Hot Springs Village (Granada)

US West South Central Division Best in State Rankings 2020 We recently embarked on our biennial task of refreshing all the regional rankings in the United States, starting with five states in the Pacific Division then eight states in the Mountain Division. We now move on to the West South Central Division, where we feature 160 courses across a four-state geographical area, comprising three Top 20 tables for Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, along with a Top 100 chart for Texas. This region extends to around 440,000 square miles, with a population of approximately forty million people. The Lone Star State of Texas is somewhat dominant here as it’s comfortably larger in size than the other three states combined and it’s also where you will find seven of the top ten West South Central cities. Two of the three courses from this division which make the cut in our national Top 100 are also from Texas. Arkansas The course at Blessings Golf Club is our new No. 1 for Arkansas. A Robert Trent Jones Jr. design that debuted early in the new millennium, it’s operated as a private facility by the University of Arkansas and used by the Razorbacks student golf teams as a home base. Owner John Tyson of Tyson Foods wanted to upgrade the original design, making it more of a walking course with greens that allow a running approach shot, so Kyle Phillips was called in to reroute and renovate the layout in line with its new playing objectives. Blessings Golf Club Three courses make three-place advances in the new chart and the foremost of these is Mystic Creek Golf Club’s 18-hole layout at No. 7. This Ken Dye-designed layout first opened for play in 2013, becoming a new entry in our state listings two years ago. Built with a large construction budget within a 510-acre real estate development, the course weaves through areas of dense pine woodland on the outskirts of El Dorado. Mystic Creek Golf Club The only new entry for Arkansas arrives at No. 19 and it’s the Highlands course at Bella Vista Country Club, which is where the local high school teams from Bentonville and Gravette play their home matches. Acknowledged as the longest and most challenging of the five 18-hole layouts at Bella Vista, this course is renowned locally as a tough track, endorsed by the “take extra balls” advice when teeing it up here on the club’s website. Rank/ Click the link to see full details of our latest Arkansas Best in State rankings Louisiana The course at Squire Creek Country Club remains our No. 1 for Louisiana, a position it’s now held for five straight editions of our Best in State rankings. Unveiled in 2002, the course is set within a large 1,100-acre real estate development between Monroe and Ruston, in the northern part of the state, with the course just one of several sporting amenities available to members of this modern country club. Holes on the front nine, in particular, have been described by Tom Doak as “some of Fazio’s best work”. Squire Creek Country Club Rising six places to No. 8 and regaining a Best in State Top 10 berth it relinquished when we revised the standings two years ago, the course at Southern Trace Country Club in Shreveport is a late 1980s Arthur Hills design that’s now managed by Troon Privé. The club is well known for its tournament hosting capabilities, having staged the WEB.Com Tour’s Southern Open from 1990 to 2002 as well as multiple State Amateur Championships in more recent years. Southern Trace Country Club Click the link to see full details of our latest Louisiana Best in State rankings Oklahoma The top four places in our Oklahoma Best in State chart are unaltered, which means the Championship course at Southern Hills Country Club is still the No. 1 track in the Sooner State. Truth be told, it would take something way beyond extraordinary for this 1930s Perry Maxwell design to suffer a fall from grace at the top of the table as it not only occupies a prime position in the national listings, it’s also knocking rather loudly on the door to our World Top 100. Southern Hills Club The course has just undergone an extensive 10-month restoration by Gil Hanse which saw new bent grass greens re-built with an underground hydronic system, bunkers reconstructed in a more natural style, drainage creeks re-introduced on several of the holes, cart paths relocated to lessen their visual impact and practice facilities upgraded. In short, don’t expect Southern Hills to lose its #1 status in Oklahoma any time soon… Only four courses make upward progress in the chart and the biggest rise is made by the 18-hole layout at Cedar Ridge Country Club, rising eight spots to No. 10. Originally laid out by Joe Finger in the late 1960s, the course hosted the US Women’s Open in 1983, when Jan Stephenson became the first Australian to win the title. Tripp Davis has been working here since 2016, upgrading three holes every year, as he goes about the removal of encroaching trees and rebuilds sand hazards using the Better Billy Bunker system. Cedar Ridge Country Club There are two new entries in our new Oklahoma rankings, the highest of which is the course at Gaillardia Country Club in Oklahoma City at No. 16. It’s an Arthur Hills design from the late 1990s, constructed for the Gaylord family who owned the farmland on which the fairways were fashioned. Following a change of ownership just six years after the course was launched, Tom Kite was brought in to revamp the layout, retaining the Hills routing but adding large, dramatic sand and water hazards in addition to reseeding the fairways with native grasses. Gaillardia Country Club Click the link to see full details of our latest Oklahoma Best in State rankings Texas The course at Bluejack National came hurtling straight into our Texan listings at No. 1 two years ago so it’s perhaps no real surprise to find out this startling debutant has held onto the coveted top spot during our latest chart revision. Designed by Tiger Woods in collaboration with Beau Welling, the layout is situated an hour’s drive north of downtown Houston, within an upmarket real estate development near the small town of Montgomery. Bluejack National Review comments from earlier this year include: “Unmatched experience. You won’t have a better time. Not stuffy like many Top 100 courses. The course itself is kept in great shape. Very Augusta-like. Some of the most beautiful holes you’ll find… The rolling terrain, towering pines and wide playing corridors make for a tremendous layout. Bluejack is the epitome of the new era of golf course design; it is playable for anyone and gives you options on every hole.” Northwood Club’s 18-hole layout near Dallas surges forward twenty-one places to No. 18 in the Texas Top 100. Designed by Bill Diddel back in 1950, the course hosted the US Open just two years after its inauguration. Jay Morrish oversaw a renovation in the 1990s but it’s the more recent work carried out by Tripp Davis which has revived many of the classical elements of the original design, especially through bringing the creek that runs through the property more prominently into play. Northwood Club Another big mover is the course at the University of Texas (up twenty-seven to #40), which is the official residence of the university’s golf teams. Enjoying a panoramic hill country setting between Lake Austin and Lake Travis in Steiner Ranch, the course was built by Bechtol Russell Golf Design in 2003 and it’s recently been complemented with the introduction of a distinctive practice facility that includes the Spieth Lower 40, a 6-hole par three short course. University of Texas An even larger leap forward, from #88 to #52, is made by the Memorial Park Golf Course in downtown Houston, where Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design firm has just completed an extensive renovation of the layout in advance of the Houston Open which is scheduled for later this year. One of five municipal courses operated by Houston Parks & Recreation Department, it hosted the Shell Houston Open between 1951 and 1963, so it’s certainly no stranger to big tournament play. Memorial Park Brooks Koepka also served as a consultant during the rebuild which involved sand capping all the fairways, installing new drainage, and forming additional contours around the property with excavated material from an enlarged irrigation pond. There are eleven new entries in our new rankings for Texas, with most of them arriving in the bottom third of the chart. The two courses that appear way ahead of the pack are Wolf Point Ranch (a re-entry at #28) and Houston Oaks (at #31). Wolf Point Ranch lies half way between Houston and Corpus Christi, close to the small port town of Point Comfort, and it’s here that Mike Nuzzo set out an 18-hole course for a local rancher in 2007, featuring putting surfaces described by Tom Doak as “the best set of greens in Texas.” The original owner has since passed away and the property changed hands at auction earlier this year for $10.7 million but it now remains to be seen in which direction the new proprietor will go with this minimalistic design. Wolf Point Ranch The Clubs at Houston Oaks is located less than an hour’s drive northwest of downtown Houston, on a 900-acre property once operated as the Tenneco Oil & Gas Company’s headquarters and a retreat for the family that owned the firm during the 1950s and 1960s. It later became the Tennwood Country Club before the current owners took over in 2006. Chet Williams redesigned and renovated the layout a decade later, reworking all the bunkers and bringing into play an island green at the par three 5th and a split fairway at the par four 11th. Houston Oaks Click the link to see full details of our latest Texas Best in State rankings Next up – the East South Central Division states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

US West South Central Division Best in State Rankings 2018 Four States in our South Region are revised in the third of nine US divisional updates. We first created our US Best in State rankings in 2012 so this is the fourth biennial update of those charts. The first time we reappraised the standings for the fifty States we did so by dividing this enormous golfing nation into four large geographical groups, which, in hindsight, was probably just a little too cumbersome. Two years ago, we spread the exercise across nine more manageable divisions and that’s what we’re doing again now, with this edition focusing on the four West South Central States of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. A total of 160 courses are featured across this four-state division, allowing us to publish Top 20 tables for Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, along with a Top 100 listing for Texas. Arkansas The Arkansas state listings have been extended by adding another five courses in this update. Our number 1 in the Natural State remains Tom Fazio’s new millennium layout at Alotian Club, which occupies three hundred acres of hilly, forested terrain outside Little Rock. The course is the private property of billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens, a member of Augusta National, who spent a considerable proportion of his personal fortune constructing a layout in the mould of its more famous counterpart in Georgia. The highest new entry at number 7 on the state chart is the Ridges at Village Creek in Cross County, a 27-hole facility crafted by Andy Dye, which nestles in the massive Village Creek State Park. Laid out across a local landform known as Crowley’s Ridge, the North and East nines at this public course form the 18-hole combination of first choice within a delightfully natural setting. Not too far behind at number 10, the Ken Dye-designed course at Mystic Creek Golf Club in Union County is the second newcomer to appear in the Arkansas rankings. Opened for play five years ago, this semi-private course was built with a large construction budget inside a 510-acre real estate development on the outskirts of El Dorado, with fairways hewn from the dense pine woodlands that dominate the surrounding environment. Rank/ Click this link to see full details of our 2018 Arkansas Best in State courses Louisiana The course at Squire Creek Country Club is still the number 1 track in the Pelican state. A Tom Fazio layout which was first unveiled in 2002, this 18-hole layout is one of a number of sporting amenities available to members within a sizeable residential development near the small town of Choudrant in Lincoln Parish. Fairways framed by native grasses are routed around wetland areas, creeks and small lakes which are spread out around a stunning landscape. It’s also the home course for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs golf teams. The highest new entry in our Top 20 appears at number 9. Located an hour’s drive north of downtown New Orleans, the 18-hole layout at Money Hill Golf & Country Club lies on land that has been developed over many years by the local Goodyear family, with the course set on a former tung oil plantation. Ron Garl designed Money Hill twenty years ago in such a way that the closing holes are laid out around a large spring-fed lake, ensuring that every round here ends in dramatic style. Click this link to see full details of our 2018 Louisiana Best in State courses Oklahoma The Championship course at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa holds onto its position at the top of the Sooner State rankings. Host venue for three US Opens, four USPGA Championships and a raft of other USGA national amateur events, this mid-1930s Perry Maxwell design is currently the only West South Central course listed in our World Top 100 so don’t expect it to be knocked off the top perch in the state anytime soon. Earlier this year, the club announced Gil Hanse would spearhead an extensive renovation project aimed at restoring their classic design as part of a $19m facility upgrade. Golf journalist and regular Top 100 contributor M James Ward had this to say about the course a few months ago: “the Perry Maxwell design is artfully and brilliantly routed… the putting greens, as one might expect, are especially treacherous… the course is well-served by a number of dog-leg holes – shaping shots is essential at Southern Hills… those fortunate enough to play it will enjoy the genius of what Maxwell has so wisely provided.” The biggest climber in the new chart is the old A. W. Tillinghast layout at Oaks Country Club in Tulsa which leaps ten places up to number 10. Largely unaltered for almost ninety years, the course underwent an extensive renovation by Bill Bergin four years ago when he used old photos and maps to assist with the rebuilding of fairway and greenside bunkers and the reconstruction of tees and greens, all of which was intended to recapture the original 1920s design values of its esteemed architect. Click this link to see full details of our 2018 Oklahoma Best in State courses Texas The Texas Top 100 has fourteen new entries, most of them arriving between position 75 and 100, but the highest newcomer in the Lone Star State listings, the Tiger Woods and Beau Welling design at Bluejack National in Montgomery, hurtles straight into the chart at number 1. Although a golf course has existed on the property since 2001, when the former Blaketree National Golf Club opened for play, it was only after a complete redesign by Woods and Welling that the reborn 18-hole layout first gained national prominence at the start of 2016. A recent reviewer thought the design team “showed surprising restraint by how few bunkers they used and by how lay of the land this design is.” He continued: ”the strength of this course is in the interest on and around the greens and how the firm and tight conditions give the player choices… by clearing the areas under the trees, they have eliminated the most time consuming and least enjoyable part of golf, searching for wayward shots, so rounds are always played at a nice pace.” The 18-hole layout at Austin Golf Club near Spicewood enjoys a low key location some thirty miles from the state capital, just off highway 71. A Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design, the course has made steady progress in our Texas table – rising from number 27 in 2012 to number 13 in 2014 then number 8 two years ago – and it climbs another two places to the new number 6 slot. There’s no residential element to the club and there are no country club amenities, just golf amongst the live oaks, cacti, native grasses and scrubland found on typical Texas Hill Country terrain. Another Coore and Crenshaw course to make a big impact in Texas is their new layout at Trinity Forest Golf Club close to downtown Dallas, which is a highly-placed new entry at number 23. Host venue for the 51st edition of the AT&T Byron Nelson tournament in May 2018, Trinity Forest has so far attracted mixed reviews, ranging from a “fun and challenging course” to “hugely disappointing… I was not impressed.” It’ll be interesting to see what the top professionals on the PGA Tour make of it when they tee it up here next week. Unfortunately we've taken the decision to de-list Wolf Point Ranch. The club's owner sadly died in July 2016 due to injuries sustained following a fall. Since the accident, course maintenance has been cut back and the 475-acre property is on the market for $7,700,000, which on balance seems to be a small price to pay for a golf course dubbed the “St. Andrews of Texas” and only one of eighteen courses featured in Tom Doak’s “Gourmet’s Choice” in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses Volume 2 . Click this link to see full details of our 2018 Texas Best in State courses If you have any strong feelings about our re-ranked US Best in State listings then by all means share them with us. Which course did we overlook or have we listed one that shouldn’t be quoted? Perhaps we have a layout too high in the state chart or maybe one that’s lying too low? Whatever you’re thinking, please click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page if you’d like to give us some feedback. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Rollout of US Best In State Rankings Continues Fifteen more Best In State rankings completed as Top 100 Golf Courses US state rollout nears completion 22nd March 2012 This is the third update on the continued rollout of our US Best In State rankings. Fifteen further US states now join the twenty already completed (as detailed in news item 1 and news item 2) bringing the total up to thirty-five completed states. To find out more about our Best in State rankings please navigate to our dedicated US state pages by clicking on the following links for the fifteen latest states added to the Top 100 website: Arkansas Best In State Golf Courses (Top 10) Colorado Best In State Golf Courses (Top 25) Hawaii Best In State Golf Courses (Top 20) Idaho Best In State Golf Courses (Top 10) Illinois Best In State Golf Courses (Top 30) Indiana Best In State Golf Courses (Top 20) Iowa Best In State Golf Courses (Top 10) Kansas Best In State Golf Courses (Top 10) Michigan Best In State Golf Courses (Top 30) Minnesota Best In State Golf Courses (Top 25) Nebraska Best In State Golf Courses (Top 10) North Dakota Best In State Golf Courses (Top 5) Ohio Best In State Golf Courses (Top 30) Pennsylvania Best In State Golf Courses (Top 30) Wisconsin Best In State Golf Courses (Top 15) The Top 100 Team If you are passionate about your home state’s golf courses and would like to help us further develop this initiative, then please send an email to info@top100golfcourses.com. We’d love to hear from you.