Publisher’s Best Bucket List Golf Escapes

Whistling Straits offers two courses of dynamic contrast and world-class prestige.

Whistling Straits
Haven, WI

Whistling Straits offers two courses of dynamic contrast and world-class prestige. Pete Dye transformed dead-flat two-mile stretch of Lake Michigan frontage (once slated for a nuclear power plant) into what many call the Pebble Beach of the Midwest, although it’s more akin to Ireland’s Ballybunion.

Borrowing influences from Irish links courses, the Straits has fescue fairways and massive sand dune bunkers. Just inland, interspersed by four meandering streams, the grassland and dunes aspect of the Irish is a deceiving tranquil landscape.

WhistlingStraits.com

Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach, CA

Spyglass Hill Golf Course is rated one of the toughest courses in the world from the Championship tees. Opened in 1966, Spyglass Hill Golf Course features two distinctly different kinds of terrain that influence the way the holes look and play.

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The first five holes roll through sandy seaside dunes challenging you to carefully pick the safest path. The following 13 holes are cut through majestic pines with elevated greens and strategically placed bunkers and lakes to grab the errant shot. Hole names such as “Black Dog” and “Billy Bones” are hints for the unwary.

PebbleBeach.com

TPC Sawgrass
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Home of THE PLAYERS Championship, the TPC Sawgrass golf course is perhaps the world’s most famous golf course. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course sports one of the most recognizable and challenging holes on the PGA TOUR.

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The notorious par-3, 17th hole, features an island green that makes or breaks many a PGA TOUR pro’s round. Golf enthusiasts will find not one, but two PGA TOUR championship courses at the club, both designed by world-renowned architect Pete Dye. The two golf courses winds through North Florida’s naturally compelling landscape.

TPCSawgrass.com