When the century began, golf course design and development were in a very different place. Hundreds of new courses were opening annually, including dozens of stand-alone, upscale daily-fee facilities (sometimes termed “country clubs for a day”), a segment of new construction that’s all but extinct today. The industry was coming off a blockbuster decade in Read more…
When a golf course is as old and famous as Pebble Beach, it’s tempting to believe we know all there is to know about it. Not only have golfers watched it on television during U.S. Opens and the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am for decades, many of us have also experienced the unforgettable thrill Read more…
The golf development business thrived in 2025 and appears to be accelerating into 2026. Architects are flush with work, resorts are expanding, remodel budgets break barriers and new courses are being constructed in all corners of the country. However, the same resources dedicated to private clubs and resorts have yet to find their way to Read more…
The mission of Andrew Green’s work at Chevy Chase Club north of Washington, D.C. was to return the course design to its historical roots. The question was, which ones? The original nine holes laid out by Willie Davis in 1896 were expanded to 18 two years later, most likely by club professional Willie Tucker. Donald Read more…
High Pointe qualifies as golf’s feel-good story of the year. This was the first course Tom Doak built beginning in 1987 as a 26-year-old getting his big break. Located outside of Traverse City, Mich., it was and remains the only course at which he personally shaped all 18 greens. In 2008, the daily-fee course closed Read more…
The first course at Gamble Sands opened in 2014 and marked David Kidd’s return to “happy” architecture after a detour into the dark corners of extreme design at places like Tetherow and St. Andrews’ Castle Course. With its broad fairways, half-par holes and feeding contours, the Sands was swashbuckling fun tailored to the joys of Read more…
Halfway through a decade of post-Covid golf prosperity, the verdict on 2025 is in: Golf design in the United States is strong and getting stronger. Judging by the courses that opened this year, developers and architects continue to seek out pieces of land with strong aura, knowing that the innate character of the site is Read more…
The Fall Line is the geological term for the transition zone in Georgia between Columbus and Augusta that separates the hard clay soils of the upper Piedmont and the lower southern elevations that millions of years ago were ocean. It is one of the country’s most significant sandbelts and has only recently been discovered for Read more…
A quarter of the way into the century, it’s clear the quality of new courses and renovations continues to get better. Developers and clubs keep giving architects outstanding properties to work on, along with budgets to match. Even when the land doesn’t sing, designers have found ways to put spins on it that make the Read more…
Golf Digest is talking to the next generation of course architects whose names might be new to you, but are popping up more and more with great projects. This interview has been edited for concision. The full Q&A is available on the “Feed the Ball” podcast with architecture editor Derek Duncan. What renovation work do Read more…
For golf course design and development, the past 15 years have been better than good. It’s not unreasonable to suggest the quality of new courses being built is as high as it has been since the 1920s. In fact, 25 courses that opened since 2010 now reside among the top 200 on our America’s 100 Read more…
Cameron Smith and his caddie will have some changes to navigate when the winner of the 150th Open Championship returns to the Old Course in 2027 for the next edition of the links major at the Home of Golf.
In the early 1990s, Oakmont Country Club—host of the 2025 U.S. Open, its 15th men’s or women’s major championship and revered as one of the nation’s greatest courses—as covered in trees. Each hole was shrouded in a cloak of timber and leaf, the views of other holes almost non-existent. The members, at least most of Read more…
Back in 1855, the Bordeaux wine region of France created a ranking system of its chateaus. Regional merchants and wine cognoscenti developed a novel classification of 58 chateaus based primarily on reputation and trading prices. The estates were separated into five tiers, or “growths,” with four wines—Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Read more…
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 Read more…
With vital points and half-points at stake, the deciding hole should be one that rewards heroic action and makes the players execute brave shots in pressure-packed situations.
Bethpage Black’s unforgettable par-5 fourth hole zigzags uphill around enormous bunkers, a curious and beautiful ‘objet d’art’ amid a menagerie of torture devices.
In 2024, Golf Digest panelists named the 16th hole at Cypress Point Club in California as America’s Greatest Hole. Not just the greatest par 3, but the best hole in America, full stop. As much of an honor as that is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Cypress Point’s 16th has long been considered one Read more…
Ebert has spent the past 20 years, along with design partner Tom Mackenzie, refining his expertise as one of the most sought-after and visionary renovation specialists in the profession.
This year’s venue is a welcome diversion from the usual march of Open courses. The other championship venues are inarguably great, but Royal Portrush is unique.
Australian Golf Digest
