When major golf resorts like Bandon Dunes, Pinehurst and Sand Valley began opening innovative short courses a decade ago, they scratched an itch that golfers didn’t realize they had. These sporty diversions of mostly par 3s (Bandon Preserve, The Cradle and The Sandbox) were instantaneously fan favorites, serving bite-size helpings of surprisingly rich architecture that inspired a wave of new non-traditional short courses at other public and private clubs.
Short courses have become a rage, immensely fun counterpoints to more substantive 18-hole layouts that are perfect for between-rounds downtime, twilight outings, larger groups and spirited bet-settling. Architects love building them because there are no rules, no set number of holes and no off-limits ideas—they can do things with short courses that might be too controversial on a regulation design. As the next generation of short courses proves, innovation and experimentation are the point. Here are some of our favorite recently opened or soon-to-be opened short courses.
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Holes: 18. Par: 54. Length: 2,951 yards. Acres: 80. Opened: 2023.
Battlefield is an apt word for this Tom Clark design that opened in 2023. Covering an 80-acre parcel, the layout is on the large end of the short-course spectrum, and golfers will need to use most clubs in the bag to fight their way through 18 well-fortified par 3s that range from 110 to 245 yards over significantly hilly terrain.
The Chain at Streamsong—Bowling Green, Fla. 
Holes: 19. Par: 57. Length: 3,026 yards. Acres: 100. Opened: 2024.
Credit for The Chain’s design goes to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, but much of the creative work was carried out by their associates including Jimmy Craig, who previously built most of the holes at The Sandbox at Sand Valley. The golf intensifies as it moves out toward the lagoons created from the site’s former mining operation with several holes playing over water and wetlands including the 11th with a massive, blind punchbowl green.
Cliffhangers at Big Cedar Lodge—Hollister, Mo. 
Holes: 18. Par: 54. Length: 1,910 yards. Acres: 35. Opened: 2025.
Big Cedar Lodge founder Johnny Morris has been a trailblazer in non-traditional layouts, first with the resort’s panoramic Top of the Rock and Mountain Top courses (from Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, respectively), and now with the Cliffhangers short course (lead image atop the story) designed with son J.P. Their course represents a dramatic extreme with miniature golf-like par 3s playing over waterfalls, through limestone outcroppings and tumbling off hillsides.
The Commons at Sand Valley—Nekoosa, Wis. 
Courtesy of Dream Golf
Holes: 12. Par: 45. Length: 3,525 yards. Acres: 110. Opening: 2026.
Jimmy Craig, the inspiration behind the original Sandbox (and who is also designing the second course at Rodeo Dunes near Denver) has become a master of the hybrid course form. The Commons, set to open in 2026 on land just north of Sedge Valley, packs in 12 holes that include par 3s, 4s and 5s with heaving ground contour that emulates the most eccentric courses of the U.K., including three holes that skirt the edge of a lake excavated for sand.
Crossroads at Palmetto Bluff—Bluffton, S.C. 
Holes: 9. Par: 36. Length: 3,080/3,265 yards. Acres: 54. Opened: 2024.
We include Crossroads, the only short course not purely public (there are limited tee times for hotel guests), to illustrate the innovative opportunities short courses present. Designers Rob Collins and Tad King have created an avant garde version by manufacturing a network of high dunes that border fairways and the enormous greens. The nine holes can be played in two directions, with each “course” offering a distinctly different strategic character.
Doon Brae at The Highlands—Harbor Springs, Mich. 
Holes: 9. Par: 27. Length: 1,050 yards. Acres: 20. Opened: 2025.
Short courses can be Trojan horses that introduce recreational golfers to classical architectural concepts, which is what Ray Hearn has crafted at the 9-hole Doon Brae course, the newest addition to the Northern Michigan BOYNE Golf collection. Each hole, built on the side of a ski slope, ranges. from 73 to 150 yards and is patterned after a template from famous courses like the Redan, a Biarritz, the Eden and Postage Stamp.
Holes: 9. Par: 27. Length: 1,177 yards. Acres: 17. Reopened: 2024.
Conceived in the early 1950s as merely a very short nine-hole public course, Golden Gate is actually the genre’s OG. Located on the western edge of San Francisco’s majestic 1,000-acre green space less than 400 yards from the Pacific, this is municipal golf at its most exciting following a bold and beautiful remodel by Jay Blasi that blends the holes and extreme greens into the park’s scenic, cypress-cloaked slopes.
Little Darling at Alexandria G.C.—Alexandria, Minn. 
Holes: 9. Par: 27. Length: 1,405 yards. Acres: 55. Opened: 2025.
Little Darling was built on an adjacent 55 acres next to the main course the club owned but had never developed. Friendly for families, the nine Tom Lehman-designed par-3 holes have open green fronts and surrounding shoulders and kick-slopes to increase the excitement of seeing balls bounce and feed. As an ode to its location, the first green is shaped like the state of Minnesota, with a deep hollow where Wisconsin should be.
Little Sandy at Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa—Fernandina Beach, Fla. 
Holes: 10. Par: 30. Length: 931 yards. Acres: ~25. Opened: 2022.
The 10 holes that make up Little Sandy at this oceanfront Northwest Florida resort occupy property that was once the seventh, eighth and ninth holes of a Pete Dye course. The short par 3s, created by Beau Welling (who recently remodeled Dye’s Oak Marsh course here), play on two sides of a lake (the sixth hole calls for a shot across the water), and nine of the greens sit adjacent to the shore.
The Playground at Jack’s Bay—Eleuthera Island, Bahamas 
Joshua Cripps
Holes: 10. Par: 30. Length: 1,058. Acres: 19. Opened: 2025.
The only non-U.S. representative on the list is part of a new development that will also include an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed course. Tiger Woods’ 10-hole Playground brings guests into one of the genre’s most visceral settings atop rocky bluffs overlooking the beach and Atlantic Ocean. The holes spread across a field of short grass with sleek, exposed greens that demand precise control, or bump and runs (or putter), under the seaside winds.
Courtesy of the club
Holes: 9. Par: 27. Length: 760 yards. Acres: 11. Opened: 2025.
Robert Trent Jones designed the original Gold Course here in 1963, and son Rees later added the Green Course before remodeling the Gold. Rees just completed refashioning a section of the club’s existing RTJ nine-hole executive course into a shorter, wedge-and-putt nine with an out-and-back routing through ponds and hardwoods intended to be played in less than 60 minutes.
Shorty’s at Bandon Dunes—Bandon, Ore. 
Holes: 19. Par: 57. Length: 1,997. Acres: ~30. Opened: 2024.
Bandon Preserve was built on a gorgeous Pacific-facing slice of land west of Bandon Trails, but the site for the new Shorty’s course, while lacking ocean views, might be just as exciting. Opened last year, the 19 holes built by Rod Whitman, Dave Axland and Keith Cutten bounce and rumble through a landscape of choppy dunes that look like they were divinely created for the sole purpose of framing flamboyant par 3 holes.
Wee Nip at Grand Geneva Resort & Spa—Lake Geneva, Wis. 
Holes: 11. Par: 33. Length: 1,004 yards. Acres: 13. Opening: 2026.
The beauty of short courses is they don’t require a lot of space and can be built in common areas near where guests congregate. That’s the idea behind this compact 11-hole course designed by Wisconsin native Matt Dusenberry: a gathering place where golfers, after finishing the two 18-hole courses, can grab a drink and a fistful of clubs and hit from different directions into a set of wildly contoured greens.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
