The lights on the #miniDunes short course can sync with music, offering a new cool experience in the desert.
Golfers looking to beat the heat this summer have a new option just south of Phoenix: Ak-Chin Southern Dunes has lit its par-3 course, named #miniDunes.
The six-hole short course sits on the range at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, where the main 18-hole layout was designed by Brian Curley and Fred Couples – the course ranks No. 6 on Golfweek’s Best public-access course list in Arizona.
Holes on the short course stretch from 60 to 115 yards, and the layout features 15 lighting poles. The 88 LED lights can be synced to flash to music. Tee times become available April 26, and walk-ins are welcome.
The range serves as a normal practice area in the morning, then it is picked and holes are cut for afternoon play on the short course that was introduced in 2014 with new greens dotting the range. Night golf ramps it up another level in the desert setting, and the club’s restaurant will be represented at the short course with the Arroyo Grill – On the Go food truck/trailer.
“We are proud to offer the lighted #miniDunes as just the latest example of the commitment the Ak-Chin Indian Community has to creating memorable golf experiences for not only our local communities of Ak-Chin and Maricopa, but also for all of the region and its visitors who can now experience a taste of what Ak-Chin Southern Dunes has to offer at night,” Ak-Chin Indian Community Chairman Robert Miguel said in a media release announcing the night option. “I can’t wait to play golf under the lights with my friends and family.”
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw turn up the volume with The Chain at Streamsong.
BOWLING GREEN, Fla. – There are expectations for architects as they design a golf hole. Length, width, severity of contours, difficulty, placement of the green – there’s room for creativity, sure, but stray too far from tradition and a few eyebrows certainly will be raised.
Except for short par 3s. Great architects have long let their imaginations wander with the most miniature of holes on many acclaimed courses.
“It seems that’s there a theme that every wonderful, great course I’ve ever seen always includes a little short par 3 somewhere,” said Ben Crenshaw, the two-time Masters champion, golf historian and design partner with Bill Coore. “Short par 3s are pretty tantalizing for a lot of people. There’s so many brilliant examples of that. It just adds spice.”
Coore and Crenshaw have included many such holes on the dozens of golf courses they have designed together. Often not much over 120 yards or even shorter, these pint-sized par 3s are famed for offering intrigue as players plan for birdies but often pencil in bogeys or worse on their scorecards.
Soon comes a new chance to play a string of such holes as Streamsong opens all of its newest short course, The Chain, to preview play March 31. Until then, the resort is allowing limited preview play on less than the full course as it continues to grow in. The Chain is expected to fully open to resort play later this year.
The new par-3 course, The Chain, at Streamsong in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Matt Hahn)
Built by Coore and Crenshaw, The Chain will offer 19 holes ranging from 41 to 293 yards, each offering a vast teeing area that allows players to pick a length. Want to play No. 8 with a driver? Step back to the huge metal chain link sunk into the ground and swing away. Want to play the same hole at 170? Go for it. It’s totally up to each group, or even each player. No. 1 can be 57 yards or 110, all the way to No. 19 at that ranges from 115 to 145.
The resort never refers to par for any hole, though the vast majority of them will require just one full shot for most players. Call them par 3s, or call them whatever you like – the resort’s operators don’t really care as long as players are having a blast.
The course was laid out in such a way that players can take a six-hole or a 13-hole loop, but resort operators expect most to play all 19. The Chain is a short walk from The Lodge at Streamsong, so late-afternoon tee times will be at a premium after many players tackle one of the resort’s highly acclaimed full-size courses – Red, Blue and Black – in the mornings. The Chain should prove especially popular during Streamsong’s peak winter season, when curtailed daylight might prevent a second 18-hole loop, and among players arriving to the resort mid-afternoon or simply those who just don’t want to stretch their golf to 36 traditional holes a day.
Nos. 18 and 19 of the new short course, The Chain, at Streamsong in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Matt Hahn)
Also expect to encounter plenty of fun shots on The Chain. Coore and Crenshaw were granted a feast of freedom in designing the layout that maxes out at 3,026 yards, and they dreamed up plenty of internal contours and ground features that will only improve as the greens and their sandy surrounds continue to mature and become even more firm and bouncy.
“We can do things with a shorter course, where players are hitting shorter shots and you can be a bit more aggressive with the greens and some of the things,” Coore said recently after a tour of the layout alongside Crenshaw. “Things are in more of a reduced scale, and you can take more liberties and a few more risks to do greens and surrounds with interesting things that you might not be able to do with a regulation course. …
“For years, people have said (about full-size courses), ‘You can’t do that, it won’t be accepted, that’s too radical.’ With a par-3 course, you can kind of dispense with that a little and say, ‘It’s a par-3 course; we can do that.’ If you’re in our profession, it gives you freedom to work.”
The Chain includes a bunker in the middle of a green at No. 6, the aforementioned No. 8 that can play for many as a short par 4, and several trips across water and quarries at the former phosphate mining site. There are plenty of slopes that will help feed golf balls onto the putting surfaces and more devious contours that can sweep a ball off a green.
The tee markers at The Chain at Streamsong are huge chain links left over from mining. But instead of markers on each side of the tee, these links mark the front and back positions for each tee, which can stretch for dozens of yards, allowing players to select the yardage they will play each hole. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
The hole most likely to be relived over post-round beverages is the 209-yard (max) 11th, where a punchbowl green awaits on the opposite side of a pond, just a thin slit in the nearly vertical bank showing the putting surface from the tee. Players can try to just crest the forward mounds with their tee shots, or they can intentionally take it deep past the flag and trust that the ball will roll backward onto the green – this might be the safest route, and it’s a blast to watch balls scamper back toward the putting surface as if pulled by a string.
“Probably most people would point to that hole,” Coore said when asked what he anticipates will be the biggest talker among the 19 holes. “You play over the beautiful lake. It used to be a flat piece of ground out there, and we just mined a bunch of sand out of it and made a big hole.”
But don’t expect No. 11 to be a pushover, even with slopes on all sides of the green to feed the ball toward the hole – especially for players who flirt with the water short or right in trying to play a shot to the yardage instead of just hitting it long. Streamsong Black, the 18-hole design by Gil Hanse, already offers a famous punchbowl green, but The Chain’s variation is much smaller and tighter in scope, fitting with Coore and Crenshaw’s focus on right-sized targets for the par-3 course.
“I think the long punchbowl hole, in this little family of holes, will probably be maybe the toughest hole because it’s a long carry,” Crenshaw said. “It’s basically an old idea if you have a long shot across something, that you have a gathering green, a punchbowl. That may be one at the top of the list” that players remember.
The new Bucket putting course at Streamsong in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Scott Powers)
Before or after a loop around The Chain, players can tackle The Bucket, the 2.6-acre putting course that sits within the par-3 course. Drinks and snacks also will be available onsite with the resort planning to add a clubhouse later, surely making the new complex a preferred hangout for resort guests.
Coore and Crenshaw also designed the Red Course at Streamsong, which opened in 2012 and ranks as the No. 2 Golfweek’s Best public-access layout in Florida and ties for No. 16 among all resort courses in the United States. The resort’s Blue Course by Tom Doak also opened in 2012 and ranks No. 3 among Florida’s public layouts and No. 20 among all U.S. resort courses, while the Black by Hanse opened in 2017 to become No. 4 in Florida and No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best resort list.
Coore said he’s always loved the allure of the site, where sand was piled high for decades as part of phosphate mining operations. The name of The Chain references the dragline chains used by miners, and The Bucket is so named because of the massive scoops once used to move earth at the mining site, one of which has been placed at the new putting course.
“People love it when they get here,” he said. “It’s a little mysterious the first time, but when they see it, they say ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in Florida.’ It has been so much fun to be a part of it.”
Crenshaw summed it up: “We do believe the Chain will be a positive extension of the journey.”
“With these revisions we’re very much continuing to evolve to meet the game where it’s moving.”
There were six different handicap systems in use around the world before the United States Golf Association and R&A brought them all the under the wing of the World Handicap System in 2020. Each previous format had its merits, but they all produced different results.
With the WHS, players can compare themselves more accurately now than ever, and handicaps can travel the world with ease. As the WHS enters its fifth year, the USGA and R&A have made their first updates to the system – effective Jan. 1, 2024 – based on data and feedback from the 125 countries now using the system.
“It’s very much a natural, logical evolution of WHS,” Steve Edmondson, USGA Managing Director of Handicapping and Course Rating, told Golfweek. “We’ve got such a rich, robust data repository. We have over 70 million scores posted in the U.S. alone on an annual basis, well over 100 million worldwide. We can use data, we can use golfer feedback, and that’s what we have done.”
“What you’re seeing with these revisions is we’re very much continuing to evolve to meet the game where it’s moving and golfers where they’re playing,” he added. “Hopefully that’s reflective in the revisions themselves.”
Here’s what you need to know about the four significant updates coming in 2024 for the World Handicap System.
Alongside the Gulf of Mexico, the course is named for a turtle’s nest.
Laid out by Beau Welling and Chase Webb, a new 12-hole short course named The Clutch is scheduled to open on a to-be-determined date this year at South Seas, a resort on Captiva Island in southwest Florida near Fort Myers.
The name The Clutch is in reference to a turtle’s nest and was chosen to represent the island’s diverse wildlife.
“We are extremely proud of the course that we have created at South Seas and look forward to unveiling The Clutch,” Welling, president and founder of Beau Welling Design, said in a media release announcing the course’s impending opening. “The site is spectacular, and we were able to create a strategic and challenging, yet playable golf course that complements the beautiful surroundings with unobstructed water views on every hole. Working with South Seas, we were also able to create a unique and relaxed golf experience that promotes friends and families coming together through the game of golf to enjoy the stunning setting.”
From the media release:
Featuring interesting and undulating greens, The Clutch will present a challenge for experienced golfers, focusing on precision, preferred angles of play and shot values. The course will also offer a multitude of options for those newer to the game, utilizing short-cut green surrounds and slopes that will allow players to even play with just a putter.
Welling has worked on dozens of highly ranked courses around the world, including Fields Ranch West at the recently opened Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Texas and Bluejack National in Texas in partnership with Tiger Woods. He and Webb, a senior design associate, employed Clark Construction Company at South Seas.
The Clutch was built with a focus on being able to withstand intense rain, and the course features several palm trees that were rescued after Hurricane Ian pummeled the island in September of 2022. The resort has gone through a phased reopening starting in the summer of 2023 as the area continues to recover from the impacts of that category 5 storm.
“We’re thrilled to introduce our guests to this new golf experience,” South Seas general manager Shawn Farrell said in the media release. “Our goal is to offer more than just a game – it’s about enjoying the popular sport in the most beautiful setting imaginable.”
Friendly tip: this course is best enjoyed late in the day, with the sun setting out over the Pacific Ocean.
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Diamante Cabo San Lucas makes headlines for its two 18-hole championship courses, the Dunes by Davis Love III and El Cardonal by Tiger Woods, the first course he ever designed. Coming soon to Diamante: the Legacy, also a Tiger Woods design that promises to be elite.
But there’s more Diamante than that. The resort private community has a 12-hole short course called The Oasis. For some visitors, though, the most fun might be had at the 15-hole putting course.
Set just steps out the back of the Diamante clubhouse, this track is perfect for a day of fun in the sun with the family and friends, a cold drink in your hand and maybe nothing on your feet.
Be ready to read the lines though. This hilly expanse will get your attention. And if you come back the next day, you’ll get an entirely different experience as you’ll play the course in reverse from the day before.
Friendly tip: this course is best enjoyed late in the day, with the sun setting out over the Pacific Ocean. The “golden hour” will certainly set the stage for fun, relaxation and some amazing photos.
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.
The Chain by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw will feature holes ranging in length from 90 to 275 yards when it opens this year.
Streamsong Resort in Florida – already home to three highly regarded courses – will begin construction on its short course, The Chain, in early March this year, with a few recent tweaks and a new routing that has been extended to 19 holes.
Plans for The Chain were announced in 2022, with the architecture team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designing what was going to be 18 holes that could be divided into a six-hole loop, a 12-hole loop or the full 18. Streamsong officials expect to open The Chain this fall.
Environmental considerations led Coore to tweak the original routing, slightly moving a few sites of tees and greens. The new routing also provided room for another hole, with the six-hole loop the same and the changes coming to the freshly altered 13-hole loop. The Chain also will feature a two-acre putting green and its own clubhouse, plus food and drink options.
The Bucket putting course for The Chain short course at Streamsong in Florida was named for the dragline buckets used in former mining operations at the site. A 22,000-pound namesake bucket was recently installed at the site and will be a feature of the 2-acre putting course. (Courtesy of Streamsong)
Holes on The Chain will range from 90 to more than 275 yards. The entire layout will be about 3,000 yards.
The Chain will sit on roughly 100 acres directly across from Streamsong’s Lodge, allowing players to stroll over for more golf either before or after a round on one of the resort’s full-size courses. Streamsong’s Red Course ranks No. 2 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses, with the Black No. 3 on that list and the Blue in the No. 4 spot. Each of those courses also rank inside the top 60 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in the U.S.
Streamsong Resort was founded just over a decade ago by mining company Mosaic, and the resort was purchased earlier this month by KemperSports, a nationwide owner and operator of 140 courses.
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The short course will be built near Streamsong’s lodge and feature holes stretching from 70 to 300 yards.
BOWLING GREEN, Fla. – Streamsong, already home to three highly ranked courses built by some of the biggest names in modern golf architecture, plans to add a fourth course that will open in late 2023 or 2024.
The design duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have signed on to construct their second course at the resort, this one an 18-hole, non-traditional layout for which the early routing shows holes ranging from 70 to nearly 300 yards. The yet-to-be-named short course will be built on lumpy, bumpy, and sandy land just east of the resort’s main lodge, easily within walking distance of guest rooms.
Streamsong – which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year – also will add another putting course near the new course and lodge. It is projected to be larger than the resort’s popular Gauntlet putting course at the Black Course’s clubhouse. Food and beverage components will be constructed alongside the new short course and putting course with a dedicated clubhouse.
All combined, the new amenities should make for a perfectly relaxed way to spend an afternoon after playing one of the resort’s traditional 18s. The Red Course by Coore and Crenshaw ranks No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list of public-access layouts in Florida and is tied for No. 37 on Golfweek’s Best rankings of all modern courses built since 1960 in the United States. Streamsong’s Black Course by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner is No. 3 among Florida’s public-access layouts and ties for No. 44 among all modern U.S. courses, and the resort’s Blue Course by Tom Doak ranks No. 4 in Florida and ties for No. 55 among modern courses in the U.S.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw also designed Streamsong’s Red Course. (Courtesy of Streamsong/Laurence Lambrecht)
Coore recently visited the site with course shaper and architect Keith Rhebb, who frequently works for the Coore/Crenshaw team, and they set out initial stakes on the land that cuts across a scrubby, roughly 100-acre site with several lakes in play.
Because it’s a non-traditional course, it’s entirely possible to introduce exciting features that might not work on a traditional course. Think imaginative greens, big run-offs, and other opportunities to show off creative design that might not work as well on a traditional, full-size course.
It’s a similar concept to the new par-3 courses that have become incredibly popular at many top destinations, only longer in spots. Streamsong already is home to a par-3 course, the seven-hole Roundabout near the Black Course’s clubhouse.
And because the new course won’t stretch to a traditional total length, it will be possible to play it with fewer than 14 clubs – players can leave their drivers in their rooms, if they so choose, and tackle it with just a handful of irons, wedges, and a putter.
Coore and Crenshaw often include devilish short par 3s on their traditional courses, including the 147-yard eighth hole on the Red at Streamsong. These holes typically feature extreme putting surfaces and surrounds that can frustrate even good players who have only a short iron or wedge into the green, making them among the most interesting holes on the course despite their diminutive length. Their experience building such holes, as well as par-3 courses such as the much-heralded Preserve at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, should help make for a very interesting 18 holes at Streamsong’s new short course.
KOHLER, Wis. – Destination Kohler in Wisconsin, home to golf clubs at Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run, is in for a very big year. Aside from being a booming destination with four full-size golf courses and a overflowing menu of top-tier amenities on or near the shore of Lake Michigan, the Straits will welcome one of the game’s largest events as the Ryder Cup tees off in September.
But the small things matter too, and Destination Kohler recently opened a compact golf experience that promises big fun. The Baths of Blackwolf Run – a 10-hole, par-3 course sitting on 27 acres at Blackwolf Run – promises laughs and a few cold ones in a fantastic setting, complete with a 2-acre putting course, an events patio, a firepit, even an old claw-foot bathtub that pays tribute to the Kohler brand of plumbing supplies.
Pete Dye built the four big courses at Kohler, and his protégé, Chris Lutzke, built The Baths with a focus on playability for any level of player. There are formal tees, but golfers are encouraged to tee it up from whatever length they like on a given hole – just find a flat spot and swing away.
“Play it from wherever you want, whatever you want to do,” said Mike O’Reilly, the golf operations manager at Destination Kohler. “There’s some recommended tee boxes out there, but you can do whatever you like. That’s really all about fun.”
A rendering of the par-3 course at The Baths at Blackwolf Run at Destination Kohler in Wisconsin, host resort of the 2021 Ryder Cup. Photo courtesy of Destination Kohler
O’Reilly said he has taken his young sons to the course, and they can play from different distances to make the holes right-sized. His 9-year-old plays from about 60 yards, while his 11-year-old plays from about 100. A similar approach can work for new players of any age, allowing accomplished players to hit a few longer shots while their newbie friends experience the course at a manageable yardage.
“You build fun into a short course by making it flexible,” O’Reilly said. “Almost every one of the holes, you could play from about 60 yards, and then the longest one, you could play from about 175 yards. If you play the proper tee boxes, they’re all going to play between 80 and 170 yards.
“So, you build fun into it by making it not terribly penal. … You just make it a little more playable and give those options for proper tee boxes.”
It makes it a perfect respite from the resort’s larger courses, especially the Straits, which ranks as No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for Wisconsin and No. 8 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for all layouts opened in or after 1960 in the United States. The Straits is beautiful, one of Dye’s masterpieces and the site of three PGA Championships, but it’s a major test without a lot of shots that allow a player to relax.
At The Baths, maybe have a drink, make a few putts, enjoy an easy stroll across the 10 holes, scorecard optional.
“We’re going to be serving Spotted Cows like crazy up there,” O’Reilly said of the Wisconsin-brewed ale. “I think people are going to come out to play and find themselves hanging out for two hours after they’re done playing.”
Golfweek videographer Gabe Gudgel flew his drone over The Baths shortly before it opened, and the video shows the dramatic landscape and holes that promise to welcome players of all abilities.
Tiger Woods’ design of The Hay could serve as a blueprint for how to introduce golf across the country with a small, sustainable footprint.
Over the past 15 years, numerous high-profile short courses have popped up around the country. Examples include Bandon Preserve at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (13 holes), The Cradle at Pinehurst (nine holes) and The Sandbox at Sand Valley (17 holes), each a short course within a popular multi-course golf destination. Each has a well-regarded designer and each serves to keep resort guests on property.
Typically full of par 3s, they are fun, bold, quick and an ideal complement to the big courses. At the end of the day, the primary users are men on buddy trips.
Pebble Beach has had a short course for more than 50 years. However, the design and marketing of the former Peter Hay Golf Course never provided that ideal complement to the big courses at Pebble Beach Resort, and guests rarely added it to their golf itinerary.
That has changed.
After a complete reimagining of the site by Tiger Woods, The Hay opened last Friday. The new layout is bold and honors the history of Pebble Beach. Architecture aficionados will recognize the Biarritz, the thumbprint and the replica of the seventh hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Novices will notice you can putt off the tee on many holes.
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Like Bandon Preserve, The Cradle and The Sandbox, The Hay is fun, quick and beautiful. It is relaxed (eightsomes allowed) and communal, with plenty of crosstalk from hole to hole and group to group. Simply put, it provides an ideal complement to the other resort offerings.
The Hay is different from the others in size. Sitting on roughly eight acres, the holes are short. Very short. The longest is 100 yards, with four holes at 61 yards or shorter. And no one cares. Golfers know it is different and meant for fun.
While success will be determined over time, the early returns are noteworthy.
Three days after opening, the tee sheet is full morning through evening. Golfers playing Pebble, Spyglass Hill or Spanish Bay are adding a stroll around The Hay before or after their rounds. In less than a week, the tees have been moved to mats due to the number of divots. And with a $65 green fee for resort guests, it doesn’t break the bank.
Which begs the question: If these courses work at resorts, why can’t they work in more urban and suburban locations?
Wouldn’t it be great if the people playing were kids? Or local residents who bike over? Wouldn’t it be great to run out with the family for a summer loop after dinner?
Wouldn’t it be great to have a lunch meeting with sticks in hand? A round only takes 45 minutes.
At eight acres, the development costs are reasonable, and the impact could be significant.
Think about your nearest big city or even a small town. Odds are there is an underperforming golf course or public park where a short course could be a wonderful community asset. A place where kids could learn to play. A place that connects residents of different backgrounds.
This week Golfweek reported that the PGA Tour will offer $40 million in bonus money to players who move the needle. Think what that $40 million could do for communities across the country? A lot more than it will do for 10 players who are already multi-millionaires.
The USGA has long used the slogan For The Good of the Game. Just think if the governing body used its resources to help fund short courses in towns across America.
Think about the golf manufacturers. How cool would it be to show up at courses like these knowing you didn’t need to have clubs or balls because they were provided?
Golf has gained a lot during COVID-19, with the number of rounds played in the U.S. soaring as people search for outdoor recreation. I’m hopeful the powers that be in golf will seize this opportunity to invest in future generations of golfers. A great way to do it would be taking courses like The Hay to cities and towns across America.
