The good folks over at Golf Digest have published their yearly listing of America’s 100 Greatest Courses. It’s actually their Golden Anniversary version and while there is a change at the top most of the courses will be very familiar to golf fans.
Of course another name for this listing might as well be the Courses You’ll Never Get to Play.
Augusta National has supplanted Pine Valley from the top spot and they’ll probably swap the top two slots until the cows come home.
Augusta National
The rest of the top ten are as follows: Cypress Point, Shinnecock Hills, Merion, Oakmont, Pebble Beach, National Golf Links of America, Winged Foot and Fishers Island.
Yes, these are some serious golf courses.
So serious that regular hackers like me will never have a chance to tee it up on them. And maybe that’s the way it should be. We mere hackers would only defile such holy grounds.
All except Pebble Beach are private and with a price tag of $500 bucks Pebble is out of reach for the everyday golfer.
But hope is not lost for us public golfers. Golf Digest gives us America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses so we can tee it up on some of the best…well kind of.
Pebble Beach
The public course list is topped by Pebble Beach of course followed by Tom Doak’s Pacific Dunes, The Ocean Course at Kiawah, Whistling Straights, Pinehurst No.2, Shadow Creek, Bandon Dunes, Erin Hills, Bethpage Black and TPC Sawgrass rounds out the top ten.
Most of them are part of a resort that offer discounts for guests but still are upwards of $300. That is some serious cash for some serious golf.
The only course that is actually affordable is Bethpage Black. New York State residents can get on for $70 while out of staters will need $130 to play this A.W. Tillinghast gem.
Bethpage Black #5
Quality cost money and that’s so very evident in these lists.
It’s still fun to peruse the lists and I do appreciate all the insights Ron Whitten and his crew did in compiling the lists. I imagine playing some of these courses might have been required.
It’s a tough job, someone has to do it. Too bad it’s not me.
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