In mid-August, the PGA Tour’s prestigious BMW Championship arrives at Caves Valley Golf Club in suburban Baltimore, Md., one of Tom Fazio’s outstanding designs. A former U.S. Senior Open and Constellation Senior Players Championship host (two PGA Tour Champions majors), it also served as the BMW host in 2021, when Patrick Cantlay edged Bryson DeChambeau on the sixth playoff hole.
Caves Valley is exclusively private, but not all of Fazio’s finest work resides behind locked gates. Here are the best Tom Fazio-designed courses you can play.
Shadow Creek—North Las Vegas, Nev.
In 1990, Fazio and Steve Wynn demonstrated that with sufficient money and imagination, there’s nothing that couldn’t be accomplished in golf course design. Today, Shadow Creek remains the ultimate Hollywood set come to life, an oasis of pine trees, rolling hills, flowers, and waterfalls hewn from a poker table-flat, lifeless plot of desert. In its early years, only Wynn’s invited guests could play the course. These days, it’s technically open to anybody who stays at an MGM Resorts property—and who inquires about an available tee time from Monday through Thursday. It will set you back around $1,250, not including the tip for the mandatory caddie, and you’ll be picked up from your hotel by a limousine for the 25-minute ride to fantasy land.
Sea Island (Seaside)—St. Simons Island, Ga.
Seaside soared from a 1999 Tom Fazio makeover that combined a 9-hole, Colt/Alison-designed Golden Age classic and a less distinguished nine from the ’70s into a formidable track that has played host to the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic since 2010. Huge bunkers, low dunes, marsh-tinged wetlands, firm fairways, and several Atlantic Ocean views lend an Old World, linksy feel, especially when the breezes blow. At 7,005 yards, par 70, Seaside isn’t brutishly long by modern standards, but combine wind and marsh carries, and it can play plenty tough.
Fallen Oak—Saucier, Miss.
Picture Shadow Creek drenched in Deep South aesthetics and you have another Tom Fazio-MGM masterpiece, 20 minutes inland from the coastal Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi. Fallen Oak dishes out streams, orchards, lakes, and wetlands, along with Fazio’s sprawling bunkers—plus an Acadian-style, Southern Mansion clubhouse. The best hole comes at the end of the 7,487-yard, par-72 journey. The 493-yard par-four 18th starts from an elevated tee, proceeds to a rolling fairway, and concludes in a large green that’s bisected by a spine, with marsh guarding the left side. You must stay at Beau Rivage to access Fallen Oak.
Adare Manor—Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland
Venue for the 2027 Ryder Cup, the Golf Course at Adare Manor’s fortunes soared after the 1995 Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout was completely redesigned by Fazio in 2015–17, following the purchase of the property by Irish billionaire and racehorse owner J.P. McManus. The intent was to reimagine the course in the mold of Augusta National in terms of appearance and conditioning. Fazio and associate Tom Marzolf sand-capped the entire course, propped up 14 of the 18 greens (while installing SubAir systems under them all), and eliminated traditional rough. The result is unparalleled firm and fast conditions for an Irish parkland course. At 7,509 yards, par 72, its stern challenge is balanced by risk/reward tests such as the drivable 347-yard par-four 15th and the reachable 585-yard par-five 18th, which tangles with the River Maigue.
Wynn Golf Club—Las Vegas, Nev.
Constructed on the old Desert Inn plot on the Las Vegas Strip in 2005, Wynn Golf Club signified the golf return of hotelier Steve Wynn, who had been divested of his original Las Vegas golf project, Shadow Creek, in 2000. Teaming once again with Fazio, Wynn achieved an oasis-in-the-desert ambiance via 15,000 pines, planted atop slopes that cocooned virtually every hole and by the handsome water features that graced 11 holes. It closed—apparently for good—in 2017 to accommodate a hotel addition and water-oriented amusement park, but those plans fell through, and Fazio was summoned again. In late 2019, Wynn reopened, shortened by 300 yards with eight new holes. Fazio reworked the other 10 holes, injected ripples into the flattish terrain, expanded putting surfaces, and softened green surrounds. The showstopping waterfall at the long par-four 18th remains, but the hole is now a long par three.
Red Sky Ranch (Fazio)—Wolcott, Colo.
Situated 15 miles west of Vail, Red Sky’s Fazio and Norman courses are technically both private, but each is open to resort guests every other day. Fazio merged playability and beauty in spectacular fashion on his namesake layout, which measures 7,116 yards in its spacious journey through sagebrush and aspen forests. The 502-yard par-four 16th yields handsome vistas of Castle Rock and the Flat Tops mountain range, while the 168-yard 17th plays downhill to a two-tier green accented by a lake, bunkers, and mountain backdrops.
Buffalo Ridge at Big Cedar Lodge—Hollister, Mo.
Former co-host to the PGA Tour Champions’ Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar event, this 2001 Fazio creation was a mainstay in Top 100 U.S. Public Courses lists back when it was known as Branson Creek, named such in part due to its proximity to the well-known entertainment haven in the Ozarks. When Bass Pro Shops domo Johnny Morris sought to add resort golf to the offerings for his Big Cedar Lodge, he acquired Branson Creek in 2013. He upgraded the 7,036-yard, par-71 course with Fazio’s assistance, rebuilding bunkers, incorporating exposed rock formations, adding and expanding water features, and changing the name to Buffalo Ridge. It’s an apt description, as several holes provide vistas of roaming bison, courtesy of the adjacent, 10,000-acre Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.
Corales Golf Course at Puntacana Resort & Club—Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
In March 2018, the PGA Tour staged its first-ever event in the Dominican Republic. By choosing Puntacana Resort & Club’s Corales course to host, the Tour certainly aced the eye candy test. In 2010, Fazio draped Corales on a clifftop setting along the Caribbean Sea. Its appeal was instantaneous. Buffeted by coastal breezes, the roomy, 7,650-yard, par-72 layout is liberally sprinkled with ponds, coconut palms, scrub-dotted sand expanses, and a bevy of stylish Fazio bunkers. Unforgettable is the closing trio, collectively known as “El Codo del Diablo,” (“the Devil’s Elbow”). The muscular 461-yard par-four 16th zooms straight to the sea, while the 210-yard par-three 17th edges the brilliant blue hazard. Still, the showstopper is the 501-yard par-four 18th that boomerangs to the right, around a chasm of cliff, beach, and surf.
Omni Barton Creek (Fazio Canyons)—Austin, Texas
Newly renovated in 2022, this 7,433-yard, 1999 Tom Fazio creation sits two miles from the resort. However, it’s well worth the short ride to sample holes that are handsomely framed by oaks and sycamores, especially those that tangle with the Short Springs Branch, a limestone creek bed that adds beauty and menace. The downhill, 492-yard par-four 10th will linger long in memory with a stone dappled creek fronting the green and a rocky ledge waiting to “DOINK” a pulled approach, while the 562-yard par-five 18th is scenic, potentially card-wrecking test, as it slithers downhill between trees and bunkers.
Dancing Rabbit (Azaleas)—Philadelphia, Miss.
Situated 70 quiet miles northeast of Jackson, the tribally owned Dancing Rabbit features two of Mississippi’s top-ranked public courses, the Azaleas and the Oaks, both designed by Fazio and Jerry Pate. Springtime on the 7,158-yard, par-72 Azaleas, opened in 1997, is cause for celebration, when a kaleidoscope of its namesake flowers bursts from the amphitheater hillsides that frame the 379-yard par-four 6th and most memorably at the downhill 206-yard par-three 13th. Two years younger than its sibling and slightly tougher, the 7,076-yard, par-72 Oaks is practically equal to its sibling, especially where several holes skirt rugged outcroppings. Azaleas features Tifway II Bermuda fairways and TifEagle greens while the Oaks offers slightly different and more player-friendly Meyer Zoysia fairways and Tifway II Bermuda greens.
Atunyote at Turning Stone Resort—Verona, N.Y.
This pristine, 2004 Tom Fazio parkland creation is the premier championship layout at Turning Stone Resort, 40 minutes east of Syracuse, which is owned by the Oneida Indian Nation. At 7,315 yards, par 72, Atunyote is maintained like a PGA Tour course—which it once was. Dustin Johnson won his first PGA Tour title here in 2008, Matt Kuchar took the title in 2009, and Tiger Woods triumphed in the Skins Game format at the 2009 Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge. Atunyote sports the usual Fazio design gambits, from large, gently contoured greens to artfully sculpted bunkers, to a liberal smattering of handsome lakes and small waterfalls. Emblematic of Atunyote’s beauty and challenge is the 598-yard par-five 18th, which features a huge lake that hugs the entire right side of the hole, strategically arrayed bunkers and cascades of water at the green.
Pelican Hill (Ocean South)—Newport Coast, Calif.
Dating to 1991, the elder (by two years) of the two courses at this top-ranked resort midway between Los Angeles and San Diego measures a manageable 6,580 yards, par 70 from the tips. With amply wide fairways and a paucity of forced carries, Ocean South is fun and playable—and stunningly scenic, with its coastal landscaping, artful Fazio shaping and close-up encounters with the Pacific. Most memorable are the back-to-back oceanside par threes at 12 and 13, the latter a two-green setup with the putting surfaces separated by an enormous sand feature. Stick around for a stellar finish, highlighted by a double canyon crossing at the 453-yard par-four 18th. Fazio’s Ocean North is considered by many to be equal to, or even better than its older sibling. At 6,945 yards, par 71, it’s nearly 365 yards longer than its older brother, Ocean South. Fairways are narrower, greens tougher to access, and there are more forced carries. The course doesn’t edge the ocean like Ocean South, but it dishes out one handsome long view after the next. Ocean North peaks at the 558-yard par-five 17th, that climbs to a bluff peering over the Pacific.
Reynolds Lake Oconee (National)—Greensboro, Ga.
For most of its existence, the National course at Reynolds was a 27-holer, comprised of the Ridge and Bluff nines crafted by Fazio in 1997 and the Cove nine he carved out in 2000. Late in 2024, Reynolds incorporated the Bluff nine into a private layout called Richland, with nine brand new holes also designed by Fazio. What remains of the 7,034-yard, par-72 National is still a fun-to-play crowd-pleaser. Streams, lakes, tall pines, massive bunkers, and dramatic elevation changes frame and beautify throughout. The 553-yard par-five 6th which concludes at a peninsula green and the downhill, 191-yard par-three 12th, its putting surface backdropped by Lake Oconee, are standouts.
What is your favorite golf course designed by Tom Fazio?
