Check out these A.W. Tillinghast courses open to the public.
With the U.S. Amateur this week at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey, fans have their latest in a string of opportunities to see the work of Hall of Fame architect A.W. Tillinghast. After about a century — and with some celebrated restorations — many of these tracks still provide stern championship tests. As with most of Golfweek’s Best top classic courses, they stir something in the soul.
And although most of Tillie’s gems are behind private gates, public golfers need neither highfalutin connections nor deep pockets to experience the old genius’ nuances.
First among options is the cathedral of municipal golf, Bethpage State Park on Long Island. Bethpage has the highest concentration of publicly available Tillinghast holes anywhere. All five courses on the property have at least some Tillie holes. While the major-championship mainstay Black Course garners most of the attention, the state park as a whole offers a comprehensive view of Tillinghast’s ability to design holes for players of all abilities across varying topography.
The best of the best. State-by-state rankings of the best U.S. private golf courses in 2022.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of top private golf courses in the U.S., as judged by our international panel of raters.
The hundreds of members of that ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings.
All the courses on this list are private and don’t accept daily-fee or resort play.
KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
Golfweek’s raters have ranked the top 200 courses built in the United States before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses before 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Classic Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Modern Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino
* Indicates new to or returning to this list.
Editor’s note:The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for the top 200 layouts built after 1960 in the U.S. was published Monday, May 23. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.
Modern designers are restoring and often rethinking Great Hazards, those giant cross bunkers with oversized impact on strategy.
One of early American golf architecture’s most dramatic design features is being reinvigorated for the modern game.
Inner-circle Hall of Fame architect A.W. Tillinghast pioneered the “Great Hazard,” a massive expanse of wasteland usually set in the middle of a par 5. He often coupled this with a smaller but still gnarly bunker complex at the front of the green. In combination, this system demands a series of great shots, whether the player is going for the green in two, three or even four strokes.
The smallest imprecision off the tee forces the player to recalculate the odds all along the way. Four shots, including a punch-out and back-to-back layups, may be required to hopscotch up to the green. The overconfident player who mismanages the percentages could be in for a huge number.
But over the past century, players and equipment have evolved to the point that many of the original Great Hazards no longer threaten the tactical headlocks their creator intended. Longer hitters simply blast over the wasteland to set up an approach with a lofted club over the greenside bunker complex.
That’s why architect Gil Hanse, who has restored about a half-dozen Tillinghast designs in New York and New Jersey, made major changes to No. 17 on Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course. Hanse moved the network of fairway-interrupting bunkers and tall-grass islands downrange some 40 yards, with the leftmost portion potentially gobbling drives and the rightmost path offering the most aggressive line to the green. Either way, it’s a big carry out of or over the hazard.
“When you have big hazards, they ask big questions,” Hanse said. “They ask you to make big decisions. In this day and age, accomplished golfers were able to drive it into the (Great Hazard). That’s why the shift occurred. If you get out of position, now the positioning of the hazard is you have to hit a monumentally good shot to get over.”
Indeed, be anywhere but perfect and you’re blocked out and hitting sideways, setting up a third shot with a long iron or wood, uphill to a raised, multi-tiered green with intimidating bunkers in front and left. Throw in three bunkers that protect the second layup area, and it makes a hole the pros might not often birdie when the PGA Championship returns to Baltusrol in 2029.
Hanse said the original hazard at Baltusrol had become smaller over time. He used Tillinghast’s plans and photos from the early years to reestablish the scale and dimensions of the original work, but he moved it to the new, more strategically demanding position.
The Great Hazard on. No. 17 on Baltusrol’s Lower Course (Courtesy of Baltusrol/Evan Schiller)
“Moving the Great Hazard exemplified Gil Hanse’s statement of a ‘sympathetic restoration,’ ” said Baltusrol club president Matt Wirths, who worked closely with Hanse on the exacting details of the project. “It restored a signature design element of a Tillinghast course, but in a way that recognizes the changes that have taken place since the original hole was built.”
And it’s not just Baltusrol. Great Hazard holes are being rediscovered, reinvented and stiffened at courses around the country.
Michael Muehr claimed the Crump Cup at Pine Valley for the fourth time.
Michael Muehr defeated Stewart Hagestad, 3 and 2, to win the 96th annual Crump Memorial Tournament at exclusive Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey.
Muehr, of McLean, Virginia, was the No. 8 seed after shooting 6-over 150 for 36 holes in stroke-play qualifying, but then dominated his opponents to win the prestigious mid-amateur invitational for the fourth time.
Muehr, who won the Crump Cup Open Division in 2008, 2014 and 2019, the last time the competition was held due to COVID-19, beat John Sawin of Pebble Beach, California, 3 and 2, in a morning semifinal match. Hagestad, of Newport Beach, California, and a member of the victorious U.S. Walker Cup team earlier this year, edged Jason Anthony of Fairfield, California, in the other semifinal.
Mike McCoy of Norwalk, Iowa, edged Matthew Sughrue of Arlington, Virginia, 2 and 1, to win the Senior Crump Cup. McCoy became the sixth player to win both the tournament’s Open and Senior divisions.
Jeronimo Esteve earned medalist honors in the top flight of the Crump Cup at famed Pine Valley.
Jeronimo Esteve of Windermere, Florida, shot 71 and earned medalist honors with a 36-hole score of 141 in the Open Division of the 96th annual George Arthur Crump Memorial Tournament at Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey. Esteve will face three-time champion Michael Muehr of McLean, Virginia in Saturday morning’s first round of match play. (Scores and draw listed below.)
Defending Senior champion Gene Elliott of West Des Moines, Iowa, and Michael Kelley of Westerville, Ohio, shared Senior medalist honors with a 36-hole total of 145. Elliott, winner of the U.S. and British Senior Amateurs this year, will play Marty West of Rockville, Maryland, and Kelley will take on Bob Kain of Cleveland in first round matches.
Amateurs Sarah Ingram and Meghan Stasi join Annika Sorenstam as the first women on the roster at elite Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey.
Annika Sorenstam will be one of the first three female members of Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey, joining amateur champions Sarah Ingram and Meghan Stasi.
The club notified its members via email Friday morning, Golf Digest reported. Club president Jim Davis told members in May that it planned to begin accepting women members who were accomplished players. The club was one of a handful remaining in the U.S. that don’t accept women members.
The very private Pine Valley is the No. 1-ranked course on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts built before 1960, and it is the highest-rated course in all of Golfweek’s Best database for courses around the world. Pine Valley was designed by George Crump and Harry S. Colt and opened in 1914 as an 11-hole layout that was completed several years later.
Previously, women had limited playing opportunities at Pine Valley, allowed to play only on Sunday afternoons. That changed in May, and the first tee is open to women without restrictions.
Meghan Stasi, pictured at the 2015 South Atlantic Amateur (Sally) in Ormond Beach, Fla., will be one of the first three women members of Pine Valley. (Golfweek files)
Sorenstam won the last of her 10 women’s major championships 15 years ago this week at the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. The 50-year-old briefly came out of retirement in February this year and made the cut in the Gainbridge LPGA event at her home club of Lake Nona in Orlando, and she played in the Scandinavian Mixed in June. She plans to play the U.S. Women’s Senior Open on July 29-August 1 at Brooklawn Country Club in Connecticut.
Sarah Ingram, pictured at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Golf Club of Tennessee, will be one of the first three women members of Pine Valley. (Golfweek files)
The other two new women members of Pine Valley are both accomplished amateurs. Ingram was an All-American at Duke, won three U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs among many other events and will captain the U.S. team at the Curtis Cup in August in Wales. Stasi played at Tulane and has won four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs among many other events.
The top 200 classic golf courses built before 1960. The list includes Augusta National, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach and Pine Valley.
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2021 list of the top 200 Classic Courses, built before 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Classic Courses and the accompanying Top 200 Modern Courses lists being the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Each course is then ranked against other courses to produce the final rankings.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the top 200 Modern or the top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium top-200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The top 100 courses also note in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2020. After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
Which private golf clubs in the U.S. are best? A state-by-state ranking of the best, as judged by Golfweek’s group of experts.
Where’s the best private golf in each state? With this list of Golfweek’s Best Private Courses, we present the best such layouts, as judged by our nationwide network of raters.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Each course is then ranked against other courses in its state to produce the final rankings.
KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. (For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.) * Indicates new or returning to the rankings.
Citing the desire to get “on the right side of history,” the exclusive Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey votes to accept women members.
Pine Valley Golf Club, citing the urge to be “on the right side of history,” voted Friday to begin accepting women members, according to a report.
The very private Pine Valley in New Jersey is the No. 1-ranked course on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts built before 1960, and it is the highest-rated courses in all of Golfweek’s Best database for courses around the world. Pine Valley was designed by George Crump and Harry S. Colt and opened in 1914 as an 11-hole layout that was completed several years later.
Golf.com reported that the club notified members via email that at an annual meeting of trustees and members, the club voted to remove all gender-specific language from its bylaws.
Previously, women had limited playing opportunities, allowed to play only on Sunday afternoons. That has changed, and the first tee will be open to women without restrictions.
Pine Valley Golf Club is the highest-rated Classic Course in the United States. (Jim Walsh, Courier-Post)
Club president Jim Davis wrote to members that “The future of golf must move toward inclusion and I am pleased to report that the Trustees and members of Pine Valley Golf Club voted unanimously and with enthusiasm to remove all gender-specific language from our bylaws.”
The club expects to have its first women members by the end of the year, according to the report.
Private golf clubs in the United States are allowed to discriminate based on sex, but most have changed their bylaws to allow women. Augusta National Golf Club, for example, opened its membership to women in 2012 – Augusta was No. 3 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for 2020 and is the home annually of the Masters Tournament.
