When Canyata, near Marshall, Ill., debuted on our America’s 100 Greatest Courses ranking in 2009 at No. 42, it caused quite a reaction. The most common one was, “What’s that?” The course, with the original three holes designed by Bob Lohmann and the rest by Lohmann’s then-associate Mike Benkusky, opened in 2005 and admitted just Read more…
The island green par-3 17th hole at The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is rightfully one of the most famous, and infamous, holes in golf. The water surrounding the no-mercy putting surface sucks balls out of resort guests’ bags like bonbons moving too fast on a conveyor belt, and tour players each year during Read more…
When cultures and societies cross certain thresholds it becomes almost impossible to fathom life before. We once needed atlases, cameras, a Walkman, flashlights, PCs, watches and any number of other paraphernalia to do all the things a basic smartphone can do. And before Mike Keiser came along we almost exclusively constructed golf courses in places Read more…
When the Take a Swing Fore Batten auction goes live Feb. 19, nearly 18 months will have passed since the last time golfers had an opportunity to bid on some of the rarest outings in the game. For most players, the Fore Batten event presents their only chance to score a round on some the Read more…
Golf course scholars know that Alister MacKenzie’s big architecture break came when he won a design contest in the British publication Country Life Magazine in 1914. Architect C.B. Macdonald was one of the judges and liked MacKenzie’s winning entry so much (a brawny par 4 with multiple routes from tee to green based on how Read more…
If you are a person of certain means with access to private jets and destination club memberships, the last 10 years have been a golf revelation. Exclusive private clubs have opened in remote, difficult to get to locations in Nebraska, California, South Carolina and south Georgia, and new velvet-roped doors continue to open in off-the-beaten Read more…
For all the history, adoration and accolades Pebble Beach receives, it is not a particularly strategic golf course. One exception is the short par-4 fourth hole.
Twenty-five years ago, it was impossible to imagine the places people would now be rushing to for world class resort golf: the cold southwest coast of Oregon; the austere shore of the mighty St. Lawrence River in Nova Scotia; agrarian central Wisconsin; the quiet Ozarks of southern Missouri. The golf resorts that have been developed Read more…
Future generations will look back from 2015 to 2025, a period that is likely to extend longer still, as one of the most fertile, creative and lucrative eras in the history of golf course development and renovation. Far-flung sites throughout the United States that would have never been considered for development are now home to Read more…
Architecturally, the work completed at Interlachen, a Donald Ross design outside Minneapolis, is a restoration-renovation hybrid. Designer Andrew Green used Ross’ hole-by-hole blueprints from 1919 to guide the comprehensive redesign that touched every aspect of the property, restoring bunkers and putting-surface dimensions as closely as possible to what was first drawn. The green perimeter and Read more…
Great land isn’t necessary to create great golf, but it can certainly help get architects moving in the right direction. At The Covey (opening photo and this page), situated amid a 2,000-acre hunting preserve 75 miles west of Houston, designer Chet Williams draped holes across rustic backcountry slopes with 50to 60foot elevation changes, weaving them Read more…
In 2024, hundreds of Golf Digest course-ranking panelists visited 59 new or remodeled courses that were candidates for our annual awards. The Best New Public and Private awards are given to the year’s most outstanding original courses, including those built over the bones of an older course. Traditional renovations and restorations, consisting of alterations and Read more…
Tom Doak’s new course at Pinehurst possesses all the elements that define golf in the Carolina sand hills, but it’s arranged in ways that make #10 seem fresh and explorative. The essential components are familiar: deep sandy soils, rolling but not extreme elevation changes, pine forests and contrasting grasses and sedges for texture. From there, Read more…
Pete Dye didn’t invent the terrifying par-3 hole, but he revolutionized it. Architects from the beginning have positioned greens in precarious places that require extreme tee-shot precision—across lakes and rivers, on benches above deep bunkers and ravines, in dunes surrounded by sand and gorse—but Dye took it to another level. His all-carry par 3s played Read more…
During his tenure as executive director and CEO of the USGA, Mike Davis had the fortune of playing and studying most of the great golf courses in the United States. For over 30 years he traveled the country to explore potential tournament sites for the 15-20 events the USGA organizes each year, and Davis’ job Read more…
Golf course construction will never again approach the frenetic pace of the 1990s and early 2000s, but it is on the uptick. Plus, the quality of the courses we’ve seen open the last five years has rarely been higher. The work being done by top architects is exemplary, and developers are selecting sites and the Read more…
Golf course architects strive to create variety in each of their designs, but even the best have favorite concepts and patterns they return to. If it works, why stop? The best example of an architect developing repeatable golf features is C.B. Macdonald, who built the country’s first 18-hole course for Chicago Golf Club in the Read more…
Seventy years passed between the opening of Cypress Point, the Golden Age’s last great ocean bluff course design, and the debut of the first course at Bandon Dunes, where five holes touch the Pacific Ocean cliffs. But the wait was worth it, and the return to the ocean at Bandon is nothing short of spectacular. Read more…
What does it take to be considered the best golf course in the world? What mix of holes and thrills and vistas go into such a lofty assessment? This is the question that Royal County Down makes us consider. Sitting at No. 1 in Golf Digest’s ranking of the World’s 100 Greatest Courses, Royal County Read more…
The prevailing wisdom of golf development in the U.S. has always been to build the courses where the golfers are. First this meant in or adjacent to the towns and cities; then in the suburbs and exurbs; and finally at the beaches, lakes and mountains where people were already traveling. That paradigm changed with the Read more…
If you’ve never driven through the Sandhills region of Nebraska, you haven’t seen one of the world’s most extraordinary golf landscapes. It’s understandable if you haven’t. There’s little reason for anyone who isn’t a rancher or a golf pilgrim to delve into the 20,000-square miles of heaving, grass-covered dunes that cover the northwest and north-central Read more…
Australian Golf Digest
