Our employees’s 9 favourite spots

Final week, GOLF launched its newest rating of the Prime 100 Programs You Can Play, a sturdy listing of spots accessible to Common Joe golfers throughout the globe. Everybody has their favorites, and so will we. In an effort to tell, educate and encourage you on your subsequent golf getaway, right here’s our staffers’ picks for favourite Prime 100 public programs performed.

Prime 100 Programs You Can Play: Our employees’s 9 favorites

Sand Valley (Sedge Valley), Nekoosa, Wis.

Pacific Dunes nonetheless stays my favourite public course I’ve ever performed, however you already know all about Pacific Dunes, so as an alternative I’m going to focus on a brand new possibility, Sedge Valley at Sand Valley Golf Resort, which not too long ago opened and was one of many most memorable rounds I’ve performed in years. The course is enjoyable, strategic and playable and boasts one of the crucial thrilling 18th holes I can keep in mind. — Josh Berhow

Kiawah Island, Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, S.C.

Kiawah Island is a surprising mixture of magnificence and treachery at each flip. Not like many marsh areas across the Lowcountry, the marshes at Kiawah Island are just about unplayable. That mentioned, there’s a number of room to play with should you miss on the correct facet, which was stunning to me. When a serious is there, the tough is allowed to develop and introduced in tighter to the green, however for normal resort play, it’s very playable should you begin from the fitting tees. The views of the Atlantic Ocean simply steps away had been unbelievable and the ocean breeze made shot-making a blast. The double-dogleg ending gap is without doubt one of the extra enjoyable par-4s I’ve performed shortly (and never simply because I made birdie). — Jack Hirsh

Kapalua (Plantation), Lahaina, Hawaii

By way of setting, Kapalua’s Plantation course is tough to high. I’ve performed it twice, each instances to commemorate particular events: my high-school commencement, and my honeymoon. The course’s attract is clear: You’re in Maui; that’s euphoria-inducing proper off the bat. It could be a resort course, however Plantation is hard — particularly when the wind blows. And people elevation modifications are not any joke! However these views, man. What can evaluate? From the very first tee shot to the well-known 18th, it’s merely a pleasure to expertise. — Jessica Marksbury

Tot Hill Farm, Asheboro, N.C.

Nestled within the Uwharrie Mountains of Asheboro is Tot Hill Farm, one among North Carolina’s greatest stored secrets and techniques. Famously designed by Mike Stranz, this course challenges every thing about course technique with its dramatic slopes, arduous fairways, thrilling danger/reward alternatives and demanding greens. Every gap requires a special strategy but in addition brings a brand new journey. One among my favourite issues about this course is that Stranz managed to save lots of and incorporate items of the previous cattle farm it was constructed on into his design. That features the farmhouse that he lived in whereas designing this unbelievable course, which you’ll stroll by earlier than or after your spherical. — Maddi MacClurg

Taconic Golf Membership, Williamstown, Mass.

It’s laborious to think about a extra biased entry than this one; I performed my faculty golf at Williams, which owns Taconic. However that doesn’t imply I’m fallacious. It simply means I do know the precise pleasure of getting out of sophistication at 2:25, jogging the jiffy down Spring Avenue and attending to the primary tee for a 2:40 time. It means I do know the view again into city from the eighth tee, the tops of the centuries-old red-brick dorms peeking over the bushes, the domed hockey rink beside them, the lights from the soccer subject within the foreground, the white church steeple within the distance. It means I do know the race in opposition to daylight on an October night, gray within the sky however orange within the bushes. It means I do know the quirky maneuvering of the entrance 9 and the brutish check that awaits when you hit No. 10. And it means I do know the enjoyment of standing on the 14th tee, the place a younger Jack Nicklaus as soon as made an ace, and staring out at a 270-degree view of rural New England perfection. What a spot. — Dylan Dethier

Pinehurst No. 4, Pinehurst, N.C.

No. 4 is without doubt one of the most beloved programs at Pinehurst Resort for a cause. It’s enjoyable and forgiving — nice for mid-handicappers like myself searching for a rewarding spherical. — Connor Federico

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Pasatiempo, Santa Cruz, Calif.

Most of us won’t ever get to play Augusta Nationwide, however that doesn’t imply we are able to’t take pleasure in a few of Alister MacKenzie’s work. In actual fact, should you head to Santa Cruz, Calif., anybody can play on one among his greatest programs in Pasatiempo. The likes of Pebble Seaside and Cypress Level may get many of the pub within the space, however simply 50 miles north you’ll be able to play a course that holds its personal in opposition to them each. Better of all? It’s open to the general public. Not solely does the course boast a few of the greatest bunkering you’ll ever see, it additionally has one of many coolest logos in golf. Play it as soon as and also you’ll be dying to return again for extra. — Zephyr Melton

George Wright, Boston, Mass.

My fondness for George Wright is inconceivable to separate from my first recollections of it. In my late teenagers, once I took up golf, this was one of many munis the place I realized to play. Its pedigree again then was misplaced on me, after all. For those who’d requested me in these days what I knew of Donald Ross, I may need guessed that he was Diana Ross’s dad. Some 40 years have handed, although, and whereas my recreation has not improved a lot, my appreciation for structure has. Like a number of nice layouts of its classic, George Wright doesn’t beat you up with size. However it wins you over with its many quirks and charms. It has nifty doglegs, cool granite outcrops flanking its fairways and blind pictures that tumble towards compelling inexperienced complexes. Its closing stretch is pretty much as good as any in municipal golf, and the height fee for 18 holes is $62. Does our Prime 100 listing characteristic “higher” designs? Completely. However George Wright is the place I fell in love with a recreation that has given me a livelihood, served up a lifetime of indelible moments and provided me with a caddie yard-worth of buddies. To measure a course on structure deserves solely is to lose sight of what golf is all about. — Josh Sens

Lawsonia (Hyperlinks), Inexperienced Lake, Wis.

OK, to be upfront, the handful of programs on this listing that I’ve been lucky sufficient to play are all chic. However I feel it says one thing that my longtime golf gang and I hold returning to Lawsonia for our yearly gathering, regardless of the same old discuss of we must always go right here or there subsequent yr. Hyperlinks makes you suppose, however not fear. It’s demanding, however not punishing. It rewards good pictures, however doesn’t soften you should you duff one. And it’s simply purdy to have a look at. However that’s simply the course. The Woodlands course, the opposite 18 on the property, is nice. (Remember to ask the place the home of the Culver’s founder is!) The on-site restaurant and meals stand on the flip are nice. (Brats!) Inexperienced Lake, the lake named after town Lawsonia is in, is nice. (The Heidel Home has a beautiful breakfast buffet!) So yeah, as a lot as we’re fascinated by going some place else subsequent yr, we don’t need to mess with a beautiful factor. — Nick Piastowski

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