1960-2020 (The most significant courses built in the US in each decade)

[Ted Sturges]

I was thinking about this recently...and thought I'd take a shot at this.


Below is my list of the most significant course built in the US in each decade going back to 1960.  I've also shared the reasons why I nominate each course for this distinctive honor.


I'm certain that my list is not flawless, and (because I'm hungry to know the truth) I'd love for others to add and subtract from my list and offer supporting statements for your opinion.  I look forward to reading the answers.


Here is my list of the Most Significant Courses Built in the US over the last six decades:


1960's-  The Golf Club...Pete Dye was just getting started and revealing his genius.  He built the back 9 at Crooked Stick, then paused and went over to Columbus and built The Golf Club.  His iconic design there began a renaissance in architecture, away from a less than inspiring period after the golden age, and up until the moment Pete burst onto the scene.  Pete's work would change golf architecture, and for the good.  His design work at The Golf Club still stands today as one of his greatest golf courses.


1970's-  I'm sticking with Pete, and going with Harbour Town.  Pete proved that you didn't need an amazing piece of property to build a great golf course.  His utilization of strategic design principles was taking full flight with this design, built over essentially flat property.  The course, among the shortest on the PGA Tour, still challenges the world's best players (how does he do that?).


1980's-  Darned if I don't have to go with Pete again.  TPC Sawgrass might be Pete's most significant course.  Built on a terrible piece of property (can I sell you some swamp land in Florida?), Pete built a course that is still considered an iconic golf course on the PGA tour rotation.  The course is a lesson in strategic design, and proved that a great architect can overcome a poor site.  Sadly, this achievement seemed to keep Mr. Dye out of the running when someone had a superior site, as Pete did not get as many chances at building on ocean front sites as he no doubt deserved.


1990's-  I go with Sandhills in the 90's.  It may have been the genesis for "remote golf" in the US, and put Coore and Crenshaw on the map with a big-time statement.  C & C were obviously here to stay, minimalism was a new buzzword, "finding golf holes" was once again embraced as an architectural principle, and Sandhills has never faded from the scene.


2000's-  For me, it has to be Pacific Dunes.  Tom Doak's career was taking off, and he was given an amazing site to create something special...which he did.  "Remote golf" in the US took another (big) step forward, and Oregon became a big-time golf destination.


2010-  I'm going out on a bit of a limb here and picking Sweetens Cove.  Rob Collins' work there is significant, to me, for the fact that they are making a true effort to offer a less expensive version of golf.  The 9 hole course required less land to build and less construction expense (and will require a much lower maintenance budget than an 18 hole course).  The course gets great reviews, and introduces the potential of "golf in 90 minutes" a concept that could boost golf's future in the US.


That's all I got.  Would love to hear potential additions or corrections to this list.


TS

[Tom_Doak]

I always figured the next courses I built after the attention from Pacific Dunes were going to be crucial to people deciding if I was a great architect or a one-hit wonder.  Cape Kidnappers and Barnbougle were a gift from God on that score.


Hopefully Rob Collins is as lucky as that, but even if he is, it's still too early to tell whether it will have any effect on what anyone else is building, which is the main component of "significant" here, I presume?


If wider than wide holes and easier scoring become the trend, then the most significant course might be Gamble Sands or Mammoth Dunes.  If getting rid of most of the bunkers becomes a trend, then Memorial Park or The Sheep Ranch might be most influential.  But, again, too early to tell.


Really there were so few courses built in the 2010s that I'm not sure if any of them has changed the direction of architecture.

[Ben Hollerbach]

Didn't Harbour Town open in 1969? Would you take The Golf Club over Harbour Town if they had to go head to head?


While I can't really disagree with any of the courses on your list, I'll present a contrarian list:


1960: Mauna Kea
1970: Muirfield Village
1980: Shadow Creek
1990: Tobacco Road
2000: Chambers Bay
2010: Memorial Park

[David Wuthrich]

1960's - Crooked Stick
1970's - Casa de Campo
1980's - Shadow Creek
1990's - Sand Hills
2000's - Wolf Point
2010's - Tara Iti

[Ben Hollerbach]

1960's - Crooked Stick
1970's - Casa de Campo
1980's - Shadow Creek
1990's - Sand Hills
2000's - Wolf Point
2010's - Tara Iti

I was thinking of Casa de Campo, but the OP did say US courses.

[Tim Gavrich]

It was a slightly different prompt, but Brad Klein and I collaborated on an article a couple years ago where we picked courses that typified each decade in American golf course architecture (mostly publicly accessible, but not all) starting pre-1900 and going from there. Here are the ones we nominated for the modern decades, FWIW:


1961 Pine Tree
1969 Harbour Town


1974 Innisbrook Copperhead
1974 Muirfield Village


1981 Wild Dunes (Links)
1989 Shadow Creek


1990 Troon North (Monument)
1994 LPGA International (Jones)
1995 Sand Hills


2001 Pacific Dunes
2006 Sebonack
2007 Hammock Beach (Conservatory)


2017 Streamsong Black
2018 Inverness Club (restoration)


https://www.golfadvisor.com/articles/decade-evolution-of-american-course-architecture

[Stephen Davis]

Didn't Harbour Town open in 1969? Would you take The Golf Club over Harbour Town if they had to go head to head?


While I can't really disagree with any of the courses on your list, I'll present a contrarian list:


1960: Mauna Kea
1970: Muirfield Village
1980: Shadow Creek
1990: Tobacco Road
2000: Chambers Bay
2010: Memorial Park

Everything I ever hear about Tobacco Road is how unique and one of a kind it is. What has it changed in terms of the work other people have done in the nearly 30 years since it was built? Also, I don't know how significant can be if it has taken 30 years for it to reach the consciousness of the golfing world (and even then it is only a very small segment of that world).

[Kalen Braley]

Ted,

Great thread topic.  Other than TPC Sawgrass and Sand Hills which I agree with, i'm pretty flexible on the other decades.

P.S.  Got a good chuckle out of this comment "(because I'm hungry to know the truth)".  You know damn well there is no truth to be found in this subjective exercise, but its sure to start a nice fur-flying cat fight!

[Peter Pallotta]

Top American films in the years Tim’s courses opened:

1961: The Hustler / West Side Story
1969: Easy Rider / The Wild Bunch

1974: Chinatown / The Godfather II

1981: Raiders of the Lost Arc
1989: nothing particularly noteworthy

1990: Goodfellas
1994: Pulp Fiction
1995: Shawshank Redemption

2001: A Beautiful Mind /Lord of the Rings
2006: The Departed
2007: No Country for Old Men

2017: The Shape of Water
2018: Black Panther

I see some parallels. The 80s were big budget time — with not much to write home about

[Kalen Braley]

Peter,

I'm going to pretend you didn't just say "1989- nothing noteworthy".

Two words:  Road House   

[Dan_Callahan]

1989: nothing particularly noteworthy

Do the Right Thing? Dead Poets? When Harry Met Sally?

[Tim Gavrich]

Top American films in the years Tim’s courses opened:

2007: No Country for Old Men

I love No Country for Old Men, but There Will be Blood is a masterpiece and deserved the Best Picture nod, IMO...

[Kalen Braley]

Top American films in the years Tim’s courses opened:

2007: No Country for Old Men

I love No Country for Old Men, but There Will be Blood is a masterpiece and deserved the Best Picture nod, IMO...

Tim,

Yes and Thank you!  I mention this to people and mostly get blank stares.  One of the greatest movies of all time, from PTA no less, also in my pantheon of movie directors!!

[Stephen Davis]

Tim, I'd love to hear what your rational for including Hammock Beach (Conservatory) was. It is a course that, until now, I had never even heard of and a quick google search left me feeling less than overwhelmed.

[John Emerson]

Top American films in the years Tim’s courses opened:

2007: No Country for Old Men

I love No Country for Old Men, but There Will be Blood is a masterpiece and deserved the Best Picture nod, IMO...

Goodfellas and There will be blood are two greatest films I’ve seen in my life.  Donnie Brasco, Heat, and Top Gun are strong runner-ups.

[Tom_Doak]

While I can't really disagree with any of the courses on your list, I'll present a contrarian list:

1960: Mauna Kea
1970: Muirfield Village
1980: Shadow Creek
1990: Tobacco Road
2000: Chambers Bay
2010: Memorial Park

Muirfield Village was very influential in making Nicklaus the man, and making ridiculous maintenance standards the goal.  If you move back Harbour Town to the 1960's then MV is the right choice for the 1970's.


None of the others on your contrarian list were particularly influential though.  What did Chambers Bay influence?  Who else has done anything like Tobacco Road?

[Tom_Doak]

1960's - Crooked Stick
1970's - Casa de Campo
1980's - Shadow Creek
1990's - Sand Hills
2000's - Wolf Point
2010's - Tara Iti

How have Wolf Point or Tara Iti been influential?

[Ira Fishman]

For 2010s—Bandon Preserve.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Defining "Influence" as the "absolute value" (story about the mathematical term)...so that biggest influence even if influence is bad, as opposed to biggest positive influence...and influence over 20 years or more:


60's Harbour Town
70's Muirfield Village
80's Wade Hampton or Shadow Creek
90's Sand Hills GC (also wins IMHO as most influential as well as most positively influential 1960-2020...both by landslides)
00's Pacific Dunes or Ballyneal (allow Tom to decide)
10's Gamble Sands, Ohoopee, or Sweetens...but for sure too early to know

[Edward Glidewell]

I wonder how influential a course like Ohoopee can really be when the overwhelming majority of golfers will never play it or see it (or even know it exists, to be honest). The same could probably be said for courses like Wade Hampton and, to a lesser extent, Shadow Creek.


I'm not saying they can't be influential -- most golfers will never see or play Sand Hills and it has been undeniably influential. In general, though, I think you're more likely to find influence in a public course or one that has a tournament and is on TV regularly.

[Tom_Doak]

60's Harbour Town
70's Muirfield Village
80's Wade Hampton or Shadow Creek
90's Sand Hills GC (also wins IMHO as most influential as well as most positively influential 1960-2020...both by landslides)
00's Pacific Dunes or Ballyneal (allow Tom to decide)
10's Gamble Sands, Ohoopee, or Sweetens...but for sure too early to know

This list looks as if you are deciding which ARCHITECT had the most impact on the business [or the most success], not whether the work itself was influential.  And that is the way the business works . . . but I don't think it is really what this thread was supposed to be about.


By that measure, for the 10's you should say that the Rio 2016 course was the most influential because it brought Gil to prominence, even though hardly anyone has seen the course other than on TV, and I never hear it cited when talking about great or influential courses.  [I would say the same for Memorial Park . . . working out what works well for the Tour is no longer what appeals to the general populace.]

[Tom Bacsanyi]

1989: nothing particularly noteworthy

Do the Right Thing? Dead Poets? When Harry Met Sally?

FIELD. OF. DREAMS.


C'mon man.

[Tom_Doak]

I wonder how influential a course like Ohoopee can really be when the overwhelming majority of golfers will never play it or see it (or even know it exists, to be honest). The same could probably be said for courses like Wade Hampton and, to a lesser extent, Shadow Creek.

I'm not saying they can't be influential -- most golfers will never see or play Sand Hills and it has been undeniably influential. In general, though, I think you're more likely to find influence in a public course or one that has a tournament and is on TV regularly.

Certainly building a public course in a spectacular location is a home run for one's brand, if not necessarily for one's influence.  I had the thought one day early on at Bandon that the first two courses had each hosted more rounds in their first 12 months than Sand Hills had hosted in the six years it had been open by then!


It's not in America, but maybe my most influential course was really Cape Kidnappers, because it pioneered the popularity of drone photography 

[Paul Rudovsky]

In defense of my choices  :


Ed--The influence I think is on other architects and owners/operators/etc.  I think exposure to lots of golfers rarely impacts the future of the game and how it grows, and word about important golf course is spread (not always accurately) by the media.  For sure few saw Pine Valley and NGLA in their first few decades...when clubs like these were much less available than they are today...and much less available than Shadow Creek/Wade Hampton/Ohoopee are today.


IMO Sandhills proved that if you build a great great course...golfers will travel almost anywhere to play it...and that opened up phenomenal new sites for new courses (as most cities had very few available sites nearby).  My sense from reading and hearing interviews with Keiser is that SHGC was a major input toward his decision to go ahead w Bandon Dunes.


Tom--


No I was not trying to focus on architects...see my comments immediately above regarding SHGC.  I also agree with the comment made by someone else about MV and excessive maintenance (but do not think this was/is a positive influence).  And actually, in that sense one might say ANGC belongs on this list (even though it was completed in the 1930's) because of the influence it had on maintenance practice and the importance of "green" turf once color replaced b&w TV through the USA and world (1970's as I recall).  For sure club members have cited ANGC in mentions to Board of Governors and Greens Comm at their clubs more that any other course with comments like "why can't we look like Augusta" each Spring.

[Garland Bayley]

...What did Chambers Bay influence?  ...

A municipality interested in doing Memorial Park?