Courses

36. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort David McLay Kidd (1999) Chicago recycled-products mogul Mike Keiser took a gamble when he chose then-tenderfoot architect David McLay Kidd to design a destination daily fee on the remote southwestern coastline of Oregon. But the design Kidd produced, faithful to the links-golf tenets of his native Scotland, proved so popular

38. The Golf Club Pete Dye (1967)/Pete Dye (R. 2013) The Golf Club, built in 1966, may be the most authentic of Pete Dye’s transition period of design, when he first chose to buck convention and start building lay-of-the-land layouts like those he’d seen during a 1963 tour of Scotland. In doing so, Dye re-introduced

78. Kittansett Club William Flynn & Frederic Hood (1922)/Gil Hanse (2012) Only recently, with the discovery of some original blueprints, has it been conclusively established that the ocean-side, links-like Kittansett, long thought to be the product of an amateur architect, Frederic Hood, was actually the work of well-known course architect William Flynn, who also designed

To arrive at our ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, our panelists play and score courses on seven criteria: SHOT VALUESHow well do the holes pose a variety of risks and rewards and equally test length, accuracy and finesse? RESISTANCE TO SCORINGHow difficult, while still being fair, is the course for a scratch player

86. The Valley Club of Montecito Alister MacKenzie & Robert Hunter (1929)/Todd Eckenrode (2013) The Valley Club is routed like an hourglass, with a wide variety of holes, including the third (hard against a barranca), the downright mountainous 10th, the gorgeous canyon-carry 14th and broad, serpentine 15th. Fairways are generous, but the slant of greens

The fact Tom Doak has been selected to design the next course at Sand Valley should be a surprise to few people paying attention to the golf-course design world. The unique, 6,100-yard routing that Doak and his team will build at the Nekoosa, Wis., resort is not your conventional golf course. And that’s by design.

Arcadia Bluffs, Michigan: Oct. 10-Nov. 12Shoulder-season green fees at Bluffs (above), No. 13 on America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, drop to $90. That compares with $195 in the summer. The new South Course can be played for $75, down from $125 in peak months. RELATED: More information on Arcadia Bluffs Cabot Links, Nova Scotia: Oct.

Bandon Dunes and Central Wisconsin aren’t the only enormous sand boxes of golf in America. In the southwest corner of Utah, in the shadow of Zion National Park, lies a sandbelt of rich, red, pulverized silica atop which half a dozen four-star golf courses have blossomed in the past quarter-century. This is where a seam

Golf Digest is aware of fewer than two dozen individuals who have played every course on our ranking of America’s 100 Greatest. They ticked them off over lifetimes largely well spent, and the grillrooms of this country have heard their stories. All are or were Golf Digest course-rating panelists—the card-carrying, often quite tan, pencil-wielding, low-handicap

SEWAILO GOLF CLUBTucson For those who don’t love the grit of the typical Arizona course, I recommend this one, an amenity of the Casino del Sol resort. Like Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, it’s a desert floor reshaped into hills and valleys with lots of waterscapes; generous, plush turfgrass; and hillsides of flowers. Strategically designed

The bruise on my backside was spectacular, crimson red in the center with concentric circles of purple, blue and olive as perfect as the rings of Saturn. Getting hit by a golf ball usually leaves tangible evidence. When I emailed the photo to the perpetrator, a friend and fellow club member named Gary Mastronardi, he

The golf “buddies trip” is a tradition as old as the game itself—a group of friends plan a trip to a golf destination where they will play more golf in a long weekend than they thought humanly possible, and pair it with great food, activities and camaraderie. The golf professionals at the American Club Resort

Right around this time of year in many parts of the country is when golf loses its friendly facade. The trees bare, the courses brown, the snack shop long abandoned—the deeper into the calendar, the grittier the golf experience. You have to really want it. And if the wind’s blowing, you really should consider a

As temperatures dip to the low 40s (or lower) in some areas of the country, those best prepared for the less-than-balmy conditions have a chance to be 1 up on the first tee, perhaps more. So as golfers in the Northeast and Midwest get ready for their annual Turkey Shoots, there are a few things

Reinvention and reaffirmation are the themes of Golf Digest’s Best New Course winners for 2018. The Black Course at Streamsong Resort, the third 18 at the hugely popular central Florida golf mecca, prevails in the Public Course category. This Gil Hanse design introduces a new concept to American golf, the jumbo-size green, and the surprising