Golfweek’s Best Residential Courses 2013
1. Rock Creek Cattle Company
Deer Lodge, Mont., 2008
Tom Doak
Avg. rating: 7.99
2. Wade Hampton Golf Club
Cashiers, N.C., 1988
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.92
3. Huntsman Springs
Driggs, Idaho, 2009
David McLay Kidd
Avg. rating: 7.60
4. Shooting Star
Teton Village, Wyo., 2009
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.59
5. Gozzer Ranch
Arrowpoint, Idaho, 2007
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.57
6. Colorado Golf Club
Parker, Colo., 2007
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw
Avg. rating: 7.48
7. Castle Pines
Castle Rock, Colo., 1981
Jack Nicklaus
Avg. rating: 7.47
8. Mayacama
Santa Rosa, Calif., 2001
Jack Nicklaus
Avg. rating: 7.41
9. Mountaintop
Cashiers, N.C., 2007
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.36
10. Oak Tree National
Edmond, Okla., 1975
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.33
11. Patriot Golf Club
Owasso, Okla., 2010
Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Avg. rating: 7.32
12. Martis Camp
Truckee, Calif., 2007
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.31
13. Pronghorn (Fazio)
Bend, Ore., 2006
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.30
14. Diamond Creek
Banner Elk, N.C., 2003
Tom Fazio
Avg. Rating: 7.23
15. Estancia
Scottsdale, Ariz., 1995
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.22
16. Forest Highlands ...
Solid as a Rock
Deer Lodge, Mont., 2008
Tom Doak
Avg. rating: 7.93
Cashiers, N.C., 1988
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.85
3. Mountaintop
Cashiers, N.C., 2007
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.67
Teton Village, Wyo., 2009
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.67
5. Gozzer Ranch
Arrowpoint, Idaho, 2007
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.64
6. Huntsman Springs
Driggs, Idaho, 2009
David McLay Kidd
Avg. rating: 7.56
7. Colorado Golf Club
Parker, Colo., 2007
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw
Avg. rating: 7.51
8. Castle Pines
Castle Rock, Colo., 1981
Jack Nicklaus
Avg. rating: 7.49
9. Mayacama
Santa Rosa, Calif., 2001
Jack Nicklaus
Avg. rating: 7.39
Banner Elk, N.C., 2003
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.35
11. Oak Tree National
Edmond, Okla., 1975
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.34
12. Pronghorn (Fazio)
Bend, Ore., 2006
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.32
13. Patriot Golf Club
Owasso, Okla., 2010
Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Avg. rating: 7.32
14. Martis Camp
Truckee, Calif., 2007
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.32
15. Black Diamond Ranch (Quarry)
Lecanto, Fla., 1988
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.21 ...
2011 Golfweek's Best Residential Courses
2011 Golfweek’s Best Residential Courses
1) Mountaintop Golf & Lake Club
Cashiers, N.C.
Tom Fazio
2007
2) Rock Creek Cattle Company
Deer Lodge, Mont.
Tom Doak
2008
3) Wade Hampton Golf Club
Cashiers, N.C.
Tom Fazio
1988
4) Colorado Golf Club
Parker, Colo.
Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
2007
Owasso, Okla.
Robert Trent Jones Jr. & Jay Blasi
2010*
Driggs, Idaho
David McLay Kidd
2009*
7) Castle Pines Golf Club
Castle Rock, Colo.
Jack Nicklaus
1981
8) Mayacama Golf Club
Santa Rosa, Calif.
Jack Nicklaus
2001
9) Gozzer Ranch
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Tom Fazio
2007
10) Oak Tree National
Edmond, Okla.
Pete Dye
1976
11) Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club
Sandia Park, N.M.
Ken Dye
2000
12) Pronghorn (Fazio)
Bend, Ore.
Tom Fazio
2006
13) Black Diamond (Quarry)
Lecanto, Fla.
Tom Fazio
1988
14) The Golf Club at Cuscowilla
Eatonton, Ga.
Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
1998
15) The Preserve
Carmel Valley, Calif.
Tom Fazio
2000
Banner Elk, N.C.
Tom Fazio
2002
17) Black Rock
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Jim Engh
2003
Bradenton, Fla.
Jack Nicklaus & Tony Jacklin
2006
19) Forest Highlands (Canyon)
Flagstaff, Ariz ...
2006: Red Rock becomes a Rapid success story
Rapid City, S.D.
In a region that thrives on its connection with the outdoors, there’s not much need here for a guard house or a gated community. The whole point of living in South Dakota’s Black Hills, after all, is to keep in touch with the land. And the good thing about the Estates at Red Rock is that the design and overall plan allow you to live that way, and at a reasonable price.
Rapid City, with 70,000 residents and a metro area of 125,000, is a big small town rather than a city. With Denver 400 miles to the southwest and Minneapolis 620 miles east, the culture here is self-contained, but also surprisingly prosperous, thanks to tourism, agriculture, ranching and the spillover from defense spending at Ellsworth Air Force Base west of town.
Seven years ago, Rapid City natives Kevin Buntrock and Don Ward set out to build something that this modestly burgeoning town didn’t have: a well-planned golf course community. They were playing in a U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier at Powder Horn in “nearby” Sheridan, Wyo., only 250 miles to the west, liked what they saw, and figured a version of ...
2006: No Bluff: An intimate 20,000-acre plan
Bluffton, S.C.
It sounds corny – or vaguely New Age. But a basic design principle of smart, ecologically minded community planning these days is to parcel out development in functional segments, creating a clear focal point of town life and dissipating the densities along radial lines so that they influence the farthest reaches of the site. That’s the way to avoid wall-to-wall development and golf courses stuffed chock-a-block with real estate that seemingly overhangs fairways.
How else to explain what’s so engaging about the newly planned and developed community of Palmetto Bluff at May River? Here’s an ecologically rich, 20,000-acre (31-square-mile) parcel along the headwaters of the May River, midway between Savannah, Ga., and Hilton Head Island, S.C. The land is rich with wetlands, intracoastal tidal marsh and a maritime forest teeming with live oaks, palmetto trees and moss. A Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course touches lightly on the land, with homesites set back generously from corridors of play. Only 90 residences are anywhere near the holes, an absurdly low figure compared to regional standards.
The golf, like all of Palmetto Bluff, is elegant and low-key. The course registers about 5,000 rounds per year – by ...
2005: Isleworth: New look for old pros
Windermere, Fla.
It’s tough enough taking a pedestrian, slightly dated golf course with real estate on virtually every hole and turning it into a stern championship test for the 21st century. Now do it with resident members Tiger Woods, John Cook, Scott Hoch and Mark O’Meara and others looking over your shoulder the whole way.
That’s the task that confronted veteran course designer Steve Smyers when he was asked by owner Joe Lewis to renovate Isleworth. The course dates to a 1985 layout by Arnold Palmer and his chief associate, Ed Seay. This private club always had panache as an upscale, exclusive location on the west side of Orlando, but the golf course was a basic functional layout, with the emphasis more on home lots fronting fairways than what lay between tee and green. There was little native elevation, and the soil was on the heavy side. Doglegs and fairway bunkers were designed to be a challenge to 250-yard carries off the tee – a booming drive two decades ago, but pedestrian by modern standards.
Smyers, based in Lakeland, Fla., was uniquely qualified for the task. Between his own stellar play and that of his wife (former LPGA ...
2005: America’s Best
Las Vegas
Anyone who doesn’t love Las Vegas is either an ascetic or a year-round resident of the place. I cannot imagine spending much time here, but in two- or three-day doses it’s the perfect antidote for urbane sophistication. No place in the world comes close to the crazed neon sensibility of the gaudy Strip. How can anyone not be enamored with a desert oasis (unfit for human habitation) in which three-quarter-sized versions of the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge share space with 2,000 Elvis impersonators?
For years, golf was nothing more than a diversion that kept high rollers busy between long stretches at the casinos. Shadow Creek turned the game into a spectacle – a 250-acre mirage. Now golf is settling in for the long run.
When Southern Highlands opened in 2000, the seven miles between the front gate and downtown was desolate. Now, regional development has brought new homes, shopping malls and Starbucks virtually leapfrogging past the golf grounds.
The Southern Highlands property occupies a 2,300-acre parcel on the west side of Route 15, the main highway into Southern California, and includes 6,200 residential units – everything from two-bedroom townhouses to 15,000-square-foot palaces ...
