89 (67) EAGLE POINT G.C. 7,259 72 61.2142 Harrison, Idaho / Tom Fazio (2007) Garden City, N.Y. / Devereux Emmet (1899) Toledo, Ohio / Donald Ross (1919) Wilmington, N.C. / Tom Fazio (2000) 50 (52) SCIOTO C.C. 7,140 70 62.6499 70 (61) THE ESTANCIA CLUB 7,314 72 61.6729 90 (80) ARONIMINK G.C. 7,190 70 61.1902 Columbus, Ohio / Donald Ross (1916) Scottsdale / Tom Fazio (1995) Newtown Square, Pa. / Donald Ross (1928) PEBBLE BEACH AND MERION: STEPHEN SZURLEJ • ERIN HILLS: HUNDLEY PAUL • SAN FRANCISCO: GOLF DIGEST RESOURCE CENTER 31-40 51-60 71-80 91-100
Rank Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points RanK Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points
31 (34) THE HONORS COURSE 7,450 72 63.8943 51 (New) OAK TREE NATIONAL 7,412 71 62.6482 71 (69) QUAKER RIDGE G.C. 7,008 70 61.6547 91 (63) BLACKWOLF RUN (River) 7,404 72 61.0936 Ooltewah, Tenn. / Pete Dye (1983) Edmond, Okla. / Pete Dye (1976) Scarsdale, N.Y. / A.W. Tillinghast (1918) Kohler, Wis. / Pete Dye (1990) 32 (29) SHADOW CREEK 7,560 72 63.8509 52 (New) CAMARGO CLUB 6,659 70 62.5266 72 (65) PLAINFIELD C.C. 7,091 72 61.5907 92 (87) LAUREL VALLEY G.C. 7,329 72 61.0633 North Las Vegas, Nev. / Tom Fazio (1990) Indian Hill, Ohio Edison, N.J. / Donald Ross (1921) Ligonier, Pa. / Dick Wilson (1959) 33 (26) THE OLYMPIC CLUB (Lake) 6,934 71 63.8476 Seth Raynor (1925) 73 (95) SOMERSET HILLS C.C. 6,756 71 61.5704 93 (91) CROOKED STICK G.C. 7,516 72 60.9198 San Francisco / Sam Whiting (1924) 53 (46) PETE DYE G.C. 7,308 72 62.5190 Bernardsville, N.J. / A.W. Tillinghast (1918) Carmel, Ind. / Pete Dye (1967) 34 (43) PEACHTREE G.C. 7,414 72 63.7384 Bridgeport, W.Va. / Pete Dye (1994) 74 (70) BANDON TRAILS 6,759 71 61.5480 94 (89) DIAMOND CREEK G.C. 7,175 70 60.9126 Atlanta 54 (78) BALLYNEAL G.C. 7,147 71 62.4953 Bandon, Ore. / Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2005) Banner Elk, N.C. / Tom Fazio (2003) Robert Trent Jones & Bobby Jones (1947) Holyoke, Colo / Tom Doak (2006) 75 (74) BOSTON G.C. 7,062 71 61.5457 95 (90) HUDSON NATIONAL G.C. 7,101 70 60.9103 35 (32) SAN FRANCISCO G.C. 6,830 71 63.6236 55 (49) OLD MACDONALD 6,944 71 62.4879 Hingham, Mass. / Gil Hanse (2004) Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. / Tom Fazio (1996) San Francisco / A.W. Tillinghast (1924) Bandon, Ore. / Tom Doak & Jim Urbina (2010) 76 (83) DOUBLE EAGLE CLUB 7,175 72 61.5288 96 (93) THE PETE DYE CSE. 8,102 72 60.9035 36 (36) THE GOLF CLUB 7,439 72 63.5486 56 (51) KINLOCH G.C. 7,203 72 62.3339 Galena, Ohio AT FRENCH LICK RESORT New Albany, Ohio / Pete Dye (1967) Manakin-Sabot, Va. Jay Morrish & Tom Weiskopf (1992) French Lick, Ind. / Pete Dye (2009) 37 (38) BANDON DUNES 6,732 72 63.4556 Lester George & Vinny Giles (2001) 77 (88) THE QUARRY AT LA QUINTA 7,083 72 61.4987 97 (99) VALHALLA G.C. 7,540 72 60.9010 Bandon, Ore. / David McLay Kidd (1999) 57 (56) INTERLACHEN C.C. 6,967 72 62.2701 La Quinta, Calif. / Tom Fazio (1994) Louisville / Jack Nicklaus (1986) 38 (39) SEBONACK G.C. 7,534 72 63.3638 Edina, Minn. / Willie Watson (1911) 78 (92) MOUNTAINTOP G. & LAKE CLUB 7,122 70 61.4829 98 (100) MAIDSTONE CLUB 6,650 72 60.8456 Southampton, N.Y. 58 (59) BALTUSROL G.C. (Upper) 7,348 72 62.2070 Cashiers, N.C. / Tom Fazio (2006) East Hampton, N.Y. Jack Nicklaus & Tom Doak (2006) Springfield, N.J. / A.W. Tillinghast (1922) 79 (68) OLD SANDWICH G.C. 6,908 71 61.4142 Willie Park Jr. & Jack Park (1924) 39 (31) MEDINAH C.C. (No. 3) 7,657 72 63.3412 59 (76) WINGED FOOT G.C. (East) 6,792 72 62.1452 Plymouth, Mass. 99 (102) SHOREACRES 6,521 71 60.7791 Medinah, Ill. / Tom Bendelow (1928) Mamaroneck, N.Y. / A.W. Tillinghast (1923) Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2005) Lake Bluff, Ill. / Seth Raynor (1921) 40 (33) CASTLE PINES G.C. 7,696 72 63.2105 60 (37) CANYATA G.C. 7,266 72 62.0898 80 (64) CHERRY HILLS C.C. 7,348 72 61.3633 100 (New) STREAMSONG (Red) 7,148 72 60.7601 Castle Rock, Colo. / Jack Nicklaus (1981) Marshall, Ill. Cherry Hills Village, Colo. / William Flynn (1923) Streamsong, Fla. Bob Lohmann & Mike Benkusky (2004) Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2012)
14 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses CONTINUED ▶ ▶ ▶ SECOND greatest 100 2015 / 2016
122 SLEEPY HOLLOW COURTESY OF WOLF CREEK •
107 SAGE VALLEY 182 WOLF CREEK
101-110 121-130 141-150 161-170 Rank (2013 rank in ParenthesEs) Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points Rank (2013 rank in ParenthesEs) Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points
101 (86) MAYACAMA G.C. 6,785 72 60.7378 121 (104) GALLOWAY NATIONAL G.C. 7,111 71 60.1833 141 (New) THE GREENBRIER (Old White TPC) 7,287 70 59.5518 161 (101) THE STANWICH CLUB 7,445 72 59.1047 COURTESY OF SLEEPY HOLLOW Santa Rosa, Calif. Galloway, N.J. White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Greenwich, Conn. • Jack Nicklaus (2001) Tom Fazio (1994) C.B. Macdonald (1914) William Gordon & David Gordon (1962) 102 (71) SHOAL CREEK 7,264 72 60.7233 122 (145) SLEEPY HOLLOW C.C. 6,880 70 60.0879 142 (140) CHARLOTTE C.C. 7,335 71 59.5029 162 (125) GLENWILD G.C. 7,523 71 59.0698 Shoal Creek, Ala. Scarborough-on-Hudson, N.Y. Charlotte Jack Nicklaus (1977) C.B. Macdonald (1914)/A.W. Tillinghast (1928) Park City, Utah Donald Ross (1925) ambrecht Tom Fazio (2001) 103 (108) EAST LAKE G.C. 7,374 72 60.7150 123 (116) LOST DUNES G.C. 6,905 71 60.0417 143 (154) SHERWOOD C.C. 7,052 72 59.4390 Atlanta / Donald Ross (1913) Bridgman, Mich. Thousand Oaks, Calif. 163 (163) THE CREEK 6,459 70 59.0605 104 (85) FOREST HIGHLANDS G.C. (Canyon) 7,007 71 60.7071 Tom Doak (1999) Jack Nicklaus (1989) Locust Valley, N.Y. Flagstaff, Ariz. 124 (105) THE CONCESSION G.C. 7,474 72 59.9864 144 (134) PRONGHORN CLUB (Fazio) 7,462 72 59.4302 C.B. Macdonald & Seth Raynor (1923) Jay Morrish & Tom Weiskopf (1988) Bradenton, Fla. Bend, Ore. / Tom Fazio (2006) 164 (141) TRUMP NATIONAL G.C. BEDMINSTER (Old) 7,590 72 58.8955 7,344 70 60.6920 Jack Nicklaus & Tony Jacklin (2006) 105 (118) JUPITER HILLS CLUB (Hills) 145 (New) BELLERIVE C.C. 7,460 72 59.4144 Bedminster, N.J. / Tom Fazio (2004) Tequesta, Fla. / George Fazio (1970) 125 (131) COLORADO G.C. 7,604 72 59.9765 St. Louis / Robert Trent Jones (1960)
165 (151) TRUMP INTERNATIONAL G.C. (Championship) 7,326 72 58.8919 L.C. L SAGE VALLEY: 106 (96) HARBOUR TOWN G. LINKS 7,101 71 60.6388 Parker, Colo. Hilton Head Island Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2007) 146 (129) OMNI HOMESTEAD (Cascades) 6,667 70 59.3979 West Palm Beach / Jim Fazio (1999) Hot Springs, Va. / William Flynn (1923) Pete Dye & Jack Nicklaus (1969) 126 (New) NEWPORT C.C. 6,948 70 59.9627 166 (187) SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS G.C. 7,374 72 58.8689 107 (122) SAGE VALLEY G.C. 7,344 72 60.6006 Newport, R.I. / William F. Davis (1899) 147 (103) THE HIGHLAND CSE. AT PRIMLAND 7,053 72 59.3943 Las Vegas / Robert Trent Jones Jr. (2000) Meadows of Dan, Va. / Donald Steel (2006) Graniteville, S.C. / Tom Fazio (2001) 127 (127) BALTIMORE C.C. (East) 7,037 70 59.9596 167 (133) WOLF RUN G.C. 7,220 71 58.8506 Lutherville, Md. 148 (143) BLACK DIAMOND RANCH (Quarry) 7,159 72 59.3863 108 (82) SAHALEE C.C. (South/North) 7,003 72 60.5529 Zionsville, Ind. / Steve Smyers (1989) Sammamish, Wash. A.W. Tillinghast (1926) Lecanto, Fla. Ted Robinson (1969) 128 (New) THE OLDE FARM 7,063 71 59.9465 Tom Fazio (1987) 168 (155) SEA ISLAND G.C. (Seaside) 6,883 70 58.8388 109 (New) RIDGEWOOD C.C. (East/West) 7,319 71 60.5345 Bristol, Va. / Bobby Weed (2000) 149 (139) SANCTUARY 7,044 72 59.3382 St. Simons Island, Ga. / Tom Fazio (1999) Paramus, N.J. 129 (110) EUGENE C.C. 7,033 72 59.9420 Sedalia, Colo. 169 (New) McARTHUR G.C. 7,205 72 58.7973 A.W. Tillinghast (1929) Eugene, Ore. / Robert Trent Jones (1967) Jim Engh (1997) Hobe Sound, Fla. / Tom Fazio & Nick Price (2002) 110 (97) KAPALUA (Plantation) 7,411 73 60.5165 130 (121) CHAMBERS BAY 7,585 72 59.9397 150 (132) THE STONE CANYON CLUB 7,317 72 59.3253 170 (New) SPRING CREEK RANCH G.C. 7,426 72 58.7603 Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii University Place, Wash. Oro Valley, Ariz. Collierville, Tenn. / Jack Nicklaus (1999) Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (1991) Robert Trent Jones Jr. & Bruce Charlton (2007) Jay Morrish (2000) 111-120 131-140 151-160 171-180
Rank Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points
111 (115) PASATIEMPO G.C. 6,500 70 60.5110 131 (New) THE MADISON CLUB 7,426 72 59.8675 151 (148) MARTIS CAMP G.C. 7,766 72 59.2888 171 (150) SECESSION G.C. 7,068 72 58.6509 Santa Cruz, Calif. La Quinta, Calif. Truckee, Calif. Beaufort, S.C. / Bruce Devlin (1992) Alister MacKenzie (1929) Tom Fazio (2006) Tom Fazio (2008) 172 (137) ALDARRA G.C. 6,885 71 58.6154 112 (117) ATLANTA ATHLETIC CLUB (Highlands) 7,613 72 60.5078 132 (146) CAVES VALLEY G.C. 7,226 71 59.8300 152 (174) EASTWARD HO! C.C. 6,372 71 59.2402 Sammamish, Wash. Johns Creek, Ga. Owings Mills, Md. Chatham, Mass. / Herbert Fowler (1922) Tom Fazio (2001) Robert Trent Jones (1967)/Joseph S. Finger (1971) Tom Fazio (1991) 153 (164) BEL-AIR C.C. 6,777 70 59.2153 113 (119) ROCK CREEK CATTLE CO. 7,466 71 60.3892 133 (114) KINGSLEY CLUB 6,956 71 59.8203 173 (162) FALLEN OAK G.C. 7,487 72 58.5557 Deer Lodge, Mont. / Tom Doak (2008) Kingsley, Mich. Los Angeles Saucier, Miss. George C. Thomas Jr. & William F. Bell (1926) Tom Fazio (2006) 114 (107) PRINCE G. CSE. 7,378 72 60.3330 Mike DeVries (2001) Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii 134 (128) OCEAN FOREST G.C. 7,321 72 59.7604 154 (135) THE BROADMOOR G.C. (East) 7,355 72 59.2039 174 (144) FOREST CREEK G.C. (North) 7,184 72 58.5421 Robert Trent Jones Jr. (1990) Sea Island, Ga. / Rees Jones (1995) Colorado Springs Pinehurst, N.C. 115 (111) ROBERT TRENT JONES G.C. 7,425 72 60.2963 135 (120) WANNAMOISETT C.C. 6,732 69 59.7430 Donald Ross (1918)/Robert Trent Jones (1952) Tom Fazio (2005) Gainesville, Va. Rumford, R.I. / Donald Ross (1916) 155 (New) CANTERBURY G.C. 7,012 71 59.1899 175 (New) MAY RIVER G.C. AT PALMETTO BLUFF 7,171 72 58.5332 Robert Trent Jones (1991) 136 (147) CALIFORNIA G.C. OF SAN FRANCISCO 7,216 72 59.7139 Beachwood, Ohio / Herbert Strong (1922) Bluffton, S.C. / Jack Nicklaus (2004) 116 (98) GRANDFATHER G. & C.C. 7,010 72 60.2489 South San Francisco 156 (130) PRONGHORN CLUB (Nicklaus) 7,379 72 59.1894 176 (167) WHISPER ROCK G.C. (Lower) 7,390 72 58.4959 Linville, N.C. / Ellis Maples (1967) A. Vernon Macan (1926) Bend, Ore. / Jack Nicklaus (2003) Scottsdale 117 (109) KIAWAH ISLAND CLUB (Cassique) 7,050 72 60.2200 137 (126) BAYONNE G.C. 7,106 71 59.6799 157 (142) COLONIAL C.C. 7,204 70 59.1793 Phil Mickelson & Gary Stephenson (2001) Kiawah Island, S.C. Bayonne, N.J. Fort Worth / Perry Maxwell (1936) Tom Watson (2000) Eric Bergstol (2006) 177 (159) TORREY PINES G. CSE. (South) 7,628 72 58.4638 158 (New) ATLANTA C.C. 7,110 72 59.1780 La Jolla, Calif. / William F. Bell (1957) 118 (113) FOREST DUNES G.C. 7,116 72 60.2002 138 (106) SYCAMORE HILLS G.C. 7,275 72 59.6695 Roscommon, Mich. Fort Wayne, Ind. Marietta, Ga. 178 (169) SAUCON VALLEY C.C. (Old) 7,126 71 58.4578 Tom Weiskopf (2002) Jack Nicklaus (1989) Willard Byrd & Joseph S. Finger (1965) Bethlehem, Pa. / Herbert Strong (1922) 119 (124) ATLANTIC G.C. 7,117 72 60.1846 139 (138) LONG COVE CLUB 7,094 71 59.6167 159 (166) STONE EAGLE G.C. 6,840 71 59.1567 179 (182) DESERT HIGHLANDS G.C. 7,108 72 58.3240 Bridgehampton, N.Y. Hilton Head Island Palm Desert, Calif. Scottsdale / Jack Nicklaus (1983) Rees Jones (1992) Pete Dye (1982) Tom Doak (2005) 180 (New) PABLO CREEK CLUB 7,026 72 58.3186 120 (New) Streamsong (Blue) 7,176 72 60.1842 140 (123) WHISPER ROCK G.C. (Upper) 7,550 72 59.5651 160 (152) THE CLUB AT CARLTON WOODS (Fazio) 7,358 72 59.1070 Jacksonville Streamsong, Fla. / Tom Doak (2012) Scottsdale / Tom Fazio (2005) The Woodlands, Texas / Tom Fazio (2005) Tom Fazio (1996)
16 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses CONTINUED ▶ ▶ ▶ SECOND greatest 100 100 greatest PUBLIC 2015 / 2016
▶ Pebble Beach has been No. 1 among America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses every year since Golf Digest started the list in 2003. An asterisk indicates a course has a higher score than some on America’s 100 Greatest 181-190 191-200 but does not appear on that ranking because it did not have enough evaluations. America’s 100 Greatest Rank (2013 rank in ParenthesEs) Yards Par Points Rank Yards Par Points requires a minimum of 45 ballots; 100 Greatest Public requires 25. Parentheses indicate previous ranking. 181 (168) PGA WEST (TPC Stadium) 7,300 72 58.1697 191 (172) C.C. OF NORTH CAROLINA (Dogwood) 7,204 72 57.8345 La Quinta, Calif. Pinehurst, N.C. 1 (1) 16 (14) 31 (21) 46 (53) 60 (75) 74 (51) 86 (New) Pete Dye (1986) Ellis Maples & Willard Byrd (1963) PEBBLE BEACH BLACKWOLF RUN THE HIGHLAND CSE. CASCATA NEMACOLIN LONGABERGER G.C. RED SKY RANCH (River) AT PRIMLAND WOODLANDS RESORT 182 (157) WOLF CREEK G.C. 7,108 72 58.0777 192 (181) THE COURSE AT YALE 6,749 70 57.7963 G. LINKS Boulder City, Nev. Nashport, Ohio & G.C. (Fazio) Kohler, Wis. Meadows of Dan, Va. (Mystic Rock) Mesquite, Nev. New Haven, Conn. Pebble Beach 57.8709 56.5064 Wolcott, Colo. 67.6226 61.0936 59.3943 Farmington, Pa. 55.8457 Dennis Rider (2000) C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor & Charles Banks (1926) 57.0964 193 (New) WILMINGTON C.C. (South) 7,334 71 57.7796 47 (39) 75 (New) 183 (175) THE CLUB AT CARLTON WOODS (Nicklaus) 7,402 72 58.0324 2 (3) 17 (17) 32 (29) 87 (New) Wilmington, Del. WHISTLING STRAITS THE PRAIRIE CLUB The Woodlands, Texas PACIFIC DUNES THE PETE DYE CSE. AT THE BROADMOOR 61 (68) BELGRADE LAKES G.C. Robert Trent Jones (1960) (Irish) (Pines) Jack Nicklaus (2001) Bandon, Ore. FRENCH LICK RESORT G.C. (East) Haven, Wis. PELICAN HILL G.C. Valentine, Neb. Belgrade Lakes, Maine 184 (176) OLYMPIA FIELDS C.C. (South) 7,114 72 58.0291 194 (189) MONTEREY PENINSULA C.C. (Dunes) 6,762 72 57.7482 65.1748 French Lick, Ind. Colorado Springs 57.7387 (Ocean South) 56.3803 55.8117 Olympia Fields, Ill. Pebble Beach 60.9035 59.2039 Newport Coast, Calif. Tom Bendelow (1916) Seth Raynor/Alister MacKenzie & Robert Hunter (1926) 3 (4) 48 (45) 57.0509 76 (88) 88 (81) 195 (161) WHISTLING STRAITS (Irish) 7,201 72 57.7387 THE OCEAN COURSE 18 (New) 33 (28) TULLYMORE G.C. LINVILLE G.C. THE COEUR D’ALENE 185 (New) DORMIE CLUB 6,883 71 57.9830 Haven, Wis. Kiawah Island, S.C. STREAMSONG (Red) PRONGHORN CLUB Stanwood, Mich. 62 (54) Linville, N.C. RESORT G. CSE. West End, N.C. Pete Dye (2000) 64.9282 Streamsong, Fla. (Nicklaus) 57.6969 GOLDEN HORSESHOE 56.3775 Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2010) 196 (171) TULLYMORE G.C. 7,250 72 57.6969 60.7601 Bend, Ore. G.C. (Gold) 55.8007 186 (188) CORDEVALLE 7,360 72 57.9520 Stanwood, Mich. 4 (2) 59.1894 49 (60) Williamsburg, Va. 77 (New) San Martin, Calif. Jim Engh (2001) WHISTLING STRAITS 19 (18) THE LINKS 57.0081 WILD HORSE G.C. 89 (New) Robert Trent Jones Jr. (1999) (Straits) HARBOUR TOWN 34 (36) AT SPANISH BAY Gothenburg, Neb. PELICAN HILL G.C. 197 (178) CHECHESSEE CREEK CLUB 6,641 70 57.6579 187 (165) CONWAY FARMS G.C. 7,216 71 57.9218 Haven, Wis. G. LINKS SEA ISLAND G.C. Pebble Beach 63 (67) 56.3307 (Ocean North) Okatie, S.C. 64.7378 Hilton Head Island (Seaside) 57.6485 THE CLASSIC AT Newport Coast, Calif. Lake Forest, Ill. Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2000) Tom Fazio (1991) 60.6388 St. Simons Island, Ga. MADDEN’S RESORT 78 (85) 55.7620 198 (186) THE LINKS AT SPANISH BAY 6,821 72 57.6485 5 (7) 58.8388 50 (52) Brainerd, Minn. TURTLE BAY RESORT 188 (158) PINE TREE G.C. 7,301 71 57.8916 Pebble Beach PINEHURST RESORT 20 (19) THE DUNES 56.9954 G.C. (Palmer) 90 (New) Boynton Beach, Fla. / Dick Wilson (1961) Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Watson & Sandy Tatum (1987) (No. 2) KAPALUA (Plantation) 35 (New) G. & BEACH C. Kahuku, Oahu, Hawaii TRUMP NATIONAL G.C. 189 (180) CASCATA 7,137 72 57.8709 199 (New) BLUE MOUND G. & C.C. 6,672 70 57.6415 Pinehurst, N.C. Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii THE PRAIRIE CLUB Myrtle Beach 64 (47) 56.2944 LOS ANGELES Boulder City, Nev. / Rees Jones (2000) Wauwatosa, Wis. / Seth Raynor & Charles Banks (1926) 64.2727 60.5165 (Dunes) 57.5941 PINE NEEDLES Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Valentine, Neb. LODGE & G.C. 55.7457 190 (156) GREENVILLE C.C. (Chanticleer) 6,864 72 57.8622 200 (New) LOBLOLLY G.C. 6,930 72 57.6085 79 (70) 6 (5) 21 (24) 58.6291 Southern Pines, N.C. Greenville, S.C. / Robert Trent Jones (1970) Hobe Sound, Fla. / P.B. Dye (1988) 51 (49) RED SKY RANCH SHADOW CREEK PASATIEMPO G.C. CROSSWATER 56.9781 & G.C. (Norman) 91 (New) North Las Vegas, Nev. Santa Cruz, Calif. 36 (40) Sunriver, Ore. Wolcott, Colo. DANCING RABBIT G.C. 63.8509 60.5110 FALLEN OAK G.C. 57.5838 65 (80) 56.2833 (The Azaleas) Saucier, Miss. MAKAI G.C. (Makai) Philadelphia, Miss. 7 (6) 22 (22) 58.5557 52 (55) Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii 80 (57) 55.7144 BANDON DUNES PRINCE G. CSE. ATUNYOTE G.C. 56.9470 PINEHURST RESORT Bandon, Ore. Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii 37 (27) Verona, N.Y. (No. 8) 92 (89) STREAMSONG (blue) ranked No. 120 on 63.4556 60.3330 MAY RIVER G.C. 57.5788 66 (76) Pinehurst, N.C. MADERAS G.C. the Second Greatest 100 list, and (red) ranked AT PALMETTO BLUFF WORLD WOODS G.C. 56.1970 Poway, Calif. No. 18 on the 100 Greatest Public list. 8 (10) 23 (23) Bluffton, S.C. 53 (64) (Pine Barrens) 55.6708 ERIN HILLS G. CSE. FOREST DUNES G.C. 58.5332 COG HILL G. & C.C. Brooksville, Fla. 81 (72) Erin, Wis. Roscommon, Mich. (No. 4 Dubsdread) 56.8215 GRAND TRAVERSE 93 (New) 62.9110 60.2002 38 (35) Lemont, Ill. RESORT AND SPA SANDPIPER G.C. OLD WAVERLY G.C. 57.5471 67 (63) (The Bear) Santa Barbara, Calif. 9 (8) 24 (New) West Point, Miss. PUMPKIN RIDGE G.C. Acme, Mich. 55.6374 BETHPAGE STATE STREAMSONG (Blue) 58.5220 54 (66) (Ghost Creek) 56.1724 PARK (Black) Streamsong, Fla. TETHEROW G.C. North Plains, Ore. 94 (New) Farmingdale, N.Y. 60.1842 39 (38) Bend, Ore. 56.8081 82 (71) OLD WORKS G. CSE. 62.8630 TORREY PINES 57.4957 KALUHYAT G.C. Anaconda, Mont. 25 (20) G. CSE. (South) 68 (New) Verona, N.Y. 55.6371 10 (9) THE QUARRY La Jolla, Calif. 55 (58) TPC SAN ANTONIO 56.0961 TPC SAWGRASS AT GIANTS RIDGE 58.4638 SPRING CREEK G.C. (AT&T Oaks) 95 (New) (Players Stadium) Biwabik, Minn. Gordonsville, Va. San Antonio 83 (100) GREAT WATERS Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. 60.1507 40 (43) 57.4881 56.7730 THE DONALD ROSS AT REYNOLDS 62.7181 PGA WEST CSE. AT FRENCH LICK PLANTATION 26 (25) (TPC Stadium) 56 (56) 69 (42) French Lick, Ind. Eatonton, Ga. 11 (11) CHAMBERS BAY La Quinta, Calif. G.C. AT CUSCOWILLA OMNI BARTON CREEK 56.0554 55.6286 SPYGLASS HILL G. CSE. University Place, Wash. 58.1697 Eatonton, Ga. RESORT & SPA Pebble Beach 59.9397 57.2975 (Fazio Canyons) 84 (65) 96 (New) 62.7138 41 (37) Austin BAY HARBOR G.C. BAY HILL CLUB 27 (31) WOLF CREEK G.C. 57 (59) 56.6826 (Links/Quarry) (Champion/Challenger) 12 (12) MAUNA KEA G. CSE. Mesquite, Nev. THE WILDERNESS Bay Harbor, Mich. Orlando OLD MACDONALD Kohala Coast, Hawaii 58.0777 AT FORTUNE BAY 70 (77) 56.0036 55.5832 Bandon, Ore. 59.7646 Tower, Minn. THE BULL AT 62.4879 42 (46) 57.2253 PINEHURST FARMS 85 (New) 97 (96) 28 (33) THE HARVESTER G.C. Sheboygan Falls, Wis. THE G. CSES. CIRCLING RAVEN G.C. 13 (13) MANELE G. CSE. Rhodes, Iowa 58 (41) 56.6647 OF LAWSONIA (Links) Worley, Idaho ARCADIA BLUFFS G.C. Lanai City, Lanai, Hawaii 58.0494 PAA-KO RIDGE G.C. Green Lake, Wis. 55.5824 Arcadia, Mich. 59.7266 (1st/2nd) 71 (87) 55.9612 61.8071 43 (30) Sandia Park, N.M. TOBACCO ROAD G.C. 98 (New) 29 (34) DORMIE CLUB 57.1634 Sanford, N.C. BUFFALO RIDGE G.C. T-14 (15) THE GREENBRIER West End, N.C. 56.5662 Hollister, Mo. KARSTEN CREEK G.C. (Old White TPC) 57.9830 59 (44) 55.5746 Stillwater, Okla. White Sulphur PINEHURST RESORT 72 (62) 61.5480* Springs, W.Va. 44 (61) (No. 4) BLACKWOLF RUN 99 (New) 59.5518 CORDEVALLE Pinehurst, N.C. (Meadow Valleys) HUALALAI G. CSE. T-14 (16) San Martin, Calif. 57.1474 Kohler, Wis. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii BANDON TRAILS 30 (26) 57.9520 56.5514 55.5494 Bandon, Ore. OMNI HOMESTEAD 61.5480 (Cascades) 45 (78) 73 (97) 100 (93) Hot Springs, Va. BULLE ROCK CALEDONIA WAILEA G.C. (Gold) 59.3979 Havre de Grace, Md. G. & FISH C. Wailea, Maui, Hawaii 57.9002 Pawleys Island, S.C. 55.5282 56.5218 18 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 19 Originally published May 2007
Oregon’s LEADING golf getaway is open year-round— and as one recent return visitor learned, the ‘winter’ ▶ BANDON DUNES The gorse is pretty but penal at months might be the Bandon Dunes, ranked No. 31 among America’s 100 best time for a trip Greatest and No. 7 on the 100 Greatest Public list.
220 golf digest | america’s 100seasons greatest courses of BANDON DUNES ▶ PACIFIC DUNES Opened in 2001, Pacific Dunes is 14th on Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest Courses and is No. 2 on the 100 Greatest Public list.
MY BROTHER SAID: ‘THIS IS THE BEST EXPERIENCE OPENING PAGE OF BANDON DUNES: J.D. CUBAN • ABOVE: RICH FRISHMAN I’VE EVER HAD—EXCEPT BY CHARLES McGRATH AT NIGHTTIME.’
drove west for a bit through Ken Kesey on the par-5 18th—we ate beef-barbecue California with his wife (back in their motel country, a rainforest of towering, moss- sandwiches outside the clubhouse and in town) and father-in-law because the rates draped pines, and then south for a couple then just sat there on the Belgian-block were lower at this time of year, and was now of hours along the Umpqua River, where all patio with our beers, soaking up the late- drinking a toast to all the money he had the fishing docks were empty. I cracked the afternoon sun and congratulating ourselves saved. (In prime time, which lasts from May window while passing through North Bend, on our good luck. My brother said: “This is to October, the resort is roughly twice as where giant mounds of sawdust heaped the the best experience I’ve ever had—except expensive as in the off-season. seNSIBLE wharf, waiting to be loaded onto freighters; at nighttime.” (He was perhaps still basking For three days we had the resort practi- the whiff of cedar was so strong it was like in the afterglow of the day before, when he cally to ourselves and saw only a couple of driving through a pencil sharpener. had blown my doors off at Bandon Dunes.) other golf groups. The range was deserted. This was in mid-February. We left home “February is our little secret here,” the The parking lot at the Lily Pond Rooms, people who live in cold climates tend to make their winter golf trips to certified warm- in the snow, or the blackened, crusty after- bartender at McKee’s Pub, one of the where we stayed, was empty except for one math of snow, traveled west and north for a resort’s three watering holes, explained. other car, and at night when I stood out on weather locations: to Myrtle Beach, say, or Amelia Island—the kinds of places where the day and found ourselves— miraculously— “You have this little window when the our little balcony I saw scarcely another light in golf weather: bright-blue sky, deep-blue days get a little longer and warmer, but on. By 8 or 9 o’clock, McKee’s was empty. airports swarm with pale, middle-age guys wearing TaylorMade hats. But on a whim ocean, just the hint of a breeze. We had before the spring rains.” Though February My brother and I were never lonely, brought sweaters, turtlenecks and rainsuits typically sees more than 7½ inches of rain though. The staff at Bandon Dunes is two years ago, my brother Tom, who is famous for playing guerrilla golf on frozen New but wound up using none of them. There along the Oregon coast, not many days are so numerous, so helpful and so friendly was a brief frost delay our first morning but total washouts; most bring no more than a that it’s a little startling at first—until England fairways, and I headed instead to the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. none the second, and we ended both our trace of precipitation. Even in the evenings, you realize that these people aren’t rounds in shirtsleeves. After finishing up at we discovered, it was warm enough to sit on drugged, they’re just genuinely nice. In Our families thought we had lost our minds. The conventional wisdom says you should Pacific Dunes—which is to say, messing up the stone benches in front of the giant out- the early days of Bandon Dunes it was on the par-3 17th, where the wind carried door fireplace next to McKee’s and smoke a sometimes said there weren’t enough fly to Portland and drive five hours south or catch a connecting flight into the tiny North our tee shots perilously right, and then cigar under the starry sky. One night there trained caddies to go around. One heard achieving partial redemption with bogeys we ran into a guy who had driven up from stories of clueless mother-son pairs, of Bend airport. We landed in Eugene, where standard headgear is the logging cap, and
22 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 23 ▶ BANDON TRAILS The first (left) and 18th holes (right) are two reasons Bandon Trails is ranked No. 21 FOR THREE DAYS among America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses. WE HAD Bandon PRACTICA LLY TO OURSELVES.
guys right off the salmon boat. But that’s no longer true, if it ever was. We had Allison and Keith, who between them covered the whole spectrum of coaching philosophy, from attitude adjustment to X’s and O’s. Allison, though she didn’t look it, was the single mother of a high school-age son. A better than average golfer, she had a keen sense of how to work around your swing’s limitations and was a boundless source of optimism and encouragement. Keith was a little more taciturn and busi- nesslike; though a nonplayer, he had an uncanny knowledge of the terrain and could read greens like a psychic. Who was better? It depended on what you needed WE FELT LIKE THE LUCKIEST (AND at the moment: morale-boosting or some serious focus on the task at hand. SMARTEST) GOLFERS WHO EVER LIVED.
A SUMMER SAMPLING All in all, our Bandon experience was so positive that my brother and I went back head for the bar to trade war stories. In sequence. Between, there are meadows, last June, when in theory at least the place our experience Bandon was an early-to- inland dunes and woods so imposing Originally published May 2010 would be hopping. We booked in April, bed kind of place, and life there had its they’re like cathedrals. Bandon Trails is when there seemed to be plenty of rooms own sweet rhythm—not unlike a good in a league of its own, clearly related to still available, but even so, the reservations round of golf, in fact: deliberate, the others but in a landscape that at times clerk had to juggle a little to get us the tee unhurried, sometimes surprising, but seems utterly different: vaster, more times we wanted. The parking lots were also reassuringly the same. expansive, and with more wildlife fuller, there were vans hauling bags around So when is the best time to go? It’s (including the occasional cougar) and and shuttling golfers out to the range, and probably dangerous to draw too many more changes in elevation. at breakfast time especially the whole place conclusions, but our June weather was, if (Golf Digest ranks Tom Doak’s Pacific thrummed with a certain urgency, with anything, a little less good than it had been Dunes 14th and David McLay Kidd’s people lining up to chow down and get on in February: grayer and cooler, though not Bandon Dunes 31st among America’s 100 the course. My brother and I were supposed so much to discourage a lot of guys from Greatest Courses. Bandon Trails doesn’t Oregon to be paired with other twosomes, but, sur- wearing shorts. The days were much longer, become eligible until 2009. On the list of prisingly, wound up going out on our own, on the other hand, which meant that it was 100 Greatest Public Courses, Pacific Dunes though we had to share a caddie this time: easy to get in 36 holes, and even for the die- is No. 2, Bandon Dunes No. 7 and Bandon a young guy named Vegas, who rolled all hards to take advantage of Bandon’s policy Trails No. 21.) the virtues of Allison and Keith into a single of offering a third daily round for free. (In The additional course argues for a package. Vegas, who used to work guess February we might have managed 27 holes summertime visit, when there is more where, knows every inch of all three Bandon but didn’t try.) The flowers were out (at daylight and when, despite our experience, Homage layouts, can spot and gently fix a swing flaw, Bandon Trails especially) and instead of the weather is usually more reliable. In and is also so immensely cool that you long being dramatic and foreboding the beach time there will be another draw: a fourth Inspired by C.B. Macdonald’s long-gone Lido GL, to win his approval. “My man!” he would below the cliffside fairways was bustling. course, Old Macdonald. Doak and Jim say, giving a little fist bump after a good Dune buggies zipped along, outraced by Urbina’s tribute to architect C.B. Mac- Tom Doak and Jim Urbina have delivered shot, and it made you forget most of the guys who were para-surfing—bounding donald is scheduled to open in July 2010. bad ones. from wave to wave at the end of giant kites. There’s just so much more golf you need a user-friendly tribute to the iconic architect — Somehow, despite all the additional The biggest difference, of course, was to get in—unless you can spend an extra guests, there seemed to be one eversmiling the presence of an additional golf course. day or two in the off-season and explore Bandon Dunes Resort’s fourth course, employee per visitor. And though it was Bandon Trails was still being worked on by the place more leisurely. That would be busy, the place never felt crowded. Bandon Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw during our my vote. I’d hate to be there in the rain, Old Macdonald GL runs so efficiently that there are no backups first visit, and my brother and I were, frankly, but Bandon in February was magical, an at the tee, and because there are no carts, a little skeptical. How could it possibly unexpected gift, and the relative quietness there are seldom any holdups on the course. equal the two others, Bandon Dunes and and stillness of the resort made it seem You rarely see other golfers, let alone have Pacific Dunes? But amazingly it does. The private and exclusive—a place you could By Ron whitten Photos by Stephen Szurlej to wait for them. We were surprised, though, first hole, over scrub and through a saddle play forever without growing bored or weary. that there didn’t seem to be much night life of sand dunes, is arguably the best opener We felt like the luckiest (and smartest) of the sort you find at, say, Pinehurst, where on the premises, and the uphill stretch golfers who ever lived, to have this perfect at the end of the day golfers instinctively of 16, 17, 18, is easily the best finishing little world all to ourselves.
24 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 25 consummate design, and Old Macdonald is the consummate cover of the great man’s greatest hits. One of Lido’s few original ▶ holes was its triple-fairway 18th, WHAT DO based upon a magazine contest winning design submitted by Dr. Alister Mackenzie. Old Macdonald’s most original YOU DO FOR hole is its 363-yard seventh, called Ocean, with a green atop a dune overlooking the Pacific. That green location was suggested AN ENCORE when you already have three of the most popular links courses in America, ▶ Old Macdonald’s most all ranked among America’s 100 Greatest original hole is its Golf Courses by Golf Digest? 363-yard seventh, called Ocean
That was the problem for Mike Keiser, owner of Bandon Dunes Resort, by Keiser, whose initial idea for whose Tom Doak-designed Pacific Dunes is currently 14th, the entire Bandon complex was David McLay Kidd-designed Bandon Dunes is 33rd and to build 18 winning holes from a Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw-designed Bandon Trails is 80th. ▶ Spreading The Gospel As Macdonald was inspired by Golf Digest Armchair Architect Britain’s best, “Old” (No. 7, shown) keeps a C.B. theme. contest. To the eternal benefit of golfers everywhere, he was quickly talked out of that idea. If, as Keiser says, Doak is architecturally the heir to eiser still had plenty of undeveloped land at in Great Britain. That gave well. He knew there were seven of classic golf holes will be dis- Redan longer and downwind, creating a green 80 yards wide Macdonald (and Doak certainly his vast Oregon resort, particularly a gorse-covered valley him the idea to build 18 holes or eight concepts that any hom- appointed. There are none of the with a less fearsome (but still with exaggerated mounds and has been both as inventive and that was hard against the Pacific coastline but appeared consisting of his personal age to Macdonald would have geometric features of Macdonald’s ball-gobbling) front-left bunker. contours throughout. as outspoken as old C.B.), then to be a featureless bowl. Already with a trio of natural, selection. It took him 10 years to contain, including the Eden originals, no rectangular greens Unlike the original, the putting Turns out, they were correct Urbina is this generation’s Seth lay-of-the-land layouts (OK, so parts of all three were artfully to accomplish National GL (the par-3 11th at the Old Course or flat-sand bunkers with long, surface doesn’t slope backwards in assuming literary license. Raynor. Raynor, a civil engineer shaped to appear natural), he didn’t want to add a fourth 18 that of America, a concept course at St. Andrews), the Redan (the steep, angular grass faces. at a steady angle and lacks any The original Short Hole with by training, was Macdonald’s would look manufactured and contrived. consisting of both reproductions par-3 15th at North Berwick) and The idea was never to do its undulating green was chief associate in nearly all So he asked for ideas from friends and customers. One response of great British holes and original the Road Hole (the 17th on the blatant replicas, Doak says. The conjured up by Macdonald of his creations. he got was from George Bahto, a New Jersey dry cleaner turned ones that cobbled together Old Course). The rest would be approach was to envision what ▶ The idea was never to during a meeting at Hoylake in Urbina was a college foot- golf design fanatic who wrote The Evangelist of Golf, the definitive one or more features from fashioned in the Macdonald C.B. might have done, had he do blatant replicas, 1906, and it was not a copy of ball player turned fire-fighter biography of America’s first real golf architect, Charles Blair other holes. manner of cherry-picking ideas actually designed a course on the Doak says. The approach anything at Brancaster, except who got into golf construction Macdonald. You’re a fan of Macdonald’s long-lost Lido GC on Long Macdonald followed it with and features, a bunker from this soft sand of coastal Oregon. was to envision what C.B. for its short length. “It is true for Pete Dye in Colorado in the Island, Bahto told him—why not recreate the entire course, bump a dozen more courses over the course beside a green from that The result is right-brain might have done, had he that I mentioned the short hole mid- 1980s. He joined Doak’s for bump, bunker for bunker, at your resort? one and so on. architecture of left-brain ideas, actually designed a at Brancaster at our meeting,” team in 1987 and was the day-to- The idea intrigued Keiser. Though far too young to have ever Ramrodding the design and far more dunesy than anything course on the soft sand Macdonald wrote, “but my day project architect for many played Lido, which closed during World War II, he had read enough ▶ You don’t have to construction was Jim Urbina, Macdonald ever contemplated, of coastal Oregon. criticism of that hole is that the of Doak successes, including about it to understand it was considered one of America’s very best know anything about Doak’s longtime chief design even at Lido, which was down- green is higher than the tee, so Pacific Dunes and Sebonack designs in its day. So he sent a map of the original Lido to Doak C.B. Macdonald to associate, so instrumental in right flat in comparison. His one cannot see where the flag GC. Soon after Old Macdonald and asked if it were feasible. enjoy Old Macdonald, the final product that Keiser concepts are there, but one must nasty pot bunkers beyond the goes into the hole. On all Short was completed, Doak, needing “I thought it was a cool idea,” Doak later explained. “But I didn’t but a little background granted him co-credit for Old look hard to recognize some of green. (By the way, having two Holes, the player should be to downsize his company in the think it would fit on the site we had to work with, and maybe we ought will enhance the Macdonald’s design. Keiser also them. C.B.’s many Biarritz greens, Redan holes at one facility is in able to see where the pin wake of the economic collapse, to try to do something different, but keep the Macdonald theme.” experience. assembled a team of consul- for instance, were invariably 70 keeping with C.B.’s philosophy. enters the hole.” suggested to Jim that he start Thus was born Old Macdonald GL, the latest addition to the tants to assist in the endeavor. yards long and fairly narrow, “I consider the Redan to be The tees on Old Macdonald’s seeking independent work. Bandon Dunes Resort, some say destined to be the most popular Bahto, naturally, was included, with a deep trench slashing the the finest one-shot hole in the Short Hole, the 160-yard fifth, So at age 51, Urbina has hung 18 of the bunch, at least for the “retail golfer,” as Keiser likes to call next decade and a half, always as was Brad Klein of Golfweek, green perpendicularly and long world,” he once wrote, “and on are indeed elevated above out his own design shingle. the average-handicap destination player who’ll pay good money to with the same motif. His Lido who specializes in architectural strip bunkers on each flank. But any golf course where one has the the green, but there are a couple Raynor’s experience should be take on 36 walking-only holes a day for several days in succession. in 1915 was perhaps the most criticism, and Karl Olson, a low- at the eighth at Old Macdonald, freedom in choice, there should of knobs and dips in the green encouraging to Urbina. After Old Macdonald features holes fashioned with Macdonald’s favorite ambitious, created on an ocean- handicapper who had served for the Biarritz green is nearly as always be a Redan.”) that could obscure a view of the Lido, Raynor started designing design principles, built on an oversize scale that makes the other front landfill, allowing him to many years as superintendent at wide as it is deep, the trench is The Short Hole was another hole, if not the flag. on his own, and has cult status 54 seem claustrophobic. Its fairways are so wide and greens so vast sculpt every hillock, hollow National. “We needed some guys more like a meandering stream dilemma for Doak. In Macdonald’s In the end, Keiser still got these days with such gems as that they seem impossible to miss, although sweeping ocean winds and dune from deposited sand. who think they know everything bed and one section of the put- portfolio, it was invariably a his Lido course, in a manner Mountain Lake in Florida, will quickly remedy such delusions. Old Mac’s elbow room allows Doak, as the design consultant about Macdonald,” Doak says, ting surface even contains a little short pitch-shot par 3 to a wildly of speaking. Just as Old Shoreacres in Chicago, Fox you to play your own game—high ball or low, slice or hook, bomb for many of Macdonald’s courses “so that if there’s anything that’s horseshoe-shaped mound undulating green, supposedly Macdonald now has, the original Chapel in Pittsburgh and Yea- and gouge or bunt and giggle. over the past 20 years, knew looking out of place, somebody’s suggested by Bahto. based upon a hole at Royal West Lido had a Double Plateau hole, mans Hall in Charleston, S.C. You don’t have to know anything about C.B. Macdonald to the old man’s work intimately. going to pipe up and say some- The Redan was a particular Norfolk at Brancaster in England. and a Cape hole, a Hog’s Back, a It’s far too soon to know if enjoy Old Macdonald, but a little background will enhance the What’s more, he spent a year thing about it.” challenge for Doak, since he had But Doak could never find Long, Leven, Littlestone, Alps, an Urbina cult will ever emerge. experience. As the first champion of the U.S. Amateur in 1895, C.B. after college playing all the great Other Macdonald buffs already built a perfectly good one anything at Brancaster that Punch Bowl and Road, as well But Old Macdonald GL is as staked out the nation’s first 18-hole golf course at Chicago GC. In courses in Great Britain, so he who now venture to Bandon at Pacific Dunes right next door. remotely resembled it. So in the as a Short, Redan and Biarritz. good a start as any new architect 1901 he read an article that debated which were the best golf holes had seen the original holes as expectingto see reproductions So he made Old Macdonald’s end he and Urbina improvised, After all, Lido was old C.B.’s could hope for.
26 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 27 What You Might Not Know About
Originally published June 2010
by ron whitten PHOTOS BY STEPHEN SZURLEJ
Championship golf courses aren’t born that way, they evolve. Every major venue was a minor in the beginning, and each suffers through growing pains. Still, the evolution of Pebble Beach Golf Links has been messier than most, mainly because it has been incessantly poked and prodded by well-meaning amateurs, professionals, architects, engineers, artists and committees, committees, committees. Ultimately it turned out great, of course, and June 17-20 Pebble will be the site of its fifth U.S. Open (to go with four U.S. Amateurs). But for a lot of years, Pebble Beach, rankED No. 6 on Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, looked a lot more like a platypus than a barracuda. Therein lies a story—many stories, actually—on how a pile of rocks was transformed, by accident and by intent, into the most breathtaking, thrilling and
fearsome intersection of golf and Half of the holes at Pebble are shoreline in the universe. on the water, including the par - 5 sixth (bottom), par - 3 seventh(right) and par - 4 eighTh (top).
golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 29 THE SPOT WHERE TOM WATSON CHIPPED IS NO LONGER THERE
ack Nicklaus, the victim of Watson’s heroics, later J called it “one of the great shots in the history of the game.” Watson was tied with Nicklaus for the lead in the final round of the 1982 U.S. Open when his tee shot at the par-3 17th went left and landed in deep rough between the green and the sea. With the ball above the hole, it looked like an extremely difficult up-and- down. But after Watson’s caddie, Bruce Edwards, told him to knock it close, Watson famously responded, “Close? Hell, I’m going to sink it.” Watson’s chip hit the flag- stick and dropped for a birdie, and he followed with another birdie at the par-5 18th for a two-stroke victory. Ten years later, Nicklaus told us that losing to Watson’s chip-in was the biggest disappointment of his Open career: “If it didn’t hit,” Nicklaus said, “the ball was going eight or 10 feet by.” The winter after the ‘82 Open, a huge storm struck Pebble. Enormous waves pounded the coastline, and during the night, a huge chunk of the 17th green and 18th tee slid into the sea. With it went the slight mound from which Watson played his historic shot. The sea wall was quickly patched and the 17th green and surrounds were soon backfilled and re-sodded, although the precise elevation of Watson’s spot could not be STORMS OFF duplicated. Not until a new CARMEL BAY seawall was constructed in OCCASIONALLY 1997 was the back tee box of TRY TO CLAIM the 18th re-established. PORTIONS OF THE 208-YARD 17TH AND THE FORTIFIED TEE OF THE par - 5 18TH.
30 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses HISTORY CAN’T BE REPEATED
OT LONG AFTER Watson’s chip-in, N he organized a group that tried to replicate the shot. It happened prior to the 1983 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. Watson was having dinner at the Lodge with friends, including former USGA president Frank (Sandy) Tatum, and they were later joined by cartoonist Hank Ketcham, creator of the “Dennis the Menace” cartoon character. After a bottle or two of champagne, Watson blurted, “Hey, let’s go play the shot!” He left the dining room, then returned, as Tatum says, with three balls and the club used to perform the deed. It didn’t matter that it was after 10:30 at night. Six men traipsed out to the 17th green. After some fussing about the exact location—“Everyone had an opinion, and Tom’s was the one listened to the least,” Tatum recalled—they placed a ball to represent the hole, then retreated to the rough and took turns trying to “hole it.” As Nicklaus might have predicted, no one came close. Watson, according to informed sources, finished only third or fourth in the competition.
TATUM’S TINKERING NEARLY COST HIS BUDDY (WATSON) THAT ’82 OPEN
RIOR TO PEBBLE’S first Open, in 1972, P Tatum headed a committee that revamped the course. When the Open THE 505-YARD, returned in 1982, Tatum urged PAR-4 NINTH is officials to implement a couple ONE OF SEVEN of renovations that didn’t get CONSECUTIVE done 10 years before. One was HOLES ON the deepening of a fairway THE OCEAN.
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bunker on the right side of the Golf Association that Pebble and Grant, two top golfers ONCE IT OPENED, par-4 16th. He got it rebuilt, still had “a woefully poor who worked for free to preserve complete with a three-foot finishing hole,” Morse brought their amateur status. (In those PEBBLE NEEDED vertical front wall of stacked Fowler back. This time Fowler days, the USGA decreed that sod. In the final round, his good proposed filling in the ravine, all architects were pros.) IMMEDIATE HELP friend Watson, leading Nick- building a sea wall and back- Among Morse’s money- laus by one with three to play, filling a new green location saving ideas were the use of FTER TWO YEARS OF drove into that bunker, right up some 170 yards farther up the sheep to clip the grass (they construction, which against that face. Watson had shoreline, turning the hole into damaged greens and soon A Neville supervised, a to pitch out sideways and a boomerang-shape par 5. ended up on the menu) and preview event in March 1918 bogeyed the hole to drop into Thus was created what many the use of pelican droppings was a disaster. Pro Mike Brady a share of the lead before his consider the finest finishing scraped from rocks as fertilizer shot 79-75 to win by 13 strokes. miraculous finish. hole in golf—certainly the most (which killed the grass). He The dozen invited pros were If Tatum, who was in the photogenic. Over the years, had to be persuaded to hire a openly critical. There were gallery on 16 when Watson bunkers have been added and real superintendent. more rocks and weeds than drove into the bunker, felt any shifted, trees removed and Neville and Grant produced turfgrass. There were deep remorse over its severity, he transplanted, and the tee box a mixed bag. Pebble opened ravines everywhere. The didn’t express it. Instead, he and sea walls reconstructed with mostly square greens and greens were impossible. turned to friends and said, from bedrock up, but the 18th bunkers shaped like cigars and Neville was apologetic. “That’s what this bunker was remains as Fowler suggested 90 crescents. The course measured Morse panicked and asked meant to do.” years ago. (The 18th will play at barely 6,000 yards. Harold Sampson, a pro at 543 yards for this year’s Open.) The routing was basically Morse’s other course, Del By the way, photos show that as it exists today, with several Monte, to fix things. Over the Fowler also ran a creek through notable exceptions. The next decade, Morse allowed a pipe buried in a smaller ravine ninth was a short par 4, the any number of people to to create the base for his new 10th a sharp-dogleg par 5 make refinements and THE PAR-5 18TH WAS green. The remainder of that over a corner of the Pacific improvements, including ravine was filled in during the coast; today they’re par 4s famed landscape painter AN AFTERTHOUGHT 1950s. If, some day, Pebble’s 18th totaling 1,000 yards. The Francis McComas, who penned green suddenly collapses into a par-4 16th was just 277 yards the famous line, “the greatest HEN PEBBLE trench, it won’t be because of an to a green short of a deep meeting of land and sea,” Beach opened in earthquake. It will be because ravine; now it plays at 403 erroneously attributed to W 1919, its 18th hole that buried culvert—made of yards over the ravine. Robert Louis Stevenson. was a short, straight par 4. wood, rock or concrete?—finally Neville and Grant got some McComas was writing not of In defense of the original gave way. key decisions right. They chose Pebble Beach, but of Point designers, Jack Neville and the spot for the short, downhill Lobos farther down the coast. Douglas Grant, it was the seventh—109 yards for this Morse also solicited best they could do. Their year’s Open—with its green on suggestions from visiting topographic map shows they a point surrounded by Carmel architects, including Donald positioned the green just in Bay. Architect Pete Dye has Ross on his only trip to front of a deep ravine, with S.F.B. MORSE said that if he’d been walking California. There’s evidence the Pacific on the left and a the property before the routing that Alister Mackenzie, who 75-cent toll road called 17 Mile WAS A TIGHTWAD was done, he probably would would create Cypress Point Drive, soon relocated, close on have walked right by the seventh next door, redesigned the the right. It wasn’t their fault ORSE WAS ONLY hole. Nicklaus agrees. “I eighth and 13th greens. the green was only 325 yards 30 when he began probably would have walked from the tee. They’d proposed M disposing of the heavily right by it, too,” Jack says, an ocean-side tee box to taxed property on the Monterey “because it wouldn’t look like stretch the hole to 379 yards, Peninsula. At first he started there’s room enough for a hole.” but it wasn’t built. Funds selling the land off as housing The original course were limited. lots, but then he changed his diagram showed the eighth PEBBLE’S BIGGEST In April 1920, Pebble’s owner, mind. He was convinced he green (as a par 5) well away Samuel Finley Brown Morse, could build and maintain 18 from the ocean cliffs, in the BLIGHT TOOK 79 invited British golf architect holes on the cheap. The place vicinity of the present ninth W. Herbert Fowler to inspect for the course was ocean tees, but it must have been YEARS TO RECTIFY Pebble Beach. Sure enough, frontage called Pebble Beach. relocated prior to construction. Fowler suggested an ocean-side Given the go-ahead, he A 1920 photo shows the green NE OF THE FIRST tee for 18, and this time, Morse solicited routings from six de- in its present position, hugging lots Morse sold in 1915 had it built. signers (most of whose names, the cliff, providing what O was a 5 1-acre parcel A NEW POT In October 1921, stung by sadly, are long forgotten). He Nicklaus calls his favorite on a bluff overlooking BUNKER the criticism of the California ended up choosing Neville shot in golf. Stillwater Cove. William TIGHTENS THE FAIRWAY ON THE 331-YARD FOURTH HOLE.
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Beatty, who had paid a little more than $6,000, refused to sell it back to Morse. So Neville and Grant had to design around it, forcing them to create a par-3 fifth hole that played away from the ocean. Arnold Palmer, a present co-owner of Pebble, described it as “an awful, terrible hole.” Tee shots on the 180-yarder had to thread between trees and over a ravine. Some called it golf’s only dogleg par 3. Beatty’s home went on the market after his widow died in 1941, but Morse didn’t have the money to buy it. So it remained a private residence until 1995, when the Pebble Beach Co. (then owned by Japanese inter- ests) bought the land for more than $8 million, sold two inland sections as home sites (one of them to Charles Schwab) and turned the ocean frontage over to Nicklaus to design a new par-3 fifth. It took three years, including an extended battle over removal of an ancient oak, before the hole was completed in November 1998.
ARNOLD PALMER NOW PRESIDES OVER PEBBLE
SK ANY PEBBLE Beach official who it was A that proposed the latest changes to the coursefor the 2010 U.S. Open, and the answer is always, “It was a company decision.” But the company deferred, ultimately, to Palmer. So when Neal Hotelling, director of corporate affairs and longtime Pebble Beach historian, unearthed dozens of old photographs of the course and circulated them among senior vice president of golf RJ AFTER THE Harper, superintendent Chris NECESSARY Dalhamer and others, several LAND WAS suggested it would be great to AQUIRED, re-establish some bunkers and JACK NICKLAUS CREATED THE 195-YARD FIFTH HOLE.
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features had eroded. But Palmer was given the final say. He approved of a new bunker along the left side of the first green because there was one there in the 1929 Amateur. But he also insisted on adding three bunkers in a hillside on the outside corner of the dogleg-left third, even though there’d never been any bunkers there. “That’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I first saw Pebble Beach,” Palmer says. “That whole hillside was sort of wasted.” Thad Layton, a course architect in Palmer’s Orlando office, prepared the plans for new bunkers but never made a site visit to Pebble. Dalhamer supervised their construction by a contractor, hole by hole, to avoid interrupting play and requiring that green fees be discounted. That’s always the company way at Pebble Beach. Palmer also suggested transplanting several mature trees, replacing old pines on the TAKING IT ALL IN: 18th with cypress, placing new A FULL DOSE trees near the second green OF PEBBLE BEACH. to tighten the approach and planting new trees down the right side of 15 to screen 17 Mile Drive from the tee. Perhaps the most dramatic change for this year’s Open came from Mike Davis of the USGA, who suggested that the fairways on Nos. 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 be shifted closer to the cliffs to bring the ocean back in play. Palmer agreed and even suggested new bunkers on the fourth and sixth that would further push big hitters to the edge. “If they want to go long, they’d better be accurate,” Palmer says. After Dalhamer speculated that the fairways were like that in the beginning, we asked Palmer if he recalled just how close to the cliffs the fairways had been. After a long, cold stare, he replied, “I’m not that old.”
38 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 39 Originally published June 2012 San Francisco love stor y A native son reflects on what makes the city game in general and The Olympic Club in particular so special by Jaime Diaz
t has been 35 years since I’ve lived in my hometown I of San Francisco, and for as many of the great golf places I’ve been lucky enough to experience since, it’s clear that I was long ago imprinted by the colors and smells and turf and trees of the city where I learned to play. Harding Park remains my template of an American parkland course, and Lincoln Park, with its bony and beautiful funkiness, prepared me to feel at home on the spare classics of the British Isles. In my opinion, a San Francisco- bred golfer travels well.
▶ Previous page: 200-yard eighth. This page: par-5 17th green (bottom left), 344-yard 18th.
40 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 42 10-level downtown Street, clubonPost 10-level the holes, full menuofcomponents—45 Butthatdoesn’titisn’t mean Open. true. premier championshipsite foraU.S. to evaluatingcomes Olympic asthe to Wizard TechnicolorofO z.” in“The similar to theshiftfrom blackandwhite Park’s.Candlestick was Thesensation shade ofgreenwas even richerthan down onthefield,exceptthatOlympic’s timeandlooking ballpark forthefirst ofamajor-league through thedoors the 18thfairway. Itwas akinto going more vivid wasof theemeraldribbon willalwaysimage stay withme, buteven andhiseyes wounded. Thatpursed facemuscular,bronzed buthislips cardigan even andwhite shirt, his inadeep-blue resplendent escort, Palmer thenwalked by withasecurity hadtied. heandBillysomehow Casper evidence thatPalmerhadn’t won, that was board leader theunbelievable theclubhouse.On near parked there, were andwe people leaving, forthecoronation.head Whenwe got toand turnoffInterstate280 decided withnineto play,strokes my father bythe carradiothatPalmerled seven Afteron hearing whenIwasOpen, 12. round ofthe1966 ofthefourth afternoon timeIsawup,the first it close onthe ofOlympic remainspowerful memory wanted ittofamiliar. feel M toafter play Igot Inever itafewtimes, more thanI’ve known it.EvenCourse world rota. the game’s unofficialbutundisputed to my andenduringconnection first bykept myTheOlympic Clubwas bed. style in the coffee-table golf books I books golf inthecoffee-table style J PriceandDan whichCharles and about from where J and ArnoldPalmerhadfallenhardest, placewhere B the poignant San Francisco’s keylinktohistory, golf knewOlympic was Ialso or Shangri-La. painted ’50s movie backdrop forCamelot likea itlooked perfect so composition aboveframed fairways the andforest, clubhouse creamandred-roof majestic tee, from where IcouldviewOlympic’s forwardto getting the14thlooked forme. inthedistance existed Ialways M Lake across just littlemore thanamilefromlies Harding Though it of asanunattainableideal. The Olympic Club, byIthink contrast, enkins had written with mind-opening enkins hadwritten withmind-opening lympic is inarguably special. Factor its its FactorOlympic isinarguably special. S I’ve always theLake worshipped
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100 greatest PUBLIC PEBBLE BEACH G. LINKS, PACIFIC DUNES, THE OCEAN COURSE, WHISTLING STRAITS, PINEHURST RESORT, SHADOW CREEK, BANDON DUNES, ERIN HILLS, BETHPAGE STATE PARK, TPC SAWGRASS, SPYGLASS HILL, OLD MACDONALD, ARCADIA BLUFFS, KARSTEN CREEK, BANDON TRAILS, BLACKWOLF RUN, THE PETE DYE CSE. AT FRENCH LICK RESORT, STREAMSONG, HARBOUR TOWN G. LINKS, KAPALUA, PASATIEMPO, PRINCE, FOREST DUNES, STREAMSONG, THE QUARRY AT GIANTS RIDGE, CHAMBERS BAY, MAUNA KEA, MANELE, THE GREENBRIER, OMNI HOMESTEAD, THE HIGHLAND CSE. AT PRIMLAND, THE BROADMOOR (East), PRONGHORN CLUB, SEA ISLAND, THE PRAIRIE CLUB, FALLEN OAK, MAY RIVER G.C. AT PALMETTO BLUFF, OLD WAVERLY, TORREY PINES (South), PGA WEST, WOLF CREEK, THE HARVESTER, DORMIE CLUB, CORDEVALLE,
▶ The 288-yard seventh hole, a par 70. Though still comparatively The local golf culture reached its peak BULLE ROCK, CASCATA, WHISTLING STRAITS, TULLYMORE, THE drivable par 4, is the first good birdie little on the card, Olympic once again in the mid-’50s, when Venturi and chance after a rugged start. plays big. Harvie Ward battled for supremacy in LINKS AT SPANISH BAY, THE DUNES, CROSSWATER, ATUNYOTE, COG The Lake Course will feature the most the San Francisco City Championship, rigorous start in major-championship the amateur event that is the oldest HILL, TETHEROW, SPRING CREEK, CUSCOWILLA, THE WILDERNESS golf. With the first hole being changed consecutively played competition in from an easy par 5 to a 520-yard par 4, the world. Their 36-hole final in 1956 at AT FORTUNE BAY, PAA-KO RIDGE (1st/2nd), PINEHURST RESORT the player is put on the defensive and Harding Park, which Venturi won, 4 and doesn’t get even close to a break until the 3, was attended by a gallery of 10,000. (No.4), NEMACOLIN WOODLANDS RESORT, PELICAN HILL, GOLDEN drivable seventh, a par 4 of 288 yards. “San Francisco was probably the best From there Olympic becomes a potential city ever in which to be a good player,” comeback course, with Augusta-style said Ward, who died in 2004. “It seemed HORSESHOE, THE CLASSIC AT MADDEN’S RESORT, PINE NEEDLES, stroke swings especially possible on the like everybody liked golf, especially all last four holes: the 154-yard 15th; the the restaurant owners, and they treated MAKAI, WORLD WOODS, PUMPKIN RIDGE, TPC SAN ANTONIO, OMNI behemoth, 670-yard 16th; the reachable us like we were big time. When we but risky 522-yard, par-5 17th; and the walked into one of their places, we were BARTON CREEK, THE BULL AT PINEHURST FARMS, TOBACCO ROAD, 344-yard 18th, which will be given on par with Joe DiMaggio and Hugh some finishing-hole rigor with a McElhenny.” BLACKWOLF RUN, CALEDONIA, LONGABERGER, THE PRAIRIE CLUB, 21-yard-wide fairway. During Open week, golfers will outrank Miller, also biased, thinks the new the Giants’ Tim Lincecum and the 49ers’ LINVILLE, WILD HORSE, TURTLE BAY, RED SKY RANCH, PINEHURST Olympic might prove itself to be the Frank Gore. Certainly the USGA will enjoy greatest test in modern championship San Francisco. There’s the great city itself, RESORT (No. 8), GRAND TRAVERSE, KALUHYAT, THE DONALD ROSS golf. I look forward to a re-energizing no lightning delays, and prime-time of the once-vaunted San Francisco golf television coverage back East. But more continuum. Before the 1998 U.S. Open than anything, there will be the anticipation CSE. AT FRENCH LICK, BAY HARBOR, THE G. CSES. OF LAWSONIA, at Olympic, Rosburg, who passed away of real history, a mystique that began in 2009, fondly remembered his 1940s with Hogan. As the USGA’s Mike Davis RED SKY RANCH, BELGRADE LAKES, THE COEUR D’ALENE, PELICAN upbringing in the city’s Richmond says, “There’s something magical district, saying, “to grow up a golfer in about Olympic.” HILL, TRUMP NATIONAL, DANCING RABBIT, MADERAS, SANDPIPER, San Francisco when I did was special.” See, I’m not the only one. OLD WORKS, GREAT WATERS AT REYNOLDS PLANTATION, BAY HILL, CIRCLING RAVEN, BUFFALO RIDGE, HUALALAI, WAILEA
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