22 Architects’ Choice Top 100 Golf Courses Castle Stuart Inverness, Scotland Gil Hanse, Mark Parsinen, 2009 Known for its wide playing areas which don’t overly punish the higher handicap golfer, but still provide a test capable of challenging the world’s best. Of the courses built in the last ten years, Castle Stuart ranks highest in our Top 100. Architect Gil Hanse has since been awarded the most talked-about contract in golf design, for the 2016 Olympics course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New South Wales New South Wales, Australia Alister MacKenzie, Eric Apperly, 1928 Set among sand hills that slope down to the Pacific Ocean, New South Wales really shows its teeth when the wind blows. MacKenzie created the routing and bunkering plan during his 1926 visit, but Australian amateur golferturned-architect Eric Apperly is credited for subsequent changes – including the famous par three sixth hole – that defined the course’s character. Chicago Illinois, USA Charles Blair Macdonald, Seth Raynor, 1894 Having attended college in Scotland, Macdonald returned to Chicago with a set of clubs and in 1892 laid out the first 18-hole course in North America. Chicago Golf Club was formed and moved to its current site in Wheaton in 1894. To cope with advancing technology, Macdonald asked his protégée Seth Raynor to reroute and redesign the course in 1923. With classic hole designs and challenging greens on an otherwise relatively flat and featureless setting, Chicago exudes golf purity. Royal Troon South Ayrshire, Scotland George Strath, Willie Fernie, 1888 This Open Championship venue was formed in 1878 and by 1888 had eighteen holes, with the first two club professionals Strath and Fernie instrumental in their design. Golf architect Stuart Rennie says: “A links course where the wind can play havoc. The natural dune landform and pot bunkers provide strategic challenge, the back nine is a fantastic stretch of golf especially on a windy final day the Open.” Swinley Forest Surrey, England Harry Colt, 1909 Colt famously described Swinley Forest as his ‘least bad’ course. Our Top 100 suggests there are three more Colt courses that are even less bad, but there’s something uniquely enjoyable about Swinley. At little over 6,000 yards and with a par of 68, it’s the shortest course in our Top 100, and perhaps this – along with its wonderful heathland setting – is what makes golf here such a pleasurable experience. King Castle At number 44 in our list, Castle Stuart is the highest ranked course built in the last ten years. We asked Gil Hanse to give us an insight into the development process When Mark Parsinen first showed us the site for Castle Stuart we were hooked on the potential for this property. Working with Mark on the design was a wonderful collaboration as Mark is very organized and detailed in his planning and conceptualisation and Jim Wagner and I tend to be more creative and ‘seat of your pants’ in our construction approach. The common theme between the two was that you need to be on site to capitalise on both approaches, and that synergy led to the creation of the course you see today. Our design goals were to create a wide, playable, fun course that felt as if it had always been there on the shores of the Moray Firth. We coupled that with a desire to make the width relevant to the strategy of the course, so that the course would be capable of hosting the top players in the world, which it has done for the last three years at the Scottish Open. ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #44 ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #43 ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #42 ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #41 ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #40 ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #44
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