2019-06-01_Golf_Digest

(Ben W) #1

gutter credit tk


public courses on seven criteria:
Shot Values, Design Variety,
Resistance to Scoring, Memora-
bility, Aesthetics, Conditioning
and Ambience. The average
scores in each category were
totaled (with those in Shot
Values being doubled) to
produce a total score for each
course. The course with the
highest total score—thus
far, always Pebble Beach—is
No. 1, the second-highest score
is second, and so on. Panelist
evaluations are retained for 10
years. It takes a minimum of
30 evaluations for a course to
qualify for 100 Greatest Public
consideration.
Competition is fierce on
America’s 100 Greatest Public.
This year, 13 courses dropped
off, replaced by 13 newcomers
that range from hot new prod-
ucts to long-established opera-
tions previously overlooked.
The additions to our 2019-’20
ranking include No. 18 Sand

Valley, a Bill Coore-Ben
Crenshaw design in Nekoosa,
Wis.; No. 27 Mammoth Dunes,
a companion course to Sand
Valley, designed by David
McLay Kidd; and No. 32 Stream-
song (Black), a Gil Hanse addi-
tion to the Florida destination
resort that also contains two
other nationally ranked layouts,
No. 19 Streamsong (Red) and
No. 24 Streamsong (Blue).
Also new to our list is No. 42
Wilderness Club of Eureka,
Mont., a collaboration by the
firm of Lee Schmidt and Brian
Curley with major champion
Nick Faldo.
Tom Doak’s unique revers-
ible 18-hole course in Michigan,
The Loop, claims two spots.
The Loop’s clockwise Black
Course is No. 45, and the coun-
terclockwise Red Course is
No. 47.
The Greywalls Course at
Marquette Golf Club in Michi-
gan’s Upper Peninsula, carved

from granite by architect
Mike DeVries, checks in at
No. 54, and Gil Hanse’s three-
year-old Mossy Oak Golf Club
in West Point, Miss., debuts
at No. 63.
Boyne Highlands (Heather),
a 51-year-old Michigan stal-
wart by Robert Trent Jones, is
ranked No. 92, and Poipu Bay,
by his older son, Robert Trent
Jones Jr., on the south shore of
Hawaii’s island of Kauai, comes
on at No. 97. Another newcomer
is No. 93 Torrey Pines (North),
redesigned two years ago by
Tom Weiskopf.
Closing out the additions
to our 2019 ranking is No. 89
Belvedere, a 1927 Willie Watson
design, and No. 100 Copper-
head Course at Innisbrook Golf
Resort, a popular PGA Tour
stop near Tampa.
It’s an impressive class of
newcomers. But is any one of
them No. 1 with a bullet? Only
time will tell. ▶

us open 2019 | gd 83

▶ beauty on the bay Previous pages: The 208-yard 17th played almost
half a stroke over par in the 2010 U.S. Open. Bottom left: the 523-yard, par-5 sixth and
the tee of the 109-yard seventh. Below: the 526-yard, par-4 ninth.

THIRTEEN NEWCOMERS JOINED THE 100 GREATEST PUBLIC LIST, INCLUDING


SAND VALLEY, MAMMOTH DUNES,STREAMSONG (BLACK) AND THE LOOP


(THE CLOCKWISE BLACK COURSE AND THE COUNTERCLOCKWISE RED COURSE).

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