Great land isn’t necessary to create great golf, but it can certainly help get architects moving in the right direction. At The Covey (opening photo and this page), situated amid a 2,000-acre hunting preserve 75 miles west of Houston, designer Chet Williams draped holes across rustic backcountry slopes with 50to 60foot elevation changes, weaving them through groves of pine, brush, clusters of specimen post oak, water oak, ash and several dry creek beds. Williams, who also designed Whispering Pines, the state’s No. 1-ranked course, says the ridges, valleys and sidehills “always seemed to rise and fall in the right places.”
The biggest construction challenge was the effort required to scrape away the bull rock (smooth stones approximately five inches in diameter) that covered the surface of the site. The rock was used to line the dry creeks, which owner Billy Brown wanted fortified so running water could be circulated through them, an attractive if not exactly authentic South Texas touch. The entire site was then capped with eight inches of sand to help with shaping and drainage.
The Covey might have been just another pretty course if not for Williams’ dynamic, and often devilish, set of greens. Hole locations near backstops and above ramps mean balls are on the move once they land, and tactics change as flags move around the surfaces. Thirteen greens have some sort of false front, meaning it’s critical to hit the correct yardage lest approaches roll 30 yards backward, and the strong internal contours make green speeds over 11 or 12 on the Stimpmeter unnecessary. The green complexes at each of the four par 5s are creatively shaped and bunkered so both second and third shots into them are fraught with peril. The second-shot pitch into the short 15th is terrifying due to the small, sectioned fallaway green, and the drivable par-4 eighth, called “Split Decision,” is an instant classic with options to drive to alternate left or right fairways or fire directly at a large, multilevel green nesting between a fork in two merging creeks.
Against such strong competition this year, The Covey’s victory might be a surprise. In a social-media-heavy world, you didn’t quite see the buzz of The Covey next to some other places. No matter. Given the land, design multiplicity and Williams’ creative greens, the honor shouldn’t be a shock. This is Williams’ first Best New Course win, but he might now have the state’s top two courses.
Below, take a closer look at The Covey at Big Easy Ranch with this exclusive drone footage captured by Brian Oar:
Brian Oar false Private Big Easy Ranch: The Covey Columbus, TX 4.6 12 Panelists
With no surrounding development, The Covey is a scenic journey through the Texas outback through groves of pines and hardwoods and cross-course views. Numerous specimen trees have been left standing in the fairways that must be maneuvered around, and Williams’ green complexes can be wicked, flanked and fronted with deep, staggered bunkers, with strong putting contours that create multiple internal levels and severe false fronts that eject any short approached 30 or 40 yards back down the fairway.
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Inside Andrew Green’s monumental restoration and renovation of the historic Interlachen Country Club SECOND PLACE OLD BARNWELL
Brian Schneider and Blake Conant spent most of their careers as minimalists, building or shaping as little as possible to not disrupt the land (Schneider as an associate of Tom Doak and Conant as a shaper for Doak and other architects). Their co-design at Old Barnwell, the first original course for both, is emphatically not minimalist. But, as Conant told Golf Digest, “I’m not afraid to show that we built things here.”
Playing primarily through and around a treeless basin in the center of the site with a few brief diversions into the surrounding pines, the land on its own wasn’t ready for the starring role. So the architects took design inspiration from outside sources including century-old courses in the Northeast, military fortifications and anything else that could help them pump life into the ground. The drivable par-4 14th and the longer par-4 10th, for instance, are riffs on the second hole at National Golf Links of America (“Sahara”) and Merion’s fifth, respectively, yet fascinate in independent ways.
The overall impression Old Barnwell leaves is one of acute originality, and the individual themes introduced—linear, elevated berms; above-ground, steep-faced bunkers; deep-set bathtub bunkers; the use of centipede grass—build toward an orchestral peak through the final holes. The highlight might be the collection of some of the most extremely—and excitingly—contoured putting surfaces built in modern times, particularly at Nos. 3, 7, 11 and 12. The mixture of diverse sources and creative artistry at Old Barnwell make us eager to see what else Schneider and Conant can do.
Jeff Marsh false Private Old Barnwell Golf Club Aiken, SC 4.3 24 Panelists
The Old Barnwell property, 12 miles southeast of Aiken, shares much in common with nearby Tree Farm, which was contrasted at virtually the same time in 2022 and 2023. The latter is a better pure golf site, but the more enigmatic if less aesthetically endowed Old Barnwell property is profound in other architecturally advantageous ways.
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One of the fascinating stories in architecture in 2023 was the near simultaneous construction of The Tree Farm and Old Barnwell, both outside Aiken just 20 miles apart. Each was the creation of young visionaries who represent the next wave of development and built by designers with crossover pasts: Kye Goalby and Doak at The Tree Farm, and Schneider (an associate with Doak) and Conant, who has worked closely with Goalby on several other projects. The rivalry was friendly, but it was a rivalry nonetheless.
The Tree Farm is tour pro Zac Blair’s labor of love, and his enthusiasm for playing golf and shaping shots is evident throughout the design. It starts with a lovely property of graceful slopes and ridges with the holes laid out naturally in the pines. The architecture alternates between the sublime and the startling. Some holes simply follow the flow of the earth and elsewhere grow raucous and confrontational—like the long, curling 13th that bends around a deep depression, the harrowing, uphill par-3 fourth resembling the fifth at Pine Valley, the Redan 15th that’s looks and functions better than many Redans Seth Raynor built and the short but deadly par-3 17th with its shallow green benched over a ravine. The combination of kicker slopes, cut-off-what-you-dare doglegs, half-par holes and robustly contoured greens are enough to keep the action interesting and flexible day to day, even for players of Blair’s skill and The Tree Farm’s low-handicap members.
Jeff Marsh false Private The Tree Farm Batesburg, SC 4.6 21 Panelists
At The Tree Farm, PGA Tour player and founder Zac Blair has attracted a kindred young-in-spirit if not exclusively young-in-age membership from across the country that mirrors his infectious relaxed-casual passion for walking, fast play, head-to-head matches and creative architecture, particularly from the approach shot through the green. A majority of them are good players who think nothing of hoofing 36 or more holes a day.
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Evan Schiller false GrayBull Club Maxwell, NE
The fairways are larger than they appear but are obscured by angles around the dunes and elevated bunkers, and the greens are a continuing evolution of those at Gamble Sands and Mammoth Dunes, getting progressively more contoured at each course. The strength of the design is the par 4s presented in a rich variety of lengths and orientations (the drivable fifth and 16th—in certain winds—are standouts, as is the 13th where the fairway kicks drives left into a hollow unless they challenge a large bunker on the right), adding up to a stellar addition to this vast and most interesting of golf landscapes.
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Evan Schiller false Panther National Palm Beach Gardens, FL 4.1 11 Panelists
The Jack Nicklaus/Nicklaus Design golf course—the centerpiece of a luxury residential and recreational enclave—is fittingly modern and unique. The holes play down below tall dune ridges that were created from fill excavated during the construction of several lakes and additional material imported from an adjected housing development, and elsewhere crest 30 and 40 feet above the waterline.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
