No. 20: Whistling Straits—Straits Course (Wisconsin, USA)
Whistling Straits is, of course, the other big golf destination in Wisconsin besides Sand Valley. But the Straits Course, site of 3 PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup, could hardly be more different from Mammoth Dunes. You’ll get some bounces here too but this time, most of them will probably be unfavorable. And all of the fairways have been narrowed from their original margins, meaning that you have to drive the ball pretty straight to hit them. So this is a tough course, although that’s probably what we should expect for a course that regularly hosts men’s major championships.
The Straits Course has an interesting routing, with the opening holes and closing holes on each nine playing respectively to and from the Lake Michigan shoreline and the rest of the holes on each nine running south and north, clockwise and counterclockwise respectively along the lakeshore. This means that there are a lot of holes with lake frontage and Pete Dye did a good job bringing variety to these. All 4 of the par 3’s play along the lakeshore, yet Dye managed to make four holes that play very different from each other. And both the long par 4 4th and the par 4 13th, with its approach playing downhill to a green that looks like it’s floating above the lake, are excellent.
There are some good holes in the interior too. Three of the par 5’s, nos. 2, 11, and 16 are very good although the approaches on 2 and 16 feel a bit similar. And while tough as hell, I liked the long par 4 15th, which has a beautiful, open approach allowing you to run the ball onto the green.
That’s a lot of very good holes. So then why isn’t this course higher on my list? Like a few other courses on this list, the Straits is a course where a lot of good is offset by some serious bad. The infamous par 5 5th is simply horrible, possibly the worst hole on any course that I’ve reviewed. During the Ryder Cup, several guys laid up into the water, which astonished me. Then when I played the hole, I realized that on that second shot, you have no idea where anything is on any line. So I understood how you could lay up into the pond. The short par 4 6th, where you’ll often have a blind approach to a silly, glasses-shaped green where no one but the pros can hit the small right section that has no bailout, isn’t so far behind. 18 has also been very controversial over the years with its awkward drive and huge, amorphously shaped green, but has been improved though tweaking to the fairway and green over the years. It could probably use some more.
So like Greywalls and the Blackwolf Run River Course, this one is a mixed bag. I think there are fewer weaknesses here than on those courses and more excellent holes. But this is another course in this section of my list that I think is overrated. It’s still pretty high up most world top 100 lists. I’m pretty sure that if I had seen all of the contenders, it wouldn’t make mine.
Whistling Straits is, of course, the other big golf destination in Wisconsin besides Sand Valley. But the Straits Course, site of 3 PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup, could hardly be more different from Mammoth Dunes. You’ll get some bounces here too but this time, most of them will probably be unfavorable. And all of the fairways have been narrowed from their original margins, meaning that you have to drive the ball pretty straight to hit them. So this is a tough course, although that’s probably what we should expect for a course that regularly hosts men’s major championships.
The Straits Course has an interesting routing, with the opening holes and closing holes on each nine playing respectively to and from the Lake Michigan shoreline and the rest of the holes on each nine running south and north, clockwise and counterclockwise respectively along the lakeshore. This means that there are a lot of holes with lake frontage and Pete Dye did a good job bringing variety to these. All 4 of the par 3’s play along the lakeshore, yet Dye managed to make four holes that play very different from each other. And both the long par 4 4th and the par 4 13th, with its approach playing downhill to a green that looks like it’s floating above the lake, are excellent.
There are some good holes in the interior too. Three of the par 5’s, nos. 2, 11, and 16 are very good although the approaches on 2 and 16 feel a bit similar. And while tough as hell, I liked the long par 4 15th, which has a beautiful, open approach allowing you to run the ball onto the green.
That’s a lot of very good holes. So then why isn’t this course higher on my list? Like a few other courses on this list, the Straits is a course where a lot of good is offset by some serious bad. The infamous par 5 5th is simply horrible, possibly the worst hole on any course that I’ve reviewed. During the Ryder Cup, several guys laid up into the water, which astonished me. Then when I played the hole, I realized that on that second shot, you have no idea where anything is on any line. So I understood how you could lay up into the pond. The short par 4 6th, where you’ll often have a blind approach to a silly, glasses-shaped green where no one but the pros can hit the small right section that has no bailout, isn’t so far behind. 18 has also been very controversial over the years with its awkward drive and huge, amorphously shaped green, but has been improved though tweaking to the fairway and green over the years. It could probably use some more.
So like Greywalls and the Blackwolf Run River Course, this one is a mixed bag. I think there are fewer weaknesses here than on those courses and more excellent holes. But this is another course in this section of my list that I think is overrated. It’s still pretty high up most world top 100 lists. I’m pretty sure that if I had seen all of the contenders, it wouldn’t make mine.
No. 19: Royal Cinque Ports (England, UK)
The next few courses are the section of my list where I think we start to transition from 7 to 8 on the Doak Scale. First, Royal Cinque Ports (aka ‘Deal’), a much lesser known—but beloved among many of those who know it—links course just down the road from Royal St. George’s. This course gets some significant praise from many who have seen a lot of great links courses. And it isn’t hard to understand why—it’s an excellent piece of property and there are some standout holes and features.
Let’s start with the positives. Two par 5’s, nos. 3 and 16, would be on my list of the greatest holes in the world. Each has been changed somewhat since my visit in 2016, with the angle of the drive on the 3rd being shifted to the left and a high layup fairway—supposedly from the original design—being added on the 16th. Neither of these changes would detract significantly however from the holes’ principal strengths—their all-world greens. The randomly bumpy 16th green might be my favorite so far in the world. The last 150 yards into the 3rd green, across wild fairway ripples, was one of my favorite walks in golf.
Other holes and features stand out too, mostly on the much tougher back nine. The long par 4 12th, with its half-pipe-shaped green. The long par 3 14th with an open front but trouble at the sides. The 15th and 17th, with their wild, rolling fairways that blend seamlessly into their greens. In general, this course has one of the best sets of green complexes in southern England.
But I wouldn’t quite put Royal Cinque Ports in the top tier of links courses. In what’s become a bit of a trend on this list, the middle section of the course, holes 9-11, is solid, but nothing special. I’m also not as big on the short par 4 6th with its awkward elevated green as others seem to be. And in general, other than the holes and features that I’ve mentioned above, the remaining holes are mostly good, but nothing too special. Still, a lot of these are quite stern tests of golf, like the 7th with its heavily bunkered fairway and the long par 4 18th, with its second shot over the burn. And there are no poor holes.
Back in the day, Royal Cinque Ports used to host Open Championships. I’m not sure why it doesn’t still. Like Portmarnock, it has all the hallmarks of an excellent championship test, plus a good deal of charm. I guess part of it might be that it’s only about 10 minutes away from Royal St. George’s. But that’s the only Open Championship venue in southeastern England, by far the most populous part of the country. Surely they could use a second venue in this region. And not only is Royal Cinque Ports the most suitable second venue here, it’d be a worthy venue anywhere in the UK.
The next few courses are the section of my list where I think we start to transition from 7 to 8 on the Doak Scale. First, Royal Cinque Ports (aka ‘Deal’), a much lesser known—but beloved among many of those who know it—links course just down the road from Royal St. George’s. This course gets some significant praise from many who have seen a lot of great links courses. And it isn’t hard to understand why—it’s an excellent piece of property and there are some standout holes and features.
Let’s start with the positives. Two par 5’s, nos. 3 and 16, would be on my list of the greatest holes in the world. Each has been changed somewhat since my visit in 2016, with the angle of the drive on the 3rd being shifted to the left and a high layup fairway—supposedly from the original design—being added on the 16th. Neither of these changes would detract significantly however from the holes’ principal strengths—their all-world greens. The randomly bumpy 16th green might be my favorite so far in the world. The last 150 yards into the 3rd green, across wild fairway ripples, was one of my favorite walks in golf.
Other holes and features stand out too, mostly on the much tougher back nine. The long par 4 12th, with its half-pipe-shaped green. The long par 3 14th with an open front but trouble at the sides. The 15th and 17th, with their wild, rolling fairways that blend seamlessly into their greens. In general, this course has one of the best sets of green complexes in southern England.
But I wouldn’t quite put Royal Cinque Ports in the top tier of links courses. In what’s become a bit of a trend on this list, the middle section of the course, holes 9-11, is solid, but nothing special. I’m also not as big on the short par 4 6th with its awkward elevated green as others seem to be. And in general, other than the holes and features that I’ve mentioned above, the remaining holes are mostly good, but nothing too special. Still, a lot of these are quite stern tests of golf, like the 7th with its heavily bunkered fairway and the long par 4 18th, with its second shot over the burn. And there are no poor holes.
Back in the day, Royal Cinque Ports used to host Open Championships. I’m not sure why it doesn’t still. Like Portmarnock, it has all the hallmarks of an excellent championship test, plus a good deal of charm. I guess part of it might be that it’s only about 10 minutes away from Royal St. George’s. But that’s the only Open Championship venue in southeastern England, by far the most populous part of the country. Surely they could use a second venue in this region. And not only is Royal Cinque Ports the most suitable second venue here, it’d be a worthy venue anywhere in the UK.
No. 18: St. Patrick’s Links (Republic of Ireland)
Tom Doak’s St. Patrick’s Links at the Rosapenna Resort in Donegal, Ireland was not too far behind Royal County Down and Royal Portrush as courses I most wanted to see on my 2023 Ireland trip. The course wanders through an awesome, expansive piece of dunesland that was the site of a defunct Jack Nicklaus course. Early word of mouth on St. Patrick’s Links was excellent and since its opening, the course has placed in the middle of several world top 100 lists.
I expected to be blown away. Unfortunately, I was not. But it’s a bit hard for me to explain why not. There are so many positives. The land is excellent. The greens are among the best I’ve seen by Doak; very interesting, in some cases highly original and, I don’t think, ever over the top. And there are several excellent holes. So why doesn’t that add up to what I think would be a top 50 or 60 course in the world?
One of the issues is that I didn’t find it very interesting off the tee. There was little wind in my morning round and I thought that it was just designed to be played in heavier wind. But the wind was blowing pretty good in the afternoon and I still found a good chunk of the holes pretty uninteresting off the tee. To be sure, there are several very good driving holes. 7-9 each have hazards on the short line and there’s a good benefit to keeping close to them. Same with the 14th, a dogleg right playing out toward the ocean with a bunker at the corner of the dogleg. But there were also a lot of holes, like 4, 6, 10, 11, 16, and especially 18 where I felt the drives just weren’t very interesting. I didn’t feel that the approaches on the latter 3 holes were anything special either.
Now let’s set aside the course rankings. If I do that, this course is in some pretty lofty company. And it deserves to be. You know when you see the 1st green that this course is something special. Some of the greens are among the most original that you’ll see. The 11th green stands out—the best way to describe the green contours I think are as Y-shaped, with a Y-shaped trough running through the center and across the back and high front-left/right wings. There are also a few shots that I really like including the approach to the tough par 4 9th, the second on the par 5 12th over cross bunkers, and the uphill par 3 15th.
So St. Patrick’s Links still is, I think, an essential part of a comprehensive Ireland golf trip. While remote, there are a few other very good courses in this remote northwest corner of Ireland to round out your visit, including two others here at the Rosapenna resort, which also boasts a lovely hotel and facilities. And I’m not sure that this course isn’t better than I think it is. If you visit, there’s a good chance that you’ll be more impressed than I was.
Tom Doak’s St. Patrick’s Links at the Rosapenna Resort in Donegal, Ireland was not too far behind Royal County Down and Royal Portrush as courses I most wanted to see on my 2023 Ireland trip. The course wanders through an awesome, expansive piece of dunesland that was the site of a defunct Jack Nicklaus course. Early word of mouth on St. Patrick’s Links was excellent and since its opening, the course has placed in the middle of several world top 100 lists.
I expected to be blown away. Unfortunately, I was not. But it’s a bit hard for me to explain why not. There are so many positives. The land is excellent. The greens are among the best I’ve seen by Doak; very interesting, in some cases highly original and, I don’t think, ever over the top. And there are several excellent holes. So why doesn’t that add up to what I think would be a top 50 or 60 course in the world?
One of the issues is that I didn’t find it very interesting off the tee. There was little wind in my morning round and I thought that it was just designed to be played in heavier wind. But the wind was blowing pretty good in the afternoon and I still found a good chunk of the holes pretty uninteresting off the tee. To be sure, there are several very good driving holes. 7-9 each have hazards on the short line and there’s a good benefit to keeping close to them. Same with the 14th, a dogleg right playing out toward the ocean with a bunker at the corner of the dogleg. But there were also a lot of holes, like 4, 6, 10, 11, 16, and especially 18 where I felt the drives just weren’t very interesting. I didn’t feel that the approaches on the latter 3 holes were anything special either.
Now let’s set aside the course rankings. If I do that, this course is in some pretty lofty company. And it deserves to be. You know when you see the 1st green that this course is something special. Some of the greens are among the most original that you’ll see. The 11th green stands out—the best way to describe the green contours I think are as Y-shaped, with a Y-shaped trough running through the center and across the back and high front-left/right wings. There are also a few shots that I really like including the approach to the tough par 4 9th, the second on the par 5 12th over cross bunkers, and the uphill par 3 15th.
So St. Patrick’s Links still is, I think, an essential part of a comprehensive Ireland golf trip. While remote, there are a few other very good courses in this remote northwest corner of Ireland to round out your visit, including two others here at the Rosapenna resort, which also boasts a lovely hotel and facilities. And I’m not sure that this course isn’t better than I think it is. If you visit, there’s a good chance that you’ll be more impressed than I was.
No. 17: St. George’s Hill—Red/Blue (England, UK)
Like Sunningdale’s New Course, St. George’s Hill is the work of Harry Colt. Also like the New, the lists have become much more favorable to St. George’s Hill in recent years. The course is now a fixture on world top 100 lists, albeit usually near the bottom. While unlike the best of its heathland neighbors, I don’t think it would be a shoe-in for my list, I think the holes are at a consistently higher level than Sunningdale’s New Course. It also has one of the best pieces of rolling heathland property and the design uses the land’s features exceptionally well. St. George’s Hill is clearly in the top tier of the heathland courses.
St. George’s Hill is actually 3 nine hole courses, but the Red and Blue nines constitute the main 18, in that order. Played that way, the course gets off to an excellent start, with a mid-length par 4 that goes downhill, then uphill to a narrow green and a long par 4 with a great approach gradually uphill over two perfectly placed bunkers. The 4th and 5th, a drivable par 4 with a heavily bunkered, wedge-shaped green and an uphill mid-length par 4, are two more fine holes and the drop shot par 3 8th over some cavernous bunkers is justly famous. So that’s a lot of good golf on the front nine.
And the back nine is even better, starting with the famous long par 4 10th featuring both a blind drive and blind approach. It’s the first of several par 4’s that are notable for how well they use the contour of the land to create driving challenges and opportunities. On the long par 4 13th, a diagonal ridge works the opposite direction of the dogleg, repelling weak drives. The slope of the 16th fairway will sling a draw into the ideal location but leave a fade stranded, with a long, sidehill approach to a hillside green. And on the long par 4 17th, a hill on the right side of the fairway stops weak drives played out to the right, kicks weak drives down the center to the left, and slings good drives up the right side forward to the perfect position. There’s a lot to study in how this course uses topography to make great driving holes.
There really aren’t too many drawbacks to St. George’s Hill. Like a lot of the other heathland courses, the greens aren’t too special. But going hole-by-hole, it’s a lot of strong holes and not a lot of lesser ones. There aren’t as many that are quirky or surprising like on some of my higher-ranked heathland courses and that holds it back a bit in my estimation. But I can understand why someone would think this is a world top 100 course. So much of it is so well done and it’s hard to find anything negative.
Like Sunningdale’s New Course, St. George’s Hill is the work of Harry Colt. Also like the New, the lists have become much more favorable to St. George’s Hill in recent years. The course is now a fixture on world top 100 lists, albeit usually near the bottom. While unlike the best of its heathland neighbors, I don’t think it would be a shoe-in for my list, I think the holes are at a consistently higher level than Sunningdale’s New Course. It also has one of the best pieces of rolling heathland property and the design uses the land’s features exceptionally well. St. George’s Hill is clearly in the top tier of the heathland courses.
St. George’s Hill is actually 3 nine hole courses, but the Red and Blue nines constitute the main 18, in that order. Played that way, the course gets off to an excellent start, with a mid-length par 4 that goes downhill, then uphill to a narrow green and a long par 4 with a great approach gradually uphill over two perfectly placed bunkers. The 4th and 5th, a drivable par 4 with a heavily bunkered, wedge-shaped green and an uphill mid-length par 4, are two more fine holes and the drop shot par 3 8th over some cavernous bunkers is justly famous. So that’s a lot of good golf on the front nine.
And the back nine is even better, starting with the famous long par 4 10th featuring both a blind drive and blind approach. It’s the first of several par 4’s that are notable for how well they use the contour of the land to create driving challenges and opportunities. On the long par 4 13th, a diagonal ridge works the opposite direction of the dogleg, repelling weak drives. The slope of the 16th fairway will sling a draw into the ideal location but leave a fade stranded, with a long, sidehill approach to a hillside green. And on the long par 4 17th, a hill on the right side of the fairway stops weak drives played out to the right, kicks weak drives down the center to the left, and slings good drives up the right side forward to the perfect position. There’s a lot to study in how this course uses topography to make great driving holes.
There really aren’t too many drawbacks to St. George’s Hill. Like a lot of the other heathland courses, the greens aren’t too special. But going hole-by-hole, it’s a lot of strong holes and not a lot of lesser ones. There aren’t as many that are quirky or surprising like on some of my higher-ranked heathland courses and that holds it back a bit in my estimation. But I can understand why someone would think this is a world top 100 course. So much of it is so well done and it’s hard to find anything negative.
No. 16: Old Macdonald (Oregon, USA)
We finally get to the first Bandon course on my list. But I don’t think Old Macdonald is last place among the Bandon courses—I’d have it 3rd or 4th on the list, ahead of the Sheep Ranch which is, I think, by far the weakest of the full-length courses. I’m so not-a-fan of the Sheep Ranch that I didn’t even bother to write a review—although I probably should have because I’ve written reviews for far lesser courses. In fact, I preferred the 13 hole Bandon Preserve par 3 course (the best of the par 3 courses at the big new resorts) to the Sheep Ranch.
But this is a post about Old Macdonald, which deserves our full attention. For a lot of the guys I went with, this was their least favorite Bandon course and I got the sense that many others feel the same way. I think most of that comes down to the greens, which are huge and wild. A lot of people think that Tom Doak gets carried away with his greens and that this course is one of the main exhibits for the case.
Yes, the greens are wild. But I don’t think that they’re overdone. Part of this is for aesthetic reasons—the big, heavily contoured greens fit the open, heavily contoured landscape very well. But I think many of the wilder individual greens work well in their own right. One of the reasons for this is that on the wildest greens, like on the short par 3 5th, you can see enough of the contours to know where you can and can’t hit given the pin placement. I’m not always a defender of Doak’s greens—see The Loop or his sadly defunct Black Forest in northern Michigan. But here, as at St. Patrick’s Links, I think he and his team did a tremendous job.
Of course the course’s name cues you in to something important—it’s supposed to be a series of Macdonald/Raynor templates, or at least variations on them. To be honest, I’m not sure that I would have recognized a single hole as a Macdonald template, except for maybe the Road Hole green. But setting that aside, I thought that several of the individual holes were excellent. I loved the short par 4 3rd with its drive blind over the dune ridge and past the famous ghost tree. I also liked the impossible long par 4 4th, the aforementioned short 5th, the Road Hole (no. 11) and the great take on the alps/punchbowl, no. 16.
Most of the supporting cast is very strong as well, although I wasn’t a huge fan of the close, with the very confusing par 5 17th and a very artificial-looking punchbowl green on the 18th. Nobody seems to like the Redan 12th hole, which is not a Redan but is an excellent example of the overcooked-green-complex-with-too-severe-of-runoffs-at-the-edge template that we see all-to-often on newer courses.
Unfortunately, I only got one go around Old Macdonald and I’m not sure that I’m as confident in my assessment of this course as others. This is a very complicated course and there are a lot of nuances that I may have missed. If anything, it might be a bit better than my assessment.
We finally get to the first Bandon course on my list. But I don’t think Old Macdonald is last place among the Bandon courses—I’d have it 3rd or 4th on the list, ahead of the Sheep Ranch which is, I think, by far the weakest of the full-length courses. I’m so not-a-fan of the Sheep Ranch that I didn’t even bother to write a review—although I probably should have because I’ve written reviews for far lesser courses. In fact, I preferred the 13 hole Bandon Preserve par 3 course (the best of the par 3 courses at the big new resorts) to the Sheep Ranch.
But this is a post about Old Macdonald, which deserves our full attention. For a lot of the guys I went with, this was their least favorite Bandon course and I got the sense that many others feel the same way. I think most of that comes down to the greens, which are huge and wild. A lot of people think that Tom Doak gets carried away with his greens and that this course is one of the main exhibits for the case.
Yes, the greens are wild. But I don’t think that they’re overdone. Part of this is for aesthetic reasons—the big, heavily contoured greens fit the open, heavily contoured landscape very well. But I think many of the wilder individual greens work well in their own right. One of the reasons for this is that on the wildest greens, like on the short par 3 5th, you can see enough of the contours to know where you can and can’t hit given the pin placement. I’m not always a defender of Doak’s greens—see The Loop or his sadly defunct Black Forest in northern Michigan. But here, as at St. Patrick’s Links, I think he and his team did a tremendous job.
Of course the course’s name cues you in to something important—it’s supposed to be a series of Macdonald/Raynor templates, or at least variations on them. To be honest, I’m not sure that I would have recognized a single hole as a Macdonald template, except for maybe the Road Hole green. But setting that aside, I thought that several of the individual holes were excellent. I loved the short par 4 3rd with its drive blind over the dune ridge and past the famous ghost tree. I also liked the impossible long par 4 4th, the aforementioned short 5th, the Road Hole (no. 11) and the great take on the alps/punchbowl, no. 16.
Most of the supporting cast is very strong as well, although I wasn’t a huge fan of the close, with the very confusing par 5 17th and a very artificial-looking punchbowl green on the 18th. Nobody seems to like the Redan 12th hole, which is not a Redan but is an excellent example of the overcooked-green-complex-with-too-severe-of-runoffs-at-the-edge template that we see all-to-often on newer courses.
Unfortunately, I only got one go around Old Macdonald and I’m not sure that I’m as confident in my assessment of this course as others. This is a very complicated course and there are a lot of nuances that I may have missed. If anything, it might be a bit better than my assessment.
No. 15: Bandon Dunes (Oregon, USA)
Here’s the course that started it all. The original course at Bandon Dunes—or as some like to call it (appropriately enough), the OG—appears to have undergone a lot of changes over the years, perhaps to incorporate some of the better features of the many courses that it inspired. While originally, the course was like most others from the 80s and 90s in that it had a lot of rough around the greens, now—like most courses built these days—it has a lot of short grass around them. Bunkers have been moved around and waste areas added. Still, this course is a bit polarizing, with some guys thinking it’s the best at the resort (including several in my group) and others thinking that it’s overrated and doesn’t deserve a spot on a world top 100 list, where it still often places.
I suspect that a lot of the latter group haven’t seen Bandon Dunes in awhile. Because while I can understand thinking that it maybe doesn’t belong in the top 100 in the world, I can’t imagine thinking that it’s far off. This is a very sound, very interesting course with a lot of variety across the holes. Yes, there are a few clunky points in the routing on the front nine. Yes, some of the shaping on the front nine has that 90s three-mounds-around-the-green look. But a few subpar features and holes (all of which are on the front nine) aside, there’s just so much positive that stands out.
First of all, the famous stretch 4-6 is as good as advertised. The long par 4’s nos. 4 and 5 are two of the more difficult, but best holes (especially off the tee) at the resort and the par 3 6th, with its green now surrounded by short grass, now has a level of interest to match its setting. And the back nine is simply outstanding. It’s got such a good mix of holes; there are several shorter par 4’s, but they call for very different types of drives. The 16th, which is drivable when the wind comes from the north, becomes a real puzzle when the wind blows from the south and you’re not sure where out there between the bunkers you can fit your ball. There’s an endlessly wide par 5, no. 13, with fairway contours that would fit on any of the best links courses. And there’s a very exacting par 3, no. 15, where it’s very easy to sink your round, but also easy enough to avoid damage if you identify the safe side of the green and hit it there. That’s a lot of good golf.
I think the 15th is indicative of the biggest strengths of this course—more than most courses I can think of, this one really rewards the person who thinks their way around, identifying the safe spots and playing to them when the situation isn’t favorable. There are several holes that you can challenge off the tee (8, 10, 14, 16), but get yourself in trouble if you don’t execute to a high level. No wonder this course is so well-liked for big tournaments. I’m not sure if most recognize it, but there’s real depth to this course. And it’s got an outstanding set of greens and green surrounds—very interesting, but not over-the top.
So I’m definitely closer to the views of those in my group that thought it was truly great than those who think it’s overrated. Still, it might be only the 4th best at the resort for me—but that has more to do with needing another go or two around the more complicated Old Macdonald than thinking I might have overrated this course. I played this course twice and liked it as much the second time as the first.
Here’s the course that started it all. The original course at Bandon Dunes—or as some like to call it (appropriately enough), the OG—appears to have undergone a lot of changes over the years, perhaps to incorporate some of the better features of the many courses that it inspired. While originally, the course was like most others from the 80s and 90s in that it had a lot of rough around the greens, now—like most courses built these days—it has a lot of short grass around them. Bunkers have been moved around and waste areas added. Still, this course is a bit polarizing, with some guys thinking it’s the best at the resort (including several in my group) and others thinking that it’s overrated and doesn’t deserve a spot on a world top 100 list, where it still often places.
I suspect that a lot of the latter group haven’t seen Bandon Dunes in awhile. Because while I can understand thinking that it maybe doesn’t belong in the top 100 in the world, I can’t imagine thinking that it’s far off. This is a very sound, very interesting course with a lot of variety across the holes. Yes, there are a few clunky points in the routing on the front nine. Yes, some of the shaping on the front nine has that 90s three-mounds-around-the-green look. But a few subpar features and holes (all of which are on the front nine) aside, there’s just so much positive that stands out.
First of all, the famous stretch 4-6 is as good as advertised. The long par 4’s nos. 4 and 5 are two of the more difficult, but best holes (especially off the tee) at the resort and the par 3 6th, with its green now surrounded by short grass, now has a level of interest to match its setting. And the back nine is simply outstanding. It’s got such a good mix of holes; there are several shorter par 4’s, but they call for very different types of drives. The 16th, which is drivable when the wind comes from the north, becomes a real puzzle when the wind blows from the south and you’re not sure where out there between the bunkers you can fit your ball. There’s an endlessly wide par 5, no. 13, with fairway contours that would fit on any of the best links courses. And there’s a very exacting par 3, no. 15, where it’s very easy to sink your round, but also easy enough to avoid damage if you identify the safe side of the green and hit it there. That’s a lot of good golf.
I think the 15th is indicative of the biggest strengths of this course—more than most courses I can think of, this one really rewards the person who thinks their way around, identifying the safe spots and playing to them when the situation isn’t favorable. There are several holes that you can challenge off the tee (8, 10, 14, 16), but get yourself in trouble if you don’t execute to a high level. No wonder this course is so well-liked for big tournaments. I’m not sure if most recognize it, but there’s real depth to this course. And it’s got an outstanding set of greens and green surrounds—very interesting, but not over-the top.
So I’m definitely closer to the views of those in my group that thought it was truly great than those who think it’s overrated. Still, it might be only the 4th best at the resort for me—but that has more to do with needing another go or two around the more complicated Old Macdonald than thinking I might have overrated this course. I played this course twice and liked it as much the second time as the first.
No. 14: Cabot Cliffs (Nova Scotia, Canada)
Of every course in the upper half of this list, I’ve struggled the most with figuring out where to put Coore and Crenshaw’s Cabot Cliffs. It has made a huge splash in Canadian golf and is regularly ranked as the top course in the country. But—spoiler alert—it wouldn’t be no. 1 on my list because I think its sister course, Cabot Links is clearly superior. And I also think that it’s lofty place on top 100 world lists—it seems to rank most often in the 50s-60s—is probably excessive.
I think the issue with Cabot Cliffs comes down to the fact that while it undoubtedly has a handful of the most spectacular and best holes in the world, the majority of the holes are more good than great. The quality of the median hole here is a bit lower than other courses in this section of my list. I also don’t think this course flows as well as its peers, which I’d chalk up in part to the mix of 6 par 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s—a mix that I’ve never liked. On top of that, the clifftop site gets very windy which, combined with the site’s hilliness, can make for some wild times…perhaps too much so. And if this course is firm—which it was for my visit and I would imagine it is throughout much of the summer—there are some holes (namely the par 3’s nos. 12 and 14) where it’s just not clear how you’re supposed to play them.
Although the weakest holes aren’t quite as weak, the front nine reminds me a bit of that at Bandon Dunes. There are some excellent holes—the very unusual 2nd with a sand dune in front of the green, the 5th with its all-world drive, and the 6th, with its green tucked in a dell in some very large sand dunes—but most of the rest (other than the drive on the 7th hole) don’t strike me as all that special. I really didn’t care for the alternate green par 3 4th, the par 5 8th is dull, and the par 3 9th, while gorgeous, isn’t very interesting (still, they’re better than 7 and 9 on Bandon Dunes).
But as with Bandon Dunes, the back nine is much stronger. And as much as I love holes like 14-16 on Bandon Dunes, the best there simply can’t compare with the finishing 4 holes here. Simply put, the tee shot on the famous par 3 16th with its clifftop green jutting out into the ocean and the drive uphill, over the cliff’s edge on the short par 4 17th are the two most thrilling shots that I’ve ever played on a golf course. Nothing has ever gotten my heart beating like the drive on 17. And they’re not just spectacular, they’re very good. You can play safely out to the left on 16 (although you might end up in a bunker) and the carry on 17 is not as far as it seems. If you pull it off, you’ll be near the green.
The other two holes in the closing stretch, the par 5’s 15, which plays downhill to the coastline with several decisions to make about bunker carries and 18, with the coastline hard on its right from tee to green and forming an inlet about 130 yards short of the green that forces a decision on the second, are also excellent, if not as spectacular. And I loved the par 5 10th, which is a mirror image of the 18th but almost feels like it hovers over the ocean. The rest of the holes play inland and are more modest, like many of those on the front. But with the wind, the firmness, and the slopes (and the black flies), they were as challenging as you could want.
I think the best way to describe Cabot Cliffs is as a course with 6 or 7 of the best holes in the world, but where the remainder are a bit less satisfying than the weaker holes on its peer courses. And the other thing is that with the firmness, the wind, the short grass around the greens, and the presence of severe slopes around so many of the greens, it can—like Greywalls or Mammoth Dunes—play like a bit of a funhouse (one that’s certainly less fun than Mammoth Dunes). Cabot Cliffs is clearly an excellent course and when it’s at its best, there are few that are better and even fewer that are more spectacular. But I don’t think it’s as consistent or as sound as the best of the modern crop of courses.
Of every course in the upper half of this list, I’ve struggled the most with figuring out where to put Coore and Crenshaw’s Cabot Cliffs. It has made a huge splash in Canadian golf and is regularly ranked as the top course in the country. But—spoiler alert—it wouldn’t be no. 1 on my list because I think its sister course, Cabot Links is clearly superior. And I also think that it’s lofty place on top 100 world lists—it seems to rank most often in the 50s-60s—is probably excessive.
I think the issue with Cabot Cliffs comes down to the fact that while it undoubtedly has a handful of the most spectacular and best holes in the world, the majority of the holes are more good than great. The quality of the median hole here is a bit lower than other courses in this section of my list. I also don’t think this course flows as well as its peers, which I’d chalk up in part to the mix of 6 par 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s—a mix that I’ve never liked. On top of that, the clifftop site gets very windy which, combined with the site’s hilliness, can make for some wild times…perhaps too much so. And if this course is firm—which it was for my visit and I would imagine it is throughout much of the summer—there are some holes (namely the par 3’s nos. 12 and 14) where it’s just not clear how you’re supposed to play them.
Although the weakest holes aren’t quite as weak, the front nine reminds me a bit of that at Bandon Dunes. There are some excellent holes—the very unusual 2nd with a sand dune in front of the green, the 5th with its all-world drive, and the 6th, with its green tucked in a dell in some very large sand dunes—but most of the rest (other than the drive on the 7th hole) don’t strike me as all that special. I really didn’t care for the alternate green par 3 4th, the par 5 8th is dull, and the par 3 9th, while gorgeous, isn’t very interesting (still, they’re better than 7 and 9 on Bandon Dunes).
But as with Bandon Dunes, the back nine is much stronger. And as much as I love holes like 14-16 on Bandon Dunes, the best there simply can’t compare with the finishing 4 holes here. Simply put, the tee shot on the famous par 3 16th with its clifftop green jutting out into the ocean and the drive uphill, over the cliff’s edge on the short par 4 17th are the two most thrilling shots that I’ve ever played on a golf course. Nothing has ever gotten my heart beating like the drive on 17. And they’re not just spectacular, they’re very good. You can play safely out to the left on 16 (although you might end up in a bunker) and the carry on 17 is not as far as it seems. If you pull it off, you’ll be near the green.
The other two holes in the closing stretch, the par 5’s 15, which plays downhill to the coastline with several decisions to make about bunker carries and 18, with the coastline hard on its right from tee to green and forming an inlet about 130 yards short of the green that forces a decision on the second, are also excellent, if not as spectacular. And I loved the par 5 10th, which is a mirror image of the 18th but almost feels like it hovers over the ocean. The rest of the holes play inland and are more modest, like many of those on the front. But with the wind, the firmness, and the slopes (and the black flies), they were as challenging as you could want.
I think the best way to describe Cabot Cliffs is as a course with 6 or 7 of the best holes in the world, but where the remainder are a bit less satisfying than the weaker holes on its peer courses. And the other thing is that with the firmness, the wind, the short grass around the greens, and the presence of severe slopes around so many of the greens, it can—like Greywalls or Mammoth Dunes—play like a bit of a funhouse (one that’s certainly less fun than Mammoth Dunes). Cabot Cliffs is clearly an excellent course and when it’s at its best, there are few that are better and even fewer that are more spectacular. But I don’t think it’s as consistent or as sound as the best of the modern crop of courses.
No. 13: Sand Valley (Wisconsin, USA)
In contrast to Cabot Cliffs, I feel like Coore and Crenshaw’s Sand Valley has become unfairly forgotten among the big new courses in the 21st century. It made a big splash when it opened, albeit in part because it was the first course at Mike Keiser’s successor to Bandon Dunes. But with the opening of The Lido, the Cabot courses, and places like Landmand, you don’t hear so much anymore about the original Sand Valley course. And it’s also fallen in a lot of the rankings. I’m not sure that I’ve seen it on a top 100 world list and I think it probably misses as many top 100 US lists as it makes these days.
This downward reassessment of Sand Valley is unjustified. This is an excellent course, surely among the best of the modern era and I think even better than several of its peers at Bandon Dunes and Cabot. Other than the fact that it isn’t the hot new thing, I can’t see what about this course would cause someone to think it’s lesser than those. There are many great holes and the quality of the lesser holes is definitely higher than at Cabot Cliffs or Bandon Dunes. The green complexes are very well-conceived, with a great deal of variety in their complexity. And other than a few superfluous features on a few holes, there are few weaknesses.
So let’s go through some of the long list of great holes and interesting features because I’m afraid that when a lot of people talk about what makes courses (not) great, they tend to do it on general vibes and can’t give many good details. The opening stretch is outstanding, with a short par 4 opener that rewards one who sets up a wide angle into a skinny green, a mid-length par 4 where the deeper you hit it into the green, the bigger trouble you court at the sides, and a par 3 that looks like it would belong at Pine Valley. And there’s no let up in quality from here; the expansive, the par 5 4th is uphill all the way and very demanding on your ball striking if you want to reach the green before you’ve reached par. And still, the closing three holes on the front are probably my 3 favorites—a very strategic par 5 where you need to skirt trouble on the right to avoid having to take the long way home, a great uphill par 3 that would fit in well on Colt’s best heathland courses, and a great short par 4 with its green beautifully tucked into the trees.
It continues on the back. The par 5 10th might be my favorite hole on the course; if you carry the bunkers up the tight left side, you’ve got a clear shot at the green down a fairway that narrows in the lay up zone. If you take the safe drive out to the right, it’s difficult to fit one into the lay up zone because the fairway is now at an angle. The 11th green is a masterclass in subtlety, with its right edge gently running off into a chipping area like the greens on the great Pinehurst no. 2. The longer par 4’s 15 and 16 reward drives that challenge the junk on the left, with the latter green being on the side of a hill, especially well-guarded by bunker, and very difficult to hit if you haven’t driven boldly and succeeded.
On top of that, Sand Valley doesn’t have any of the excess of Mammoth Dunes. This course is much more naturalistically shaped. Some contours will help you, but many will hurt you. A big part of playing this course well is about avoiding the latter, something at which I didn’t succeed (I played two rounds here and they were two of my worst scores that year).
A lot of people point to the final 2 holes, a blind par 3 with a 10,000 sq. ft.+ green and the endless par 5 18th with bunkers scattered everywhere as weaknesses. I guess I’d agree with this—they’re probably my two least favorite holes on the course. But neither is a bad one. If you go hole-by-hole on this course, I just can’t see how you wouldn’t think it stands with the best courses of this era. This is no lesser Coore-Crenshaw course and I wish that the course raters would take a more careful look at what’s in the ground here rather than writing this course off as yesterday’s news.
In contrast to Cabot Cliffs, I feel like Coore and Crenshaw’s Sand Valley has become unfairly forgotten among the big new courses in the 21st century. It made a big splash when it opened, albeit in part because it was the first course at Mike Keiser’s successor to Bandon Dunes. But with the opening of The Lido, the Cabot courses, and places like Landmand, you don’t hear so much anymore about the original Sand Valley course. And it’s also fallen in a lot of the rankings. I’m not sure that I’ve seen it on a top 100 world list and I think it probably misses as many top 100 US lists as it makes these days.
This downward reassessment of Sand Valley is unjustified. This is an excellent course, surely among the best of the modern era and I think even better than several of its peers at Bandon Dunes and Cabot. Other than the fact that it isn’t the hot new thing, I can’t see what about this course would cause someone to think it’s lesser than those. There are many great holes and the quality of the lesser holes is definitely higher than at Cabot Cliffs or Bandon Dunes. The green complexes are very well-conceived, with a great deal of variety in their complexity. And other than a few superfluous features on a few holes, there are few weaknesses.
So let’s go through some of the long list of great holes and interesting features because I’m afraid that when a lot of people talk about what makes courses (not) great, they tend to do it on general vibes and can’t give many good details. The opening stretch is outstanding, with a short par 4 opener that rewards one who sets up a wide angle into a skinny green, a mid-length par 4 where the deeper you hit it into the green, the bigger trouble you court at the sides, and a par 3 that looks like it would belong at Pine Valley. And there’s no let up in quality from here; the expansive, the par 5 4th is uphill all the way and very demanding on your ball striking if you want to reach the green before you’ve reached par. And still, the closing three holes on the front are probably my 3 favorites—a very strategic par 5 where you need to skirt trouble on the right to avoid having to take the long way home, a great uphill par 3 that would fit in well on Colt’s best heathland courses, and a great short par 4 with its green beautifully tucked into the trees.
It continues on the back. The par 5 10th might be my favorite hole on the course; if you carry the bunkers up the tight left side, you’ve got a clear shot at the green down a fairway that narrows in the lay up zone. If you take the safe drive out to the right, it’s difficult to fit one into the lay up zone because the fairway is now at an angle. The 11th green is a masterclass in subtlety, with its right edge gently running off into a chipping area like the greens on the great Pinehurst no. 2. The longer par 4’s 15 and 16 reward drives that challenge the junk on the left, with the latter green being on the side of a hill, especially well-guarded by bunker, and very difficult to hit if you haven’t driven boldly and succeeded.
On top of that, Sand Valley doesn’t have any of the excess of Mammoth Dunes. This course is much more naturalistically shaped. Some contours will help you, but many will hurt you. A big part of playing this course well is about avoiding the latter, something at which I didn’t succeed (I played two rounds here and they were two of my worst scores that year).
A lot of people point to the final 2 holes, a blind par 3 with a 10,000 sq. ft.+ green and the endless par 5 18th with bunkers scattered everywhere as weaknesses. I guess I’d agree with this—they’re probably my two least favorite holes on the course. But neither is a bad one. If you go hole-by-hole on this course, I just can’t see how you wouldn’t think it stands with the best courses of this era. This is no lesser Coore-Crenshaw course and I wish that the course raters would take a more careful look at what’s in the ground here rather than writing this course off as yesterday’s news.
No. 12: Lawsonia—Links Course (Wisconsin, USA)
In contrast to Sand Valley, Lawsonia’s Links Course has become much more fashionable, going from being a course that I don’t think even many in Wisconsin knew about to making lists of top 100 courses in the US. And here I agree completely with the latest fashion. Lawsonia’s Links Course is exceptional. It’s easily top 100 in the US and might make a good case for being top 100 in the world. When I compare this course to the courses in the London Heathlands that routinely show up in the top 100, it compares quite favorably, finishing on my list ahead of such heavyweights as Sunningdale—New and St. George’s Hill. It’s also always been my answer to the tough question ‘what’s the best public course in Wisconsin,’ although I’d like to see if it retains that place in the wake of the openings of The Lido and Sage Valley.
The Links is the crown jewel in the career work of William Langford and Theodore Moreau, who left courses throughout the midwest in the Macdonald-Raynor style, but without the liberal inclusion of template holes. Unlike many of their other courses, with the exception of a few sand bunkers becoming grass and the growth of trees, the Links has changed little over the years. So when in the last 15 or 20 years the golf architecture geeks started showing up and talking about how great the bones of this place were, it was fairly easy to get it in top shape—just cut down a few trees and cart in some sand. They haven’t filled all of the bunkers but honestly, the remaining ones don’t really need it—these steep faced trenches work well enough as hazards without sand.
Ok, that’s enough preamble. At the risk of sounding like a YouTube video, what makes Lawsonia’s Links Course so great? Really…everything—very thoughtful tee-to-green design, having holes that fall across the rolling land in different ways with varying bunker schemes, and some of the most interestingly contoured large greens that you’ll ever see. Several of the greens remind me of Woking in the oddness of their contouring.
And it doesn’t take long; after two holes, I knew this was going to be a great course. The mid-length par 4 opener is one of my favorites in the world. It’s semi-blind and curves right, with tons of open space to the left. But unless you hug the right side, you’ll have a very awkward approach to a green that looks like it’s been built on a mountain (just look at it from behind the green), sloping from back-left to front right. The long par 4 second features an even blinder, uphill drive over a V-shaped bunker complex which I just love and a beautiful, downhill approach over a grass trench.
And these may not even be among the three best holes on the front nine. I’m a sucker for uphill par 3’s and the 195 yard 4th over a sand-filled trench is one of my favorites anywhere. And that’s just the crescendo leading to the true high point, the short par 5 5th and long par 4 6th, two of the best consecutive holes that I’ve ever seen. I love the drive on 5—it’s the narrowest on the course and there’s tree trouble on both sides but if you it a good one (it favors a fade), you can clear a ridge in the fairway and have a short second. And I might love the green even more—it’s sort-of two-tiered but the tier is kind-of an upside down V, with the lower part being at the back right and left. The 6th turns slightly right and again, favors a fade over a diagonal trench bunker. If you shy away from the carry, you will have a long approach and can run through the fairway into a bunker. The approach is much more difficult as the green sits above a significant false front. But again, it’s all-world, with very unusual contouring—again, kind of two-tiered but the tier is diagonal from front-left to back-middle, resulting in a larger, high front-right and a smaller, low back-left.
In contrast to Sand Valley, Lawsonia’s Links Course has become much more fashionable, going from being a course that I don’t think even many in Wisconsin knew about to making lists of top 100 courses in the US. And here I agree completely with the latest fashion. Lawsonia’s Links Course is exceptional. It’s easily top 100 in the US and might make a good case for being top 100 in the world. When I compare this course to the courses in the London Heathlands that routinely show up in the top 100, it compares quite favorably, finishing on my list ahead of such heavyweights as Sunningdale—New and St. George’s Hill. It’s also always been my answer to the tough question ‘what’s the best public course in Wisconsin,’ although I’d like to see if it retains that place in the wake of the openings of The Lido and Sage Valley.
The Links is the crown jewel in the career work of William Langford and Theodore Moreau, who left courses throughout the midwest in the Macdonald-Raynor style, but without the liberal inclusion of template holes. Unlike many of their other courses, with the exception of a few sand bunkers becoming grass and the growth of trees, the Links has changed little over the years. So when in the last 15 or 20 years the golf architecture geeks started showing up and talking about how great the bones of this place were, it was fairly easy to get it in top shape—just cut down a few trees and cart in some sand. They haven’t filled all of the bunkers but honestly, the remaining ones don’t really need it—these steep faced trenches work well enough as hazards without sand.
Ok, that’s enough preamble. At the risk of sounding like a YouTube video, what makes Lawsonia’s Links Course so great? Really…everything—very thoughtful tee-to-green design, having holes that fall across the rolling land in different ways with varying bunker schemes, and some of the most interestingly contoured large greens that you’ll ever see. Several of the greens remind me of Woking in the oddness of their contouring.
And it doesn’t take long; after two holes, I knew this was going to be a great course. The mid-length par 4 opener is one of my favorites in the world. It’s semi-blind and curves right, with tons of open space to the left. But unless you hug the right side, you’ll have a very awkward approach to a green that looks like it’s been built on a mountain (just look at it from behind the green), sloping from back-left to front right. The long par 4 second features an even blinder, uphill drive over a V-shaped bunker complex which I just love and a beautiful, downhill approach over a grass trench.
And these may not even be among the three best holes on the front nine. I’m a sucker for uphill par 3’s and the 195 yard 4th over a sand-filled trench is one of my favorites anywhere. And that’s just the crescendo leading to the true high point, the short par 5 5th and long par 4 6th, two of the best consecutive holes that I’ve ever seen. I love the drive on 5—it’s the narrowest on the course and there’s tree trouble on both sides but if you it a good one (it favors a fade), you can clear a ridge in the fairway and have a short second. And I might love the green even more—it’s sort-of two-tiered but the tier is kind-of an upside down V, with the lower part being at the back right and left. The 6th turns slightly right and again, favors a fade over a diagonal trench bunker. If you shy away from the carry, you will have a long approach and can run through the fairway into a bunker. The approach is much more difficult as the green sits above a significant false front. But again, it’s all-world, with very unusual contouring—again, kind of two-tiered but the tier is diagonal from front-left to back-middle, resulting in a larger, high front-right and a smaller, low back-left.
After that, even the famous short par 3 7th with—apparently—a box car buried under its green couldn’t leave that much of an impression on me. But the long par 5 9th, which curves right and then requires you to run the gauntlet between two trenches if you want to go for the green or have a short third, still did. This is one of my favorite second shots on a par 5, provided that you’re playing from far enough back to bring the bunkers into play.
To put a fine point on things so far, the front nine is one of the best that I’ve seen, belonging in the same class as the famous front nine at Crystal Downs.
Although a lot of people prefer it, I think the more open back nine is a step down from the front. There are a lot of very good holes, but I don’t think that there are any truly great holes, like 1, 4-6, and maybe 9. The closest is probably the long par 5 13th, which favors a draw slung around a complex of fairway bunkers and then a second which must get within about 80 yards of the green to clear a massive dip in the fairway. With the exception of maybe the par 5 18th, the finishers are a bit tamer, especially off the tee. But I’d also note the three opening holes—a very long par 3, a par 5 zigzagging between bunkers, and a ~190 yard par 3 with another great green—as fine holes on the second nine.
I don’t remember if I heard it from someone or read it somewhere, but someone who had played all the big courses on Long Island said that if this course were there, it’d be recognized as one of the best in the country. I haven’t played those courses, but I can see that. So many holes stand out when you go hole-by-hole and there’s a lot that’s very original. One of the knocks on the Macdonald-Raynor courses is that they all have the same kind of holes. You can’t say that about this course. I didn’t recognize any holes here as templates and I think that the course is better for it.
Hopefully Lawsonia’s Links Course continues to rise in the rankings. Even though it’s making a lot of top 100 US lists, it’s usually near the bottom. I suspect it belongs somewhere in the middle.
To put a fine point on things so far, the front nine is one of the best that I’ve seen, belonging in the same class as the famous front nine at Crystal Downs.
Although a lot of people prefer it, I think the more open back nine is a step down from the front. There are a lot of very good holes, but I don’t think that there are any truly great holes, like 1, 4-6, and maybe 9. The closest is probably the long par 5 13th, which favors a draw slung around a complex of fairway bunkers and then a second which must get within about 80 yards of the green to clear a massive dip in the fairway. With the exception of maybe the par 5 18th, the finishers are a bit tamer, especially off the tee. But I’d also note the three opening holes—a very long par 3, a par 5 zigzagging between bunkers, and a ~190 yard par 3 with another great green—as fine holes on the second nine.
I don’t remember if I heard it from someone or read it somewhere, but someone who had played all the big courses on Long Island said that if this course were there, it’d be recognized as one of the best in the country. I haven’t played those courses, but I can see that. So many holes stand out when you go hole-by-hole and there’s a lot that’s very original. One of the knocks on the Macdonald-Raynor courses is that they all have the same kind of holes. You can’t say that about this course. I didn’t recognize any holes here as templates and I think that the course is better for it.
Hopefully Lawsonia’s Links Course continues to rise in the rankings. Even though it’s making a lot of top 100 US lists, it’s usually near the bottom. I suspect it belongs somewhere in the middle.
No. 11: Rye (England, UK)
Rye seems to be one of the more contentious among British links courses. Some, like Tom Doak, think it’s one of the absolute best. But the course is often not that high on lists of the best courses in the UK and Ireland and it probably misses more top 100 world lists than it makes.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I haven’t read much about this course because I don’t think that many people have seen it. Rye is a very aristocratic club—home to a famous match between Oxford and Cambridge every winter—and while a nice email to the club secretary got me a warm welcome, I don’t think they’re exactly lobbying people to come here to give their opinion of the course.
From the little that I have read—and certainly from my own experience—I think I can see the issue here. Rye is a very tough golf course, one with some awkward and severe holes. The front nine can’t take up more than 50 acres, with most of this space occupied by a 40 foot high, narrow dune ridge. That makes it a bit of a shooting gallery at times and also creates some of the more unusual and difficult holes that I’ve seen, none more so than the par 4 4th, which actually plays on the dune ridge. I’ve never seen a hole like this. And maybe for good reason—with a cross-wind blowing, the narrow fairway felt almost impossible to hit and no one with more room would have built such a hole. After that hole, the long par 4 6th, where you drive completely blind over the ridge to a fairway that turns sharp left and runs down the base of the ridge, felt kind of normal.
Rye seems to be one of the more contentious among British links courses. Some, like Tom Doak, think it’s one of the absolute best. But the course is often not that high on lists of the best courses in the UK and Ireland and it probably misses more top 100 world lists than it makes.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I haven’t read much about this course because I don’t think that many people have seen it. Rye is a very aristocratic club—home to a famous match between Oxford and Cambridge every winter—and while a nice email to the club secretary got me a warm welcome, I don’t think they’re exactly lobbying people to come here to give their opinion of the course.
From the little that I have read—and certainly from my own experience—I think I can see the issue here. Rye is a very tough golf course, one with some awkward and severe holes. The front nine can’t take up more than 50 acres, with most of this space occupied by a 40 foot high, narrow dune ridge. That makes it a bit of a shooting gallery at times and also creates some of the more unusual and difficult holes that I’ve seen, none more so than the par 4 4th, which actually plays on the dune ridge. I’ve never seen a hole like this. And maybe for good reason—with a cross-wind blowing, the narrow fairway felt almost impossible to hit and no one with more room would have built such a hole. After that hole, the long par 4 6th, where you drive completely blind over the ridge to a fairway that turns sharp left and runs down the base of the ridge, felt kind of normal.
But while this is a very difficult course, perhaps the most difficult relative to par (of 68) that I’ve seen, so many of its holes are outstanding. And while the 4th may not be my favorite example, I thought that some of the other awkward holes were terrific, none more so than the long par 4 13th, with a diagonal drive over dunes on the left and an odd, raised pipe that runs across the middle of the fairway, then a completely blind second over the big dune ridge. This is one of my favorite blind shots anywhere because if you’re aware of your landscape (and take heed of the useful aiming posts), you can tell that the green will probably have the ridge close on its left but have flat, open space on the right, making this a good direction to hedge. Which it is.
I think that most of what discussion there is around Rye focuses on the very quirky and difficult front nine, but I thought that the back was probably the stronger of the two. The run from 12-18 is outstanding, with 15, 16, and 18 (and the aforementioned 13th) being four of the best long par 4’s in southeastern England. The 15th crosses some of the most perfect linksland you’ll ever see and the 16th has a green that rivals the best at Royal St. George’s or Royal Cinque Ports. Some people knock the 10th and 11th as incongruous with the rest of the course and aesthetically, they are—the 11th plays over a pond and has a warehouse as a backdrop. But looks aside, each is a good hole.
I think that most of what discussion there is around Rye focuses on the very quirky and difficult front nine, but I thought that the back was probably the stronger of the two. The run from 12-18 is outstanding, with 15, 16, and 18 (and the aforementioned 13th) being four of the best long par 4’s in southeastern England. The 15th crosses some of the most perfect linksland you’ll ever see and the 16th has a green that rivals the best at Royal St. George’s or Royal Cinque Ports. Some people knock the 10th and 11th as incongruous with the rest of the course and aesthetically, they are—the 11th plays over a pond and has a warehouse as a backdrop. But looks aside, each is a good hole.
Of course if you know anything about Rye, you know that I’ve buried the lede. If there is one thing it’s known for, it’s its set of 5 par 3’s, about which some famous old golf writer said: “the hardest shots at Rye are the second shots on the par 3’s.” It sounds like a joke…until you play them. The 5th plays along the same dune ridge as its neighbors the 4th and 6th and the 7th plays up it from a lower position near the 6th green. Miss the 5th right or the 7th short and you’ll know what that writer meant—pitching blind 20 feet up a hill is certainly going to be one of the more difficult shots that you’ll play anywhere. And it gets harder—the 200+ yard 14th with a green about 30 feet wide perched in the side of the dune ridge with a deep bunker on the right, might just be the hardest green in regulation that I’ve ever seen.
Still, despite their difficulty, the par 3’s are truly a world-class set. The 5th green is deep and narrows toward the back, leaving ample room to play safe at the front. Despite its difficulty, the 7th is as great as advertised, with another of the best greens in the country. And while no one seems to give it much regard, the ~250 yard 17th across flat land features some of the best subtle shaping that I’ve seen and is exemplary for a hole of this length.
Still, despite their difficulty, the par 3’s are truly a world-class set. The 5th green is deep and narrows toward the back, leaving ample room to play safe at the front. Despite its difficulty, the 7th is as great as advertised, with another of the best greens in the country. And while no one seems to give it much regard, the ~250 yard 17th across flat land features some of the best subtle shaping that I’ve seen and is exemplary for a hole of this length.
So Rye is a course that understandably generates some controversy. But there are just too many very good and great holes here, many of which must be unique in the world of golf, for this course to be considered less than world class. It also has some of the best green complexes—many of which are appropriately modest given the difficult time we had reaching them—and a few cases of the best greens contouring that I saw on any course in the UK or Ireland. I wouldn’t put Rye in the top tier of links courses and I wouldn’t want to have it as my home course, but it is an outstanding and unique course in the world of golf and one that probably deserves a place on world top 100 lists.
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