When Golf Magazine's
list of the Top 100 Courses You Can Play, a biennial ranking of the top courses
across the country where membership is not a requirement to play, hits newsstands
on August 15, the top two courses on the list will remain unchanged from a
similar list released in 2006.
The September issue of the publication places Bandon, Oregon's Pacific Dunes on top of the heap, followed by Pebble Beach Golf Links, now a bridesmaid in consecutive editions.
"What Pacific Dunes has going for it is that it's totally back to nature," said Golf Magazine's Course Rankings and Architecture Editor Joe Passov of the Tom Doak Links-style masterpiece. "There are no homes. There are no roads. There are some truly gigantic dunes that occupy holes; various routing quirks that are a lot of fun that you don't see elsewhere - back-to-back par 3's, four par 3's on the back nine alone - and you've got more ocean views than you have at Pebble Beach.
For many years Pebble Beach has been the standard when it comes to rankings of this nature. In 2007 Golf Magazine ranked the course as the No. 4 Course in the U.S. and the No. 5 Course in the World.
A most highly anticipated newcomer to the list, Washington's
Chambers Bay, entered at No. 8. Chambers, one of eleven first-time selections,
is a unique tribute to the historic links of Scotland and Ireland that winds
through a coastal setting while being framed by Puget Sound and the snow-capped
Olympic Mountains. The course has received more praise and adoration than Kobe
Bryant during the Beijing Olympics and has already been awarded both the U.S.
Men's Amateur Championship (2010) and the U.S. Men's Open (2015). Chambers Bay
was designed by Robert Trent Jones II.
"The course is a strategic masterpiece with wild elevation changes, split fairways, enormous dunes, tattered-edge bunkers and stunning scenery," wrote Passov. "We can't wait for the 2015 Open."
Host of the 2011 U.S. Amateur Championship and rumored site of a future U.S. Open, Wisconsin's Erin Hills, was the next highest-rated newcomer to the list after Chambers Bay, coming in at No. 27.
Combined, the 100 courses on the list have hosted eleven Major Championships (8 U.S. Opens and 3 PGA Championships), eleven U.S. Women's Opens, eleven U.S. Amateurs, three U.S. Senior Opens and three Ryder Cups.
The top five courses alone have hosted six U.S. Opens, six U.S. Amateurs, three PGA Championships, two U.S. Senior Opens and two Ryder Cups. The events span well more than 100 years from the 1901 U.S. Amateur, played at Atlantic City Country Club (No. 99) to the 2008 U.S. Senior Open contested two weeks ago at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs.
The 2008 edition of Top 100 Courses You Can Play has 13 courses designed by Tom Fazio and nine by Pete Dye. Twenty-three of the courses can be played for greens fees less than $50. If you're looking to travel, California has to be on your list as 10 courses from The Golden State are among the Top 100.
Other courses debuting on the 2008 list include Mississippi's
Fallen Oak at Beau Rivage Resort (No. 29), Arizona's We-Ko-PA Golf Club (No.
44), Virginia's Highland Course at Primland Resort (No. 62), Idaho's Osprey
Meadows at Tamarack Resort (No. 79) and Circling Raven (No. 93), Maine's Sunday
River (No. 88), Colorado's The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa (No. 96), New Jersey's
Atlantic City Country Club (No. 99) and South Carolina's Tidewater Golf Club
& Plantation (No. 100).