It’s tempting to describe Golf Digest’s fourth biennial ranking of the World 100 Greatest Golf Courses as a contest between advanced age and youth, legends versus new kids, Old Guard versus Upstarts.
I’m speaking not of the architects responsible for the courses, but of the courses themselves. Twenty-three of the 100 Greatest courses outside the United States for 2020-’21 were founded in the 19th century, including Northern Ireland’s Royal County Down, No. 1 in our world ranking for the third consecutive time. Granted, every one of those 23 courses has been expanded, revised, modified, reshaped and remodeled many times in many ways over many decades, but they were heralded in their youth and remain cherished today in the eyes of our Course Ranking Panel, which includes more than 1,700 North American golfers and more than 350 international players.
▶ TIGHT APPROACH The fairway on the par-4 second at Royal County Down pinches down like a neck of an hourglass.
The Old Guard dominates the top 10. There’s No. 3 Muirfield, created in 1891, No. 4 Royal Dornoch (1892) and No. 6 Old Course at St. Andrews (1848). Royal Portrush, site of last year’s Open Championship and ranked eighth, has been around since 1888. Farther down the list are veteran layouts less modified and more reflective of an earlier game of persimmon and even hickory: the delightful North Berwick (1877) at No. 39, the natural Machrihanish (1876) at No. 46 and the classic Prestwick (1851) at No. 66. The Old Guard are all vintage designs that still carry a lot of clout.
But there’s a youth movement at every corner of our latest ranking. Thirty ranked courses were built in the 21st century, including two in the top 10 and seven of the top 20. Nearly a third of the courses on our list are not yet 20 years old; five of them aren’t even five years old.
No. 1 Royal County Down, originally routed by Old Tom Morris and subsequently tinkered with by a half a dozen designers (most recently Donald Steel), is being challenged by Tari Iti in New Zealand, a dazzling Tom Doak design from 2015 that made its debut at No. 6 in 2018 and jumps to No. 2 on this survey.
But, in truth, our world ranking isn’t as polarizing as statistics make it seem. Panelists aren’t examining birth certificates or sell-by dates. They’re examining course architecture, and if Tara Iti has a chance to someday replace Royal County Down at the top, it’s because Doak’s design reflects the same sort of strategies and features that have made Royal County Down so admired and feared over the centuries. It just might be that Tara Iti, and its young kin, add a few more crowd-pleasing wrinkles.
NO. 1 VERSUS NO. 2
County Down and Tara Iti have some things in common and some clear differences:
► The routings have a glorious natural flow among oceanside sand dunes, large and small. County Down’s dunes are mostly covered in dense marram grass and dotted with blooming gorse; Tara Iti has far more exposed sand. Both have bunkers snarling with heavy turf moustaches, but those at Tara Iti mostly merge with surrounding raw sand.
► Both have blind shots. White rocks and barber poles serve as targets at County Down; at Tara Iti, there are grassy sideboards visible to feed shots into hidden greens.
► The putting surfaces at Royal County Down are flattish but small and hard to hit when the wind blusters off the nearby Irish Sea. The greens at Tara Iti are big with countless knobs and dips, and have more recovery options for shots blown astray by Pacific winds.
► Both layouts represent links golf, where yardages mean less than shot making. Many consider Royal County Down a supreme examination of one’s game, which is why it earns such high scores. Tara Iti offers a wider variety of angles and bailouts, perhaps making it more playable and thus the top contender among the latest generation of world-class courses.
The talent of the respective architects should not be discounted. Old Tom Morris, whose craft involved the rudimentary staking out of fairways and greens wherever the land suggested, is responsible for the original layouts of seven ranked courses—the most of any architect. Besides County Down, Muirfield, Royal Dornoch and Royal Portrush in the top 10, there’s also No. 31 Lahinch, No. 53 Cruden Bay and No. 66 Prestwick. He also remodeled two of the top 100 courses, No. 6 Old Course at St. Andrews and No. 20 Carnoustie. Many of his original routings remain.
Doak, whose career has been based on embracing the Old School idea of letting nature dictate the design, but who also uses modern technology to enhance topography where Mother Nature falls short, has been involved with 11 of the top 100. Besides Tara Iti, he and his dedicated team have designed No. 16 Barnbougle Dunes, No. 22 Cape Kidnappers and Australia’s St. Andrews Beach, which is tied for No. 91. Doak has also remodeled seven others, including both 18s at Royal Melbourne and No. 70 Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda.
RAPID RISES
As hot as Tara Iti is, it’s not the most dramatic rise on our list among 21st-century designs. Six-year-old South Cape Owners Club in South Korea, which debuted in 2018 at No. 49, moves up 40 spots to No. 9 this year.
The design by Kyle Phillips (who also has No. 27 Kingsbarns and No. 48 Yas Links on our list, and has remodeling credit at No. 7 Morfontaine and No. 38 Valderrama) runs along the rocky cliffs of an ocean shoreline. It features two par 3s over ocean coves and another that plays out to an intimidatingly narrow green on a peninsula. It’s rugged where Tara Iti is graceful, and it’s conceivable that both could be contending for the No. 1 spot in our next world ranking.
South Cape’s rise was dramatic, but it wasn’t the biggest move on this year’s list. Kawana Hotel’s Fuji Course in Japan (a “tweener” 20th-century design) moved up 49 spots, from No. 75 in 2018 to No. 26 in 2020. A 1932 layout by English architect C.H. Alison, it occupies ocean bluffs much like South Cape and several others on this ranking. Incidentally, Alison’s longtime design partner, H.S. Colt, has 13 courses on the list (six originals, seven remodels), matching Martin Hawtree (one original, 12 remodels) for the most on the list by a single architect.
Of the 10 courses that join our World 100 ranking, four are 21st-century designs:
► No. 88 Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg in Ireland (2002).
► No. 89 Ba Na Hills Golf Club in Vietnam (2016).
► No. 90 Ayodhya Links in Thailand (2007).
► No. 94 Kinloch Golf Club in New Zealand (2007).
Only one newcomer was an Old Guard layout: No. 78 Royal Cinque Ports in Kent, England. It originally opened in 1895. The other five newly ranked courses are 20th-century designs:
► No. 63 Tokyo Golf Club (a 1939 layout back on the ranking after a two-year absence).
► No. 82 Le Golf National’s Albatros course in France (opened in 1990 and site of the 2018 Ryder Cup).
► No. 96 Portstewart (Strand) in Northern Ireland (1910).
► No. 98 Tralee in County Kerry, Ireland (1986).
► No. 100 King’s Course at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland (1919).
For those suspecting that our future world rankings will be dominated by Upstarts, there is this fact: Of the 10 courses from 2018 that failed to remain on our latest ranking, six were 21st-century designs and four were from the 20th century. Not a single 19th-century design dropped off our list. The Old Guard isn’t just well-established, it’s entrenched.
For more on the World 100 and for the country-by-country rankings, please go to golfdigest.com/go/100greatest.
▶ NEWCOMER The par-4 fifth at No. 94 Kinloch is nestled beneath hills that resemble the folds of a giant slumbering Shar-Pei.
RELATED: The Best Courses In 206 Countries
(Note: Brackets indicate course’s previous ranking. The previous ranking indicated on this list is the course’s ranking on our previous World 100 list—when U.S. courses were included.)
1 [1] ROYAL COUNTY DOWN G.C. (CHAMPIONSHIP)
Newcastle, Northern Ireland
Old Tom Morris (1889), Donald Steel (remodeled, 1998)
7,186 yards, par 71
On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf. The design is attributed to Old Tom Morris but was refined by half a dozen architects in the past 120 years, most recently by Donald Steel. Though the greens are surprisingly flat, as if to compensate for the rugged terrain and numerous blind shots, bunkers are a definite highlight, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather.
▶ RUGGED AND ROYAL Northern Ireland’s Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the Irish Sea at No. 1 County Down.
2 [6] TARA ITI G.C.
Mangawhai, New Zealand
Tom Doak (2015)
6,840 yards, par 71
Built by American designer Tom Doak from what had been a pine-covered Sahara along the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island, it’s far more links-like than the country’s other coastal courses, most of which are on rock. Doak and design associate Brian Slawnik spent more than two years gently resculpting the sandy soil into hummocks, punchbowls and sand dunes that look like they were formed by wind and vegetated by nature. There’s lots of sand but no bunkers. Golfers may ground the club anywhere. With holes inspired by Cypress Point, Royal Dornoch and Royal St. George’s, and views everywhere of the Hauraki Gulf, this may be New Zealand’s answer to Pebble Beach’s Carmel Bay. The greatest meeting of land and sea is clearly up for debate.
The par-3 17th at No. 2 Tara It is surrounded by pits of sand and seagrass.
3 [4] MUIRFIELD
Gullane, Scotland
Old Tom Morris (1891), H.S. Colt (1925), Martin Hawtree (2011)
7,245 yards, par 71
Muirfield is universally admired as a low-key, straightforward links with fairways seemingly containing a million traffic bumps. Except for a blind tee shot on the 11th, every shot is visible and well-defined. Greens are the correct size to fit the expected iron of approach. The routing changes direction on every hole to pose different wind conditions. The front runs clockwise, the back counterclockwise, but history mistakenly credits Old Tom Morris with Muirfield’s returning nines. That was the result of H.S. Colt’s 1925 redesign.
4 [2] ROYAL DORNOCH G.C. (CHAMPIONSHIP)
Scotland
Old Tom Morris (1892), George Duncan (1947), Donald Steel (1993), Tom Mackenzie (2013)
6,704 yards, par 70
Herbert Warren Wind called it the most natural course in the world. Tom Watson called it the most fun he’d had playing golf. Donald Ross called it his home, having been born in the village and learned the game on the links. Tucked in an arc of dunes along the North Sea shoreline, Dornoch’s greens, some by Old Tom Morris, others by John Sutherland or 1920 Open champion George Duncan, sit mostly on plateaus and don’t really favor bounce-and-run golf. That’s the challenge: hitting those greens in a Dornoch wind.
5 [3] ROYAL MELBOURNE G.C. (WEST)
Black Rock, Australia
Alister MacKenzie, Alex Russell (1931), Tom Doak (2015-’16)
6,645 yards, par 72
Alister MacKenzie’s 1926 routing fits snuggly into the contours of the rolling sandbelt land. His greens are miniature versions of the surrounding topography. His crisp bunkering, with vertical edges, a foot or taller, chew into fairways and putting surfaces. Most holes are doglegs, so distance means nothing and angle into the pin is everything. For championships, holes 8 and 9 and 13 through 16 are skipped in favor of six from the East Course, which is ranked 28th. That “composite course” was once ranked among the best in the world by several publications.
6 [5] THE OLD COURSE AT ST. ANDREWS
Fife, Scotland
Allan Robertson (1848), Old Tom Morris (1865-’85), Martin Hawtree (2013-’14)
7,279 yards, par 72
The Old Course at St. Andrews is ground zero for all golf architecture. Every course designed since has either been in response to one or more of its features, or in reaction against it. Architects either favor the Old Course’s blind shots or detest them, either embrace St. Andrews’ enormous greens or consider them a waste of turf. Latest polarizing topic: Martin Hawtree’s design changes in advance of the 2015 Open Championship, which many considered blasphemy beforehand. After Zach Johnson’s dramatic overtime victory, few mentioned the alterations. For the first time ever, the Old Course will host the Senior Open Championship in 2018.
7 [14] MORFONTAINE G.C.
France
Tom Simpson (1927), Kyle Phillips (2004)
6,584 yards, par 70
A timeless 1927 design north of Paris by British architect Tom Simpson, Morfontaine looks suspiciously like a heathland course around London, with windswept Scotch pines and clumps of heather atop a base of sand. But it’s tighter than Sunningdale or St. George’s Hill, and the forest surrounding holes is far denser. Thirteen years ago, American architect Kyle Phillips updated the layout, adding a new 12th green to extend the par 5 by 60 yards. It fits in perfectly.
8 [7] ROYAL PORTRUSH G.C. (DUNLUCE)
Northern Ireland
Tom Gilroy (9, 1888), Old Tom Morris (9, 1889), H.S. Colt (1933), Martin Ebert (2015)
7,317 yards, par 72
Portrush is still the only Irish course to host The Open. The Old Tom Morris design, reworked by H.S. Colt in the 1930s, was the Open site back in 1951, and will be again in 2019. In preparation, architect Martin Ebert added new sixth and seventh holes, fashioned from land on the club’s Valley Course, to replace its weak 17th and 18th. That means the notorious Calamity Hole, an uphill 210-yard par 3, will now be the 16th instead of the 14th, and the old dogleg-right par-4 16th will now be the closing hole, with a new back tee. Ebert retained Colt’s greens, considered one of the best set of putting surfaces in the world.
9 [49] SOUTH CAPE G.C.
Namhae Island, South Korea
Kyle Phillips (2013)
7,313 yards, par 72
Open for five years now, this Kyle Phillips design is slowly gaining attention as visitors from around the world compare its stunning design to everything from Kingsbarns (another Phillips design, which also features ocean views from every tee), to Teeth of the Dog (South Cape has even more holes along the coast) to Cabot Cliffs (there will be a debate as to which has the more dramatic ocean-carry 16th hole) to the granddaddy of ocean courses, Pebble Beach. (If anything, South Cape’s tiny downhill par-3 14th to a thumb in the ocean is more treacherous than the short seventh at Pebble Beach.) Look for South Cape to move up the World ranking in future years.
The par-3 14th at No. 9 South Cape Owners Club in South Korea is part of what designer Kyle Phillips calls a promenade along the sea.
10 [10] TRUMP TURNBERRY (AILSA)
Scotland
P.M. Ross (1951), Martin Ebert (2015)
7,489 yards, par 71
A legendary links ravaged by WWII, architect Philip Mackenzie Ross re-established it to its present quality, tearing away concrete landing strips to create a dramatic back nine and building a set of varied greens, some receptive, other not so much. After Donald Trump purchased the course, Martin Ebert of the firm of Mackenzie & Ebert made notable changes, creating new par 3s at Nos. 6 and 11, converting the old par-4 ninth into an ocean-edge par 3, and turning the fifth, 10th and 14th into par 5s and the 17th into a long par 4. New tees on 18 eliminate its old dogleg tee shot. To complete the new look, Ebert replaced revetted bunkers with ragged-edged ones.
11 [9] CABOT CLIFFS
Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw (2015)
6,765 yards, par 72
Another sensational Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design, Cabot Cliffs overflows with variety with its southernmost holes in Lahinch-like sand dunes, its northernmost atop Pebble Beach-type ocean cliffs and bits of pine-lined Scottish highlands in between. The course has six par 5s, including three in the space of four holes, and six par 3s, plus an additional one-shot bye-hole aside the fourth. Sporting the same fescue turf mix as nearby sister course Cabot Links (ranked T-35), some tee shots seem to roll forever, but so do errant shots that miss greens. The cliff-edged par-3 16th is quickly becoming one of the game’s most photographed holes.
12 [13] KINGSTON HEATH G.C.
Heatherton, Australia
Des Soutar, Mick Morcom 1925), Mike Clayton (2002)
7,102 yards, par 72
Considered an Alister MacKenzie design, but in fact Australian golf professional Des Soutar designed the course in 1925. MacKenzie made a brief visit the following year and suggested the bunkering, which was constructed by greenkeeper Mick Morcom before he built Royal Melbourne’s two courses. The bunkers are long, sinewy, shaggy, gnarly, windswept and, of course, strategically placed. Some say MacKenzie’s tee-to-green stretch of bunkers on the par-3 15th set the standard for all Sandbelt layouts.
13 [50] HIRONO G.C.
Hyogo, Japan
C.H. Alison (1932), Martin Ebert (2018-’19)
7,169 yards, par 72
This is undoubtedly the finest design of globetrotting C.H. Alison, longtime partner of H.S. Colt. He laid out Hirono in the early 1930s in a hilly pine forest slashed by gulleys, clearing wide corridors and positioning greens on the crests of ridges. What makes Hirono special was Alison’s spectacular bunkering, which ranged from diagonal cross bunkers, fearsome carry bunkers and strings of ragged-edged ones. Soon after completion, writers were calling Hirono the Pine Valley of Japan.
14 [8] SHANQIN BAY G.C.
Hainan Island, China
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw (2012)
6,894 yards, par 71
It has wide corridors flanked by jungle gunch, big intricate greens and eye-catching ragged-edge bunkering, yet Shanqin Bay is perhaps the most controversial design the highly regarded firm of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw has ever built. Partly because it was created on a site far more rugged than the duo normally tackle—land that housed a World War II Army barracks, complete with stone tunnels. Coore’s routing manages to traverse the mountainous property, but only with the help of some blind shots, two holes around an artificial irrigation pond and a very unusual finish with two drivable par 4s among the last three holes. All its quirks are worth it, for its proximity along the South China Sea is outstanding.
15 [12] SUNNINGDALE G.C. (OLD)
England
Willie Park Jr. (1901), H.S. Colt 1922), Donald Steel (1986)
6,627 yards, par 70
A Willie Park Jr. design that dates from 1901, it’s perhaps the most advanced of its day. Chopped from a pine forest but routed like a links, with the ninth at the far end of the property, it plays like a links, too, for there’s a sand base beneath the turf. The Old has big greens, as Park put a premium on approach putting, and artful bunkers, with both angled cross-bunkers and necklaces of sand hampering direct routes to some greens. To American visitors, the look of Sunningdale brings to mind Pine Valley or Pinehurst.
16 [11] BARNBOUGLE DUNES
Bridport, Australia
Tom Doak, Mike Clayton (2004)
6,724 yards, par 71
A 2004 collaboration of American superstar designer Tom Doak and Australian tour-pro-turned-architect Michael Clayton, Barnbougle Dunes is a tremendous 18 in a fantastic stretch of sand dunes along Bass Strait, the sea that separates Tasmania from Melbourne. What’s most fascinating is that the back nine is completely reversed from how Doak originally routed it. So was the site so good that, once construction started, Doak and Clayton were able to find nine new green sites at the opposite ends of holes originally envisioned? Or did they create those “natural” green sites?
17 [16] BALLYBUNION G.C. (OLD)
Ireland
Lionel Hewson (9, 1906), Reginald Beale (9, 1927), Tom Simpson (1937), Martin Hawtree (2011), Graeme Webster (2015)
6,802 yards, par 71
Ballybunion has always been great, but it wasn’t until they relocated the clubhouse in 1971 to the southern end that it became thrilling. The move turned the old finish of anticlimactic back-to-back par 5s, into the fourth and fifth holes, and shifted the new closing holes to ones in spectacular dunes just north of the intersection of the Shannon River and the Atlantic Ocean. Honorary member Tom Watson suggested modest design changes in the 1990s. Five years ago, Martin Hawtree added new tees atop dunes on several holes.
An aerial view of the Old Course at Ballybunion Golf Club.
18 [23] THE CLUB AT NINE BRIDGES
Jeju Island, South Korea
David Dale, Ron Fream (2001); David Dale, Steve Wenzloff (2016)
7,196 yards, par 72
Our Korean affiliates call The Club at Nine Bridges the Taj Mahal of Golf. After all, architects Ronald Fream and David Dale spent an estimated $40 million in the early 2000s creating it. (The entire project, including land, clubhouse, condos and spa, cost $100 million.) The site was volcanic rock, capped with 150,000 cubic yards of sand as a base for bent-grass fairways and greens. The site had natural streams edged with massive Japanese Maples and 20-foot-tall Korean Azaleas, but they also transplanted 300 mature evergreens like Kryptomeria and cedars for additional color. With lakes connected by cascading weirs and a par-5 18th finishing on an island green, the course hosted the 2017 CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges, the first official American PGA Tour event held in Korea.
19 [31] ELLERSTON G.C.
Hunter Valley, Australia
Greg Norman (2001)
7,312 yards, par 72
No other course on the World Top 100 is so brutally honest about its intention to be a ball buster. The late media mogul Kerry Packer commissioned Greg Norman to build him the nation’s toughest course, and Norman complied. Routed on slopes and in a valley on Packer’s estate, it has water in play on half the holes. A superb aerial game is needed to clear deep bunkers and reach greens perched perilously close to the Pages Creek. After its opening, Norman said, “We had no need to consider forward tees, resort traffic or weaker hitters. We were able to create a course that a golfer of my caliber would love to play everyday.”
20 [21] CARNOUSTIE G. LINKS (CHAMPIONSHIP)
Scotland
Allan Robertson (1838), Old Tom Morris (1895), James Wright (1931), Martin Hawtree (2006), Martin Ebert (2016)
7,421 yards, par 71
Perhaps the homeliest, certainly the longest and toughest of Open venues, Carnoustie is a no-holds-barred layout intended to test the best. James Braid is usually credited with the present design, but it was green chairman James Wright who in 1931 created the stirring last three holes, with 17 and 18 harassed by twisting, turning Barry Burn. In the 1968 Open, Jack Nicklaus complained that a knob in the middle of the ninth fairway kicked his drives into the rough. When he returned for the 1975 Open, he found it had been converted to a pot bunker.
21 [24] CAPE WICKHAM LINKS
King Island, Australia
Mike DeVries, Darius Oliver (2015)
6,725 yards, par 72
American Mike DeVries and Australian golf writer Darius Oliver collaborated on a breathtaking site along Bass Strait, a notorious stretch of Australian seacoast that once shipwrecked many voyages. The routing on this glorious collection of holes is heart-pounding, starting along rocks and crashing surf, moving inland but not out of the wind, returning to ocean edge at the downhill 10th, pitch-shot 11th and drivable par-4 12th. It then wanders into dunes before a crescendo closing hole curving along Victoria Cove beach, which is in play at low tides.
22 [17] CAPE KIDNAPPERS G. CSE.
Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
7,143 yards, par 71
Not a links, more like a stratospheric Pebble Beach, high atop a windswept plateau some 500 feet above the sea. The 2004 design truly demonstrates the lay-of-the-land philosophy of American architect Tom Doak, who ran holes out and back along a series of ridges perpendicular with the coastline, most framed by deep canyons. The fairways are wide, but Doak rewards bold tee shots that flirt with ravines and sets strategies using some of the deepest bunkers he has ever built. Cape Kidnappers was also the International winner of a 2012 Environmental Leaders in Golf Award, co-sponsored by Golf Digest.
T-23 [15] ROYAL BIRKDALE G.C.
Southport, England
George Lowe (1897), F.G. Hawtree, J.H. Taylor (1931), Fred W. Hawtree (1974-’85), Martin Hawtree (2010)
7,156 yards, par 70
Site of Jordan Spieth’s remarkable Open victory in 2017, Royal Birkdale has also been the venue for past Women’s British Opens, Ryder Cups, Walker and Curtis Cups. Three generations of the Hawtree design firm, oldest in the world, are responsible for Royal Birkdale. Patriarch Frederic G. did the present design, with its surprisingly flat fairways and docile greens between towering dunes, in 1931. Thirty years later, son Fred W. remodeled it, adding the now-classic par-3 12th. Forty years after that, grandson Martin revised the course for its ninth Open Championship, the one Spieth tried to throw away on the 13th before quickly rallying, going birdie-eagle on the next two holes to ultimately win by three.
T-23 [19] ROYAL MELBOURNE G.C. (EAST)
Black Rock, Australia
Alex Russell (1932), Tom Doak (2012)
6,579 yards, par 71
Former Australian Open champion Alex Russell and greenkeeper Mick Morcom built the West Course to plans of Alister MacKenzie, then added the East in 1931, on somewhat less inspiring land, flatter and more wooded. But the bunkering and green contours are very similar to the West. (Mackenzie had routed a nine-hole East Course that was never built. Russell incorporated a few of those holes.) A slight flaw may be that all four par 3s play in the same northerly direction. For composite tournament play, East’s holes 1-3 and 16-18 are used along with 12 of the West holes.
T-23 [20] ST. GEORGE’S G. AND C.C.
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Stanley Thompson (1930), Tom Doak, Ian Andrew (2015)
7,014 yards, par 71
An outstanding Stanley Thompson design, it’s routed through forest-covered glacial land, with meandering fairways that diagonally traverse valleys to greens perched on domes. The putting surfaces are tightly bunkered and full of hidden undulations. These are considered some of Thompson’s best bunkering, thanks in part to American architect Tom Doak and Canadian architect Ian Andrew, who recently collaborated to restore the bunkering, highlighting their sweeping lines and graceful movements.
26 [75] KAWANA HOTEL G. CSE. (FUJI)
Shizuoka, Japan
C.H. Alison (1936)
6,691 yards, par 72
C.H. Alison’s 1936 design for Japan’s first golf resort has long been dubbed the “Pebble Beach of Japan,” but the layout is far more mountainous. That’s evident from the opening hole, which drops down a tumbling fairway framed by twisted pines to a green with Sagami Bay as its backdrop. The sea also backdrops the steep downhill fourth, seventh, 10th, 11th, 14th and 15th holes. Unlike at No. 50 Hirono, Alison’s bunkering here is subdued.
27 [30] KINGSBARNS G. LINKS
St. Andrews, Scotland
Kyle Phillips, Mark Parsinen (1999)
7,224 yards, par 72
Just down the coastline from the links at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns looks absolutely natural in its links setting. It’s a tribute to owner Mark Parsinen and architect Kyle Phillips (both Californians), who collaborated on transforming a lifeless farm field into a course that fools even the most discerning eye. The routing is ingenious, crescent-shaped along the Fife coast, with holes on three separate levels (130 feet of elevation change in all) to provide ocean views from every fairway. Six holes play right on the shoreline, and every hole offer genuine alternate angles of attack.
28 [22] ROYAL ST. GEORGE’S G.C.
Sandwich, England
W. Laidlaw Purves (1887), H.S. Colt (1914), Martin Ebert (2010)
7,204 yards, par 70
Royal St. George’s, in dunes along the English Channel, is what writer Adam Lawrence calls the ideal mix of championship golf and gentle quirks. Its quirks include a duo of massive bunkers that howl at tee shots on the par-5 fourth. Once as tall as a six story building, they’ve eroded over the years, and have been stabilized the past 20 years by the addition of 93 railroad ties along their top edges. A longtime member of the Open rota, Royal St. George’s was the site of Darren Clarke’s surprise victory in 2011.
29 [39] SWINLEY FOREST G.C.
Ascot, England
H.S. Colt (1911), Frank Pont (2012)
6,045 yards, par 69
Due west of Sunningdale G.C. in London’s heathland is Swinley Forest, which H.S. Colt described as the “least bad course” he ever designed. Much of its reputation is built around its five par 3s, each with its own personality and challenge. Colt supposedly located them first, then built around them, using an ideal balance of short and long par 4s on each nine. The par-3s are indeed outstanding; the 17th looks like it might have been the role model for A.W. Tillinghast’s 10th at Winged Foot’s West course.
30 [41] ROYAL PORTHCAWL G.C.
Wales
Ramsay Hunter (1898), H.S. Colt (1919), Martin Ebert (2011)
7,065 yards, par 72
Considered a seaside venue but not a true links, Royal Porthcawl, situated on the south coast of Wales, doesn’t have returning nines, but it’s not an out-and-back routing either. Instead, the front nine moves in a clockwise crescent-shaped manner, with the back nine running counterclockwise inside the crescent. Only the first three holes play adjacent to Bristol Channel, but there are ocean views and ocean winds on all the inland holes too, which are on higher ground. The 2017 Senior Open was contested at Royal Porthcawl, with Bernhard Langer winning a record 10th senior major.
31 [34] LAHINCH G.C. (OLD)
Ireland
Old Tom Morris (1894), Alister MacKenzie (1928), Martin Hawtree (2003)
6,950 yards, par 72
Considered by some to be the St. Andrews of Ireland, the splendid links at Lahinch reflects evolution in golf architecture. After Alister MacKenzie remodeled it in the 1920s, only a few of Old Tom Morris’ original holes, like the Klondyke par-5 fourth, and Dell par-3 fifth, both with hidden greens, remained. In the 1980s, Donald Steel altered some of MacKenzie’s holes and in the 2000s Martin Hawtree rebuilt everything and added four new holes. One classic MacKenzie par 3, the old 13th, is now a bye hole.
32 [27] CASA DE CAMPO (TEETH OF THE DOG)
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Pete Dye (1971)
7,471 yards, par 72
The Dominican Republic is now a major golf destination. Teeth of the Dog started it all back in 1971. Pete Dye has been periodically rebuilt and updated his earliest international masterpiece following repeated hurricane damage. The routing is stunning, a clockwise front nine, counterclockwise back nine, with seven holes hunkered down on the ocean, no more than 20 feet above the surf. The sea is on the left on holes five through eight, on the right on holes 15 through 17. Every hole is unique and scenic.
33 [18] NEW SOUTH WALES G.C.
Le Perouse, Australia
Des Soutar, Carnegie Clark, Alister MacKenzie (1928), Eric Apperly (1936), Greg Norman (2010), Tom Doak (2018)
6,829 yards, par 72
On the dramatic rugged seacoast of Botany Bay near Sydney, on the spot where Captain Cook first stepped onto Australia in 1770, La Perouse is renown for its ocean views and high winds. On his brief but productive 1926 trip, Alister MacKenzie prepared a routing for the course, but it was radically altered during a 1936 remodeling by Eric Apperly and by neglect during WWII. A succession of post-war architects has slowly re-established the integrity of the design, most recently Greg Norman.
34 [47] DIAMANTE G.C. (DUNES)
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Davis Love III (2010)
7,160 yards, par 72
Mexico’s first true links, fashioned by Davis Love III and his design team (which included his brother Mark Love and designer Paul Cowley) from a fantastic set of white sand dunes along the Pacific Ocean, huge portions of which are without vegetation and seem like enormous snow drifts. Holes hug the flowing terrain with little artificiality. Two holes on the back nine once played past around a long lagoon, but have been replaced by new 12th and 13th holes on the beach. Now all of the second nine is adjacent to the ocean, amidst the tallest dunes. No other links in the world sports cactus.
T-35 [43] CABOT LINKS
Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada
Rod Whitman (2013)
6,854 yards, par 70
The older sister to No. 9 Cabot Cliffs is not a natural links, though it looks and plays like it. Cabot Links was man-made by designer-shaper Rod Whitman on a coastal coal mine staging area that serviced mines beneath the sea. Bump-and-run on firm fescue turf is the game on this understated layout, with muted dunes, austere bunkering and gentle, generous greens. Call it Canada’s Portmarnock, though Ireland has no match for Cabot’s postcard par-4 11th, a dogleg-left around a tidal yacht basin. In early routings, that was going to be the closing hole.
T-35 [63] PUNTA ESPADA G.C.
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic
Jack Nicklaus (2006)
7,396 yards, par 72
Jack Nicklaus got his start in golf design working with Pete Dye, and his 10-year-old Punta Espada is a lively version of Dye’s 40-year-old Teeth of the Dog course (No. 32) farther down the Dominican coast, from the to the broad waste areas of brilliant white sand usually associated with Pete’s work, as well as the low-profile greens and the eight green complexes right on the Caribbean shore. Punta Espada starts and finishes on the Caribbean and returns to it early in the back nine, with the awesome 249-yard, par-3 13th directly over an ocean cove.
T-35 [33] SUNNINGDALE G.C. (NEW)
England
H.S. Colt (1923), Martin Hawtree (2010)
6,729 yards, par 70
H.S. Colt, who was the club’s secretary from 1901 to 1913, laid out the New Course in 1923, well after he’d established his reputation as a grand golf architect. It’s considered by most to be tougher than No. 12 Sunningdale Old, mainly because Colt’s greens are smaller, with subtle contours that nudge balls toward bunkers hard along the collars. It’s a toss-up as to which course is prettier. Both have fields of heather, gorse, Scotch broom and clusters of pine, oak and silver birch.
38 [42] VALDERRAMA G.C.
Sotogrande, Spain
Robert Trent Jones (1975), Kyle Phillips (2012)
6,990 yards, par 71
Best known as the site of the 1997 Ryder Cup, won by Europe in a squeaker, Valderrama was a favorite design of the late architect Robert Trent Jones. His tight, twisting fairways, pinched at every turn by squat olive trees, led to surprisingly small putting surfaces protected by Trent’s trademark splashy bunkers. Valderrama contains one of the more controversial holes in golf: the par-5 17th guarded by water in front, which European captain Seve Ballesteros toughened for that Ryder Cup. It influenced the outcome then, and was a game changer again in 2017, when Sergio Garcia won his own foundation’s tournament, the European Tour’s Andalucia Valderrama Classic. His birdie on 17 in the final round was the margin of victory.
39 [25] NORTH BERWICK G.C.
East Lothian, Scotland
David Strath (1877), C.K. Hutchison (1935)
6,458 yards, par 71
North Berwick must be played with good humor. To do otherwise is to not properly appreciate its outrageous topography (some terrain is like an elephant cemetery) and outlandish holes, like the sunken 13th green beyond a stone wall, the renown Redan par-3 15th, blind from the tee, and the long, narrow 16th green with a gulch separating front and back plateaus, surely the model for the infamous Biarritz green, although purists say otherwise.
40 [58] PORTMARNOCK G.C. (CHAMPIONSHIP)
Ireland
W.C. Pickeman, George Ross, Mungo Park (1895), Martin Hawtree (2000-’04)
7,365 yards, par 72
A true links in rolling ground with soft rather than dramatic dunes, Portmarnock, on a spit of land in the Irish Sea north of Dublin, is known for its routing, which hasn’t been altered in over a hundred years and was revolutionary at the time for constantly changing wind direction with every shot. The links is also known for its fairness, as nearly every feature is plainly in view from tee to green. Which makes its maze of bunkers and subtle greens all the more testing.
The par-5 sixth hole at Portmarnock Golf Club.
41 [32] ST. GEORGE’S HILL G.C.
Weybridge, England
H.S. Colt (1913), Martin Hawtree (2003), Tim Lobb (2018)
6,526 yards, par 70
In his classic 1925 book, The Links, Robert Hunter raved about H.S. Colt’s “bold hazards, well designed” at St. George’s Hill. And while, 93 years later, some are now tamer, with less ragged, jagged edges, their placements are still ideal. Towering fir trees and patches of heather add additional challenge and charm to what many consider to be Colt’s finest heathland design, more stirring even than No. 39 Swinley Forest. St. George’s Hill’s main 18, now the Blue & Red 9s, opened in 1913 as one of the first residential golf projects in the world.
42 [64] TRUMP INTERNATIONAL G. LINKS
Balmedie, Scotland
Martin Hawtree (2011)
7,428 yards, par 72
Just six years old, this Martin Hawtree design is set in as dramatic a set of sand dunes as can be found in golf, better than those at No. 15 Royal Birkdale and No. 22 Royal St. George’s. Some dunes reach 100 feet above fairways. All are covered in deep marram grasses. Fairways pitch and tumble, often posing downhill lies to uphill targets. Every bunker is at least knee deep, encircled with stacked-sod faces. Greens are perched and edged by deep hollows. Owner Trump Golf Inc. wants an Open; we suspect it’ll someday host a Ryder Cup.
43 [37] KAURI CLIFFS
Matauri Bay, New Zealand
David Harman (2000)
7,151 yards, par 72
Like Cape Kidnappers 400 miles to the southeast, Kauri Cliffs occupies an old sheep ranch atop an ocean-front plateau laced with canyons. Unlike Kidnappers, the 2000 layout by design-and-build guy Dave Harman of Orlando, has hills of native rough, stands of fern and more forced carries over gorges. The topography allowed Harman to string the seventh and eighth and 14th through 17th holes parallel to the edge of the Pacific, although several hundred feet above it. Sadly, Harman died in 2004 of tongue cancer. Kauri Cliffs was his finest achievement.
44 [76] JACK’S POINT G. CSE.
Queenstown, New Zealand
John Darby (2008)
6,986 yards, par 72
John Darby, a New Zealand land planner and golf architect, routed Jack’s Point from a valley clubhouse up onto a plateau and down again to offer sterling views of Lake Wakatipu and the mile-high Remarkables Mountains. Many have likened Jack’s Point opening uphill holes to those of Gullane in Scotland. But Darius Oliver of Golf Digest Australia is less enamored, writing: “Darby decided to attack the hills and get his holes as quickly and as close to the [lake] edge as he possibly could. The result is at times an awkward mix of quite spectacular golf with some difficult uphill and downhill slogs.” Our ranking would suggest Oliver’s is the minority opinion.
45 [67] RYE G.C. (OLD)
Deal, England
Douglas Rolland, H.S. Colt (1894), Sir Guy Campbell (1959)
6,308 yards, par 68
A great myth is that Rye hasn’t changed in a century. In truth, during World War II the Royal Army built pillboxes and buried fuel storage tanks on the existing course. Architect Guy Campbell reclaimed the course in 1946, using a bulldozer to create new holes. To play such seemingly natural holes as the par-3 seventh on Rye’s rolling links today, you’d never suspect it. Rye has long been considered the toughest par-68 on earth. This ranking confirms that.
46 [61] MACHRIHANISH G.C.
Campbelltown, Scotland
Charles Hunter (1876), Sir Guy Campbell (1948)
6,462 yards, par 70
To reach Machrihanish, Old Tom Morris needed a train, a steamboat and a long carriage ride. Visitors today have to resort to much the same mode, so remote is Machrihanish, on the southern end of Scotland’s Kintyre Peninsula. It’s a journey rewarded, from the opening tee shot, which the bold will carry over a beach and Atlantic tide on the left, to the remainder of the links in some of the most rugged dunes known to links golf.
47 [26] BARNBOUGLE LOST FARM
Bridport, Australia
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw (2010)
6,849 yards, par 72
On a site just across the river from sister Barnbougle Dunes (No. 11), with taller dunes but fewer of them, Lost Farm has not 18, but 20 holes, counting its two short pitch-shot bye holes. The design is dramatic and unusual, particularly the par-4 fifth, a dogleg right along the river, whose blind tee shot brings to mind the 17th at St. Andrews. Instead of old black sheds, a high dune blocks view of the fairway from the tee. Billed as a Coore and Crenshaw design, schedule conflicts kept Ben Crenshaw from participating. Bill Coore used the usual C&C construction team, though.
48 [44] YAS LINKS
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Kyle Phillips (2010)
7,414 yards, par 72
Designed by American Kyle Phillips, whose breakthrough course was No. 30 Kingsbarns in Scotland, Yas Links is part of a massive Arabian Gulf entertainment complex that includes a Formula 1 racetrack and a Ferrari World amusement park and a second 18 soon to begin construction. As the name suggestions, Phillips fashioned this as a warm-weather links, using two million cubic yards of sand dredged from an adjacent marina to and give the layout the shape and contour, then covering everything with salt-tolerant Paspalum turf. Eight holes play along a vast intracoastal waterway that leads to the Persian Sea, including holes 14 through 18, a most invigorating stretch.
49 [40] ROYAL TROON G.C. (OLD)
Scotland
Charles Hunter (1878), Willie Fernie (1909), Martin Ebert (2014)
7,202 yards, par 71
Looks are deceiving at Royal Troon. It looks straightforward, almost docile, until the wind blows. Then, if play out to the ninth hole is downwind, as it usually is, the homeward nine becomes a long march into a stiff breeze, if not an ocean gale. Troon dates from 1878, was given its Royal title 100 years later. Few know its famed 123-yard 8th, the Postage Stamp, the shortest in British Open golf, was originally a blind par 3; the present green wasn’t built until 1910. In 2016, Royal Troon was the site of one of the most dramatic duels in Open history, with Henrik Stenson prevailing over Phil Mickelson to win his first major title.
A view from behind the green on the 405-yard, par-4 seventh hole ‘Tel-El-Kebir’ with the par-3 eighth hole ‘Postage Stamp’ behind on the Old Course at Royal Troon.
50 [81] ANYANG C.C.
Kunpo-shi, Kyonggi-Do, South Korea
Chohei Miyazawa (1968), Robert Trent Jones Jr. (1997)
6,951 yards, par 72
Korea’s oldest-ranked course was cut from thick tree cover in 1968 by Japanese golf architect Chohei Miyazawa, but it didn’t become great until Robert Trent Jones Jr. remodeled the layout in 1996, reshaping greens, rebunkering holes and adding some strategic ponds, particularly on two par 3s, the fourth and 17th. The club’s name was changed to Anyang Benest Country Club in 1996; it reverted to its original name in 2013.
51 [74] LOCH LOMOND G.C.
Luss, Scotland
Jay Morrish, Tom Weiskopf (1992)
7,100 yards, par 71
Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf were the first American architects to work in Scotland, not on the coast but west of Glasgow on the shore of Loch Lomond. The design is mostly the work of Weiskopf, who lived on site supervising construction while Morrish recovered from a heart attack at home. Opened in 1992, it’s a graceful layout, the third, sixth, seventh and 18th holes touching the shoreline, others winding through inland hazards of oaks, sculptured bunkers, streams, marsh and a pond. There are a pair of reachable par 4s, the ninth and the 14th, the latter a favorite of Weiskopf’s.
52 [36] NATIONAL G.C. OF CANADA
Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada
George Fazio, Tom Fazio (1974), Tom Fazio (2005)
7,235 yards, par 72
George Fazio once lost a U.S. Open in a playoff to Ben Hogan and his architecture reflected the sort of discipline needed to win that championship: tight well-guarded fairways, big, well-bunkered, fast-paced greens and polished conditions. National G.C. of Canada reflects that and more, with gambling water hazards and double doglegs. In 2005, Tom Fazio, who helped his uncle with the original 1974 design, rebunkered some holes and created a new par-4 16th.
53. [56] CRUDEN BAY G.C.
Scotland
Old Tom Morris, Archie Simpson (1899), Tom Simpson (1926), Tom Mackenzie (2015)
6,615 yards, par 70
Cruden Bay is yet another marvelous links, stretched along the base of a high bluff with tall dunes to the immediate east blocking views of the North Sea shoreline. Within the course, holes lie among what have been described as “stumpy dunes.” They may well be, compared to those at No. 64 Trump International, but the routing is excellent, looping north then south, crisscrossing at the eighth and 16th. There are many blind shots, including consecutive ones to hidden punchbowl greens on the par-4 14th and par-3 15th (pictured below).
The par-3 15th hole with the par-3 16th hole behind on the Championship Course at Cruden Bay.
54. [28] JACK NICKLAUS G.C. KOREA
Incheon City, South Korea
Jack Nicklaus (2009)
7,470 yards, par 72
Lying in the shadow of skyscrapers in the Songdo International Business District, this is an impressive Nicklaus design, one that transformed a flat, dull site into a surprisingly rolling, pine-dotted layout with water on 11 holes, equitably distributed with six hazards to the left and five to the right. Despite the site being inland, artificial rocks edging most of the lakes leave the impression of a jagged coastline. Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea hosted the 2015 Presidents Cup, won by the U.S. team captained by Jay Haas over the International side headed by Nick Price. It was the first Presidents Cup contested in Asia.
55 [60] HAMILTON G. AND C.C. (WEST/SOUTH)
Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
H.S. Colt (1915), Tom Clark (1999-2005)
6,928 yards, par 70
A fascinating H.S. Colt layout, with holes routed in clusters of triangles, traversing the hilly landscape both face-on and diagonally, with meandering creeks winding across fairway landing areas. Tom Clark, who spent 25 years as consulting architect, rebuilt greens and quietly removed many trees to provide playing room and showcase land contours. More recently, Englishman Martin Ebert was brought in to re-establish Colt’s bunkering style. Hamilton has hosted the Canadian Open three times since 2003.
56 [38] FANCOURT (LINKS)
George, South Africa
Gary Player, Phil Jacobs (2000)
7,578 yards, par 73
Created by Gary Player and then-associate Phil Jacobs from a dead flat airfield, over 760,000 cubic yards of earth were churned and piled to create the first faux links in South Africa. (Player later added the similarly-themed Bramble Hill G.C. next door.) They used cool-season grasses to promote bounce-and-roll on their topsy-turvy fairways. Greens, mostly long and thin or wide and shallow, are guarded by revetted pot bunkers. The Links hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup as well as the 2005 South African Open and 2012 Volvo on the European Tour.
57 [46] ROYAL LYTHAM & ST. ANNES G.C.
England
George Lowe (1897), H.S. Colt (1923), Martin Ebert (2010)
7,118 yards, par 70
Perhaps the least dramatic-looking links in The Open rota, mainly because it’s surrounded by houses and a rail line, with the seacoast being hundreds of yards distant and never in sight. Lytham boasts over 200 bunkers, most built a century ago, when the club was heralded as a pioneer of natural bunkering. Its par-3 first hole is unusual, while its finish, six straight par 4s, is a terrific challenge that was, in 2011, the downfall of Adam Scott and a triumph for Ernie Els. Royal Lytham next hosts the 2018 Ricoh Women’s British Open.
58 [89] FAIRMONT JASPER PARK LODGE G.C.
Jasper, Alberta, Canada
Stanley Thompson (1926), W.H. Brinkworth (1948)
6,663 yards, par 71
Jasper Park actually lies farther north than Stanley Thompson’s other Alberta masterpiece, No. 99 Banff Springs, and is a perfect complement to it. The routing has holes lined up with every prominent mountain peak in the distance. Thompson’s typical sprawling bunkers are everywhere, some staggered diagonally across lines of play, others on the margins of a hole, poking out from beneath tree lines. Built in 1925 by the hand labor of some 200 men, holes are carved through fir, aspen and silver birch trees, and rocks were piled and covered with earth to create greens like the one on the short par-3 15th, a shot so precarious it’s like hitting to the back of a slumbering sea lion.
59 [79] SENTOSA G.C. (SERAPONG)
Singapore
7,420 yards, par 71
It took years to build the Serapong course back in the early 1980s. The site was a mangrove swamp filled with some three million cubic yards of sand dredged from Singapore Harbor. Designer Ron Fream, a globe-trotting American, routed as many holes as he could along the water’s edge, resulting in the now-famed “Dragon’s Tail,” a loop of holes, four through six, with island fairways around a tidal basin. It was recently rebunkered by architect Gene Bates, whose then-associate Andrew Johnston is now the club’s director of agronomy. Sentosa has one of the legendary backdrops in the game, the skyline of Singapore.
T-60 [53] CASTLE STUART G.C.
Inverness, Scotland
Gil Hanse, Mark Parsinen (2009)
7,009 yards, par 72
Once he completed Kingsbarns (No. 30), owner Mark Parsinen found another ideal venue farther north, on the shores of the Moray Firth. Golf architect Gil Hanse and associate Jim Wagner hand-built Castle Stuart, with Parsinen involved on every hole. Each nine opens with holes framed by shore’s edge on one side and a high bluff on the other. Then each nine moves to a mezzanine level where the views are spectacular and several “infinity greens” seem perched on cliffs directly over the sea. Castle Stuart has hosted several Scottish Opens. Parsinen’s dream is to host The Open.
T-60 [80] WOODHALL SPA G.C. (HOTCHKIN)
Lincolnshire, England
Harry Vardon (9, 1905), H.S. Colt (9, 1912), S.V. Hotchkin, Sir Guy Campbell (1926), Tom Doak (2018)
7,080 yards, par 73
This par-73 layout is named for obscure architect S.V. Hotchkin, who purchased the club in the early 1920s and remodeled the course, which consisted of a 1905 nine by Harry Vardon and a 1912 nine by H.S. Colt. Hotchkin tinkered with the lovely, ground-hugging heathland layout until his death in 1953, producing what some call the most ferocious bunkers in Great Britain. Some are hidden from view, others are steep and deep and some are ringed with heather. Recent work includes restoration by Tom Doak.
62 [52] EMIRATES G.C. (MAJLIS)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Karl Litten (1988), Tim Lobb, Ross Perrett (2014)
7,301 yards, par 72
When Emirates G.C. first opened in 1988, it was a literal oasis in the desert, the first all-grass golf course built in the Middle East. Now it sits in the shadows of more than a hundred high rise buildings and thousands of palms and hardwood trees transplanted on the site. Designed by American Karl Litten, who’d previously specialized in residential development courses in Florida, the Majlis Course looks like a Florida transplant, with five lakes coming in play on eight holes. Where he’d normally plot housing lots, Litten maintained as desert. Some of those areas have now become homesites.
63 [NR] Tokyo G.C.
Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Komei Ohtani (1939), Gil Hanse (2010-’18)
6,915 yards par 72
It is a common misbelief that Toyko G.C. was designed by C.H. Alison, the talented Englishman who visited Japan in the early 1930s and transformed the country’s golf architecture with such courses as No. 13 Hirono and No. 26 Kawana Hotel. Alison did design a course for Tokyo in 1932, but its land was requisitioned by the Imperial Army in the lead-up to WWII. The club moved to a new layout designed by Japanese architect Komei Ohtani in 1939, while Alison’s course became potato fields. That didn’t keep golf architect Gil Hanse, who has done extensive remodeling of Tokyo G.C. over the past 10 years, to fashion features that reflect Alison’s, not Ohtani’s, philosophy of design.
64 [71] ROYAL ABERDEEN G.C. (BALGOWNIE)
Scotland
Robert Simpson (1888), James Braid (1925), Martin Hawtree (2011)
6,910 yards, par 71
One of the least known of Scotland’s great links has been even more overshadowed in recent years by its new neighbor to the north, Trump International Golf Links Scotland. Royal Aberdeen’s front nine runs north in dramatic dunesland along the shoreline, with the inward nine backtracking inland along softer terrain to the clubhouse. Though the final stretch might be a bit underwhelming visually, its holes are just as testing. The links saw a few touchups by Martin Hawtree prior to the 2011 Walker Cup, which mostly included the addition of bunkers and a new green on the 15th hole.
The 534-yard, par-5 12th hole ‘Plateau’ at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.
65 [77] PARAPARAUMU BEACH G.C.
New Zealand
James Watt (1930), Alex Russell (1952)
6,603 yards par 71
A rare authentic sand-based links in New Zealand, James Watt built the course on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington in two sections, one nine in 1930, the other in 1937. New owners took charge in 1949 and decided to remodel it, hiring Alex Russell, the Australian champion golfer who turned to course design after working with Alister Mackenzie. Russell spent six weeks on the property, reshaping dunes and creating splashy bunkers. Two years later, he returned and altered bunker faces from sand to turf because heavy winds were constantly eroding the steep sand faces. The club has preserved a number of mature trees throughout to act as buffers against wind.
66 [95] PRESTWICK G.C.
Ayrshire, Scotland
Old Tom Morris (12, 1851), Charles Hunter (6, 1883)
6,908 yards, par 71
We should rejoice in the fact that the World 100 Greatest has room for at least one museum piece of golf architecture—an authentic relic from a time when golfers played cross-country without benefit of crisply mown turf and inviting targets. The third hole demands a forced carry over notorious Cardinal bunker. There’s a blind tee shot over a ridge dubbed the Himalayas into par-3 fifth green, a blind approach shot down an escarpment to the 15th green and another blind approach over dunes known as The Alps to reach green on the par-4 17th. Prestwick hosted 24 Open Championships but none since 1925. That doesn’t matter. It’s an anachronistic design worth preserving.
67 [29] HAESLEY NINE BRIDGES
Yeoju County, South Korea
David Dale (2009)
7,256 yards, par 72
Don’t confuse this course with No. 23 Club at Nine Bridges, designed by Ronald Fream and then-partner David Dale. Both have the same owner, but this one Dale alone designed. Nine Bridges is on Jeju Island; Haesley is close to Seoul. Nine Bridges has revetted bunkers; Haesley has big, bold flashed-sand ones. Nine Bridges has an island green on 18; Haesley has a par 4 with an island fairway and an island green, and a mountainside waterfall on another hole that would make Donald Trump jealous. Haesley Nine Bridges opened in 2009 and has held the CJ Invitational on the Korean Golf Tour in 2011 through 2013, won twice by tournament host K.J. Choi. In 2017, the CJ became a U.S. PGA Tour event and was played at—you guessed it—the other Nine Bridges.
68 [83] OLD HEAD OF KINSALE
County Cork, Ireland
Ron Kirby, Eddie Hackett, Paddy Merrigan, Joe Carr (1996), Ron Kirby (2013)
7,159 yards, par 72
In the 1980s, the golf potential of this 220-acre swollen thumb of land poking into the Atlantic had many course architects excited. The job went to American Ron Kirby, once a design partner of Gary Player and later a design associate of Jack Nicklaus. He consulted with Irish legends Paddy Merrigan, Eddie Hackett, Joe Carr and Liam Higgins. Kirby lived on the site for two years, determined to find an ideal routing that would maximize the rocky ocean cliffs that encircle the peninsula. It opened in 1996 with nine holes along ledges 300 feet above the surf. Kirby recently added another, relocating the par-3 13th to cling along an ocean slope.
69 [65] LEOPARD CREEK C.C.
Malelane, South Africa
Gary Player, Phil Jacobs (1998), Ernie Els, Greg Letsche (2007)
7,288 yards, par 72
Intended to merge with its Bushvelt environs, what with Kruger National Park and the Crocodile River on the north and west, the Gary Player-designed Leopard Creek is really more akin to a polished, immaculate American layout, with a manmade stream diagonally slashing in front of first and 14th greens, the fifth, 15th, 16th and 18th greens guarded by stone-bulkheaded ponds and the par-5 ninth green on an island. But no course in America has views of giraffes, hippos and crocodiles in the wild.
70 [54] MID OCEAN CLUB
Tucker’s Town, Bermuda
Charles Blair Macdonald, Seth Raynor (1923), Tom Doak (2014-’15)
6,548 yards, par 71
This was C.B. Macdonald’s lone international design, done in the early 1920s with his faithful assistant Seth Raynor, who according to ship records, made most of the trips to the site. Spurred by the 18th Amendment, which established alcohol prohibition in America, Macdonald and his partners bought a bunch of onion and potato fields for the course. Macdonald used his pet template holes mainly on the par 3s – Short, Eden, Biarritz and Redan are all represented – but the par-4 fifth is the standout, with its bite-off-what-you-dare tee shot over Mangrove Lake.
71 [84] NARUO G.C.
Inagawa, Hyogo, Japan
Rokuro Akaboshi, Shiro Akaboshi (1929), C.H. Alison (1930), Harry C. Crane (1948)
6,564 yards, par 70
The most mountainous of the Japanese courses ranked on our World 100 Greatest, Naruo reminds many Americans of courses found on the Monterey Peninsula, with hilly fairways slashed by gulleys that run to the sea lined by dense Monterey-like pines. Originally designed in 1920 by brothers Harry, Bert and Joseph Crane, it was rebunkered by C.H. Alison during his 1930s tour of the country. With that dramatic deep bunkering, Naruo looks both lovely and lethal. Only the flattish greens, many on hilltop locations, seem out of place.
72 [66] WALTON HEATH G.C. (OLD)
Walton-on-the-Hill, England
Herbert Fowler (1904), Donald Steel (2011)
6,865 yards, par 72
Herbert Fowler’s earliest design, done in 1904, is an out-and-back routing with rippling fairways, tight turf, cross bunkers, ground-hugging greens and fields of heather, all borrowed from coastal links. One writer has suggested Walton Heath ranks with Pine Valley as the best neophyte design in golf. It opens with a par-3, closes with five stern holes, including the par-5 16th, which is played as a long 4 for tournaments. Donald Steel altered holes and added length early in this century.
73 [45] VICTORIA G.C.
Melbourne, Australia
William Meanor, Oscar Damman (1927), Alister MacKenzie (1927), Mike Clayton, Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking (2015)
6,888 yards, par 72
Located kitty-corner across a road from Royal Melbourne, Victoria G.C. is the home course of stars Peter Thomson and Geoff Ogilvy. It was designed originally by a couple of club founders. Alister MacKenzie made bunkering suggestions during a 1926 visit, changes later implemented by Alex Russell. Victoria has smaller greens than at other prominent Melbourne courses, and the bunkers hard against the collars make them play even tighter. Once heavily forested, consulting architect Michael Clayton is slowly removing many trees..
74 [51] CAPILANO G. & C.C
West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Stanley Thompson (1937), Doug Carrick (2016)
6,706 yards, par 72
Capilano is definitely Old School. The Stanley Thompson design is now 80 years old yet mostly untouched despite modern technology. It still sports par 5s well under 500 yards and dramatic green cants too steep for fast speeds. The clubhouse sits atop a true cardiac hill, with most of the course several hundred feet below. From the elevated first tee, the city of Vancouver, five miles south, is visible through a haze of smog. In other directions are peaks of the Coastal Range, particularly Hollyburn Mountain. Fairways are lined with towering Douglas fir, hemlock and cedar, all giving the mistaken impression that corridors are narrow. Thompson’s bunkering is spectacular and prolific.
75 [55] WATERVILLE G. LINKS
Ireland
Eddie Hackett (1972), Tom Fazio (2003)
7,355 yards, par 72
Waterville has some superb dunes holes, next to the Ballinskellligs Bay, and several laid out in former potato fields. Original owner John Mulcahy and 1947 Masters champion Claude Harmon (Butch’s dad) collaborated with Irish golf architect Eddie Hackett on the early 1970s design. A decade ago, Tom Fazio added new par-3 sixth & par-4 seventh holes and altered 13 others, adding new tees, greens and much-needed humps and bumps to the flattish front nine.
T-76 [35] THE BLUFFS HO TRAM STRIP
Ho Tram, Vietnam
Greg Norman (2014)
6,855 yards, par 71
This is a 2014 design by Greg Norman, an Australian who now lives in Florida, so it’s no surprise that Bluffs Ho Tram is very reminiscent of a Florida golf course, Jupiter Hills. Like Jupiter, it’s separated from the ocean by a highway, but plays through dramatic sand dunes covered in tropical vegetation, has joint fairways and even a pair of par 3s playing from a common dunes-top tee box complex to greens in opposite directions. As the name suggests, The Bluffs has some dramatic elevations, with the long par-3 15th green at the highest point, 165 feet above the South China Sea.
T-76 [87] HIGHLANDS LINKS
Ingonish Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada
Stanley Thompson (1941), Ian Andrew (2011)
6,592 yards, par 72
On the opposite Nova Scotia coast from Cabot Cliffs (No. 9) and Cabot Links (No. 43) is the 80-year-old Highlands Links in Cape Breton, a sterling Stanley Thompson design routed to give golfers the full coastal experience, from ocean beach to river’s side and deep forest. Thompson even shaped greenside mounds to mimic certain mountain ridges in the distance. A national park operation, Highlands had long been criticized for spotty maintenance, but after a 2010 flood, serious efforts, directed by Canadian golf architect Ian Andrew, were undertaken to restore its luster and improve its turf quality.
78 [NR] ROYAL CINQUE PORTS G.C.
Deal, Kent, England
Tom Dunn (1895), Sir Guy Campbell (1949), Martin Ebert (2007)
7,367 yards, par 72
Resting just three miles from Royal Birkdale (T-23), the Royal Cinque Ports links rolls over gentle oceanfront sand dunes with some holes playing off a single prominent ridge that runs the length of the property. Cinque (pronounced sank) Ports hosted two British Opens, in 1909 won by J.H. Taylor, and 1920 won by George Duncan. It was slated to host three others, in 1915, 1938 and 1949, but a combination of a World War and ocean storms forced officials to move the championship elsewhere each time. The present course is far different than Tom Dunn’s original design. Before the 1920 Open, James Braid rearranged the layout, adding several new holes, including all four of the present par 3s. In the process, he abandoned the beloved, blind par-3 fourth, called “Sandy Parlour,” but his replacement fourth, playing off a dune toward the ocean, has become beloved as well.
79 [NR] METROPOLITAN G.C.
Melbourne, Australia
J.B. Mackenzie (1908), Alister MacKenzie (1926), Neil Crafter, Paul Mogford (2016)
7,066 yards, par 72
Metropolitan was designed by club members J.B. Mackenzie and C.W. Chapman in 1908 and was revised in 1926 by famed architect Alister MacKenzie, as part of his two-month visit to Australia. But the present design is the work of American architect Dick Wilson, who added eight new holes in the late 1950s. Wilson also revised the remaining holes to reflect his philosophy that golf is meant to be played through the air. Bunkers front nearly every green and pinch nearly every fairway. Metropolitan hosted the PGA Tour’s World Cup of Golf in 2018.
80 [85] ROYAL ADELAIDE G.C.
Seaton, South Australia, Australia
Cargie Rymill, C.L. Gardiner (1905), Alister MacKenzie (1925), Tom Doak (2015-’17)
6,557 yards, par 73
Herbert Rymill, chairman of the club’s green committee, is credited with designing a new course for the club in sand dunes near Seaton in 1905. Within a year, Rymill collaborated an improvement plan with other members. It took until 1910 to implement his revisions, which included 90 bunkers, many of which were criticized by Alister MacKenzie when he inspected the course in 1926. Rymill offered to supervise any redesign MacKenzie proposed, but instead MacKenzie had his representative, Alex Russell, rebuild the bunkers into their now-famous MacKenzie style. Russell returned in 1951 and supervised more modifications. More recently, Australian Michael Clayton has remodeled several holes.
81 [72] ROYAL LIVERPOOL G.C.
Hoylake, England
Robert Chambers, Geordie Morris (1871), H.S. Colt (1920), Martin Hawtree (2010)
6,907 yards, par 72
Hoylake is a layout of stark contrasts—a series of splendid natural holes within coastal sand dunes (holes attributed to a 1930s H.S. Colt remodeling), with a less scenic start and finish inland on dead flat land. Still, the first hole, a stern dogleg-right around an internal out-of-bounds, is considered one of the most testing opening holes in links golf. A dozen years ago, this writer suggested that Royal Liverpool, which hadn’t seen an Open since 1967, was past its prime as a championship venue. It has hosted two Opens since then, won in 2006 by Tiger Woods and in 2014 by Rory McIlroy. Hoylake will definitely remain on the Open rota.
A view of the green on the par-3 11th hole at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
82. [NR] LE GOLF NATIONAL GC (Albatros)
Robert von Hagge, Hubert Chesneau (1990), Ross McMurray (2016)
Guyancourt, France
7,331 yards, par 71
The championship 18 at the multi-course Le Golf National may well be an albatross around the necks of 2018 American Ryder Cup teammates, given their lopsided loss to the Europeans. But they couldn’t blame the Albatros Course, a Florida-style design of the late Robert von Hagge, who delighted in sculpting courses with massive humps and bumps that cast shadows at high noon and carving out water hazards at every turn. What the European team had going for it was familiarity with the design, as it has hosted the European Tour’s French Open for decades. In advance of the Ryder Cup, French officials insisted that sole design credit should be given to French landscape architect Hubert Chesneau (who was a consultant on the project), but that was soon debunked, as von Hagge’s style is clearly evident.
(Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
83 [73] SIAM C.C. (OLD)
Pattaya, Thailand
Ichisuke Izumi (1970), Lee Schmidt, Brian Curley (2007)
7,162 yards, par 72
Originally designed by Japanese architect Ichisuke Izumi, Siam Country Club was just the country’s second course when it opened in 1970. It was built on what was called the Pattaya desert, and Izumi concocted a special compost to turn sterile sand into soil in order to grow grass. Early on, Siam was known for its dramatically contoured greens and its gentle bunkering. In 2006, Americans Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley remodeled everything, changing parallel holes into curving fairways by adding ponds and relocating greens, while still preserving those legendary Siam undulating putting surfaces.
84 [T-68] GANTON G.C.
Yorkshire, England
Tom Chisholm, Robert Bird (1891)
6,998 yards, par 71
Not everyone has been enamored with Ganton, the great Harry Vardon’s home club. Back in 1949, American Ryder Cupper Jimmy Demaret described the course, still recovering from WWII, as “a sort of Pennsylvania Turnpike with trees.” It’s matured greatly since then. Situated on a pocket of sand in an otherwise inland landscape of clay and rock, Ganton plays firm and fast with holes hemmed in by blooming gorse. Among the course’s difficult hazards include more than 110 vertical-edged bunkers, many deep enough to require wooden steps. Bernard Darwin famously said golfers playing Ganton suffer either sandy or prickly disaster.
85 [62] SHESHAN INTERNATIONAL G.C.
Shanghai, China
Neil Haworth, Robin Nelson (2004)
7,199 yards, par 72
Sheshan International, at the base of Sheshan Mountain, is considered by some to be the Augusta National of China because of its opulent conditioning. The stylistic design, by Canadian Neil Haworth and his late partner Robin Nelson, incorporates a small forest, a canal, several manmade ponds and a small, deep stone quarry, over which both the drivable par-4 16th and long par-3 17th play. Sheshan hosted the World Golf Championship’s HSBC Champions event since 2005. In 2017, the title was won by Justin Rose.
86 [88] SPRING CITY GOLF AND LAKE RESORT (LAKE)
Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
Robert Trent Jones Jr. (1995)
7,204 yards, par 72
This Robert Trent Jones Jr. design on the shoreline of Yang Zong Hai Lake (as gorgeous as Lake Tahoe) opened a year after the club’s Mountain Course, a Jack Nicklaus design. Holes on the Lake Course are benched along a tumbling slope leading down to the lake. The opening and closing holes sit at the highest location, and a spectacular trio lead down on the water’s edge: the par-3 eighth, plunging 100 feet down to a peninsula green, the par-5 ninth with a lake hard against the right edge, and the par-3 10th, over a lake cove to a clifftop green.
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87 [99] BANFF SPRINGS G. CSE. (STANLEY THOMPSON)
Banff, Alberta, Canada
Stanley Thompson (1929), Les Furber (1999)
6,938 yards, par 71
Where No. 63 Old Head in Ireland plays along the top of escarpments, Banff in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta lies beneath escarpments, with near-vertical cliffs of Mount Rundle towering 3,000 feet over almost every fairway. The course, another masterful design by Canadian Stanley Thompson, is tucked into the narrow Y-shaped valley formed by the Bow and Spray Rivers. Bunkering at Banff may be the best of Thompson’s career. There are 150 of them, often in circular clusters, with ebbs and flows in their shapes that mirror mountain peaks.
88 [NR] TRUMP INTERNATIONAL G. LINKS DOONBEG
Ireland
Greg Norman (2002), Martin Hawtree (2014-’16)
6,885 yards, par 72
Considered by some to be Greg Norman’s masterpiece, on a site that the major champion/turned designer once called the best he’d ever seen, the minimalist design is set among some of the finest sand dunes of Ireland, just miles from No. 17 Ballybunion and No. 31 Lahinch. Norman routed along natural seams between tall hills, simply mowing out most fairways and greens, and scratching a few notches into the sides of dunes to create sand bunkers. Hard against the Atlantic, which can be harsh, Doonbeg suffered storm damage about the same time as then-game-show-host Donald Trump bought the resort and rebranded it in his name. In 2015, British architect Martin Hawtree, who’d done No. 42 Trump International Golf Links in Scotland, was brought in to reclaim eroded holes, the sixth and ninth, and to modify 11 others.
89 [NR] BA NA HILLS G.C.
Da Nang, Vietnam
Brit Stenson, Luke Donald (2016)
7,857 yards, par 72
Ba Na Hills is billed as the first golf course design by Luke Donald, once the top-ranked professional golfer in the world. Although Donald made a couple of site visits, the heavy lifting was done by veteran golf architect Brit Stenson, the in-house course designer for International Management Group, which serves as agent for Donald and many other athletes. (Stenson has ghosted designs for many of IMG’s golf clients.) Routed in the foothills of Vietnam’s Ba Na mountain range, a half hour from DaNang, the layout is a gently rolling, heavily bunkered affair, with waterways of some sort on 13 holes and fairways backdropped by hills of heavy forest. The most unusual aspect of Ba Na Hills is that its fairways are lined with single or double rows of tall trees, which hide many equally tall light poles along each hole. Ba Na is the only course on the World 100 Greatest that is lighted for night play, and given the heat and humidity in Vietnam, that’s not a bad idea.
90 [NR] AYODHYA LINKS G.C.
Ayutthaya, Thailand
Peter Thomson, Ross Perrett, Tim Lobb (2007)
7,626 yards, par 72
The site of Ayodhya Links didn’t look promising to Australian architects Ross Perrett and Tim Lobb at first. It was a flat, treeless marsh near Bangkok. To build a championship-caliber golf course on such property, the architects had to drain the swamp. They did so by excavating canals and ponds. This generated fill for tees, fairways and greens, which they shaped into endless humps and rolls. So, arguably, it’s links-like, although manmade and far from an ocean. Today, Ayodhya has water in play on every hole, lagoons throughout the front and back nines, with the ninth and 18th along the shoreline of a large lake. Across the same lake is the island green of the par-3 12th. An estimated 10,000 trees were planted to add beauty and while the turf conditions at this exclusive private club are considered opulent, the course boasts membership in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, so it must be growing turf with sustainable methods and fewer chemicals.
91 [70] CABO DEL SOL (OCEAN)
Los Cabos, Mexico
Jack Nicklaus (1994)
7,091 yards, par 72
When Jack Nicklaus first saw this Baja Peninsula site, what can best be described as Scottsdale-meets-the-Sea of Cortez, his thought was: “This is my chance to design a Pebble Beach.” He took full advantage of that chance, developing an exciting routing that plays from highlands of desert cacti over dry washes and down to the sea on both nines. When the layout opened in 1994, Nicklaus said it had the three finest finishing holes in golf. That might still be true 24 years later, given that the greens at 16, 17 and 18 are all perched atop rocks above the crashing surf of Whale Bay.
92 [86] ST. ANDREWS BEACH G. CSE.
Fingal, Victoria, Australia
Tom Doak, Mike Clayton (2004)
6,642 yards, par 70
This was the first project Tom Doak landed in Australia and his first collaboration with Mike Clayton as well. (They would also team to also create No. 11 Barnbougle Dunes.) Located just an hour south of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula, it’s not quite in Australia’s famed sandbelt, but close enough. The layout sits on mostly former pasture land, with some holes in sand dunes and others in groves of moonah trees. The course, which opened in 2004, is not as visually entertaining as others in Australia. Its character lies in its subtleties of bunkering and green contours surrounded by tightly mown turf. St. Andrews Beach is perhaps the most minimalist of any Doak design. Only four days were spent moving earth for fairways and greens, Doak says.
93 [97] QUERENCIA C.C.
Los Cabos, Baja Sur, Mexico
Tom Fazio (2000)
7,050 yards, par 72
Located several miles up the road from No. 70 Cabo del Sol, this Tom Fazio design opened in 2000. The routing wanders the rugged high desert plateau on the outward nine, toward the Sea of Cortez, hopscotching a dramatic canyon on the par-3 eighth. After reaching the far point on the par-5 ninth, the course turns for home over similar terrain, via two more outstanding par 3s, the 11th and 14th. Other holes have humpbacked fairway and greens tucked beneath huge rock outcroppings. The one discordant note are royal palms planted in many desert spots near greens. They seem too artificial among native desert plants.
94 [NR] KINLOCH G.C.
New Zealand
Jack Nicklaus (2007)
7,364 yards, par 72
Built along the base of volcanic slopes on New Zealand’s North Island, three hours south of Auckland, this outstanding Jack Nicklaus design was started in 2001 but not completed until 2007. Its slow gestation gave Nicklaus and his builders time to fine-tune every feature, including the routing that encompasses every possible slope and direction. “The land is simply cascading toward Lake Taupo,” says Chris Cochran, longtime Nickaus senior designer, who assisted Nicklaus in the design, as did design coordinator Brian Pollock, who lived on the site for two years. “We sought to mimic the surroundings,” Cochran says, “creating natural, distressed-looking bunkers and greens that blended perfectly.” The result are fairways that ripple and rumble from side to side and greens sometimes recessed into folds of the land. Rock outcroppings are a frequent hazard in the rough, and a few greens are protected by manmade fault lines that look incredibly natural, like the ground had slumped following a tremor.
95 [92] THE EUROPEAN CLUB
Brittas Bay, County Wicklow, Ireland
Pat Ruddy (1992, 2000-’11)
7,377 yards, par 71
One of the newest courses to be built on genuine Irish linksland, The European Club is the lifetime accomplishment of Pat Ruddy, a golf writer from the 1960s and a golf architect from 1975 onward. He mortgaged his home to buy the land and spent five years designing and building it. It opened in 1992 and is still a family business today. Hard against the Irish Sea’s Arklow Bay, European Club rolls across untamed landscape with pot bunkers lined in railroad ties and two extra par-3 holes. It’s not always linkslike: The routing has returning nines, a marsh off the seventh tee, a pond in front of the 18th green and not a single blind shot anywhere. Ruddy says he was once offered to sell it for 22 million pounds and passed. That makes the Irish design priceless.
96 [NR] PORTSTEWART G.C. (Strand)
Northern Ireland
A.G. Gow (1910), Willie Park Jr. (1913), Des Giffin, Michael Moss (1992)
7,004 yards, par 72
Although golf architect Willie Park Jr. did fiddle with a few holes in 1913, Portstewart’s Strand Course is mostly the result of amateur architects. A.W. Gow, the greenkeeper from nearby Portrush, staked out the original course by 1910. Eighty years later, math teacher Des Giffin, who was Portstewart’s green chairman, and Michael Moss, the club secretary, added seven new holes, the second through eighth, in dramatic dunes. Mike Stachura, Golf Digest’s longtime Senior Editor of Equipment and savvy course design buff, describes its dramatic setting: “The first tee at the Strand is set on high dunes, like you’re surveying the kingdom, with beach and waves down to your right and all of County Antrim in front. It’s no wonder the television series ‘Game of Thrones’ has used the nearby land as scene-stealers.”
97 [98] THE NATIONAL G.C. (MOONAH)
Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia
Greg Norman (2001)
7,192 yards, par 72
Nothing on this Greg Norman design looks manufactured or contrived. Fairways emerge from the rolling topography, greens are positioned at grade and the gnarly bunkering is recessed into the earth, never propped above it. Some tees are positioned atop hills posing carries over gulleys, but bounce and roll in the game here. With generous targets surrounded by vast, dry, domed hills, the Moonah Course seems eerily like one in the African Veldt. One would not be surprised to see a giraffe lope by one of the squat, umbrella-like moonah trees that are scattered along hillsides.
98 [NR] TRALEE G.C.
Ireland
Arnold Palmer, Ed Seay, Bob Walker (1984), Brandon Johnson (2013)
6,975 yards, par 72
Tralee, on rugged sand dunes astride Tralee Bay in the southwest corner of Ireland, has long been considered Arnold Palmer’s finest design. Working with architect Ed Seay (partner in Arnie’s design firm) and their associate Bob Walker, the layout was fashioned in the early 1980s in the same manner that Norman would later route Doonbeg, by locating green sites and then scouring the landscape to figure out natural fairways that would lead to them. Tralee is a captivating design, starting along high cliffs, like Pebble Beach, and finishing in high dunes similar to those found at No. 17 Ballybunion. Seven years ago, Brandon Johnson, part of the newest generation of Palmer Design, added a new alternate par-3 seventh on land just crying out to be used as a hole.
99 [100] WESTERN GAILES G.C.
Scotland
Willie Fernie (1894), Fred W. Hawtree (1975)
7,014 yards, par 71
The last to make the list is perhaps the least-known grand old Scottish links. Western Gailes is located north of Royal Troon, just off the Firth of Clyde, squeezed on the east by active railroad tracks, and thus its north-south routing over and between rolling sand dunes seems far tighter than its neighbors. Holes one through four, all par 4s, head north, then five through 13 march due south along the beach, with fairways mostly aimed southeast or southwest. The closing five play due north and sport some of the most intense bunkering on the 18. The club insists Fred Morris, its first greenkeeper laid out the course, but we say Willie Fernie, who also did Troon, did it.
100 [NR] GLENEAGLES HOTEL G.C. (King’s)
Scotland
James Braid, C.K. Hutchison (1919)
6,790 yards, par 71
Constructed just after the First World War by James Braid, with the assistance of then-budding designer C.K. Hutchison, and studiously preserved for the last hundred years, the King’s Course at Gleneagles Hotel has been overshadowed in recent times by the emergence of the resort’s Jack Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary Course, which hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup. But to golf architecture fans, and Golf Digest panelists, the King’s is still king, (Braid, by the way, always considered King’s to be his best work.) The course meanders along novel topography, full of odd elephant-shaped mounds, humps and abrupt gulches, lined with pine, fir, heather and bracken. It’s a pleasant stroll but a difficult test of golf. Over the decades, various publications have listed various Gleneagles holes as Best in the World, including the long, uphill par-4 fourth, the dinky “Denty Den” 14th, now a drivable par 4 thanks to advanced technology, and the short par-4 17th with its wasp-waist of a fairway. But the hole everyone must see to believe is the par-3 fifth, “Het Girdle,” its green a frying pan turned upside down with bunkers gouged into its sides.
MOST WORLD 100 COURSE DESIGNS
13 H.S. Colt (SIX ORIGINALS, SEVEN REMODELS)
13 Martin Hawtree (ONE ORIGINAL, 12 REMODELS)
11 Tom Doak (FOUR ORIGINALS, SEVEN)
9 Martin Ebert (ALL REMODELS)
MOST ORIGINAL DESIGNS ON THE LIST
7 Old Tom Morris (ALSO HAS TWO REMODELS)
