Highest ranking: No. The style is simple and intentionally not stylized. Highest ranking: No. Back when Pete Dye was building the course, he was asked to dispose of a huge quantity of sewer sludge from housing developments on Hilton Head, so he dug a big pit to the left of the par-4 16th, had it dumped in there, then covered it with acres of sand. We've long considered it such a compelling layout that it needs no seascape to command one's attention. Nearly 50 years later, Weiskopf won the bid to remodel the North Course at Torrey Pines, and he moved from Arizona to San Diego to devote all his energies to the task of making it a worthy companion to No. / 888-285-5375 / bullerock.comPete Dye (1998)7,375 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 57.8220This great course is built on the old Blenheim Farm, which had been the home of many thoroughbred race horses. Bold in its features and contours, this is Tom Fazio in a surprisingly challenging mood. There are very wide and deep greens here, too, so a depth chart is a must.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked since 2003. 42 Wilderness Club, this is a destination course worth hiking to play.100 Greatest Public History: Newly ranked. 81, Southern Pines, N.C. / 800-747-7272 / pineneedles-midpines.comDonald Ross (1928) / Donald Ross (R.1937)John Fought (R.2004) / Kyle Franz (R.2016)7,015 Yards, Par 71 | Points: 56.6893Whenever golfers visit Pinehurst, they always book rounds at Pinehurst No. 11, 2005-06. 67. The topography of the course is magnificent, the bunkering is superb (particularly the crossbunkers on 12 and 13) and the course finishes with a rare par-3 18th. Highest ranking: No. Highest ranking: Present. 60, 2015-16. 7.More about this course →, Farmingdale, N.Y. / 516-249-4040 / nysparks.state.ny.usJoseph H. Burbeck & A.W. The golf is as good as it gets in Minnesota, a place known for its numerous challenging, upscale golf courses. Highest ranking: No. Previous ranking: No. The most fascinating hole comes early, the par-4 second with out-of-bounds indicated by a barbed-wire fence hard along the right from tee to green.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked since 2015. Wild Horse is perhaps their finest, laid out on the southern edge of the Nebraska sand hills and patterned after the great Sand Hills Golf Club to the northwest, which both Proctor and Axland helped build. As an amenity to a ski lodge, the golf course itself is surprisingly flat, mainly because much of the front nine was constructed by filling in edges of a massive swamp, and there are small drainage ponds on half the holes, including those fronting the greens of three of its four par 3s. 88, Acme, Mich. / 231-534-6000 / grandtraverseresort.comJack Nicklaus (1984)7,078 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 56.1054Another out-and-back routing (the eighth green is the farthest point from the clubhouse), the Nicklaus-designed Bear leap-frogs over 12 water hazards between first and last hole. For putting surfaces, Fazio built crowned greens with greenside swales, intended as a salute to Donald Ross and Pinehurst No. Highest ranking: No. Top 100 Golf Courses in America and the Top 100 Public Golf Courses in all of the United States. The most well-known routing is to combine the Links and Quarry nines. The Blue definitely has the bolder set of greens, some with massive shelves and dips. Why mess with history?100 Greatest Public History: 2017. (The companion Blue Course, a Tom Doak design, is ranked No. 30. 54. 14, 2009-12, 2014-15, 2017-2018 & presentMore about this course →, Kohler, Wis. / 800-344-2838 / blackwolfrun.comPete Dye (9 1988, A. 33, 2003-04. Previous ranking: No. 8 is one of Tom Fazio's most versatile designs, as each hole plays differently from the previous. Manele is used to being an underdog. There are three nines here. Few golfers recognize that the East is a combination of Donald Ross holes (one through six and 16 through 18) and Robert Trent Jones ones (holes seven to 15). Highest ranking: No. Every hole is edged by sawgrass, every green has tricky slopes, every bunker merges into bordering sand dunes. Unlike Shadow Creek, it's built on rolling forest and wetlands, with no need for mammoth earth-moving.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked since 2009. Havre de Grace, Md. Previous ranking: No. Some holes are on higher plateaus, too, which provide for even more scenic Pacific vistas. The Pine Barrens Course was ranked among America's 100 Greatest from 1999 until 2003.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked since 2003. Sanford, N.C. / 877-284-3762 / tobaccoroadgolf.comMike Strantz (1999)6,554 Yards, Par 71 | Points: 57.6419The late Mike Strantz was the game's most unconventional course designer, and Tobacco Road was perhaps the best example of his unorthodoxy. Designed in 1982 to host The Players Championship, this golf course favors both the elite and the novice golfer. 50. Weiskopf’s goal was to bring North Course to the same technological standards and level of prestige as the South. Highest ranking: No. Courtesy of Crosswater/Mike Houska www.doglegstudios.com. Quintero, a former private club, is a scenic and playable delight.100 Greatest Public History: 2017. 12 (on America's 100 Greatest Courses) Crystal Downs, a neighbor every northern Michigan that visitor wants to play, even though it's private and Arcadia is public. The concept changed – some greens moved, one blind par 3 eliminated – as the quest for a U.S. Open grew. There’s a stream that comes prominently into play, as well as an irrigation lake over which the par-3 11th plays, but there are just 19 trees on the course, mostly ancient oaks. 22, 2017-18More about this course →, Hot Springs, Va. / 800-838-1766 / thehomestead.comWilliam Flynn (1923)6,667 Yards, Par 70 / Points: 59.8476As Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul point out in their massive, comprehensive biography of William Flynn, Seth Raynor was originally consulted about building the course, but declared the property insufficient. 2, 2013-14More about this course →, Kiawah Island, S.C. / 888-854-2924 / kiawahgolf.comPete Dye & Alice Dye (1991) / 7,356 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 64.5348The first course designed for a specific event -- the 1991 Ryder Cup -- this manufactured linksland-meets-lagoons layout might well be Pete Dye's most diabolical creation. The course resumed its tournament duties in the spring of 2016 to great acclaim. Highest ranking: Present. On one hole it's a carry off a tee, on another, it's beside a green, while on a couple, it's a cove in front of a green. AT FRENCH LICK (Ind.) Yes, a golf ball carries farther at its 6,500-foot elevation, but Paa-Ko also plays long because both nines work up mountain foothills for several holes before playing downhill. Macdonald (1915) / Lester George (R.2006)Steve Wenzloff (R.2010) / Keith Foster (R.2016)7,274 Yards, Par 70 / Points: 59.1471C.B. Amateur (the third and final win by Tiger Woods), the 1997 and 2003 U.S. Women's Opens and 2006 U.S. Women's Amateur were all played on the club's private 18, Witch Hollow. 888-363-6036 / tpcsanantonio.comGreg Norman, with Sergio Garcia (2010)7,435 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 56.2180Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Oaks Course, current host of the Valero Texas Open on the PGA Tour, are not the thousands of squat live oaks which edge most holes, but the vertical limestone back edges of several bunkers, formed when those bunkers were literally chiseled or blasted from the subsurface rock. Highest ranking: No. It has too much rub-of-the-green for the comfort levels of many tour pros, two dozen of whom will tackle the Straits again in the 2020 Ryder Cup.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked since 2003. Highest ranking: No. Roscommon, Mich. / 989-275-0700 / forestdunesgolf.comTom Doak (2016)6,704 Yards, par 70 / Points: 58.2940The idea of a reversible golf course is as old at the Old Course at St. Andrews, and golf architect Joel Goldstrand built a series of nine-hole reversible courses for small clubs in Minnesota, Iowa and North Dakota back in the 1980s. To retain playability for resort golfers, Kidd provided some of the widest fairway corridors in all of American golf, an experiment he first undertook, with great success, a few years early at No. Highest ranking: No. Previous ranking: No. Access to these golf courses should be cherished, and these holes are the best of the bunch. 20, 2005-06. We allowed that, and it won. Top 50 Classic Courses in Great Britain & Ireland, Top 35 Modern Courses in Great Britain & Ireland, Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play, state by state, Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play. 28 Forest Dunes, a fine Tom Weiskopf design.100 Greatest Public History: Newly ranked. A ridgeline separates the two courses (the ridge designated as a wildlife corridor), with the Norman 18 positioned on an old sheep ranch on the western slope, affording long-range views of the Rockies to the west and south as well as gorgeous sunsets. The par-3 seventh has another explanation entirely. Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii / 800-858-6300 / poipubaygolf.comRobert Trent Jones Jr. (1991)7,123 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 56.0465Back when it first opened in the early 1990s, architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. proclaimed his Poipu Bay design to be “the Pebble Beach of the Pacific,” which was overstating it a bit, partly because Pebble Beach itself sits on the Pacific, but mainly because only three of Poipu Bay’s last four holes play on cliffs above the ocean surf, while Pebble has nine holes on the ocean. Every two years, GOLF puts together The Top 100 Courses You Can Play. Highest ranking: No. 5, 2003-04. 16, 2005-06 & 2011-12. That’s the 18 Bay Harbor holes that are typically listed on the top 100 courses in the United States lists. Photo By: Brian G. Oar - Fairways Photography, Verona, N.Y. / 877-748-4653 / turningstone.comRobert Trent Jones Jr. & Ty Butler (2003)7,105 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 56.0383Another course at New York's Turning Stone Resort ranked among the Top 100 Public, Kaluhyat opened a year before sister course, No. Previous ranking: No. 16. 10, 2017-18More about this course →, Nile Young Photography/Courtesy of Arcadia Bluffs GC, 800-494-8666 / arcadiabluffs.comRick Smith & Warren Henderson (2000)7,300 Yards, Par 72 / Points: 61.9264Can a 100 Greatest course be a sleeper? Each hole looks intimidating from the tee but reveals plenty of elbow room for tee shots and approaches, as well as spin-outs and crash landings.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked since 2009. Many putts that look uphill are actually running downhill. The USGA has already indicated that Pine Needles will host another in the future.100 Greatest Public History: Ranked 2003-04 & since 2007. Highest ranking: No. We expanded the greens and fairways even farther out than my work 10 years ago. Great public golf can be found in every corner of the United States. Trent later convinced him to add a narrow neck of fairway to the left as a concession to high handicappers.100 Greatest Public History: Newly ranked. That includes the bunker positioned in the middle of the green on the par-3 16th. In 2015, Buffalogolfer.com ranked Diamond Hawk in a tie with Seneca Hickory Stick as the top public courses in the Buffalo-Niagara area. By: Tim Schmitt, If Andy Sullivan had his pedal to the metal for the first two rounds of the Golf in Dubai Championship, he successfully clicked into cruise (…). 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