Open for play
No. 5 Carnoustie in Scotland.
• Golfweek’s Best: Tour Courses You Can Play (2010-11)
The world’s best players might play a game with which we recreational amateurs are unfamiliar, but they often play courses with which we’re quite familiar.
Our annual list of Golfweek’s Best Tour Courses You Can Play reveals that far from being elitist undertakings, the pro circuits – PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour and LPGA – are surprisingly public and accessible in terms of venues.
Of the 50 layouts highlighted on our list, 26 are regular PGA Tour stops – starting with No. 1 on the roster, Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Indeed, the entire Florida swing of the PGA Tour is played on public-access courses: TPC Sawgrass – Players Stadium Course (No. 8), Innisbrook Golf Club – Copperhead Course (No. 25), Bay Hill Club (No. 30), Doral Golf Resort & Spa – TPC Blue Monster (No. 35) and Walt Disney World Resort – Magnolia (No. 42).
Major sites also fare pretty well in terms of accessibility ...
Most Recent Golfweek’s Best Tour Courses Stories
Golfweek’s Best: Tour Courses You Can Play (2010-11)
Golfweek’s Best: Tour Courses You Can Play (2010-11)
Golfweek’s Best: Tour Courses You Can Play
Golfers, unlike fans of other sports, have the rare privilege of playing on the same fields as some of the game’s top professionals. As this list shows, that never has been more true.
2006: Still waiting to see the true Medinah
Starting with the 1990 U.S. Open, Medinah has had a setup problem that has called into question the integrity of the course for majors.
2006: Medinah could yield scoring ambush
For those who think narrow, tree-lined fairways are the paradigm of good course design, Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 course is an icon
2006: Island hopping
The perilous par-3 island 17th at TPC Sawgrass, listed somewhat skimpily at 137 yards and playing as short as 123 yards in the third round, took its usual toll at The Players.
2004: Match-play whimsy can be wonderful
Great golf course architecture owes an unacknowledged debt to match play.
