Courses

Though it’s only January, the biggest golf course news of 2021 might have already dropped. Virtually any mint-new golf course project is notable these days, but the news of The Lido hit with particular force. Unlike previous samples from the novelty category of “replica courses”—those all-star cornucopias of imitation holes tossed together like chef’s salads,
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34. Southern Hills Country Club Perry Maxwell (1936)/Gil Hanse (2018) A product of the Great Depression, funded by Phillips Petroleum money and constructed by hundreds of workers who stood at the gate each morning hoping for a 25-cents-per-hour job that day, Southern Hills is architect Perry Maxwell’s great achievement. Nearly every hole bends left or
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Sheep Ranch, the Best New Course of 2020, is an embodiment of the old choreographies of links golf. It is also an expression of a new movement—a revival, actually—toward creating increased width and spaciousness. Though Sheep Ranch sits on a relatively small site—fewer than 150 acres—the playing fields are enormous, with fairways 60 to 100
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Golf is remarkable in the way it brings together people from different cultures and climates, uniting them for a period of time in mission and experience while remaining an entirely individualistic pursuit. It is social and solitary, as all good travel is, and in this regard is also a passport, a ticket. Golf is the
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All of this got us to thinking—which other notable munys around the country are worthy of similar treatment? Of course, all of our munys are deserving of some TLC, but these have the potential to be truly significant efforts. COBBS CREEK GOLF COURSE Philadelphia This list must start with Cobbs Creek—which is getting the facelift
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Courtesy of Caledonia Ten years after he helped Fazio build the third at Ventana Canyon, Mike Strantz designed his own vest-pocket hole on his first solo design (Caledonia). Working on a tight site, he truncated the ninth to spare the removal of several ancient moss-draped live oaks in the clubhouse area. The hole was supposed
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In 1965, the great Dan Jenkins picked an All-Star team of golf holes for Sports Illustrated, The Best 18 Golf Holes in America, selected by a committee of one, although he allowed Ben Hogan a nod or two. What set Jenkins’ list apart from other pretenders was a self-imposed restriction. His All-Star team, he said,
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Bandon Dunes had already been firmly established as one of the best golf destinations in the world, boasting four courses on Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest ranking, before the addition of another glorious links course on Oregon’s coast. Sheep Ranch, the second 18-hole routing by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw at the resort, opened in
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TPC Harding Park is the golden boy of San Francisco public golf, with fame, good fortune, and given its exposure as host to this year’s PGA Championship, an international audience and global reputation. That makes the contrast with its older brother, Lincoln Park Golf Course, a few miles northwest, all the more glaring. Technically, Lincoln
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