Golfweek's Best Residential Courses 2020 & now 2021

[Steve_ Shaffer]

I guess we missed it earlier this year. Top 10 here:


1Wade Hampton Club Cashiers, N.C.Tom Fazio1987 8.05
2Rock Creek Cattle Co. Deer Lodge, Mont.Tom Doak2008 7.75
3Estancia Scottsdale, Ariz. Tom Fazio1995 7.61
4Colorado GC Parker, Colo. Bill Crenshaw2007 7.55
5Gozzer Ranch Harrison, Idaho Tom Fazio2007 7.54
6Oak Tree National Edmond, Okla. Pete Dye1975 7.45
7Huntsman Springs Driggs, Idaho David McLay Kidd2009 7.42
8Shooting Star Teton Village, Wyo. Tom Fazio2009 7.41
9Bluejack National Montgomery, Texas Tiger Woods2016 7.35
10Castle Pines Castle Rock, Colo. Jack Nicklaus1981 7.35

More here:


https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2020/01/16/golfweeks-best-2020-top-200-residential-golf-courses/

[Tom_Doak]

The top TWO HUNDRED residential golf courses?


I was thinking what an honor it would be to be listed #193, but of course they will just write they are ranked "one of the best residential courses in America 2020". 

[Rob Marshall]

#95 is the club in my development in Florida. It's got 17 really good holes. Only club I saw in the Naples area. If they would get rid of the Paspalum greens...........

[Mike_Trenham]

So many missed opportunities.


Oyster Harbors
Yeamans Hall
Bald Peak Colony Club
Farmington CC
Fishers Island
Mountain Lake


What is the criteria? Requesting to be on the list? Potential ad revenue?  Tell me how all of the above don’t qualify.

[Rob Marshall]

Yeamans is a residential course?

[Ben Hollerbach]

How do you define a residential course?


Why wouldn't Merion, Pebble Beach, or Pine Valley not top the list?

[Tom_Doak]

Yeamans is a residential course?

Absolutely, it was designed as a master-planned community by the Olmstead Bros.  But they didn't sell all the lots before the Depression hit, and when they got back on their feet, the members who saved the club decided not to sell the rest of the lots.


Personally, I hate most of the modern courses that were built as residential developments, but I also hate when people tell me they prefer "no houses on the course".  Ben and Mike list just a few of the many examples of great courses with houses around the perimeter.  What you want to avoid is simply the idea of "golf corridors" one or two holes wide with houses on both sides of them.

[Mike_Trenham]

What I think works best for a residential golf course development is when the streets form the boundary lines.  So you go fairway, rough, OB, street, front yard, home.


1) The golfers [size=78%]golfers are viewing the front yards not the back yards.  Front yards are typically better loooking.[/size]
[/size][size=78%]2) Forces the developers to keep the corridors wider, as it seems they are more okay with a ball hitting a yard than a car.[/size]
[/size][size=78%]3) May ultimately increase the value of each lot.[/size]
[/size][size=78%]4) In the south people sit on their front porch and socialize with their neighbors (more so this year than ever around me in PA) yet walking around the back of someone’s house is just plain rude.[/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]Think of the difference between Merion 7&8 vs. 14&15.[/size]
[/size][size=78%]DuPont CC is another example where the course is in a neighborhood but not up against peoples’ back yards.[/size]

[Tom_Doak]

What I think works best for a residential golf course development is when the streets form the boundary lines.  So you go fairway, rough, OB, street, front yard, home.

My client from China, Mr. Han, noted that was the difference between courses in the U.S.A. and courses in Scotland.  Generally, the Scottish courses were all in "public space" with no private homes between the street and the golf.

[Edward Glidewell]

I wonder how they defined a residential course and if they just assumed anything built more than 40-50 years ago wasn't one.


Sedgefield Country Club is absolutely a residential course (there are houses on both sides of the fairway on multiple holes) and I'd say it's better than at least half of the courses on the list and probably more.

[Rob Marshall]

I don't think there is a hole on Harbour Town that doesn't have a hotel, house or condo on it and I didn't see it on the list.

[Dave Doxey]

I wonder now many purchased ad space in the magazine.

[mike_beene]

A course crosses to very residential when a hole has houses on both sides. To me Pebble meets that criteria as does Oak Tree which each have a few qualifying holes. Harbor Town has a bunch. A two hole corridor doesn’t bother me.

[Sean_A]

I would have thought residential has some tie between houses and the club. Surely it can't simply be that there are houses near the course. The list is idiotic, but that would double down on the idiocy.

Happy New Year

[Mike_Trenham]

Sean:


All the courses I listed were part of master planned communities and the residential lots were established simultaneously with each golf course.


Murifield Village is another one for the list.

[Carl Rogers]

Tom, Riverfront has been built up to just about it's max.  I see this as inevitable as the property is just too valuable.  If you remember the practice range, there are condos within 60 feet of the tee.

[Jerry Kluger]

The rating criteria would certainly be interesting - do all courses with houses on them which are listed on their various Top 100 lists automatically appear on this list - apparently not.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Two "Core" Tom Fazio Courses in Hilton Head

Experience "core" golf courses by Tom Fazio, patterned after the classic designs of the 1920s; Rivera, Winged Foot, Seminole, where the “core” routing is uninterrupted by any interior homes or roads.

https://berkeleyhallgolf.com/

[jeffwarne]

Yeamans is a residential course?

Absolutely, it was designed as a master-planned community by the Olmstead Bros.  But they didn't sell all the lots before the Depression hit, and when they got back on their feet, the members who saved the club decided not to sell the rest of the lots.


Personally, I hate most of the modern courses that were built as residential developments, but I also hate when people tell me they prefer "no houses on the course".  Ben and Mike list just a few of the many examples of great courses with houses around the perimeter.  What you want to avoid is simply the idea of "golf corridors" one or two holes wide with houses on both sides of them.

This.
One of the great things about Many courses are the structures around them-in spots.
Maidstone, North Berwick,Mid-Ocean, Mountain Lake.
One of my favorite looks is the left on #1 and behind #2 tee at Palmetto and the last time i was there I was mentally clearing screening vegetation to highlight and embrace those incredible historical structures, rather than trying to hide them.

[Joel_Stewart]

Seems like Golfweek missed an opportunity to break out the classic/modern list for residential courses?

[Tom_Doak]

Personally, I hate most of the modern courses that were built as residential developments, but I also hate when people tell me they prefer "no houses on the course".  Ben and Mike list just a few of the many examples of great courses with houses around the perimeter.  What you want to avoid is simply the idea of "golf corridors" one or two holes wide with houses on both sides of them.

This.
One of the great things about Many courses are the structures around them-in spots.
Maidstone, North Berwick,Mid-Ocean, Mountain Lake.
One of my favorite looks is the left on #1 and behind #2 tee at Palmetto and the last time i was there I was mentally clearing screening vegetation to highlight and embrace those incredible historical structures, rather than trying to hide them.

Another older course that should have made this list is Bel Air, which is arguably one of the most successful golf/residential developments of all time, at least by present value!


When we were working there I noted that there were a few places where they'd planted trees on the edges seemingly to hide the houses, and asked why they wanted to hide houses like those!  They are really an integral part of what makes the place unique, just like the ocean at Bandon Dunes.

[Rob Marshall]

The members of Bel Air probably don't care about looking at those house like most of us would because they live in them.

[Tim Martin]

There are no shortage of golf courses with incredible homes on the perimeter. Westchester County NY, Bergen/Essex County NJ and the Philadelphia Main Line are loaded with examples where the structures enhance rather than detract from the golf course. I don’t buy the notion that a bare perimeter always wins the day.

[Tom_Doak]

The members of Bel Air probably don't care about looking at those house like most of us would because they live in them.

Yes, but opening up the airspace of the canyon instead of having trees planted vertically along the fence line of the golf course made a big difference on a couple of the back nine holes.

[Jeff Schley]

Although the 80/90's golf course community developments are maligned when compared to classic courses, they wouldn't have been built without to help anchor the residential housing.  So although they aren't our first options, it is nice to have them in existence and enjoy.