Modern Classics: The Ridge at Back Brook
At The Ridge at Back Brook, Tom Fazio carved a big, bold, and beautiful course out of the forests and hills of rural New Jersey.
Modern Classics: TXO
This Texas terror—formerly known as Wolf Point Ranch—puts a premium on strategy, pinpoint play, and one’s skill at wrangling an invitation When Al Stanger contacted Mike Nuzzo about creating a personal golf course near Carancahua Bay, about two hours southwest of Houston on the Gulf Coast, Nuzzo assumed the Texas rancher was really looking for something […]
Modern Classics: Wild Horse
Another beauty in the Nebraska Sandhills, but this one is open to the public—and very affordable It’s unlikely any public golfer hoping to get the most bang from their buck will ever find a better option than Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, Neb. Okay, the fact it’s in Gothenburg—not the easiest place to reach, […]
Modern Classics: SentryWorld
Wisconsin’s U.S. Senior Open venue earned early fame for its flower hole, but it took a renovation to truly make it blossom When Robert Trent Jones Jr. crafted SentryWorld in 1982, he called the design, “very possibly my Mona Lisa.” After Jones performed a significant redesign in 2014 and a nip-and-tuck in 2021, the smile […]
Modern Classics: Dumbarnie Links
Likely the last true links to be built in Scotland, it looks to be 100 years old or more—not just three Dumbarnie Links was a 20-year dream in the making. When it finally emerged from a stretch of inaccessible, virgin linksland along the southern shores of the Firth of Forth in 2019, it became quickly […]
Modern Classics: Ardfin
It’s not easy getting to the Scottish isle of Jura, but this dramatically challenging layout—which roams from beach to cliffs—is worth the effort The whispers started in 2010: “Someone’s going to build a course on Jura.” At the time, I was traveling to southwest Scotland often—to the Mull of Kintyre, home of the two fine […]
The Old Course, Stonewall: Tom Doak’s First Private Design
Surrounded by some of America’s seminal courses, this Tom Doak design near Philadelphia more than holds its own For a young golf course designer looking to accelerate his career, Philadelphia is a tough town. Within 20 miles of Center City you’ve got Pine Valley, Merion, Aronimink, and others. When Tom Doak got the chance to […]
Modern Classics: Sand Hills
Kudos to the course that cleared the way for what we think of as architecture today Some twenty-five years later, I still remember the sense of wonder that overcame me when I first saw Sand Hills. The drive out there, six hours from Omaha, was mesmerizing, especially the last hour through the namesake Sand Hills—19,000 […]
Modern Classics: Great Waters
Jack Nicklaus returned to Reynolds Lake Oconee to modernize and renovate his three-decade-old gem Jack Nicklaus has done some great things in the state of Georgia. There are those six green jackets, of course. But Jack also did some pretty fancy tailoring about 100 miles west of Augusta, where he built—and recently renovated—Great Waters at […]
