Golf is a sport for everyone on these top-ranked courses
Golf is a sport for everyone, but too many times it seems that the best places to play are restricted by privacy and membership barriers born in the “country club” era of exclusivity.
The good thing is plenty of the designers of the nation’s great private courses have also fashioned tracks that welcome all players. If golfers have the inclination and the cash needed for the respective green fee, they can play courses routed by the likes of legendary architects like Pete Dye (whose name is mentioned the most in the following list), Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, and Robert Trent Jones, Jr, et al.
Our list of the best public course in each state was compiled by picking the brains and opinions of noted golf professionals, course architects, journalists, and – mostly – golfers. While it’s always fun to be on the golf course, it’s even better to play really good ones, and our panelists know their stuff.
It was a surprise to see that more than a fourth of the courses listed below (29, in fact) were established in 1980 or later, and that 16 of those have opened since the turn of the 21st century. Eight of the courses on the list welcomed their first golfers prior to 1930, so there’s plenty of representation from the Golden Age of course architecture here, as well.
This list (which is the second of a three-part series) includes courses golfers have seen on broadcasts as hosts of PGA Tour events, as well as a state park course, plenty of resort tracks, a course managed by a company that’s was once owned by the President of the United States, and even a nine-hole facility.
Kentucky
Griffin Gate Golf Club
Location: Lexington
Established: 1981; Renovated: 2005, 2015
Situated on 250 acres of rolling landscape in the heart of Thoroughbred country, this course, part of the Marriott golf family, was designed by Rees Jones and provides a unique Kentucky golf experience. The course is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, which enables golf facilities to protect the environment by enhancing precious natural areas and wildlife habitats.
Louisiana
English Turn Golf & Country Club
Location: New Orleans
Established: 1988
This Jack Nicklaus design is a blast to play, and has a larger-than-life scale, with a grand clubhouse, and immaculate conditioning. The course is unpredictable and varied, shrinking from wide fairways to small, perfectly manicured and undulating greens that are usually surrounded by traps. What often looks like easy holes when you’re standing on tees are killers when you get closer to the putting surfaces.
Maine
Sugarloaf Golf Club
Location: Carrabassett Valley
Established: 1985
This Robert Trent Jones Jr. design provides golfers with stunning panoramic mountain views and an unforgettable experience from first tee to final putt. The stretch of holes starting at the 10th and ending at No. 15 have been dubbed “the string of pearls,” and features the short par 3 11th with its green 120 feet below its teebox.
Maryland
Bulle Rock
Location: Havre de Grace
Established: 1988
In a state known for its exclusive private clubs, this course stands up strong with even the best tracks in Maryland. The routing flows well, the holes are memorable, the course is challenging, and the conditioning is plush. Designed by Pete Dye, who let Mother Nature take a bigger lead in the experience, with the result 18 attractive holes that are varied and far from contrived.
Massachusetts
Taconic Golf Club
Location: Williamstown
Established: 1927; Renovated: 2009
Located in the beautiful Berkshires of western Massachusetts and set on land that was, in the past, cattle grazing farmland, and before that, woodlands, this course provides golfers with a magical combination of spectacular scenery, a classic challenging routing, and superb playing conditions. Originally designed by Wayne Stiles, the course was renovated by Gil Hanse.
Michigan
Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club (Bluffs Course)
Location: Arcadia
Established: 2000
Routed by Warren Henderson and Rick Smith on windswept bluffs overlooking 3,100 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline, the Bluffs course resembles a seaside links with rolling terrain, natural fescues, and panoramic views of the lake. The play here is punctuated by one of the prettiest settings in golf.
Minnesota
Giants Ridge (The Quarry)
Location: Biwabik
Established: 2003
This course is a dramatic layout with huge elevation changes, great contrast in colors and textures, and a top shelf collection of par fives, all set in the northeastern portion of the state. Fashioned by Jeffrey Brauer and built on a former sand and iron ore mining quarry site, the course enjoys unique movement in the terrain which lends itself to some engaging hole designs that golfers are sure to remember.
Mississippi
Fallen Oak Golf Course
Location: Saucier
Established: 2006
Designed by Tom Fazio, and exclusively for play by guests of Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, this course raises the bar for luxury resort golf in Mississippi. Players are challenged by dramatic elevation changes and more than 4,000 stately oaks, magnolias, pines and other hardwood trees, interspersed with ponds, streams and wetlands.
Missouri
Branson Hills Golf Club
Location: Branson
Established: 2008
This track is a tribute course honoring legendary Missouri golfers and sports natural rock outcroppings, waterfalls, creeks and wooded areas into its design features. Fashioned by Chuck Smith with design consultant Bobby Clampett. There are plenty of elevation changes, but most of them are to the golfers advantage, with wide landing areas on most holes and the contours along the edges to help wayward shots.
Montana
The Wilderness Club
Location: Eureka
Established: 2009
This Nick Faldo design offers strategy and eye candy with fescue lining the fairways, rugged edged bunkers throughout the routing, and impressive elevation changes. Located just a couple of miles from the Canadian border, the surrounding mountains provide a stunning backdrop for many shots golfers will have throughout the round while the bunkers and water hazards add to the challenge within the bounds of the course.
Nebraska
The Prairie Club (Dunes)
Location: Valentine
Established: 2010
This remote and big-shouldered course in the Sandhills of Nebraska is loads of fun, with mega wide fairways and huge greens offering exceptional playability among all handicap levels while still managing to test players. Designed by Tom Lehman and Chris Brands, there isn’t a bad hole on the routing with each bringing inspiring visuals and memorability. So much variety and fun it’s almost too much.
Nevada
Edgewood Tahoe
Location: Stateline
Established: 1968; Renovated: 2016
This course is the centerpiece of one of the best-known resorts west of the Rockies. Designed by George Fazio, its final three holes (two par 5s and a par 3) play along the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe and represent as one of the most picturesque finishing stretches in golf. Magnificent sized pine trees line the routing and occasionally are found in the fairway to take a tough course even more so.
New Hampshire
Omni Mount Washington Resort
Location: Bretton Woods
Established: 1915. Restored: 2008
This course was originally designed by legendary golf architect Donald Ross and was restored to Ross’ plans by Brian Silva. Its backdrop features New Hampshire’s spectacular Presidential Mountain Range and the routing includes bunkers crafted in a classic flair and infinite varieties of recovery shots in the closely cropped areas around the putting surfaces. The course has hosted four New Hampshire Opens as well as the prestigious New England Open Championship in September 2010.
New Jersey
Atlantic City Country Club
Location: Northfield
Established: 1897; Renovated 1915, 1925, 1999
As one of America’s oldest and most prolific golf clubs, this course has been home to many firsts, and the earliest traditions of this seaside links course are still evident today. Finely manicured fairways and large sloping greens complexes protected by deep sand bunkers remain the course’s signature as it did more than a century ago. Lengthy carries over natural ponds and salt water marshes also make the course a formidable challenge for any golfer.
New Mexico
Twin Warriors Golf Club
Location: Santa Ana Pueblo
Established: 2001
This course features wide fairways, generous greens, and pristine conditioning, all on a high-desert terrain with views of rocky soil, sagebrush, and juniper trees for miles with gentle changes in elevation. Designed by Gary Panks, the track’s challenge is heightened by several forced carries and deep bunkers throughout that add to the strong but fair challenge.
New York
Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point
Location: New York City (The Bronx)
Established: 2015
NYC’s only tournament-quality course takes advantage of dramatic and spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, East River, and Throggs Neck Bridge. Working from a site that was formerly a landfill at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge, Jack Nicklaus transformed the land into a municipal golf course, the first built in the city since 1964. Rolling hills, surrounding fescue, and deep bunkers provide the challenge.
North Carolina
Tobacco Road Golf Club
Location: Sanford
Established: 1998
There is really no other course that compares with this Mike Strantz-designed beauty. It will likely be the most extreme course most golfers will ever play, with loads of “wow” factor throughout the round. Players contend with some Sahara-sized bunkers, a number of forced carries, some wild putts, several elevation changes, and full-time fun, as there is actually more forgiveness throughout the routing than first appears.
(End part 2 of 3)
