Colbert Hills

So many of us come to this game because of our parents. I certainly did. My dad is the reason I ever picked up a club, and he is the reason I have spent the last 30 years chasing the world's greatest golf courses. My first visit to Prairie Dunes was with him in the spring of '23, and I immediately fell in love—with both the course and the story behind it: Press Maxwell completing his father Perry Maxwell's vision. To me, it is one of the greatest father–son stories in golf. That thought was on my mind as I boarded a plane to Wichita to meet up with friends from the Lockhart Travel Club—luggage-free, thanks to our friends at Ship Sticks. I am a sucker for a great drive-in—think Friar's Head or Crystal Downs—and Prairie Dunes hits you instantly. You're swallowed by rolling dunes and mature cottonwoods, with layers of "gunch" lurking everywhere. By reputation alone, you know that some of the most diabolical green complexes in the game are waiting in the aesthetic. Sometimes you just know you're going to love a course on first contact. I knew before I teed off. After eighteen holes, I was obsessed. Two years later, I still firmly believe it is one of the very best in the United States. Evolution on the Prairie To understand Prairie Dunes, you must start long before golf ever existed. For hundreds of millions of years, what is now Kansas lay beneath ancient shallow seas. Those waters deposited the sand, silt, and minerals that would eventually form the region's unique soils. When the oceans receded—roughly 275 million years ago—vast beds of salt were left behind, creating one of the world's great underground salt deposits. Much later, during drier and windier eras, these sandy sediments were shaped by relentless prairie winds into the dune systems that still ripple across the landscape today. No glaciers—just time, wind, and an ancient seafloor waiting to become a golf course. Fast-forward to the early 20th century. After the salt deposits in Hutchinson were tapped, local businessman Emerson Carey founded what became the Carey Salt Company, pioneering large-scale salt and ice production in the United States. The mine has operated for over a century and still runs today as the Hutchinson Salt Company. If you are not claustrophobic, the underground tour—Strataca—is a surreal, slightly disorienting experience. You descend roughly 650 feet into the earth in the original mine-shaft elevator, swallowed by total darkness. Not your typical après-golf activity. With the salt business thriving, Mr. Carey—an unabashed golf fanatic—commissioned Perry Maxwell in 1935 to build a course on the nearby dunes. Maxwell, of Augusta, Crystal Downs, and Southern Hills fame, was reportedly so taken by the property that he said he would have to eliminate a hundred great golf holes just to get down to eighteen. Working with a skeleton crew, a handful of horses, and his trusty Fresno scraper, he carved out nine extraordinary holes—today's 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, and 18—which opened in 1937. After Perry's death in 1952, his son Press—who had worked alongside him since returning from WWII—was brought in to finish the vision. Press designed and built holes 3–5 and 11–16, opening them in 1957 and completing what may be the most seamless father-son collaboration in golf architecture. Historians and raters still marvel that you cannot tell where Perry ends and Press begins. Short Game Shangri La What they created has aged with almost supernatural grace. Prairie Dunes has required remarkably little restorative work. It has hosted multiple USGA championships and NCAA events and remains one of the sternest tests in American golf. The greens are the soul of the course. With full respect to Oakmont Country Club, I genuinely believe Prairie Dunes has the best, most interesting, and most challenging set of 18 greens in the United States. There is not a weak or throwaway hole or putting surface on the property. Precision is not optional; touch is mandatory. I loved having Ship Sticks send my clubs directly from my home club to Prairie Dunes, where they were waiting for me outside my room in the Founder's Lodge. I walked straight to the short-game practice area to immerse myself immediately and sharpen my touch for what lay ahead. I love chipping and pitching—the creativity, the imagination of the short game—and Prairie Dunes lights up the part of my brain that loves the craft of scoring. The Maxwells must have had short games from another planet. Whether the greens were running at 7 on the Stimpmeter in 1937 or 13 in 2025, average golfers would struggle to handle them. I do not see a 20-handicap breaking 100 here most days. Proper technique and total conviction are prerequisites. If you can two-putt and get up-and-down at Prairie Dunes, you can score anywhere. There is no robust caddie program, so the decision-making is entirely yours. Off the Chart Measurables It is an easy walk, though riding is not uncommon and the cart paths are unobtrusive, if not hidden. Tee boxes and green sites are framed with cottonwoods. Fairways twist and turn gently, rising and falling symphonically. The infamous gunch lines the fairways and presents itself at every key decision point. Aesthetically, it adds spectacular visual appeal—but finding your ball in it, let alone advancing it, is unlikely. One loose swing can bring round-killing prairie bramble into play. The bunker sand is orangey and powder-soft on top, yet firm underneath. A well-played bunker shot will grab; anything less will release onto those tabletop greens. The bunkering is masterful—and the more courses I see, the more I believe this is often the line between good design and great design. On the Doak Scale, I would consider Prairie Dunes to be a solid 9. At Top100golfcourses.com, we have it ranked #15 USA/North America and #28 in the World. While I may argue for a slightly higher ranking in the USA, the World Ranking is so impressive that the defence rests. Prairie Oasis A perfect day at Prairie Dunes ends with the house specialities: the Haystack salad, the PD Smashburger, and a frozen Gunch Punch or two. Chapstick is a must with the wind a constant. Layers are recommended, though the pro shop has you fully covered with top brands and an outstanding yucca-in-bloom logo. We had the special opportunity to view the original Maxwell Collection paintings by Mark Rivard of Charcoal Golf—commissioned by the club and chronicling the original Perry Maxwell nine. Look for them on display in the clubhouse. The mixing at PD is fostered by perfect congregation spots: the Card Room (bar and grill), the bar and fire pits at the Founder's Lodge, and, of course, the lit putting green. I've done both family-style Kansas BBQ in the Founder's Lodge—with Hutchinson local sauce—and a classic three-square in the Card Room. Both are outstanding options. Quick breakfasts to get you on the tee. Burgers to seared duck breast at supper. The Card Room is elite for logo bingo—like a settler's outpost from old western times—mixing national members with sophisticated guests from great clubs all over the world who have made the pilgrimage to Hutchinson. And when your head finally hits the pillow in the Founder's Lodge, you may find yourself thinking that you are not in Kansas anymore. Words - Matt Kaul Edited - Jasper Miners

US West North Central Division Best in State Rankings 2020 Last month, we updated the rankings for Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee in our East South Central Division of the United States. We now move further north, into the western portion of The Midwest, to shine the spotlight on courses in the Farm Belt States of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. During the revision process for this West North Central Division, we’ve added another thirty-five courses to the mix, which means there are now a total of a hundred and sixty-five layouts featured across a prosperous heartland region that extends to more than half a million square miles, supporting a population of around twenty million people. Iowa One or two eyebrows may have twitched a little when the Hugh Alison-designed course at Davenport Golf Club in Pleasant Valley made an appearance at #96 in our latest US Top 100 listings published at the end of last year. Well, we make absolutely no apology for its inclusion as it now retains the No. 1 spot in our Best in State rankings for Iowa. Comments during 2019 included: “the layout is sublime, healthy and bursting with charm… I was truly blown away by the awe-inspiring layout from start to finish… this is a course that I wish was my home club… it was a joy to play, and the membership should feel very lucky to play it with frequency.” Davenport Country Club And those remarks were endorsed by a reviewer this year who wrote: “the renovation work done at Davenport was a huge success. Each hole has its own unique character, yet all fit together collectively. This is a golf course that contains all the elements most players love: memorable, beautiful, fun to play, and numerous risk-reward options.” Hurtling back into the Iowa chart in the runner-up position, the former state No. 1 at The Harvester Club in Rhodes has just reopened after another renovation by the original architect, Keith Foster. Unfortunately, you’ll now have to befriend a member if you want to see how the upgrade turned out as the club is a private facility after changing its visitor policy. Harvester Club Mark White, one of our regular contributors, had this to say a few months back: “elevation changes are key to the challenge at The Harvester because the routing takes full advantage of the terrain… the green complexes are very good with a good mixture of undulations and greenside bunkers (and it) has just the right mixture of defenses split between the water, the variety of the greens and the placement of bunkers.” We’ve introduced another four new courses into our Iowa standings (to create a Top 20 chart) and these additional layouts are led at #14 by the Veenker Memorial Golf Course at Ames, a Perry Maxwell design from the late 1930s which is owned and operated by Iowa State University. There’s only around half the original holes in play theses days but Tom Doak reckons “what’s left is still classic Maxwell, with lots of doglegs and some abrupt elevation changes… a little t.l.c. would go a long way here.” Rank/ Click the link to see full details of our latest Iowa Best in State rankings Kansas Another Perry Maxwell masterpiece continues to hold sway in the Sunflower State, where we’ve also added another five tracks to produce a Top 20 chart. The course at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson has been our No. 1 since we started Best in State listings in 2012 and this world ranked course (currently rated #34) isn’t going to be dislodged from the top spot any time soon – unless, of course, a localized meteorite shower falls from the sky to obliterate everything on the ground at this location. Prairie Dunes Country Club Marc Bender, our Florida Correspondent, said a couple of months ago: “Prairie Dunes is an exceptional course with some of the most challenging greens I have ever seen. Great routing, lots of memorable holes and a demanding test of golf. If you have the right frame of mind, the course is great fun.” Only three courses make upward moves in the Kansas chart and the most prominent of these is Milburn Country Club in Overland Park, rising three places to No. 7. Founded in 1917, the club possesses a William Langford-designed layout that has been remodeled in recent years by Todd Clark of CE Golf Design, with all the bunkers and tees reconstructed to modern specifications. Milburn Country Club The highest new entry arrives at No. 15 and it’s yet another Perry Maxwell course at Topeka Country Club, where the architect redesigned the original Tom Bendelow layout in late 1937, having just completed his work at Prairie Dunes. He added a new nine holes to the existing nine, converting the old sand greens to grass putting surfaces at the same time. Tree growth is now something of an issue here but it’s still a great example of the famed designer’s work. Click the link to see full details of our latest Kansas Best in State rankings Minnesota The course at Interlachen Country Club in Edina was replaced at the top of the Minnesota rankings by White Bear Yacht Club on White Bear Lake in 2016 and the latter now holds onto its #1 status for the third revision in a row. The clubs share a similar architectural history, having started out more than a century ago with William Watson layouts that were subsequently redesigned by Donald Ross, and they’re both highly regarded in the US national charts, listed at #58 and #80. White Bear Yacht Club Our US Correspondent Fergal O’Leary played at White Bear Yacht Club this summer and he remarked: “the Golf Committee at White Bear understands how special their piece of land is. In recent years, they also understood the need to remove hundreds of trees that were suffocating certain fairways and green-sites. My eyes were wide open during a June 2020 return visit as to the magnitude of tree removal… it was really important to return to see the updates over the past 12 months.” The biggest climber in the Minnesota standings is the Preserve course at Grand View Lodge Spa & Golf Resort in Niswa (up nine to #30), where this Mike Morley and Dan Helbling co-design is just part of the 45-hole public golf facility that has evolved since the early 1990s at an historic hostelry on the northern shores of Gull Lake. Preserve course at Grand View Lodge Ten Minnesota newcomers in the new Top 50 are led at #39 by Dutch Legacy, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. course that debuted back in the late 1990s at Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake in Brainerd. It’s one of two 18-hole layouts operating at a 45-hole complex which also boasts a reversible par three 9-hole course – and with all the recent publicity about such innovative layouts, who’d have thought one had been lurking here, unheralded among the trees in Crow Wing County, for the last twenty years? Click the link to see full details of our latest Minnesota Best in State rankings Missouri C. B. Macdonald’s design at St. Louis Country Club remains the #1 course in a Missouri chart which has also been augmented with ten new tracks to form a Top 40. St Louis has attracted a couple of posts since we last updated this state listing, with reviewers making the following observations: “the course is a reminder of how golf was played in the past. Think yourself around, don’t just pull out driver and swing, think if you want to score well… a classic layout that showcases C. B. Macdonald’s full arsenal of template holes… the course isn’t a pushover but is too short for championship golf.” St Louis Country Club The big news for Missouri is the emergence of the Ozarks National course at Big Cedar Lodge in Hollister, which comes straight in at No.2. Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the eighteen holes on this course that were unveiled last year are just part of a seventy-six hole golf offering that owner Johnny Morris has been developing in recent years at one of the top public-access golf facilities in the entire country. Ozarks National Regular contributor Matt Ward visited not long after the course opened: “Ozarks National is located on an eye-catching ridge line, providing a panoramic view of the immediate Ozarks region. There’s no competing clutter – just an unfiltered connection – golf and countryside. The property is also relatively devoid of trees so varying wind patterns are a daily matter for golfers to negotiate.” Payne’s Valley was the third 18-hole layout to open for play at Big Cedar Lodge just a few short weeks ago and we’re sure this brand new Tiger Woods track will make a significant impact when we next reappraise our US state listings two years from now. Before then, reviewers are more than welcome to let us know what they think of it by posting a few comments. Payne's Valley 19th hole Just eight courses make a chart advance and the best of these positive moves is made by the 18-hole layout at Branson Hills Golf Club (up five to #8) which was built with the stated intention of honouring legendary Missouri golfers like Tom Watson and Payne Stewart. Natural rocky outcrops, waterfalls, winding creeks and wooded areas are all incorporated into this out-and-back design from Chuck Smith and Bobby Clampett. Click the link to see full details of our latest Missouri Best in State rankings Nebraska The top six courses in the Cornhusker State remain in the exact same position so the celebrated Coore & Crenshaw layout at Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen is still our Nebraskan No.1 – not that the status quo should come as any surprise when you consider it occupies the #10 spot in our World Top 100 rankings. Everybody who ever gets the chance to play here comes away talking about how special the entire set up is. Sand Hills Golf Club Our man in Florida, Marc Bender, played the course recently and he was no different to all the others who have teed it up here: “We all define fun differently, but Sand Hills is the ultimate for me. This golf course flows so well as if it was always meant to be this way and no doubt that is exactly what Coore and Crenshaw set out to achieve when they spent two years working on the routing and studying the land… Sand Hills is a place you feel euphoric, no matter what you shoot on the course, you will have a blast.” Three 18-hole layouts make a moderate one-place improvement in their position and the highest ranked of this trio is the Pines course at the Prairie Club in Valentine. There are currently 46 holes in play here: eighteen on the Tom Lehman/Chris Brands co-designed Dunes course, eighteen on the Graham Marsh-designed Pines course, and ten on a little par three circuit called Horse. The Dunes course is presently the better regarded of the two main tracks at Prairie Club but the Pines is fast catching up. Prairie Club Pines course Another course currently under development not too far from Sand Hills is CapRock Ranch, which is laid out along the rim of the Snake River Canyon and in the sandy chops hills. With Hanse Golf Course Design, Caveman Construction and Landscapes Unlimited all working on this project, you can be absolutely certain it will play a large part in the next reappraisal of our Nebraska Top 15 chart. CapRock Ranch - image courtesy of Ben Hillard Click the link to see full details of our latest Nebraska Best in State rankings North Dakota It probably came as a shock to some observers when the course at Hawktree Golf Club in Bismarck was knocked off the top position in 2018. Well, it’s bounced back immediately to regain the spot it had previously held for four years. Another of our regular reviewers, Colin Braithwaite, was there last year and he thought: “Hawktree is a pretty cool course… One of the first things you notice is the black sand bunkers... Fun course. I would play it again.” Hawktree Golf Club Medicine Hole Golf Course in Killdeer (#6) and King’s Walk Golf Course in Grand Forks (#8) each rise a notch in the new table. Both courses opened for daily fee access early in the new millennium but any further similarity between the two layouts ends there – the former is a modest 3290-yard 9-holer designed by Jim Engh while the latter is a bit more substantial, requiring Arnold Palmer’s design company to shift more than half a million cubic yards of earth during construction of the 18-hole layout. Click the link to see full details of our latest North Dakota Best in State rankings South Dakota The course at Sutton Bay in Agar heads our South Dakota chart for the 5th consecutive edition of our Best in State ranking reassessments. It’s a Graham Marsh design that’s laid out on a fantastic cliff top property overlooking Lake Oahe, with players afforded wonderful views across this reservoir section of the mighty Missouri River. Styled as an inland links, with wide fairways and large greens, Sutton Bay is a must play for anybody who delights in underfoot conditions that are firm and fast. Sutton Bay Steve MacQuarrie, yet another of our stalwart correspondents, played here last year and he was very impressed by what he found: “Sutton Bay is a Top 100 course. The only shortcoming I could find is the routing. The course is over a mile from the clubhouse and there are a number of long, unintuitive walks from green to tee. Everything else, however, is splendid… The line of charm is present on the majority of tee shots and once you’re on the green a whole new set of challenges arise dealing with the contouring.” Three courses make small, one-position gains in the new chart and the best placed of these is the 18-hole layout at Dakota Dunes Country Club, which recaptures the #2 slot it last held from 2012 to 2016. Just last week, a reviewer felt it was a “very nice Palmer design just north of Sioux Falls in residential development”. Furthermore he felt it had “a nice mix of strategic play and bomb it opportunities” and it was ”worth the time if you like Palmer designs and good playing conditions.” Click the link to see full details of our latest South Dakota Best in State rankings Next up, the East North Central Division states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

US West North Central Division Best in State Rankings 2018 Our Best in State biennial re-ranking process for the United States of America continues at a relentless pace as we now reach the western half of the Midwest, embracing the Farm Belt states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. In this revision of the West North Central division, we’ve expanded the Missouri state chart with an additional ten tracks so we now feature a hundred and thirty-five courses across a geographical region extending to just over half a million square miles with a population of more than twenty million people. Only four courses in this prosperous heartland region currently occupy positions within our US Top 100 but that doesn’t mean to say there’s a dearth of great golf venues here – hopefully, the following narrative shows there are lots of state-ranked courses worthy of a national profile. Iowa The course at The Harvester Golf Club in Rhodes, our former number 1 in the Hawkeye State listings, is closed for a major renovation by Keith Foster. It's due to reopen sometime in 2019 as a private facility, so it drops out of the state rankings until we next reappraise the situation in 2020. That allows the recently upgraded C. H. Alison design at Davenport Country Club in Pleasant Valley to soar six places to the top slot. Closed for almost a year until May 2015, the course was upgraded by John Forse and Jim Nagle, with the architects rebuilding just about every aspect of the course’s infrastructure. Tom Doak was so impressed that he included Davenport in “The Gourmet's Choice” in his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses – Volume 3 . Just last week, a reviewer posted the following: “where has this course been hiding for nearly 100 years? The valleys that are used to great effect in the routing are pleasant enough but the course is way more than pleasant – it’s brilliant. This is certainly one of the best courses I’ve ever played that I’ve not heard much about nor has it ever been ranked particularly highly by the magazines for some unknown reason… Sadly I only had time for one round but when I’m next in Chicago I’ll make the five hour round trip as I want to play this gem again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.” Another big riser (up ten to number 2) is the old Donald Ross track at Cedar Rapids Country Club, which Ron Pritchard restored in time for the club to mark the centennial year of its inauguration in 2015. All the paved cart paths were removed, a pond eliminated, bunkers added or redesigned and most of the green complexes expanded and re-contoured to original specifications. Tree management and water dispersal are ongoing projects that will complement the work already undertaken. One of our most respected contributors, Paul Rudovsky, played Cedar Rapids last week and commented: “ Loved just about everything about it. Fabulous renovation dealing with a number of very interesting issues... Now well placed bunkers, wonderful use of land... and a fun fun course that is playable and challenging for any level of player. 18 different holes that blend in beautifully together, superb routing with wide corridors and great vistas.” Both 18-hole layouts at Des Moines Golf and Country Club make upward moves in the new table. The South course (up one to number 3) and the North course (up seven to number 4) are early 1970s Pete Dye designs that were refurbished by Tim Liddy in preparation for the 15th edition of the Solheim Cup matches in 2017, when a composite course was used for the event. Rank/ Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest Iowa Best in State rankings Kansas The top four positions in the Sunflower State listings remain as they were so the table is still headed by the course at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, where Perry Maxwell set out the original 9-hole course (today’s holes 1, 2, 6-10, 17 and 18) in 1937 and his son Press Maxwell added another nine twenty years later. Host to the US Women’s Open in 2002 and the US Senior Open in 2006, this fabulous 18-hole course lies more than six hundred miles from the nearest coastline but it displays all the firm and fast seaside attributes you would normally associate with a classic links layout. The courses at Wichita Country Club and Ironhorse Golf Club in Leawood enter the chart for the first time at number 14 and 15, respectively. The former club moved to its present location in 1950, when William Diddel laid out the course for the membership, and the latter club is situated just off the state line of Missouri and Kansas, a mere 20-minute drive from downtown Kansas City, where it’s the only Troon-manged facility in the metro area. Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest Kansas Best in State rankings Minnesota Still the number one track in the North Star State, the course at White Bear Yacht Club is a Donald Ross design which has stood the test of time on the northern shores of White Bear Lake for more than a century now. Ross redesigned the club’s original 9-hole Willie Watson layout and added another nine in 1915 to fashion the layout that’s in play today. Our US Consultant Fergal O’Leary was really pleased with the course topography when he visited and had this to say in his review: “Fabulous undulations throughout the property makes for a terrific golfing experience… there aren’t too many courses in the whole world that offer a rippling piece of land like this… it was tremendous fun hitting blind shots around this course”. The first of five new entries in the Minnesota Top 40 arrives at number 20 and it’s the course at Olympic Hills Golf Club in Eden Prairie, situated eighteen miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis. A Charlie Maddox design which first opened for play in the late 1960s, the layout was completely renovated by Ron Pritchard over a three-year period, ending in 2015. Anybody who now takes on the course from the Olympic tees will be trying to tame a 7,400-yard beast. Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest Minnesota Best in State rankings Missouri We added ten courses to the Show-Me State listings in 2016 and we’re doing the same again in this edition of the Missouri Best in State rankings. The top six places in the new Top 30 stay the same as last time and that means the course remaining at number 1 is C. B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor’s design at St Louis Country Club in Ladue, host venue for the Curtis Cup matches in 2014. In fairness, our US correspondent, the much-travelled Fergal O’Leary, wasn’t particularly impressed by the bunkers on the course when he played here but he thought the green complexes were world-class, the rolling landscape was fabulous and the routing superb. The highest placed entry among our ten chart newcomers is the 18-hole layout at Hickory Hills Country Club in Springfield, which was the home course of two-time US Open Champion Payne Stewart. Sporting amenities at the club have developed somewhat since the fairways were laid out back in 1926 because, in addition to the golf course, members now have the use of a fan-shaped swimming pool with eight lanes as well as eight tennis courts. Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest Missouri Best in State rankings Nebraska Ten of the fifteen courses in The Cornhusker State chart stay in the same position, including the number 1 course at Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen in Hooker County. This remote mid-1990s Coore & Crenshaw creation is also the highest ranked course in the West North Central Division, occupying a place just outside the Top 10 in our World Top 100. In Volume 3 of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses , author Tom Doak indicated the debt of gratitude which is maybe owed to developer Dick Youngscap for this particular golf project when he wrote: “if it hadn’t been for Sand Hills proving the business model, it’s likely that few of the other great courses of the past twenty years would ever have been built”. The only new entry in the state chart is the course at Tatanka Golf Club near Niobrara, where the Santee Sioux Nation operate the Ohiya Casino Resort. Architect Paul Albanese fashioned the layout, taking the history and the culture of the area as a design inspiration, with each hole derived and named from a different story from the Sioux culture. The course has been added to the resort as an additional attraction for visitors to stay longer, anticipating a positive economic impact on the local area in terms of jobs and increased tourism. One commentator described Tatanka (a Dakota word for buffalo) as Nebraska's Sandhills with trees. Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest Nebraska Best in State rankings North Dakota The Rough Rider State has a new number 1, The Links of North Dakota near Williston in Williams County, which sits in the middle of the Bakken Oil Formation. Featuring bent grass playing surfaces throughout, it’s a very linksy layout that stretches out across the northern shores of Lake Sakakawea. In the mid-1990s, New Jersey-based architect Stephen Kay routed the fairways around a property where it’s said cattle rustler Red Mike was set alight by vigilantes in the 1880s so now, more than a hundred years further on, it’s a very placid place in comparison to previous times. Rising five spots to number 5 in the state listings, the course at Minot Country Club is a new design that came about following the club’s relocation to higher ground after the epic Souris River floods of 2011. Now situated within a 200-acre site ten miles further east, the course is laid out on extreme terrain that’s not exactly conducive for traditional golf, which translates as the perfect golfing environment for architect Jim Engh, who’s renowned for his unorthodox design approach. Compact contour lines generate blind shots, uneven lies and difficult stances but they also produce elevated tee platforms, speed chutes and quirky putting surfaces, all of which Minot now has in abundance. Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest North Dakota Best in State rankings South Dakota Courses in the top half of the South Dakota Top 10 haven’t moved from their previous chart position so the 18-hole layout at Sutton Bay is still the number 1 track in The Mount Rushmore State. Designed by Graham Marsh and opened for play in 2003, the course enjoys a fabulous cliff top setting overlooking Lake Oahe, with golfers treated to magnificent views of this dammed section of the Missouri River from every part of the property. Styled as an inland links, the course is set out with a classic out and back routing, resulting in the 9th green being located two and a half miles from the first tee. Wide fairways, big putting surfaces and well positioned bunkers complement the firm and fast playing conditions at this private hunting, fishing and golfing retreat. The only new entry appears at number 10 and it’s the course at Elkhorn Ridge Golf Club, which is laid out within Frawley Ranch, a National Historic Landmark near the small town of Spearfish in Lawrence County. Conveniently positioned just off the I-90, the nation’s longest interstate highway, this 18-hole layout offers golfers spectacular views of Centennial Valley and Polo Creek Canyon as fairways rise and fall through almost three hundred feet of elevation change. The course can play as long as 7,200 yards from the Elk tees, though the forward Antelope tees measure a more manageable 4,658 yards for those who don’t play long off the tee. Click this link to see full details of all courses in our latest South Dakota Best in State rankings We appreciate there may be a wide variety of opinion regarding the revision of our US Best in State standings so don’t hesitate to let us know what you make of these seven new ranking charts. Maybe there’s a course that you feel should have made the cut or there’s another which isn’t worth a place in one of the state tables? Whatever you’re thinking, please click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page to share your thoughts with us. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses