Wherever you stood on the PGA Tour-LIV Golf fight—and now sudden merger—it shouldn’t affect your personal game as summer fires up.
Elite golf courses across the globe have unveiled the renovations and upgrades they made in recent months. This collection reviews some of the more notable new, reopened, or otherwise evolving golf courses awaiting more rounds this year with new amenities, layouts, or even real estate opportunities.
Bear Mountain – Victoria, Canada
Not necessarily known for golf, the rugged landscape of Victoria along the southern stretches of Vancouver Island is home to some genuinely pleasant 18-hole runs. Bear Mountain, one of the highlights, features 36 holes of Jack Nicklaus-designed golf on its Mountain and Valley courses. Those tracks anchor expanding real estate communities for 2023 and beyond.
As with many Nicklaus courses, elevation changes and doglegs work their way into the mix on both courses. The design makes full use of the surrounding pine forests, pinching a few fairways off from the tees. The mountain environment above Victoria provides the potential for weather changes throughout the day, adding to the course’s challenges.
While the course’s Pinehurst community is sold out, the condominium towers of One Bear Mountain are currently on the market with two bedroom units starting at C$900,000 (US$672,853). The nearby development of Shadow Creek off the Valley Course will offer 30 homes ranging in size up to 10,300 square feet once construction begins later this year.
Cypress Course, Bonita Bay East – Bonita Bay, Fla.
Originally designed by Tom Fazio, the Cypress Court of the Bonita Bay East resort community just emerged from an extended renovation under designer Tom Marzolf to update its hole-to-hole layout and improve its infrastructure.
The most interesting change made at Cypress is the terrain laid out around each green on the course. To encourage long-distance putting and to urge amateur golfers to leave the loft wedge or other pitching and chipping clubs in the bag, Marzolf extended a putting surface cut of grass for more than 10 yards around each green, creating more than a few long, undulating, bumpy putts. The result is a unique challenge for golfers more accustomed to pulling out the blade only once their ball reaches the green.
Quivira Golf Club – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
A bucket-list golf course and a masterpiece for designer Jack Nicklaus, Quivira is already on the international radar of countless players. With its popularity pushing upward of 100 rounds through its tee boxes on its busiest days, the minds behind the course decided to build a second and more private 18 holes nearby.
That planning of a second course and new amenities meant Nicklaus needed to do some rerouting of Quivira’s opening holes. It’s a tribute to the Golden Bear’s talent that the new layout feels more natural than the original design—all while leaving Quivira’s seaside signature run of holes on the front nine intact.
Burnt Pine Golf, Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort – Miramar Beach, Fla.
Connected to the newly emerged Hotel Effie amid the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, Burnt Pine Golf is one of Florida’s best off-the-radar courses. It won’t stay off that radar long with Hotel Effie bringing in more visitors looking to stay in the area’s hottest new property, but Burnt Pine remains a peaceful and challenging experience that gets less traffic than courses in South Florida or Orlando.
You have to be a guest at the resort hotel to play Burnt Pine, but—with the scenery changing from hole to hole—it’s worth it to take a course flashing different personalities from shot to shot.
La Costa Champions Golf Course – Carlsbad, Calif.
The only course presented here that’s still under construction, the Champions Course at La Costa is in the middle of a massive, hole-by-hole redesign that will transform it into the annual home of the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s golf championships. The host for multiple PGA Tour events in the past, Champions will reopen for tournament play in 2024 after an extensive renovation by designer Gil Hanse. The rendering of the updated Champions holes are on display at the La Costa club house—and those college golfers (and members of the public inbound to play) are in for a significantly more challenging experience. The new, long and narrow 18th looks particularly troublesome.
In the meantime, the neighboring La Costa Legends Course remains open for resort guests to play while Champions cooks nearby. There are some reports that Legends will also be renovated once Champions returns.
Kapalua Golf Plantation Course – Lahaina, Hawaii
In the golf course design world, it’s a legendary tale that the first course Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore designed was the Plantation Course at Kapalua. Connected to the beautiful and recently renovated Ritz-Carlton Maui, The Plantation immediately became a monument to Hawaiian golf.
The recent renovation of this world famous and PGA Tour frequented course made purist players nervous with Coore and Crenshaw promising to speed up the run. After removing years of built-up debris and thatch before laying down new fairways, that design team left a greener and smoother playing experience for this cathedral of golf.
Costa Palmas Golf Club – Baja California Sur, Mexico
Designed by Robert Trent Jones II and opened in late 2019 on the East Cape, Costa Palmas Golf Club is an oasis laid out with natural ease across a quiet, once isolated desert. A prime amenity of the elite Four Seasons Costa Palmas resort, the result of the Trent Jones design is a peaceful 18 holes a world removed from the busy tourist courses of Los Cabos.
However, flooding and storm damage forced RTJ2 and company to return to Mexico to reroute holes on the front nine and erase the damage. Now, if a golfer hadn’t had the chance to play Costa Palmas before the partial redesign, he or she would never have any idea that repairs took place.
DLF Golf and Country Club – Gurgaon, India
Gary Player designed one of his most visually striking and challenging golf creations in his long career DLF City outside Delhi. The multi-million-dollar penthouses atop The Camellias peer down on a pristine golf course featuring narrow fairways, frequent elevation changes and the effective use of environmentally sustainable water features.
The 18-hole, par-72 run measures 7,654 yards from the tips. The current home of the DP World Tour’s Hero Indian Open, which is held each February, the DLF Golf and Country Club allows for various skill levels with six different tee boxes.
New residents at The Camellias may purchase golf club memberships at the DLF Golf and Country Club as part of their residency. Meanwhile, the private club amenities at The Camellias itself include a full-service spa promoting Eastern remedies, a sprawling fitness center, and a restaurant with global cuisine. There are few more luxurious golf lifestyle choices available anywhere in the world.
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