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.
Selecting a single hole at Oakmont Country Club to break down for our “The Hole at…” video series is challenging. Most courses have two or three candidates that are especially compelling for their history, architectural variety or beauty, so the choice is narrower. Others, like Augusta National, have a dozen or more, complicating matters, though Read more…
Of all golf course architects, Alister MacKenzie, who died in 1934, is the most entertaining to study. The courses he left behind, from Cypress Point to Crystal Downs to Royal Melbourne and beyond, are consistently creative, engrossing and visually explosive. He pioneered a flamboyant style of bunkers and green shapes, the boldness of which still Read more…
There is simply too much great golf in the United States to recognize only 100 venues, so Golf Digest first launched its Second 100 Greatest Golf Courses ranking to accompany its trademark America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses list. The results have been just as competitive for the Second 100—in this year’s edition, two courses, Forest Read more…
Golf Digest has published America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses since 1966, making it the oldest and most respected ranking in golf. We are proud to say our most recent edition, published in May 2023, is the most scientific ever—with our 1,800-plus panelists submitting more than 85,000 evaluations over our 10-year scoring criteria. Our evaluators play Read more…
The final three holes at Quail Hollow Club, site of next week’s 2025 PGA Championship in Charlotte, are notoriously known as the “Green Mile,” a reference to the color of the floor that death row inmates walk on the way to the electric chair in the Stephen King novel and movie of the same name. Read more…
The bulldozers have been blazing in Florida and South Carolina. Georgia and Tennessee are warming up, and in 2023 Alabama debuted its first new course in nearly 20 years. It was only a matter of time before Texas jumped into the fire. For a state of its geographic and demographic heft, Texas lags its peers Read more…
When Pinehurst #10 opened a year ago, it marked the debut of not just the resort’s first new 18-hole course in 28 years but an entirely new project, called Sandmines. Sandmines is a satellite development on a 900-acre parcel of land several miles south of the main Pinehurst campus that the resort acquired 15 years Read more…
Augusta National’s primary defense against the world’s greatest players has always been its greens. That was especially true until 20 years ago. Prior to the club narrowing certain fairways with pine trees (notably seven, 11, 15, 17 and 18) and the addition of the cut of light rough, players could attack the 30- to 80-yard-wide Read more…
Consensus is hard to find. But almost everyone agrees the 13th hole at Augusta National is one of the world’s great par 5s. The role it plays in determining the outcome of the Masters each April certainly contributes to its fame, especially as players encounter it on the second nine on Sunday with the wall Read more…
The entire Augusta National property resonates aesthetically, especially during the Masters when everything is in bloom, but the par-3 16th is a focal point. Just steps off the 15th green, it sits in a kind of amphitheater with the hillside under the neighboring sixth hole (which is not visible) providing bleacher-like seating for patrons and Read more…
It’s possible to overlook the complexity of the short par-4 third. In one regard, players can simply hit a long iron or hybrid club off the tee into position short of the fairway bunker complex on the left, setting up a full wedge or short iron into the elevated green. But the shortness of the Read more…
The par-5 second hole is a dynamic, fascinating test that’s emblematic of the evolved genius of Augusta National’s architecture, where hole location dictates the way the players strategise.
Australian Golf Digest
