Ten of the very best golf courses in the US
, The Times
How do you pick your favourite course in a country where there are more than 16,000 to choose from? A good way to start is to find those that have held one of golf’s four annual championships (which most of these have) or leading amateur events. Oakmont, for instance, was the venue for this year’s US Open, held in June, and Augusta National is the site of Masters Championship each April. That testifies to the quality of the courses. Then you look at the architects and find examples of their very best work — Donald Ross at Seminole and Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore at Sand Hills, for example. Because of their exclusivity, few have a website, so I have given telephone numbers, ideally of the pro’s shop. All are, without question, worthy of the considerable effort needed to play them by finding a member or booking through a golf travel agent.
1. Sand Hills, Mullen, Nebraska
My idea of a perfect golf club, set amid miles and miles of sand hills in a remote part of Nebraska where you go solely to play golf. You will probably pass through several time zones to get there. As you look out at one magnificent golf hole after another carved out of the sand hills by Crenshaw and Coore, it is easy to imagine the early settlers rattling across the plains in their Conestoga wagons. Accommodation is in cabins, breakfast and dinner are served in a clubhouse that is modest by US standards and lunch is at a halfway hut where a cowboy in a Stetson and jeans serves enormous burgers. If you know a member don’t ask them to take you — plead with them. I doubt you will be disappointed. It is regularly and deservedly ranked in the top 20 in the world. (+1 308 546 2237)
2. Cypress Point, California
Near Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill golf courses (among others) in the Del Monte Forest, this is located on a spectacular 17-mile drive along Monterey Peninsula. Often described as the greatest meeting of land and sea, it overwhelmed Robert Louis Stevenson on his first visit there. Its 18 holes, dotted within huge expanses of sand, are near the Pacific Ocean. The 16th, a short hole of 230 yards from the back tee across the sea, is spectacular — and difficult. The 9th, a drivable dogleg par 4 that is not much longer at between 245 and 289 yards, requires brain not brawn and is one of my favourite holes in the world. Bob Hope often joked “They had a membership drive at Cypress Point — and got rid of 40 members”. Clint Eastwood was once mayor of the nearby chocolate box town of Carmel in the 1980s. (+1 831 624 2223)
3. Tournament Players Club, Florida
The Stadium course in Sawgrass benefits from annually staging a championship, The Players Championship, which is one of the most competitive events of the year. The late Pete Dye designed the course more than 40 years ago at the behest of Deane Beman, then commissioner of the PGA Tour. Not for nothing is Dye known as Pete Dye-abolical. The most famous green is that of the short 17th, almost completely surrounded by water and every year during the Players it attracts dozens of water balls. Many of the other 17 greens are no picnic either. Play where the stars play might be is the course’s motto. When you do, be grateful for the experience however hard you find the course — and it is hard. (+1 904 273 3430)
4. The Maidstone Club, New York
Located in East Hampton, on the southern shore of Long Island where New York City’s wealthier families retreat in summer, the club refers to itself as “a family-orientated country club”. It hosts a private beach, heated swimming pool, 23 grass, Har-Tru and all-weather tennis courts and croquet lawns, and, of course, a sturdy-looking club house. What makes it stand out, though, is the cracking 18-hole golf course originally designed by Willie Park Jr and updated by Crenshaw and Coore in 2012. Its logo is a whale, appropriately, because the club could scarcely be nearer the Atlantic Ocean than it is. Though only 6,500 yards, the course defends itself with an almost ever-present wind off the sea — and tricky, fast greens. All in all, it’s a delight, as is its longtime head pro professional Eden Foster. (+1 631 324 5530)
5. Shinnecock Hills, New York
Another gem of a links on the east of Long Island, 85 miles from New York City, was one of the five founding members of the United States Golf Association. It is as perfect a pairing of clubhouse and golf course as it is possible to be. Bow down in awe in front of the Stanford White-designed clubhouse sitting on a knoll and then turn round and bow down at the majesty of the difficult, long, treeless, fast-running course that girdles the clubhouse. Shinnecock Hills has hosted the US Open on five occasions, the most recent being in 2018. It is, as most golfers who have trod its greens agree, magnificent. (+1 631 283 3525)
6. Oakmont Country Club, Pittsburgh
WARREN LITTLE/GETTY IMAGES
Known as a steely golf club — because of its location in a suburb of America’s steel city — this is world-class because it is so difficult, one of the most difficult anywhere. For the recent US Open, it had rough grown to five inches and greens that were 14.5 speed, sometimes even higher, on the Stimpmeter, faster than any greens on this side of the Atlantic. It is anything but fancy, with good memorabilia in its entry hall and the aptly-named History Hall relating the history of the nine previous US Opens held there and, soon, after this summer’s, its 10th. Nothing demonstrates the spirit of Oakmont more than the men’s locker rooms. They have no air-conditioning and the wooden benches were installed in 1903 and bear the spikemarks of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Rory McIlroy among others. A proper golf club and course. (+1 412 828 8000)
7. Seminole Golf Club, Florida
This golf course in Juno Beach on the Atlantic coastline is considered one of architect Donald Ross’s best. It has a deserved reputation for being the sort of club many people would like to join but can’t. “You’ve played Seminole?” they say to me. “You lucky man.” Coastal breezes, sometimes stronger, caress a course that is built over several sand dune ridges, one as high as 40ft (which is high in Florida), has fast and tricky greens, some that are elevated and some that are not, as well as two nines that start at the clubhouse. The men’s locker room is exceptional with a bar in one corner, ceiling fans to cool you and steamer chairs to relax in while you look at the honours boards on the walls around you and note names such Hogan, Demaret, Snead. If I expired in the locker room, I wouldn’t mind — particularly if I had played well. (+1 561 626 0280)
8. Pine Valley Golf Club, Philadelphia 
Alongside the Augusta National Golf Club, this is regularly put forward for the top spot in the world rankings. For my sins I have been invited to play PV by a journalist friend and have yet to take up his offer. Am I mad? Am I looking a gift horse in the mouth? Probably. But I played it once years ago and even stayed there when there were only two of us in the clubhouse overnight. Before going to bed, I practised my putting down a corridor outside my bedroom. The next morning I teed off under the eyes of numerous members who had gathered under the misapprehension that because I wrote for The Sunday Times, I could also play golf. That did not end well. If a member invites you to play there, drop everything and go. (+1 856 783 3000)
9. Kittansett Golf Club, Massachusetts
A few years ago I met fellow members of the Erratics Golf Society, a South Wales-based society, at Kittansett for a tour of the east coast. My taxi driver from Boston airport was unsure as to where Kittansett was. After 45 minutes of steady driving, we eventually pulled up outside a low-slung building with the tang of the sea in the air. In the morning I awoke to appreciate the beauty of the club and its breathtaking position at the end of Butler Point, a peninsula that juts out into Buzzards Bay. Its name comes from two native American words meaning “near the sea”. It’s more British than many British seaside golf courses and the sea is visible from many holes. In the 1953 Walker Cup match against the US, the Great Britain and Ireland captain sportingly declined to implement a rule of golf that would have favoured his team. The local paper greeted that decision the next morning with a headline that read “Great Britain waives the rules”. (+1 508 748 0192)
10. Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia
DAVID CANNON/GETTY IMAGES
You thought I had forgotten the world’s second most famous golf club after St Andrews? How could I? I covered my 43rd Masters there last April and am still overawed by the place — by the tree that spreads outside the clubhouse, by the rise and fall in elevation (the 10th tee is nearly 150ft above the lowest point of the course), the naming of holes after a flower or shrub, the attention to detail. When a tree fell near the 16th green during a Masters a few years ago, all signs of it were gone the next morning. You will need to befriend a member to play there and to be on your best behaviour if and when you do. But do try. You will not be disappointed, particularly if you can play the Par-3 course as well. It’s a life-enhancing experience. (+1 706 667 6000)
Three of the best golf travel agents
• Marty Carr of Carr Golf, carrgolf.com
• GolfBreaks.com +44 1753754350
• YourGolfTravel.com 08000436644
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