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Par-3, 179 yards
EL RINCON, Bogota, Colombia In 1963, a group of eight Colombian businessmen hired Trent Jones, Sr. to build a course in the middle of the Andes to the west of the Bogota River. Half a century later, El Rincon, dotted with spruce and pine trees, eucalyptus groves and numerous water hazards, is a worthy testament to Jones’ design skills. The 7th, which plays shorter than its yardage because the course sits one and a half miles above sea level, is a test of accuracy and precision. A lake stretches all the way from the tee to the green, so a full carry is required to get home. The teeing area is large and, depending on where the boxes are placed, offers several different views of a green which is supported by a brickstone wall and surrounded on its other three sides by bunkers. Following winter floods that damaged the hole in 1980, Jones redesigned it for that year’s World Cup of Golf.
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Par-4, 486 yards
RITZ CARLTON DOVE MOUNTAIN (Saguaro), Tucson, Arizona Jack Nicklaus took advantage of this Sonoran Desert setting just outside Tucson to integrate both strategy and variety into his signature-design course. Nicklaus created 27 holes that blend the noble, indigenous saguaros—eccentriclooking cactus trees that can grow as high as 60 feet—into the backdrop of the surrounding Tortolita Mountains. This luxury resort course, which has elevation levels ranging from 2,300 to 3,200 feet, can challenge even the most seasoned, and fittest, professional. Host to the annual WGCAccenture Match Play Championship each February since 2009, the combined challenge posed by the Saguaro and Tortolita 9-hole loops requires inspired and creative shots, executed with precision. The 7th is a long, uphill, left-toright dogleg with a wide fairway that is guarded on its right corner by a bunker 60 yards long. A deep “Black Hole” bunker fronts the elevated green, which slopes sharply towards the front, from left to right.
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Par-5, 575 yards David Cannon/Getty Images
AA SAINT-OMER (Val), Lumbres, France
Anyone standing in the hilltop clubhouse at this course in northeast France, a few miles inland from Calais and Boulogne, will be immediately impressed by the view across the valley of the Aa River that stretches as far as the eye can see. Designed by the late Dutch course designer Johan Dudok van Heel in 1990, this undulating, 27-hole layout ambles pleasingly through woodland and occasionally breaks out into more open terrain. It also hosts the annual Najeti Hotel & Golf Open on the European Tour each June, an event that often takes place the same week as the U.S. Open. The 7th, the longest hole on the course, runs past undergrowth that in spring is full of the blue, yellow, white and purple of periwinkles, cowslips, violets, anemones and hyacinths, and may even deliver a couple of stags near the green. On its day, this mesmerizing hole is the perfect picture postcard for golf in France—instantly charming but deceptively difficult.
62
SUMMER
2013
KINGDOM
26
Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com
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