Prestigious Perry and Press Maxwell design in Kansas to host two more USGA Championships

A prestigious heartland course is back in the USGA rotation after it was announced it will host a pair of future championships

An esteemed heartland course that’s hosted several top golf tournaments in the past is back in the USGA rotation after an announcement Tuesday that it will host a pair of future championships.

Prairie Dunes Country Club, in Hutchinson, Kansas, will be the host site for the 2029 U.S. Senior Open and 2032 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, the USGA announced. Hosting high-profile events is nothing new for the course, as these tournaments will mark the ninth and 10th time the Perry Maxwell treasure will host a USGA Championship, although the last came in 2006.

“The USGA is pleased to reunite with Prairie Dunes Country Club and continue what has been a long and mutually beneficial partnership that began nearly 60 years ago,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championships officer. “We know that Prairie Dunes, its surrounding community and the entire state of Kansas will be thoroughly engaged in hosting the best senior players from around the world. In addition, Prairie Dunes remains committed in its support of both amateur and professional competition.”

The private club’s layout dates to a 1937 design by Maxwell, one of the most underappreciated of the Golden Age designers. The native Oklahoman was famous for his inventive greens contours – “Maxwell’s rolls,” as they were called – and for shaping crumpled land into fascinating playing ground that had to be interpreted and negotiated. Prairie Dunes, 55 miles northwest of Wichita and with a very modest membership, originally was only a nine-hole course; its routing was expanded by Perry’s son, J. Press Maxwell, in 1957.

In 1958, Jack Nicklaus made one of his first marks on the national golf scene at Prairie Dunes, winning the Trans Mississippi Men’s Amateur in Hutchinson. Since Nicklaus captured that championship, Prairie Dunes has hosted marquee events regularly. The course’s reputation has grown, and it’s routinely ranked highly. In fact, it was recently ranked the top private golf course in Kansas by Golfweek’s Best state-by-state rankings and it is No. 11 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses built before 1960.

Prairie Dunes has hosted five Trans-Mississippi Amateurs. Three times (most recently in 1991) the U.S. Women’s Amateur was played in Hutchinson. Also, Prairie Dunes was the venue for a Curtis Cup, a U.S. Mid-Amateur and a U.S. Senior Amateur.

Juli Simpson Inkster with the trophy after winning the 1980 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas. (Copyright unknown/Courtesy USGA Archives)

In 2002, Prairie Dunes landed the 57th U.S. Women’s Open. Hall of Fame golfer Juli Inkster engraved her name on the trophy for a second time that year when she topped the legendary Annika Sorenstam by two strokes. Inkster was no stranger to Prairie Dunes as well. Twenty-two years prior, Inkster captured the 1980 U.S. Women’s Amateur in Hutchinson.

Four years later, the United States Golf Association returned to Hutchinson for the U.S. Senior Open at Prairie Dunes. Allen Doyle snagged his second consecutive championship with a two-stroke win over native Kansan Tom Watson. Doyle also held off the likes of longtime tour staples Bruce Lietzke and Peter Jacobsen.

The Hutchinson club also hosted the NCAA Men’s Championship in 2014, which was won by the Alabama Crimson Tide, and hosted the Big 12 Championship for the 13th time last spring.

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Check the yardage book: Colonial Country Club for the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers a hole-by-hole course guide for Colonial Country Club for the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge.

Colonial Country Club – site of the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour – opened in 1936 with a course designed by John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell. The layout in Fort Worth, Texas, was the home course to Ben Hogan for a time and has hosted a PGA Tour event since 1946.

Colonial ties for No. 85 on Golfweek’s Best list of all classic courses built in the U.S. before 1960. It also is No. 4 in Texas on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses in each state.

The layout will play to 7,209 yards with a par of 70 for this year’s event.

The course is scheduled to undergo a $20 million renovation by the design team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner as soon as this year’s event ends. Completion of the work is planned before the PGA Tour event returns in 2024.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at Colonial.

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Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Oklahoma

The top two public-access golf courses in Oklahoma ignite a college rivalry, while the state’s best private layout is a major veteran.

The top two public-access golf courses in Oklahoma bring out a college rivalry, Cowboys versus Sooners.

No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in Oklahoma is Karsten Creek in Stillwater, a Tom Fazio-designed layout that serves as the home course for the Oklahoma State golf teams. Opened in 1994, Karsten Creek was named for Ping Golf founder Karsten Solheim, and the course plays around Lake Louise, named for Solheim’s wife.

No. 2 on that list is Jimmie Austin Golf Club at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The club originally was laid out by Perry Maxwell and opened in 1951, and it was reworked by Bob Cupp in 1996 and again by Tripp Davis in 2017.

On the private side, Southern Hills in Tulsa takes the top spot. Designed by Perry Maxwell in 1936 and restored by Gil Hanse in 2019, Southern Hills has been host to a slate of top tournaments including three U.S. Opens (1958, ’77 and ’01) as well as five PGA Championships (1970, ’82, ’94, ’07 and ’22).

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Oklahoma’s private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses. 

* New to or returning to list

PGA Championship: Southern Hills’ first tee is so close to pro shop, it’s like teeing off from the clubhouse patio

If the first tee shot was any closer to the Southern Hills pro shop, they’d have to open a window to play through.

When the PGA Championship blasts off the first tee Thursday at Southern Hills Country Club, the television and streaming cameras will be sure to focus on the great view downhill to the opening fairway and the long views of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Coverage may also show a rarity that makes that first shot at Southern Hills special: The opening hole features a back tee box that is certainly among the closest tees to a clubhouse found anywhere. The design almost makes golfers feel as if they are teeing off from the clubhouse patio.

How close is it? During normal member play, you can almost hear the cash register in the pro shop and feel the air conditioning when the doors to the shop are opened. It’s not more than 10 steps from the pro shop door, across a small wall adorned with shrubs and flowers.

Southern Hills: Yardage book | ESPN+ streaming | How to watch info

Southern Hills
A view of the first tee and stands at Southern Hills from near the pro shop door (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)

There are other examples in championship golf of tees close to the clubhouse. Merion, Pebble Beach, Oakmont and Riviera spring to mind. But with the stands and the edge of the building wrapped around the players, there might not be such an intimate gathering spot for a first tee as at Southern Hills. If players were much closer to the building, they’d need to open a window to play through.

Of course, most members don’t play that back tee box, which stretches the hole to 468 yards for the PGA. The regular tee is down the hill a bit and across a cart path, sparing members the possible indignity of rocketing one off in a weird direction from so close to the clubhouse.

A golfer prepares to tee off the regular members tee on No. 1 at Southern Hills Country Club in April, before the course’s rough came out of dormancy. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

For the PGA Championship, the back tee also will feature an adjacent set of stands built atop what is normally a practice green. It will be a tight area, with the stands and the clubhouse pinching around the teeing area, perhaps adding a few extra nerves to anybody not used to teeing off in the national championship.

Also nearby is the tee for No. 10, which sits atop the hill just to the side of the clubhouse with that par 4 playing off to the right in relation to No. 1. Players on Nos. 1 and 10 likely will have to coordinate who swings when to make sure they don’t distract each other. All in all, a very busy spot.

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PGA Championship: Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner return Southern Hills to Perry Maxwell greatness

The modern design duo focused on restoring the classic features of Southern Hills.

TULSA, Oklahoma – Perry Maxwell was an Oklahoma golf legend, a banker-turned-architect who designed dozens of courses in the Sooner State and beyond. Best known for his challenging, undulating greens, Maxwell worked – as either principal architect, collaborator or renovator – on many of America’s top-rated courses.

Augusta National, Merion, Crystal Downs and Prairie Dunes – each ranked in the top 15 among Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses in the United States – were among the beneficiaries of Maxwell’s touch.

His design tally, of course, includes Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, site of this year’s PGA Championship. Opened in 1936, Southern Hills has been host to a slew of championships ranging from the U.S. Women’s Open to the Senior PGA Championship and counts among its men’s majors four past PGA Championships (1970, ’82, ’94 and ’07) and three U.S. Opens (’58, ’77 and ’01). It sits at No. 1 among private courses in Oklahoma in Golfweek’s Best rankings, and it is No. 38 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S.

Southern Hills: Yardage book | Aerial shots and drone footage

No. 12 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. (Gabe Gudgel/Golfweek)

And thanks to 2019 restoration and renovation efforts by the architecture team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, Southern Hills will again display in full grandeur Maxwell’s brilliant routing and sometimes infuriating greens during this year’s PGA Championship.

“We’re excited about the work we did there,” said Hanse, who in recent years has become known as a go-to expert in restoring major-championship courses . “Perry Maxwell’s routing was absolutely brilliant. I don’t know how you could lay a golf course better on that piece of property. The variety, the character, just the way the holes seem to fit perfectly there. And the features, primarily the greens and how good they were and what interesting targets they were and the level of precision required to play good golf at Southern Hills – it struck us as being really, really high quality.”

Photos: Southern Hills Country Club for the PGA Championship

Check out the photos of a recently restored Southern Hills Country Club heading into the PGA Championship.

TULSA, Okla. – The PGA Championship visits Southern Hills Country Club for the fifth time this week, giving the club a chance to show off a recent restoration by architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner.

Originally designed by Perry Maxwell and opened in 1936, Southern Hills is No. 1 among private courses in Oklahoma in Golfweek’s Best rankings, and it is No. 38 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The rolling layout has been host to four PGA Championships (1970, ’82, ’94 and ’07) and three U.S. Opens (’58, ’77 and ’01), among many other elite competitions.

Check out the photos below, some provided by the PGA of America (Gary W. Kellner) and the rest by Golfweek’s Gabe Gudgel and Jason Lusk.

Check the yardage book: Southern Hills for the 2022 PGA Championship

Take a closer look at this week’s major championship host thanks to StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps.

TULSA, Okla. – Southern Hills Country Club, site of this week’s PGA Championship for a fifth time, was designed by Perry Maxwell and opened in 1936.

The course has been renovated multiple times by the likes of Robert Trent Jones and Keith Foster, and in 2019 Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner wrapped up work on a restoration that put much of Maxwell’s original intent back into the layout.

Southern Hills has been host to a slew of championships ranging from the U.S. Women’s Open to the Senior PGA Championship and counts among its men’s majors four past PGA Championships (1970, ’82, ’94 and ’07) and three U.S. Opens (’58, ’77 and ’01).

The layout is No. 1 among private courses in Oklahoma in Golfweek’s Best rankings, and it is No. 38 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.