My Best "New To Me" Courses in 2024
Five courses I played for the first time and it was love at first sight
Every year, I try and look back at what courses I played for the first time and then talk about the very best of them. In 2023, after playing The Full Irish with 21 new courses alone in Ireland, that was a tough list to whittle down. This year, I certainly haven’t done that level of trip, but I’ve been pretty fortunate to play a lot of new golf courses. Here’s the list of the ones I’d never played before this year, in what I believe is the order I played them:
The Ledges at St. George, St. George, UT
Coral Canyon, Washington, UT
Sand Hollow, Hurricane, UT
Black Desert, Ivins, UT
Wolf Creek, Mesquite, NV
San Francisco Golf Club, San Francisco, CA
Grande Dunes, N. Myrtle Beach, SC
Tidewater Golf Club, N. Myrtle Beach, SC
World Golf Tour, N. Myrtle Beach, SC
Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, Pawleys Island, SC
True Blue, Pawleys Island, SC
Pawleys Plantation, Pawleys Island, SC
Pinehurst No. 3, Pinehurst, NC
Pinehurst No. 10, Aberdeen, NC
We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro), Fort McDowell, AZ
Paiute (Snow Mountain), Las Vegas, NV
That last one is actually a course I *am* going to play before the end of the year, though I haven’t at the time I’m writing this. I am gonna go out on a limb and say that the below top five, which doesn’t include that course, are the correct best of the bunch. And that’s because I was fortunate enough to play all the above (that’s 16 new-to-me courses in one year, not too shabby). But which were the best? Using the same order as above, these are the best new-to-me courses I played in 2025:
Black Desert, Ivins, UT
When we planned our trip to St. George, the two courses I was the most excited about were Sand Hollow and Wolf Creek, courses I’d seen wild photos and videos of for years. I hadn’t seen the same from Black Desert because, well, it didn’t exist. It opened in late 2022, designed by Tom Weiskopf (who has since passed), and we added it to our trip both because we started seeing some insane looking Instagram posts but also because we worked with a trip planner who insisted upon it. I’m so glad he did.
Carved into a “black desert” of lava rock, this is definitely resort golf but it’s not like anything you’ve probably ever played before. The length isn’t particularly challenging (which is why, in the PGA Tour event hosted there this fall, the field beat it up fairly well), but if you don’t hit the ball straight, it’s a true guessing game what will happen after your ball hits a wall of lava rock. It’s manicured to the teeth and is in such good condition I thought the practice putting green was astroturf.
Is it the purest test of golf, or the most strategic? Probably not. But it’s a golf course you want to play, and won’t forget.
San Francisco Golf Club, San Francisco, CA
I don’t have a single photo of this - because cellphones aren’t allowed on the course. SFGC is insanely private, and I was lucky enough to get an invitation I couldn’t refuse. Located quite close to both Olympic Club and Lake Merced, SFGC is an even harder ‘get’ with a smaller membership and one comprised of a LOT of old money, with not a ton of daily play. (We were one of maybe four groups out on the course from what I could see.) An A.W. Tillinghast design (my first, as most of his work is on the East Coast), it is tucked away in a spot in South San Francisco. I’d also sort of known where it was, but couldn’t figure it out since it seemed like I had driven just past there without noticing it. That’s because it’s just tucked atop a hill with very little other structure around it, which is of course a tremendous thing for any golf club. The isolation and quiet is legit,. and from the course itself you rarely even know exactly where you are in the city (though I wish I’d been able to snap a few photos with Olympic in the background, etc.) These photos from Top100GolfCourses gives a hint of the course.
Top100GolfCourses ranks SFGC as the 37th best course in the world, 20th in the United States and 5th in California. That’s a serious pedigree, and perhaps the elite, private nature of the course adds a bit there. (One of the things I like least about the rankings is there always seems to be a premium on courses the raters feel privileged to play.) The vibes there are a bit … stuffy. But the course? Immaculate. We had two caddies who were total gems, and it was a gorgeous day on a course I doubt I’ll get a chance to play again.
Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, Pawley’s Plantation, SC
I’m tempted to put this and the next door neighbor course, True Blue, into the same discussion. They are true “sister” courses in that they were both designed by Mike Stranz, and have very similar vibes. But if I had to choose one, it would be Caledonia. And that’s something of an upset - True Blue has much wider fairways, where Caledonia has that old school, narrower layout, more water hazards (or at least, I found more of them). But I just DUG Caledonia. The hanging spanish moss, the grand clubhouse overlooking the 18th green, it just felt like a place in time.
Having played Tobacco Road before (and did so again later this year), I expected a bit more deception and oddities from Stranz, but this is a more traditional layout (with, indeed, some true funkiness, as shown by the green below).
Part of the reason our golf trip returned to Myrtle Beach after years of going elsewhere was to finally play “the good courses” there - and this was right at the top of our wishlist. It’s nice when things meet - and exceed - expectations.
Pinehurst No. 10, Aberdeen, NC
I’d been fortunate enough to do a Pinehurst trip three years ago, playing No. 2, No. 4 and No. 8. This year I also added No. 3 - a total delight, shorter course that we played after a morning on No. 4. But the course I was the most excited about was the new one, No. 10. It opened about six months before we played, and a friend of mine was lucky enough to play it on the second day it was open. Soon enough, YouTube became full of people playing and flat out RAVING about it. We played it on our last day, after a big night of eating and drinking and despite being quite worse for the wear as we teed off, I immediately understood we were up for something special. Designed by Tom Doak and Angela Moser, this immediately jumped onto all the lists that matter as one of the best courses in the country.
It’s by far the toughest walk of any Pinehurst course and our caddies and the starters insisted we stay hydrated - apparently, during peak summer months, folks were quitting from heat exhaustion and a few folks (including caddies) actually passed out. There’s not a lot of shade available, so you’ll actually see carts out there and if folks need that, I’m not here to point fingers. Unlike No. 8, which felt very much like a different resort, No. 10 manages to have its own vibe but feel like Pinehurst. I think the routing may see some tweaks - there are incredibly long par-4’s and one long par-3, and yet it’s a par-70 course. (Par is just a construct, I know, but it still was quite bizarre for three of us to hit our best drives of the day and still wonder if we could get onto the green in regulation with a fairway wood.)
The walk really begins around the 9th or 10th hole, and you will feel it by the end. Take a caddie to both lessen the burden but to also help guide you around some really challenging courses. This is a course that should only get better and better.
We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro), Fort McDowell, AZ
This course, despite by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, had been on my list for sometime. I realized I had a business trip to Phoenix that I could work around a day off, so I booked it - and was fortunate enough that a buddy did likewise and joined me. One of two courses on property, Saguaro - named after the massive cactus trees that are all over (and pockmarked from golf balls errantly struck into them) - is the one folks rate a bit higher, and therefore my choice.
There is a great mix of holes here - a par-5 that is over 600-yards, with many short par-4’s mixed in as well. It is very much a desert course and even though it was November and they’d aerated the fairways recently, there was still enough run on the fairways to make some of those holes that were long on the scorecard more playable for a shorter hitter like me. If and when I get a chance, I not only would like to play it again but also the Cholla course to see what that’s all about.
It’s kind of fun that all five courses were in different states, and they are a mix of different styles as well from the old school of SFGC and Caledonia, to the wide open layouts of We-Ko-Pa and Pinehurst No. 10 to Black Desert which is sort of its own category. It was a really great year of discovering new golf courses and I already have a few new ones teed up for 2025.
What were the best new courses YOU played this year?