
The proximity to the water is a recurring element in our new ranking of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. Oceanside venues make up 46 of the Top 100, including our new No. 1 Royal County Down in Northern Ireland and the World’s two hottest new layouts, No. 19 Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia and No. 24 Cape Wickham in Australia. This number excludes the U.S. courses No. 51 Whistling Straits and No. 68 Gozzer Ranch, and China’s No. 75 Lake Course in Spring City. They’re also excellent courses, although they’re located near interior bodies of water rather than oceans. The trend is clear: golf design shines brightest at beach settings.
G.C. ROYAL COUNTY DOWN
There is no lovelier spot in golf than our new No. 1 on a bright spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mourne Mountains to the south, and gorse-covered dunes in golden blossom. Old Tom Morris is credited with designing it, although it has been improved by a half-dozen architects over the last 120 years, most recently by Donald Steel. The bunkers, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather, are a definite feature, despite the greens being remarkably level as if to compensate for the difficult topography and countless blind shots.
G.C. AUGUSTA NATIONAL (G.A.)
Augusta National has tinkered with its golf course more than any other club throughout the years, mostly to make it competitive for the annual Master’s Tournament, which it has hosted since 1934, with a break during WWII. The tinkerings have resulted in a mash-up of design ideas, including Alister MacKenzie and Bob Jones routing, Perry Maxwell greens, Trent Jones water hazards, Jack Nicklaus mounds, and substantial lengthening and bunkering by Tom Fazio in the last decade.
G.C. PINE VALLEY (N.J.)
Its one-of-a-kind personality was created amid the sandy pine barrens of southwest Jersey. Architects H.S. Colt, A.W. Tillinghast, George C. Thomas Jr., and Walter Travis assisted founder George Crump. Hugh Wilson, a Merion alumnus, completed the task. Pine Valley incorporates all three schools of golf design — penal, heroic, and strategic – into its layout, frequently on a single hole.
CLUB OF CYPRESS POINT
The masterpiece of Alister MacKenzie braided among Cypress, dunes, and a rocky coastline. In the 2000s, member Sandy Tatum, a former USGA president who dubbed Cypress Point the ”Sistine Chapel of golf,” persuaded the club to celebrate its historic architecture rather than confront technology by building new back tees. So Cypress remains timeless, albeit brief, with the re-establishment of MacKenzie’s sophisticated bunkering contributing to its allure.
G.C. ROYAL DORNOCH (CHAMPIONSHIP)
It was dubbed ”the most natural course in the world” by Herbert Warren Wind. Tom Watson described it as the most enjoyable round of golf he’d ever played. Donald Ross, born in the village and learned the game on the links, referred to it as his home. Dornoch’s greens, largely on plateaus and don’t promote bounce-and-run golf, are tucked in an arc of dunes along the North Sea shoreline, some by Old Tom Morris, others by John Sutherland or tour pro-George Duncan. That is the problem. In a Dornoch wind, he was hitting those greens.
G.C. WINGED FOOT (WEST)
All of the Norway Spruce that previously encircled Winged Foot West’s fairways has vanished. It’s now magnificently open and playable, at least until one gets to the putting surfaces, which are possibly the best set of green contours the versatile architect A.W. Tillinghast ever created, and which are presently being restored to original parameters by architect Gil Hanse. The greens resemble huge mushrooms, twisted and drooping around the edges, demonstrating that Tillinghast was not a nice guy to work with as a course design. In 2020, the U.S. Open will return to Winged Foot West.
G. USE. CAPE KIDNAPPERS
It’s hardly a links course; it’s more like a stratospheric Pebble Beach, perched 500 feet above sea level on a windy plateau. Its 2004 design exemplifies architect Tom Doak’s lay-of-the-land concept, which included drilling tunnels out and back along a sequence of ridges perpendicular to the shoreline, most of which were framed by steep canyons. Although the fairways are vast, Doak rewards aggressive tee shots that flirt with ravines and some of Doak’s deepest bunkers. Cape Kidnappers was also named the International winner of Golf Digest’s 2012 Environmental Leaders in Golf Award.
CABOT CLIFFS (NEW)
Cabot Cliffs are ranked No. 19 on the World 100 Greatest Courses list, just two months after Golf Digest named it the Best New Course of the Year. With its southernmost holes among Lahinch-like dunes and its northernmost craters above Pebble Beach-style seaside cliffs, the amazing Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw design abounds with a variation. There are six par 5s, including three in the space of four holes, six par 3s, and a one-shot bye hole adjoining the fourth in this round. Some tee shots seem to roll forever, as do wayward shots that miss greens, thanks to the same fescue turf mix as its sister course Cabot Links (rated No. 93).