[JWinick]

The vast majority of US top-ranked golf courses were built prior to 1945 or after 1989.   Between 1945 and 1989 golf course design was pedestrian before rebounding in the 1990s with a construction boom. 

According to Golf Digest's Top 100 US, only 22 courses were built during these dark years.   What is your favorite golf course built during this period?

A few nominees based soley on Golf Digest rankings:

Muirfield Village
Butler National
The Honors Course
Castle Pines
The Golf Club

[cary lichtenstein]

I think it would be Dick Wilson and Pete Dye's body of work during this period.

JN best work came afterwards.

I was always partial to Coghill #4 from my hometown Chicago by Dick Wilson.

Murfield underwhelmed me.

Butler was too hard edged.

Parts of The Golf Club were really good, I liked the Honors course.

[JMorgan]

Prairie Dunes

[Joe Andriole]

Peachtree, Spyglass Hill, TPC Sawgrass, Harbour Town, Pine Tree

[Ronald Montesano]

The one that I haven't seen that just slips in and seems to make all the lists is Wade Hampton in N.C.  Any commentary from those that have played it?

[John Moore II]

I was going to say Harbor Town and TPC Sawgrass. I also think the Champions course at Bryan Park is an exceptional course, certainly the best Rees Jones I have played, and I want to say it was built in 1990. Congressional is quite new as well, no? And what about Spyglass?

[Sean Leary]

Prairie Dunes

Only the second nine was built after WW2.

[mark chalfant]

NCR
Shady Oaks
TheGolf Club
Desert  Forest



I would love to play Pine Tree, Sperone, (Italy) and  Crag Burn

[JMorgan]

Prairie Dunes

Only the second nine was built after WW2.

Sean, many would argue that you may never have seen Prairie Dunes on GCA if the club hadn't decided in 1955 to add a second nine.  But I agree, one could argue the seed was actually planted in '37, and the first nine has the best land on the course, plus Perry had just completed Southern Hills and the redesign work at PV and ANGC and was for all intents and purposes at his creative height.

Nonetheless, Prairie Dunes is an example of a US course completed during the so-called Dark Age in which the incorporated club refused to forfeit great architecture for bland routing, signature holes, added length, and so on.

I'd be curious to hear what others think.   A Best Course: WWII-1990?

[BCrosby]

I would put the end of the Dark Age at 1980. That's about when Dye and Fazio started to take over the gca franchise from the aging RTJ. By 1990, with Doak, C&C and others gaining traction. the DA had been over for quite a while.

The most important course in the DA was P'tree ('48/9), imho. RTJ set the direction there. First big budget course built after WWII. You can almost see RTJ's style change as you walk the course, evolving from his 1930's Stanley Thompson roots to something else. A fascinatng course for someone with a bit of gca history. RTJ even did a couple of dry runs there for changes he was making at ANGC at about the same time.

On another note, Wade Hamption is (a) not a DA course by any stretch of the imagination and (b) whatever era you want to assign it to, it is rated too high.

Bob

[Bill_McBride]

Spyglass, early Doral Blue, Champions, Peachtree, Pine Tree, Harbour Town -- before Dye came on the scene there really weren't many, were there?  Bob's right, 1945-1980 was the Dark Ages. 

[Phil McDade]

Perhaps a technicality, but Dye's Blackwolf Run in Kohler, WI -- which continues to receive high ratings 20 years after it debuted -- opened for play in 1988.

[Ronald Montesano]

Otherwise known as The Age of Cornish...

[Mark Bourgeois]

Shout out for Grandfather G&CC and Quail Hollow.

[Kevin Pallier]

Here's some overseas courses built during that timeline - not that I've seen a lot of these but they do come with decent reps ?

Casa de Campo
Valderamma
Paraparaumu Beach
Wairakei

And some that I have seen from Australia:

The National (Old)
Joondalup (Quarry / Dunes)
Sanctuary Cove (Pines)
Hyatt Regency Coolum
Narooma
Horsham
Spring Valley

Does the rebuilt Turnberry (Ailsa) count ?

[Phil_the_Author]

OOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never mind... Comment went on wrong thread!   

[JWinick]

Certainly the exact dates are a little arbitrary, but the 1990s were much better than the 1980s.  1990 is the date listed for Shadow Creek, 1994 for Sand Hills.   These two courses raised the bar on architects imagination.

I'd be interested in hearing some of the architects chime in here.  Why was golf architecture so poor during a period of great American prosperity and the popularization of the game to the masses?   

[Andy Troeger]

If I had to pick one of what I've seen it would be The Golf Club, but Muirfield Village, TPC Sawgrass, Castle Pines, Spyglass Hill, and Harbour Town all go pretty highly for me as well. Blackwolf Run certainly as well since it technically counts.

Crooked Stick and Long Cove also deserve mention.

[Bill_McBride]

Certainly the exact dates are a little arbitrary, but the 1990s were much better than the 1980s.  1990 is the date listed for Shadow Creek, 1994 for Sand Hills.   These two courses raised the bar on architects imagination.

I'd be interested in hearing some of the architects chime in here.  Why was golf architecture so poor during a period of great American prosperity and the popularization of the game to the masses?   

That adds validation to Bob Crosby's point above, that the Dark Age of Golf Architecture ended in 1980, lasting from WWII to 1980.  I actually think it started with the Great Depression but there were exceptions like Prairie Dunes and Augusta.  Those were mostly designed but not built during the '20s I think.  MacKenzie's Midwest university courses would fit in that category.

[JWinick]

Prairie Dunes was listed as being built in 1937 and 1957.  As I recall the first nine was built in 1937 and the second in 1957.   So it really is a 1937 course since the second nine followed the look of the first. 

Prairie Dunes

[JMorgan]

As I recall the first nine was built in 1937 and the second in 1957.   So it really is a 1937 course since the second nine followed the look of the first. 

Prairie Dunes

It's your thread, JW, but I'll respectfully disagree. When the club raised the money in '55 to create an 18-hole course, Press Maxwell added holes 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.  The club could have hired Joe Finger or RTJ or anyone else to lay out 18 holes, but Prairie Dunes Inc. chose Press Maxwell, and his final 18 routing dates to 1957.

Similarly, Garden City GC dates it founding to 1899, because that is when all 18 holes were laid out; and yet Emmet completed the original Island Links nine in 1897.   

[Wyatt Halliday]

Sticking with the Dye theme, Oak Tree must stand and say hello. It's quite possibly his most penal.

[JWinick]

I don't pretend to be an expert on Prairie Dunes, but it does appear that the son followed the spirit of the father.   If the club went into a different direction and chose RTJ senior, than it would be largely a 1957 design.   Golf Digest lists both so we're splitting hairs here. 

As I recall the first nine was built in 1937 and the second in 1957.   So it really is a 1937 course since the second nine followed the look of the first. 

Prairie Dunes

It's your thread, JW, but I'll respectfully disagree. When the club raised the money in '55 to create an 18-hole course, Press Maxwell added holes 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.  The club could have hired Joe Finger or RTJ or anyone else to lay out 18 holes, but Prairie Dunes Inc. chose Press Maxwell, and his final 18 routing dates to 1957.

Similarly, Garden City GC dates it founding to 1899, because that is when all 18 holes were laid out; and yet Emmet completed the original Island Links nine in 1897.   

[Bart Bradley]

Grandfather... see Ran's course profile...posted today  .

Bart

[Paul Nash]

Woburn Dukes and Duchess and Kings Lynn in Norfolk

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