Untapped U.S. locations for great golf courses?

[Sam Morrow]

Pretty much any of the areas on or around the sand ridges in FL.  There are a small amount of decent courses, but not nearly what the area is capable of producing.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,28247.0/

I will add the Texas barrier islands, although compared to the potential I saw out there before anything was planned -- so awesomely perfect, I pulled over the car and started taking pictures -- it sounds like Palmilla Beach is a missed opportunity.

There's one more area I think could be really really good but I'm not telling.

When I was a kid my Dad and I found the perfect spot on the Padre Island National Seashore, I wanna say this spot was about 15 miles south of the Bob Hall Pier, the dunes in this particular spot looked and felt like a course. I haven't been to this spot in probably 16 or 17 years so I don't know what it looks like today.

[Tom_Doak]

The thing about this thread is that you don't need a whole region to build a great golf course ... you only need a couple hundred acres.

It's unlikely anyone would have identified "southern New Jersey" until George Crump found the right piece of ground there.

[Rees Milikin]

Pretty much any of the areas on or around the sand ridges in FL.  There are a small amount of decent courses, but not nearly what the area is capable of producing.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,28247.0/

I will add the Texas barrier islands, although compared to the potential I saw out there before anything was planned -- so awesomely perfect, I pulled over the car and started taking pictures -- it sounds like Palmilla Beach is a missed opportunity.

There's one more area I think could be really really good but I'm not telling.

I have definitely seen your thread and really enjoyed it, especially after driving around most of the areas that are on or near the sand ridge.  Too bad it is essentially a wasteland of mediocre/bad golf, what I would have given to go back in time to the late 20's and play the courses that were in Polk County.

[Mike Tanner]

I don't know about the Outer Banks, and not for the protectionist reasons discussed before. OBX reminds me of Chile: not wide enough to do any damage. There simply isn't enough land available to space a golf course. I realize that it could be an out-and-back links, akin to that Old Course in Fife, but it's a tall order. No doubt the dunescape is enticing, but I need to be convinced.

Yeah, the Outer Banks are a lot like Chile. But I think the impediments to buluiding new courses there are twofold. A lot of the undeveloped land there is protected from development in federal/state parks. Land that is available for development is more attractive to investors of residential property, who build large, multi-bedroom sand castles and rent them by the week during the summer season. 

[John McCarthy]

North east Wisconsin north of state 64 through the UP is almost all sand.

[Dan Herrmann]

Finger Lakes region of New York.

[Ryan Taylor]

So you don't think much of Bay Harbor, in Petoskey?

No, I don't think much of Bay Harbor in Petoskey. Good-great land and an average golf course (27 holes) imo. I hope for better in my lifetime.

[Pat Burke]

There is so much land on different parts of the old Ft Ord near Monterey that is incredible.
I remember driving around the back side of the base thinking the sandy/scrubby land could host many courses.

[David Kelly]

If you pull out of the Prairie Dunes entrance and turn left on E. 30th Ave you will be treated to 3 or 4 miles of great golf land, much of it undeveloped.

[Tim Leahy]

There is so much land on different parts of the old Ft Ord near Monterey that is incredible.
I remember driving around the back side of the base thinking the sandy/scrubby land could host many courses.

Great links land. Only problem is those sand dunes are full of unexploded ordinance from all the target practice out there. Plus the coastal commission would never allow building there.

[Pat Burke]

Tim,
I was actually thinking the inland portion of the base, back behind the Bayonet and Black Horse courses.
Ordinance probably still an issue, but think the CCC would still be freaked?
Of course, the CCC would take issue with a course in riverside if possible!

That area of the gun ranges and former building would be unreal on PCH if dreaming though!!!

[Tim Leahy]

Tim,
I was actually thinking the inland portion of the base, back behind the Bayonet and Black Horse courses.
Ordinance probably still an issue, but think the CCC would still be freaked?
Of course, the CCC would take issue with a course in riverside if possible!

That area of the gun ranges and former building would be unreal on PCH if dreaming though!!!

There was actually a Tiger Woods junior course planned at one point behind Bayonet but it died.