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One of the great honors and joys of my job is that, over years of traveling, learning and telling people about this great game, I have been able to get a sense of the true breadth of golf courses in America in a way that constantly deepens my appreciation for the game.
It never gets old.
The morning lows finally dipped down into the 60s where I live, so I am taking that as a sign to look back on this past spring and summer, having crossed the 700 lifetime golf courses mark.
In addition to a large handful of new builds, which I will rank at the end of the year, I have visited several other public golf courses that have pleasantly surprised me.
The first two courses on this list - presented in the order in which I played them - are more than a century old, gleaned from a couple of trips north that have reaffirmed just how special pre-World War II golf courses are. The other three are more modern, with their own surprises in store.
I would be curious to know if you have played these courses, and if you have any strong opinions on them as well.
Paxon Hollow Country Club - Media, Penn.
Lifetime course #701
"Quirky" is a loaded word among golf course architecture geeks. Some use it to express admiration; others, scorn. I personally love quirky golf courses, which tend to require golfers to use overlooked skills like guile and patience as much as the core physical skills. Quirk often derives from unusual tracts like the hilly confines of Paxon Hollow, where the meandering Trout Run divides the property in half. The course is one of the toughest sub-6,000-yarders I have encountered, with no par 4s longer than 381 yards but a reliable run of demanding shots, either off tees to slender fairways or into small, firm, fast greens with plenty of slope.
Paxon Hollow's shaggily nasty bunkering has been curated in the past by architect and Philly native Jim Wagner, who has partnered with Gil Hanse on some of the country's most prominent recent new builds and is currently breathing new life into nearby Cobbs Creek Golf Course. Paxon Hollow is a great reminder of all the things that can make a golf course interesting, other than length. The first three holes are due to be redesigned by architect Tyler Rae to make way for the construction of a proper driving range. I trust he will keep them quirky.
Green Woods Country Club - Winsted, Conn.
Course #717
In my snooty youth, I turned my nose up at both nine-hole courses and courses without significant length, which largely explains why I never got around to playing this course less than 15 miles from where I grew up until I moved more than 1,000 miles away. I am older and wiser now, though, and playing Green Woods with my father on a late June afternoon was a treat.
They just don't build golf courses like this anymore. Many latter-day architects would have either dismissed this hilly, wooded property with plentiful rock outcroppings out of hand, or terraformed it into something tame and banal. Luckily, the locals who laid it out more than 120 years ago managed to squeeze out several unique holes, including the sensational short par-4 first, the drop-shot par-3 third and the slightly scary par-4 ninth, where attempting to drive the green not only brings OB into play but threatens the windshield of cars in the parking lot...including, presumably, the golfer's own.
Willow Creek Golf & Country Club - Mt. Sinai, N.Y.
Course #718
Despite growing up in Connecticut, I had never played golf anywhere on Long Island before this year. That changed in a big way in May, when I took part in U.S. Open Media Day at Shinnecock Hills. Later in the summer, I returned to take part in a GolfPass Academy Tour clinic and golf outing with a few dozen of our GolfPass+ members, as well as some of our instructors. I didn't know much about Willow Creek going in, but I came away impressed with the course as a high-end modern public option in the area. It's laid out on an oddly triangular piece of property with a residential community integrated into the overall land plan. Architect Stephen Kay did an excellent job of maneuvering holes without making the golfer feel overly claustrophobic. The design feels very garden-like, with fountains, flowers and a diverse array of trees and plants.
But it's not all eye-candy. I found Willow Creek to be an engaging overall course, with some throwback-architecture call-outs mixed in with more modern styling. The island-green par-3 16th was kitschy, but in a way that made sense as part of the overall routing. Furthermore, Willow Creek was in tremendous shape considering a heavy amount of play. It's a good public option within reach of New York City.
Bali Hai Golf Club - Las Vegas, Nev.
Course #723
Although it is by far the best-known golf course on this list, I still feel compelled to include Bali Hai because of how it subverted my expectations. I had seen photos of it before, but I had dismissed it in my mind as a throw-in course that owed its popularity to its proximity to the Las Vegas Strip and not much else.
Boy, was I wrong. Like many of Vegas' best attractions, Bali Hai combines a high degree of style with enough substance to back it up. The Southeast Asian styling of the clubhouse and the party atmosphere would feel empty if the golf course itself wasn't as fun as it turned out to be. Former Pete Dye associates Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley made the most of a tiny piece of property and routed plenty of holes with a full-frontal view of the Strip. Even though most hole corridors had to be straightaway, strategic bunkering adds variety, with some fun green complexes at the business end. I played on a 110-degree August day and when the marshal brought my group some OtterPop popsicles on the 11th tee, I knew I was at a place that is more than just a way to separate traveling golfers from their money.
Cypress Bend Golf Club - Many, La.
Course #724
I spend a lot of time researching the golf courses located in regions I have not yet visited. Years ago, I spotted this remote course on the Louisiana-Texas border, overlooking the 185,000-acre Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Sabine River. I wasn't sure if I would ever get there but I made a note of it as a place to investigate someday if I got close enough.
That opportunity came around in early September, and Cypress Bend did not disappoint. At a time when every golf course seems overrun, I was one of just 13 golfers on the tee sheet all day. Sub-$100 golf courses ($65 on a weekday; $95 on weekends) with the type of views and lake frontage it offers are rare, and a 2024 renovation effort by architect Jeff Blume freshened Cypress Bend's looks and reconfigured a few of its holes for greater design effect. The result is a confirmed hidden-gem with a pleasant resort hotel on property and extremely friendly people minding the shop. I had wandered about 90 minutes off my route to reach Cypress Bend, and it was well worth the diversion.
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