Architects and golfers alike have combined to make some truly immense courses over the years, combining sporting pedigree with beauty and style. In the international religion that is golf, there are a select few courses that are genuinely beautiful.
Pacific Dunes
The United States is home to some of the most sublime landscapes in the world, such is its vastness. The south coast of Oregon plays an unlikely host to what is believed by many, including the PGA, to be the most beautiful golf courses in the world. The Bandon Dunes Golf Resort sweeps across the Bandon Dunes, reminiscent of the English courses of Dover, and features a section aptly named the Pacific Dunes.
Pacific Dunes sits, appropriately, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Coquille River. The Dunes are one of the most fantastic examples of integrating natural terrain and beauty into an artificial sports course, masterminded by Tom Doak in 2001. The course is significantly shorter than some of its southern rivals measuring in tamely under 7,000 yards.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that the course will be a brief walkabout; the coastal location makes even the simplest shots a mammoth battle against the wind. Curveballs are the natural shots here; the trick is playing a true line across the green or through the air. Each hole can take on a different persona depending upon the weather, forcing you to take incredible advantage of your caddy’s enthusiasm.
You will find yourself threading narrow paths through sand pits both natural and man-made, and don’t be surprised to see a startled deer flee from your tee. By the course proprietors themselves and contested by nobody, this is “golf as it was meant to be.”
Old Head
The United Kingdom has some of the most historic courses in the world, with a great affinity for the sport across all of the British Isles. Old Head sits upon a spit of land which extends for over two miles into the cool Atlantic, on the southern tip of Ireland. Representing that “edge of the world” feel is one of the greatest things about playing the holes at Old Head, with the greens purposely built to feel open. The panoramic views of the empty ocean are uncontested anywhere else in Ireland.
The designers of the course have implemented the best possible walking routes into the holes, to best showcase the outstanding natural beauty that the course is so lucky to find itself within. Without even taking into account the history or ecology of the course, the experience can leave you dumbfounded with an amazed, slack-jawed and goggle-eyed expression. The newest structure is a dusty 1853 lighthouse and there is even the remains of one tracing its history to the 1600s.
As if to emphasise the monument that is Old Head, if you were to step into the waters off shore you would find yourself confronting with incredible shipwrecks; not least of all the Lusitania.
Old Head and Pacific Dunes are two coastal courses which have been repeatedly selected as areas of incredible beauty, noted for their integration with nature and seamless conjunction with the landscape. If you’re looking for a more modern feel from your green, you can try firing at Padang, Craigielaw or Bunkers.
By Harry Pearce
Harry is an internet media consultant who now advises several companies from within the UK on how to maximise their business potential. If you are looking for any golf hotels for either business or personal use in the Midlands area then contact Belmont Lodge.
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