Charlie Woods is going to have to wait to play in the U.S. Open.
Charlie Woods is going to have to wait to play in the U.S. Open.
The 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods played Thursday in local qualifying for the United States Golf Association’s national championship, set for June 13-16 at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. Charlie played at The Legacy Golf & Tennis Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and he shot 9-over 81.
Charlie’s round featured a bogey on his opening hole, the par-4 first. He then doubled the par-5 second. A pair of pars followed before his lone birdie on the front, but another double the next hole, the par-4 sixth, had him turn in 4-over 40.
On the back nine, he had another double, three bogeys and five pars for a 41.
Only the top-five placers and two alternates will advance out of local qualifying.
With his appearance in the PGA Tour pre-qualifier and U.S. Open local qualifying, it shouldn’t be surprising to see the young Woods attempt to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills or the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine later this summer. His dad won both events three times.
The youngest entrant this year is 12-year-old Beck Patrick, while the oldest is 74-year-old Keith Crimp.
For the third time in history, the United States Golf Association has accepted more than 10,000 entries for the U.S. Open.
Golf’s governing body in the States announced Thursday that 10,052 entries have been accepted for the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, June 13-16. All 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., and 70 countries will be represented in qualifying for this year’s championship.
The record for entries was set last year when 10,187 were accepted for the championship at Los Angeles Country Club. The second-most entries were accepted in 2014 (10,127), the last time the U.S Open was held at Pinehurst No. 2.
“The U.S. Open’s two-stage qualifying process is unique among major championships in that it provides thousands of professional and amateur golfers worldwide an opportunity to earn a place in the 156-player field,” said USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer. “The USGA is excited to once again showcase Pinehurst Resort and Country Club’s Course No. 2 while welcoming fans to what has become the home of American golf.”
Local qualifying will take place April 22-May 20 and feature 18 holes of play at 109 sites across 44 states and Canada. Players who advance will join a group of locally exempt players in final qualifying, which will be conducted over 36 holes at 10 U.S. and three international sites on May 20 and June 3 (location depending). Eligible players must have a Handicap Index not exceeding 0.4 or be a professional.
The youngest entrant this year is 12-year-old Beck Patrick from Houston. Keith Crimp, a 74-year-old amateur from Ellensburg, Washington, is the oldest entrant.
There are currently 52 golfers who are already fully exempt into the 2024 U.S. Open, including past champions Wyndham Clark (2023), Matt Fitzpatrick (2022), Jon Rahm (2021), Bryson DeChambeau (2020), Gary Woodland (2019), Brooks Koepka (2017, 2018), Dustin Johnson (2016), Jordan Spieth (2015) Martin Kaymer (2014), Rory McIlroy (2011), and Lucas Glover (2009).
There are 14 local qualifying sites in California, the most of any state. Florida is second with 13 local qualifiers.
On Monday the United States Golf Association announced the local and final qualifying sites for the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, June 13-16, 2024.
Online player registration begins on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at champs.usga.org and will continue through Wednesday, April 13. Players must have a Handicap Index not exceeding 0.4, or be a professional.
There will be 109 local qualifying sites across the United States and Canada, April 22-May 20. For the 45th consecutive year, Illini Country Club in Springfield, Illinois, will hold a U.S. Open qualifier. Riverton (Wyoming) Country Club and Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert, California, will host local qualifying for the 26th and 23rd years, respectively. There are 14 local qualifying sites in California, the most of any state. Florida is second with 13 local qualifiers.
Players who advance from 18-hole local qualifiers will join a group of exempt players in final qualifying, which will be conducted over 36 holes. International final stages will be held in England and Japan (May 20) and Canada (June 3). Nine final qualifiers in the U.S. will end on June 3, with one set for May 20. One local qualifying site in Texas and Massachusetts will be added at a later date.
The USGA accepted a record 10,187 entries for the 2023 championship at Los Angeles Country Club. The previous mark of 10,127 entries was established for the 2014 championship held at Pinehurst No. 2. The famed course in the Carolina sandhills, now an anchor site for the USGA, is hosting for a fourth time this year and will also host in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.
Check out the dates and locations for all 2024 U.S. Open local and final qualifying sites below.
All those descriptions and plenty more have been used in recent decades to describe the golf courses designed by the late Mike Strantz, whose layouts might best be described as fun for players looking for something completely different, classical orthodoxy be damned.
Having sharpened his pencil as a design associate to Tom Fazio, Strantz created or renovated only nine courses that bear his name as lead designer, most of them in his native Carolinas or nearby Virginia. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 50, a victim of cancer. A hands-on designer, he would spend weeks walking sites or exploring on horseback with a can of spray paint to mark features he either wanted to incorporate or build into the landscape.
Trained in studio art, Strantz would hand-sketch in great detail each hole of a course before it was built, then lead his team of shapers in making his art come to life. Those golf holes often include nearly impossible-to-reach hole locations, wild bunkering, extreme greens, eye-popping mounding and dramatic slopes – all elements beloved by a growing cadre of adventure-seeking golfers.
Mike Strantz’s detailed sketches of the holes at Tot Hill Farm now decorate the new clubhouse, a refurbished farm house that replaced a trailer that was the previous clubhouse. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Imagine their despair when one of Strantz’s courses falls into disrepair, as happened with several of his layouts, especially in the wake of an industry-wide financial struggle starting in 2008.
Tot Hill Farm Golf Club in Asheboro, North Carolina, is one such example, having opened in 2000 but its former operators lacking the revenues to maintain and present the course as Strantz intended. Trees choked out fairways and strategic lines, bunker edges crumbled and playing surfaces suffered in recent years.
But that all started to change early in 2022 when native South Carolinian Pat Barber bought the course and amenities. Already the owner of two courses nearer the coast in the state – The Links at Stono Ferry and The Plantation Course at Edisto – Barber recognized an opportunity to restore Tot Hill Farm as acclaim for Strantz’s designs continues to grow, especially with the increasing popularity of the nearby Strantz-designed Tobacco Road.
“Working with the course itself, the overall natural beauty, that really attracted us to the property,” said Greg Wood, the director of operations for all three of Barber’s course. “I’ve seen Mike in video interviews saying that he felt this was one of the best pieces of properties that he got to use in his design work. All we could see was the potential.”
A restoration of Tot Hill began in the spring of 2022, and it’s easy now to say this layout has rejoined the brief list of can’t-miss Strantz designs. It would be oversight for any Strantz fan to head to the nearby golf mecca of Pinehurst or the Carolina coast and miss the incredible amount of work that has gone into turning around the rolling and rollicking Tot Hill Farm.
The site always held so much promise. With more than 250 of feet of elevation change and boulders littering the landscape, the holes frequently heave up, down and across rambling creeks, the greens often perched perfectly into hillsides. The whole place just needed somebody to come along and scrape away 20 years of hard times.
More than 1,500 trees were cleared, re-establishing fairway widths and playing lines. Several arbitrary bunkers that weren’t part of Strantz’s design were removed, and his original traps were reinvigorated. Players must plot their way around them, and with the corridors having been widened, there are choices available instead of the previous condition of bowling alley tightness between the branches that choked out shot selection as well the health of the turf.
The green at the par-5 fifth at Tot Hill Farm is shaped like no other putting surface this author has seen, with a tiny portion in the front that rises abruptly to a much larger back section. The shape leads to this green earning some unusual nicknames – think juvenile humor, but be sure to lay up well to the right on the second shot if you plan to hit it. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
The greens were rebuilt and surfaced with Prizm Zoysia, a new strain of grass that promises to withstand Asheboro’s cold winters that are too frigid for Bermuda grass and the hot summers that are too steamy for bent grass to thrive. The new surfaces are still growing in, but during a late-fall round they had started to pick up some steam and promise even more to come. An interesting fact about this strain of zoysia: The grass covering is so dense, it’s almost impossible to leave a pitch mark on a green, and that same characteristic is promising for the preferred firm and bouncy conditions.
Wood is quick to call all the work a restoration effort, not a renovation. Crews worked in painstaking detail to put back what Strantz had intended, frequently using the architect’s hand-drawings – those sketches now decorate the new clubhouse that has been created in an idyllic old farmhouse, replacing a trailer that served that function before. The restorers also had access to more than 40 hours of construction video featuring the original design.
“Over time, we figured out how it’s supposed to be,” Wood, a longtime PGA of America member, said of Strantz’s design which is a likely contender for future inclusion among Golfweek’s Best public-access courses in North Carolina. “And for somebody like me, figuring out the puzzle and the why – even now, as I walk a hole, I’ll find something new.”
Playing Tot Hill is a mixture of various wows and walking on eggshells, so far as the scorecard goes. Strantz clearly wasn’t interested in building easy golf, and several holes prove Tot Hill is no exception. Much like Tobacco Road just more than an hour’s drive away, Tot Hill Farm in particular punishes wayward approach shots, the greens frequently seeming to shrug off approach shots with a “not-good-enough” attitude.
The green of the par-3 third at Tot Hill Farm sits over a creek that wraps tightly behind the putting surface as well, with the back portion of the green guarded by a hill and a deep bunker. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Strantz included sections on several greens that might prove inaccessible to all but a tour player’s towering precision. The skinny back right hole location on the par-3 third hole, hidden behind sand aside a hill with a creek just steps off the back, will likely prove to an average player to be a no-go.
Another thrilling tear-jerker is the drop-down rear portion of the 10th green before the putting surface tumbles steeply downhill to form a double green with No. 12, the center portion now covered in tight fringe instead of even lower green-height zoysia. Just try and hit the back right portion of the par-3 13th green, hidden beyond a stream and behind a boulder.
There are other oddities. For example, several tees are routed in such a way that players must double back and play directly across previous holes, as noted on No. 4 and possibly No. 14 if a restored tee atop a hill is put into play. Such routing can create odd bottlenecks, and while it might be manageable on a private course with limited rounds, it could prove problematic on a packed day of public play.
These and other examples might cause a facial tic among some classic architecture purists. But with plenty of width now available, a thoughtful golfer can find a way around all the trouble, choosing to play to safer sections of the greens on each of the examples above, then putting the putter to use in search of par. All around Tot Hill Farm is danger to a golfer’s score, and close by is a safer route. It’s up to the golfer to put aside ego and expectation, accepting the limitations of what Strantz offered in some places while pouncing on opportunities when friendlier hole locations are identified. There are birdies out there.
In short, it’s all about the strategy. And that might begin even before the first tee shot, as the frustrations of Tot Hill Farm’s difficulties most greatly affect stroke play. This could be one of the best match-play courses in the U.S., for those who embrace that format.
“If you come back and play this course several times, the thing you’ll find intriguing is there are multiple ways to play every hole,” Wood said. “When I first took on the project, I didn’t really understand that. But as I continue on and on with it, I find that very intriguing and I’m enjoying it more and more.”
Nos. 10 and 12 at Tot Hill Farm share what originally was a pure double green and still plays that way, with the steep area between mowed to a tight and bouncy fringe height. No. 10 plays in from the bottom right, while No. 12 plays across the water from the left. No. 10 green proper features a huge downward slope midway through the green, which can send balls hit too deep cascading all the way down to the water or No. 12. (Courtesy of Tot Hill Farm/Ryan Barnett)
The layout reopened in the fall of 2023, and bookings are picking up speed for 2024. Green fees are relatively low, currently $70 through the winter with a peak of $125 planned for the new year – carts are an extra $25. Tot Hill Farm is also appearing as a packaged option around Pinehurst, which is less than an hour to the south via Interstate 74.
The best way to enjoy Strantz’s work at Tot Hill Farm might be to race across the Carolinas, playing Tot Hill and Tobacco Road in North Carolina before heading to the coast to sample Strantz’s Caledonia Golf and Fish Club and True Blue near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For an adventurous group of golfers, that would be an unforgettable trek.
And it’s just such players that are most likely to book and rebook rounds at Tot Hill Farm. It’s not a classical layout, and it might be too severe in places to tickle every player’s fancy. But the recent surge in popularity for Strantz courses, particularly on Instagram and X-the-former-Twitter, will surely help Tot Hill’s operators fill the tee sheets.
“We think the adventure-style golf course, Mike was kind of at the forefront of it, and we feel like we’re bringing something that was almost forgotten back to people,” Wood said. “We feel really fortunate to be a part of it. Unfortunately, Mike passed away way too soon. For us to be caretakers of a Mike Strantz course, we find that to be a real honor.”
From Hawaii to Florida, we offer the Golfweek’s Best ranking of top resort courses in the U.S.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2024 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.
The hundreds of 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 to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.
This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.
Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top public-access courses around Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Looking to play one of the top golf regions in the world, with great courses stacked alongside great courses? Look no further than Pinehurst, North Carolina.
From classic dream layouts to modern works of art, there are a dozen courses within a half-hour’s drive of Pinehurst that rank among the top 20 public-access courses in North Carolina.
For this exercise, we used Google Maps and punched in each course as of a Saturday morning to determine drive times. And included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers.
And keep in mind, the numbers represent how the courses are ranked, and it can become a bit confusing as the courses at the famed Pinehurst Resort are named numerically. For example, Pinehurst No. 2 ranks No. 1 on this list, and it appears accordingly as No. 1 on the map.
Included with each course is its position in North Carolina on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.
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A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them 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 all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.
The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or casino, by staying at an affiliated hotel or purchasing a golf vacation package. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required, although Pinewild Country Club is a special case on this list with an editor’s note below.
(Google Earth/Golfweek)
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“We really hope for a firm and fast U.S. Open come June.”
PINEHURST, N.C. — They say there’s never a bad day at Pinehurst, especially if you’re walking around course No. 2, the famed masterpiece of renowned architect Donald Ross.
The gem in the sandhills of North Carolina will play host to its fourth U.S. Open next summer (1999, 2005, 2014), and the folks at the United States Golf Association recently held an early preview for its flagship championship.
“We are comfortable that Pinehurst will provide the test of golf that has always provided,” said course setup lead Jeff Hall. “If Martin Kaymer hadn’t entered in 2014 we’d have had a really competitive championship, but he played brilliantly.”
“We’re not trying to play defense with the players,” he added. “This golf course, when it’s firm and fast, you can have some scary wedge shots. Even if it was shorter, there’s still some pretty scary wedge shots here.”
From fairways and tricky greens to new grass and hospitality venues, here’s what players and fans should expect to see when they step on the property for the 2024 U.S. Open, June 13-16, at Pinehurst No. 2.
No. 2 will look and play as it was designed
When Pinehurst worked with Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to restore the course in 2010 and 2011, the team removed 35 acres of Bermuda rough and replaced it with nearly 250,000 wire grass plants so the course would look and play the way Ross originally intended. To get it as close as possible, images from 1948-1962 were used.
Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina (Courtesy of Pinehurst Resort)
No. 2 is a unique test of golf for a U.S. Open due to its sandy areas in lieu of ankle-deep rough. If players miss the short green grass, they’ll have to deal with the elements. Fairway widths are 34-45 yards at No. 2, which differs from, say, Winged Foot or The Country Club where 24-32 yards is the norm. The diabolical turtleback putting greens make fairway placement all the more important.
“Thinking back to 2014, this was a really difficult U.S. Open to play,” said former Tour pro and current USGA Senior Director of Player Relations Scott Langley. “I say that as a guy who finished in 63rd place, wasn’t as difficult for Martin Kaymer. The thing that’s difficult about Pinehurst No. 2 is the putting greens and surrounds. The greens are very difficult to hit, so you’re often faced with a variety of shots around the greens to recover.”
When you think of a missed green at a U.S. Open, tall, lush rough comes to mind. At Pinehurst, you can play any number of clubs to get up and down to save par. Bump-and-run with an iron. A perfectly nipped wedge. Maybe a hybrid instead of a putter. The course allows for a certain level of creativity that most championship venues lack. It introduces uncertainty for players, which is when things get interesting.
“It provides a mental challenge as much as a physical one,” added Langley. “No matter what club you end up choosing or what shot you decide to play, you always have a little bit of doubt in your mind if it’s the right one because of the presence of so many options.”
As if golf wasn’t hard enough already. But that’s why it’s the U.S. Open, known as the toughest test in golf.
Key corner of the course
If you’ve been to No. 2, you’ll know the area on the front nine that features No. 3 green, No. 4 tee, No. 5 green and No. 6 tee. Come next summer, the section of the course will be a fan-favorite to watch a lot of golf, especially if No. 3 is drivable.
The short par-4 3rd hole is gettable no matter where the tee is, but the challenge increases with the sloping fairway of the par-4 4th. Players will get a breather with the par-5 5th before they’re faced with arguably the toughest test of the front nine, the tricky par-3 6th hole.
The fifth hole on Pinehurst No. 2. (Photo: Tracy Wilcox/Golfweek)
In 2014, Martin Kaymer played No. 3 and No. 5 at 6 under par and finished the championship at 9 under. He drove the green on No. 3 on both days the tee was up and two-putted for birdie. He played No. 5 at 4 under thanks to a pair of birdies and an eagle.
“You could hear some roars in this part of the world,” Hall predicted.
When it comes to set up and yardage tee to green, the course will be very similar to what fans and players saw in 2014. The real difference is the surface of the putting greens. The 2014 championship and all the previous championships (as far as the USGA knows) were played on bentgrass. The 2024 championship will be played on Bermuda grass.
The change from Creeping Bentgrass to Ultradwarf Bermuda grass provides a different perspective for the tournament crew when preparing for a U.S. Open.
“It gives us a lot more flexibility because the temperatures are ramping up, nighttime, daytime, sunlight, everything that works against the cool season grasses that time of year are in our favor for the Ultradwarf Bermuda grass,” said Pinehurst superintendent John Jeffreys.
“It allows us more options for managing firmness,” added Darin Bevard, Senior Director of Championship Agronomy. “I just hope that Mother Nature cooperates in June that we’re having this conversation about firmness and not about fixing wash outs and bunkers. We really hope for a firm and fast U.S. Open come June.”
Outside the ropes
The course is a masterpiece inside the ropes, but the USGA believes the same to be true outside the ropes. The resort is an ideal venue logistically, and the staff has a proven plan for what works and what doesn’t.
In order to improve on past successes, the USGA is keying in on two aspects: getting fans closer to the action and elevating the overall fan experience. The answer is different product offerings from the gallery ticket all the way up to the most premium hospitality stand.
A grandstand left of the 18 green with the clubhouse in the background has been a staple for U.S. Opens at Pinehurst. Next year, the grandstand will be integrated with a premium hospitality experience called the 1895 Club, the highest-end experience on-site. The club comes with valet parking, shuttles, and the best food and beverage offerings with the 18th green as entertainment.
“That’s certainly going to be something we’re excited about and something that’s going to feel and look very different,” said Leighton Schwob, the USGA’s Senior Director of Operations.
Pinehurst is going through a full renovation of the lower floor of the resort building, which is where a lot of player facilities will be. A tunnel from the locker room up to the first tee for players is also being built and should be completed by the end of the year. The resort’s driving range will be more of a fan area next summer, as the USGA anticipates more than 250,000 fans will be in attendance for the week.
The course will shut down near Memorial Day, but facilities will be built beginning in March. So don’t fret, there’s still plenty of time to go play before the pros.
The award honors recipients for their spirit in advancing diversity in golf.
Steph Curry has piled up a number of awards through his feats on the basketball court, but his stockpile of golf trophies is catching up due to the hard work he has put into growing the sport.
The World Golf Hall of Fame announced Tuesday it will honor Curry with the Charlie Sifford Award at its induction ceremony next June. The award honors recipients for their spirit in advancing diversity in golf.
The ceremony will be the first after the hall officially opens its doors at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club.
Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Sandra Palmer, Johnny Farrell and Beverly Hanson will join the remaining seven of the 13 LPGA Founders in the World Golf Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.
“I’m incredibly honored to be chosen as the recipient of this year’s Charlie Sifford Award and am grateful to the World Golf Hall of Fame for the recognition in this sport that I am so passionate about,” Curry said. “I believe that we have the opportunity to grow the game of golf by providing equity, access and opportunity to young golfers who have that same passion, dedication and determination as so many of us out on the green.”
According to the National Golf Foundation, only 16% of all golfers are black or Latino.
“Steph Curry has shown passion and a commitment to giving more opportunities to young people who do not have access to the game of golf,” said Greg McLaughlin, the CEO of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “Steph’s dedication in advancing diversity in golf epitomizes the groundbreaking work demonstrated by Charlie Sifford. The World Golf Hall of Fame in partnership with Southern Company is committed to ensuring his legacy endures for future generations by recognizing others – like Steph – who are devoted to making golf an environment for all.”
Tom Doak designed Pinehurst No. 10 on dramatic ground that previously held The Pit.
Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina has picked the official opening date for its new Tom Doak-designed golf course: April 3, 2024.
Doak is building Pinehurst No. 10 on the site formerly occupied by The Pit, a course that opened in 1985 but closed during the 2008 financial crisis. Doak’s layout will be the first new course for the famed Pinehurst Resort in nearly 30 years. No. 10 will open several months before the resort hosts the U.S. Open on its No. 2 course June 13-16.
It’s a busy time around Pinehurst, as the U.S. Golf Association is building a campus that is under construction and is planned to begin to open in 2023. The resort also was selected as an anchor site for U.S. Opens and will host that tournament in 2024 as mentioned, plus 2029, ’35, ’41 and ’47.
Keep reading for the complete announcement from the resort about No. 10’s opening date:
The highly anticipated Tom Doak design, which began construction this January, will be the first original golf course Pinehurst Resort has unveiled in nearly 30 years. Its opening comes just a few months before Pinehurst serves as the site of the U.S. Open for the fourth time.
“Pinehurst Resort has been fortunate to be hailed as the Cradle of American Golf, and we’re grateful for all of the major championships and historic moments that have come before,” says Pinehurst Resort CEO Bob Dedman Jr. “We’re delighted to have a date to begin presenting this incredible design by Tom Doak to our guests. April 3 will not only be another great day in Pinehurst’s history, but for our future as well.”
Pinehurst No. 10 will be unlike any golf course at the resort.
While No. 10 is Pinehurst’s first new course in nearly three decades, it’s been centuries in the making. The landscape underlying Doak’s newest design features all that is natural to golf in the North Carolina Sandhills, including native wiregrass, extensive sandscape, towering longleaf pines and rolling hills. Midway through the course, though, Doak takes advantage of rugged dunes carved out by mining operations around the turn of the 20th century. The result is a spectacular course with more than 75 feet of elevation change that winds its way on a path toward delivering a golf experience like no other.
“No. 10 starts out fairly gentle, then it starts going into the old quarry works where it gets downright crazy for a little bit, then the course gets up on the hill and there’s a beautiful, sweeping view,” Doak says. “All of the holes coming in are challenging, even when you move down into the gentler terrain. It’s a dramatic golf course; more than I originally thought.”
Golfers looking to be among the first to experience playing No. 10 can reserve their stay by calling 1-800-ITS-GOLF. More information on golf packages can be found at Pinehurst.com.
“We’re excited to show off Tom Doak’s masterful interpretation of Pinehurst golf,” says Tom Pashley, President of Pinehurst Resort. “From the initial routing of Pinehurst No. 10 to the shaping and design process, Doak and his associates excelled in all regards. Our very high expectations were exceeded, and we can’t wait for everyone to see it.”
Our inaugural list of best par-3, short and non-traditional courses in the U.S. includes a bit of everything.
What makes a great short course? We posed that question to our huge network of course raters to establish the first Golfweek’s Best ranking of non-traditional courses in the United States.
We included par-3 courses as well as short courses that might have a few par 4s and even par 5s. Some are crazy, over-the-top fun meant to be played barefoot with a cold drink in hand. Others are more traditional in their design. They might be at an elite private club, or they might be a muni down the street. There might be 18 holes, or there might be only six — who cares when you’re having a blast?
Basically, they all fit the bill of not being a traditional-length, traditional-par course. And just like the best short courses, we threw out some of the rules used for rating traditional courses and asked the raters to submit one overall score for each course based on how much they enjoyed the design and the environment. Those individual ratings were then combined to form one average rating, which is listed for each course. Each course had to receive a minimum number of 10 votes, and there are several other great short courses that likely will make this list when they receive enough votes. We received nearly a thousand ballots in all for this inaugural list.
The Cradle at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina (Courtesy of Pinehurst Resort)
And as for how we decided which courses fit the bill: All of these would be shorter than 2,700 yards if they were nine holes, compared to a traditional course typically being made up of nines measuring 3,100 to 3,800 yards. Short courses, particularly the public-access variety, are the most welcoming of all golf — everyone can take their shot.
And there’s more to come. Streamsong Resort in Florida is adding a new short course this fall called The Chain, and the newly renovated Cabot Citrus Farms (formerly World Woods) in Florida also will have one named The 21 when the resort opens in December. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, already home to one of the best short courses in the world, is adding another. There’s no end in sight for fresh additions.
One note: Many courses have also added large putting courses, but those are not included on this list.
For this list, we included each course’s rating on a points scale of 1 to 10. We also included their locations, the designers, the year they opened, the number of holes, the total length and the par. At the end of each entry, the letter “p” indicates a private club, “d” indicates daily fee and “r” indicates a resort.
