2015 / 2016 A SUPPLEMENT TO GOLF DIGEST AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST COURSES PLUS, SECOND GREATEST 100 / 100 GREATEST PUBLIC COURSES 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 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, BETHPAGE STATE PARK (Black), PIKEWOOD NATIONAL, VICTORIA NATIONAL, BUTLER NATIONAL, TPC SAWGRASS (Players Stadium), SPYGLASS HILL, GARDEN CITY, SCIOTO, OAK TREE NATIONAL, CAMARGO CLUB, PETE DYE, BALLYNEAL, OLD MACDONALD, KINLOCH, INTERLACHEN, BALTUSROL (Upper), WINGED FOOT (East), CANYATA, DALLAS NATIONAL, MILWAUKEE, THE G.C. AT BLACK ROCK, YEAMANS HALL CLUB, ARCADIA BLUFFS, OLYMPIA FIELDS (North), MONTEREY PENINSULA (Shore), WHISPERING PINES, INVERNESS CLUB, THE ESTANCIA CLUB, QUAKER RIDGE, PLAINFIELD, SOMERSET HILLS, BANDON TRAILS, BOSTON, DOUBLE EAGLE CLUB, THE QUARRY AT LA QUINTA, MOUNTAINTOP G. & LAKE CLUB, OLD SANDWICH, CHERRY HILLS, RICH HARVEST LINKS, CONGRESSIONAL (Blue), THE VALLEY CLUB OF MONTECITO, KITTANSETT CLUB, FLINT HILLS NATIONAL, HAZELTINE NATIONAL, THE PRESERVE, CALUSA PINES, EAGLE POINT, ARONIMINK, BLACKWOLF RUN (River), LAUREL VALLEY, CROOKED STICK, DIAMOND CREEK, HUDSON NATIONAL, THE PETE DYE CSE. AT FRENCH LICK RESORT, VALHALLA, MAIDSTONE CLUB, SHOREACRES, STREAMSONG (Red) 2015 / 2016 A SUPPLEMENT TO GOLF DIGEST AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST COURSES 4 AMERICA’s 100 GREATEST A FEW FAVORITE WEST COAST COURSES: COURSES SHAKE-UP There’s a new No. 1. BY RON WHIttEN 20 2 SEASONS OF BANDON DUNES Learn the best time to get away to 12 TOP 20 MAP Oregon’s leading golf resort. Take a tour of select courses using BY CHARLES Mc GRATH the interactive links. 25 OREGON HOMAGE Discover Bandon Dunes fourth and newest course – Old Macdonald. RANKINGS: BY RON WHITTEN 7 BEST IN STATE 29 WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT PEBBLE BEACH How this breathtaking course was 12 100 GREATEST COURSES transformed from a pile of rocks, and many other stories. BY RON WHITTEN 16 SECOND GREATEST 100 41 SAN FRANCISCO LOVE STORY 19 100 GREATEST PUBLIC A native son reflects on why The Olympic Club is so special. BY JAIME DIAZ ▶ 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 4 golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses ▶ 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 AMERICAMERICA’sA’s 100 100 GRE GREATESTATEST PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOM FURORE Take Augusta National Golf BEST IN STATE What’s the old saying? Club, for example. It’s back ▶ The sixth hole at No. 1 among America’s 100 at Nanea Golf Club, The more things change, Greatest after barely losing the repeating as the No. 1 the more they seem top spot it had held for four course in Hawaii. years, to Pine Valley, in 2013. the same? That’s not the When Golf Digest started rank- ranking Golf Digest has ever ing courses in 1966, Augusta produced. These include precise language, but it National was already a national Augusta National, Pine Valley showcase, green and glorious and such stalwarts as No. 3 should be, at least as on golfers’ newly purchased Cypress Point, No. 5 Merion color-television sets. It was also (East), No. 6 Oakmont, No. 7 it relates to Golf Digest’s an exclusive bastion of white Pebble Beach, No. 9 Winged Foot biennial survey of males. But we were ranking (West), No. 12 Seminole, No. 24 golf courses, not club policies. Riviera, No. 28 Pinehurst No. 2 America’s 100 Greatest Today, Augusta National is still and No. 50 Scioto. Among other green and glorious, with more permanent fixtures, No. 33 Olym- Golf Courses for 2015-’16. trees (minus one iconic presi- pic (Lake) is at its lowest position dential pine), but it also has ever on the list, as are No. 39 The country’s oldest minority and female members, Medinah (No. 3), No. 69 In- and most respected if not ladies’ tee boxes. What’s verness and No. 92 Laurel Valley. more, its palatial practice facil- What’s surprising are the course ranking will turn ity invites youngsters to play many well-known names that Punt, Pass and Kick with golf have not always been ranked. 50 next year, and those balls on the Sunday before the These include No. 4 Shinnecock Masters. None of that matters Hills, No. 8 National Golf Links five decades have seen to our course rankings, but it of America, No. 14 Chicago Golf continual change not just sure is encouraging for the fu- Club, No. 19 The Country Club ture of the game. (Clyde/Squirrel), No. 25 Prairie in the makeup of our Top Point is, things change, in- Dunes and No. 35 San Francisco cluding our rankings. This is not Golf Club. Which goes to show, 100 and other rankings your grandfather’s 100 Greatest. in the course-ranking game, In fact, for those who are actual nobody’s perfect. (America’s Second 100 grandfathers, it’s not even the Of course, 51 of today’s 100 Greatest, America’s 100 100 Greatest of that generation. Greatest didn’t even exist in To begin with, there are only 24 1966. Of those, 26 were built Greatest Public Courses, courses among the Top 100 that in this century, including have been on every national No. 30 Gozzer Ranch, No. 44 Best in State and Top 30 Pikewood National, No. 68 GOOD VIBE Whispering Pines and No. 96 in Canada) but also ▶ The 13th hole is one reason Pete Dye Course at French in course architecture, Augusta National ranks No. 1 Lick Resort. (Fit that name on in Memorability and Ambience your shirt.) Still, of the seven and even golf itself. among the 100 Greatest. courses joining America’s 100 Greatest in 2015, only two were built in the past 30 years: No. 42 Erin Hills, which opened in 2006 (full disclosure: I was a co-designer with Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry) and No. 100 Streamsong Red, a 2012 design by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. So is there a pattern ap- parent in the latest version of America’s 100 Greatest? Most definitely, but before we discuss that, we honor the Golden Anniversary of our ranking. ORIGINS AND CHANGES n the 1960s, the late William H. Davis, a founder of Golf IDigest, conceived the idea of a ranking of championship courses, basing it primarily upon USGA Course Ratings, the figure long used to deter- mine each amateur’s handicap. With the help of a mapmaker, DOM FURORE CLICK HERE for complete BEST IN STATE list or visit: GolfDigest.com/golf-courses/united-states L.C. LAMBRECHT BEST IN STATE THE NO. 1 COURSE IN EACH STATE ALABAMA IDAHO MICHIGAN NEW YORK SOUTH DAKOTA Shoal Creek Gozzer Ranch G. & LAKE Club Crystal Downs C.C. Shinnecock HILLS G.C. Sutton Bay G.C. Harrison Frankfort Southampton Agar ALASKA Moose RUN G. Cse. (Creek), ILLINOIS MINNESOTA NORTH CAROLINA TENNESSEE Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson Chicago G.C. Interlachen C.C. WADE Hampton G.C. THE Honors Course Wheaton Edina Cashiers Ooltewah ARIZONA THE Estancia Club INDIANA MISSISSIPPI NORTH DAKOTA TEXAS Scottsdale Victoria National G.C. FALLEN OAK G.C. Hawktree G.C. Dallas National G.C. Newburgh Saucier Bismarck ARKANSAS UTAH THE Alotian Club IOWA MISSOURI OHIO GLENWILD G.C. Roland THE Harvester G.C. Boone VALLEY G.C. Muirfield Village G.C. Park City Rhodes Augusta Dublin CALIFORNIA VERMONT CYPRESS Point Club KANSAS MONTANA OKLAHOMA Ekwanok C.C. Pebble Beach PRAIRIE DUNES C.C. THE Stock FARM Club Southern HILLS C.C. Manchester Hutchinson Hamilton Tulsa COLORADO VIRGINIA Castle PINES G.C. KENTUCKY NEBRASKA OREGON Kinloch G.C. Castle Rock Valhalla G.C. SAND HILLS G.C. Pacific DUNES Manakin-Sabot Louisville Mullen Bandon CONNECTICUT WASHINGTON THE Stanwich Club LOUISIANA NEVADA PENNSYLVANIA SAHALEE C.C. (South/North) Greenwich THE C.C. OF Louisiana Shadow CREEK MERION G.C. (East) Sammamish Baton Rouge North Las Vegas Ardmore DELAWARE WEST VIRGINIA Wilmington C.C. (South) MAINE NEW HAMPSHIRE RHODE ISLAND Pikewood National G.C. Belgrade LAKES G.C. THE G.C. OF NEW England Newport C.C. Morgantown FLORIDA Stratham SEMINOLE G.C. MARYLAND SOUTH CAROLINA WISCONSIN Juno Beach Congressional C.C. (Blue) NEW JERSEY THE Ocean Course Whistling STRAITS (Straits) Bethesda PINE VALLEY G.C. Kiawah Island Haven GEORGIA Augusta National G.C. MASSACHUSETTS NEW MEXICO WYOMING THE Country Club THE Club at Las Campanas SNAKE River Sporting Club HAWAII (Clyde/Squirrel), Chestnut Hill (Sunset), Santa Fe Jackson Nanea G.C. Kailua-Kona golf digest | america’s 100 greatest courses 7 FANTASTIC FINISH ▶ Pine Valley ranks No. 1 in Shot Values, Resistance to Scoring and Design Variety. Here, the 483- yard, par-4 18th hole. k T T i CRED UTTER g 0008 golf golfdigest.com digest | america’s | january 100 greatest 2015 courses Photograph by First Lastname CLICK HERE to COMPARE GOLF COURSES the easiest way to search and compare courses, whether you want to play 18 holes today or you’re planning a multi-round buddies trip to one of the greatest golf destinations.