Golf Magazine USA – September 2019

Your ball’s plugged on the upslope of a wet bunker. Step 1: Curse the Gods. Step 2: Run through

your options to salvage the situation. Do you A) Close the clubface, tilt into the slope, and swing as

hard as you can; B) take an unplayable and play for an easier bunker shot; C) give yourself a mulligan;

or D) throw your ball into a better lie without telling anyone? Turn the page for the correct answer.

SOGGY SAND SPLASH

LIE DETECTOR

2. BANFF SPRINGS, ALBERTA (4,537 FT) 36/6


3. WHISTLING ROCK, S. KOREA (3,018 FT) 18/2


4. CASTLE PINES, COLO. (7,000 FT) 15/3


5. ROCK CREEK, MONT. (5,509 FT) 13/1


6. GRANDFATHER, N.C. (3,780 FT) 11/0
   T-7. CHATEAU WHISTLER, B.C. (2,198 FT) 7/0
   T-7. JASPER PARK, ALBERTA (3,478 FT) 7/1


7. PIKEWOOD NATIONAL, W.V. (2,300 FT) 6/1


8. Wade Hampton (3,442 ft.) 69 / 10
   “W ade Hampton’s natural setting
   complements the Blue Ridge Mountain
   environment and is arguably Tom Fazio’s
   finest combination of risk/reward holes,
   married with consistent playability.”

“Overwhelming

scale. Banff

Springs is

best summed

up in a single

word: majestic.”

Total

Points

First-Place

Votes

Note: Courses were given 5 points for a first-place vote, 4 for

second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 point for fifth place.

Our raters braved the highest peaks to find you the best mountain courses

Elevated Design

you’re a golfer in our eyes,” Thomas
will tell you. That’s a good view. Golf
needs to open its arms wider.
Tom Doak, the iconoclastic archi-
tect, would be willing to work on a
Blue Course renovation on a pro
bono basis, even though he knows
a common refrain after renovations
is this: I liked it better before. When
we talked about the Blue Course the
other day, Doak said, “The course is
busy—maybe they should just keep it
as is.” But he sees its potential.
One of Doak’s former shapers,
Mike McCartin, wrote a master’s
thesis about golf at East Potomac
and will be part of the National
Links Trust bid. He doesn’t consider
Bethpage Black to be an example
of what the Blue Course could
be. But he says the kinder, gentler
Bethpage Red is. He also cites a few
other public-course inspirations:
CommonGround, outside Denver;
Goat Hill, in Oceanside, Calif.; and
Winter Park, near Orlando. Also,
the Old Course. In that vein, here
are two of my favorite munis, both
of them with sandy bones: Pacific
Grove, which shares a coastline with
Pebble, and North Palm Beach, down
the street from Seminole. I’m eager
to see what if anything happens
with the planned renovation of
Cobbs Creek, a city-owned course
in Philadelphia designed by Hugh
Wilson, Merion’s resident genius.
Public golf is where it’s at.
Speaking—rhapsodizing—about
the Blue Course, McCartin says, “It
doesn’t cost more to maintain an
interesting, cool golf course than it
does to maintain what’s there now.”
That may not actually be true,
but a person can dream, and should.

THE RANK

“I can still

see my tee

shot at Rock

Creek’s 14th

hanging in

the air with

the distant

mountains as

a backdrop.”

2

5