The Villages at Tullymore, MI: The #1 Dream Hole
The Dream 18
2nd Annual Dream 18
by Editors of GolfCourseHome
If you were to play 18 of the finest, most memorable golf holes to be found within any golf course community, which ones would they be? You’ll find the answers in this Second Annual Dream 18 listing, devined from among the 200-plus communities featured on GolfCourseHome.net.
These havens of the country club lifestyle represent more than 5,000 golf holes, 300-plus championship courses and more than 75 different golf architects—a wealth to choose from. Many of the courses are highly ranked by the leading golf publications and have been crafted by the great names in golf course design. Best of all, you can live on them.
If you'd like to add your own favorite golf hole to this list, please email us and we’ll be glad to publish your selections at a later date. This issue we present the Front Nine. See our next issue for the Back Nine.
The Front Nine
1. The Villages of Tullymore, (12th), Stanwood, MI
2. Kingsmill on the James (15th – Woods Course), Williamsburg, VA
3. Tennessee National, (12th), Loudon, TN
4. Blackstone, (8th) Peoria, AZ
5. Ross Bridge (13th), Hoover, AL
6. Montreux (17th) Reno, NV
7. The Club at Olde Stone (16th) Alvaton, KY
8. Sugarloaf Mountain (13th), Cleremont, FL
9. Heron Point by Pete Dye, Sea Pines (18th), Hilton Head, SC
Hole No. 1, The Villages of Tullymore, (12th), Stanwood, MI. The Tullymore golf course, designed by Jim Engh and ranked No. 14 on Golf Digest’s "100 Greatest Public Courses,” is a canopy of rolling woodland and waterway within the 800-acre Tullymore - St. Ives Resort complex. Lakes dot the landscape and Shinglebolt Creek winds through it. This year’s “dream 18” begins there with a classically quirky and British-style par-3 that many have likened to the famous “Dell” hole at Lahinch in the west of Ireland. The common feature between the two is a green mostly hidden behind a substantial dune. No. 12 at Tullymore, at 247 yards, certainly outsizes its Irish predecessor. Click here for information about The Villages at Tullymore!
Hole No. 2, Kingsmill on the James, (15th – Woods Course), Williamsburg, VA. This 2,900-acre resort community is growing in popularity among home buyers even as its amenity package continues to expand and improve. The new Woods Course, named by Golf Magazine a "Top Ten New Course You Can Play," was designed by Tom Clark in concert with U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange. The duo ornamented their 6,659-yard parkland-style design with a unique double green with a bunker in the center. The green is shared—St. Andrews style—by the par-3 12th hole and our featured par-4 15th. Though only 384 yards long, No. 15 ranks as the fourth-hardest hole on the course, due in large part to an imposing water hazard that fronts the green. Click here for more information about Kingsmill on the James!
Hole No. 3, Tennessee National, (12th), Loudon, TN. Rolling hills and over three miles of waterfront provide a bucolic setting for Medallist Development’s bold and history-minded Tennessee National. Carving his way through foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, Greg Norman laid out a richly varied golf course, using the shoreline of Watts Bar Lake as a hazard on several holes. One excellent example is Norman’s intimidating par-3 12th hole, guarded down the right side by the famous lake and swarming with bunkers—eight in total—up by the green. From the front tees it’s a sporty little hole, but way back at 209 yards it is a daunting proposition. Click here for more information about Tennessee National!
Hole No. 4, Blackstone, (8th) Peoria, AZ. Thrilling mountain views and black volcanic rock, indigenous to the area from which the community earned its name, make this community (within Vistancia) a jewel of the desert and make the Blackstone golf course, designed by Jim Engh, a visual delight. Engh’s gift for adapting classic hole designs of Great Britain and of America’s so-called Golden Age is on display in this “punchbowl” style par-4. The genius of the design is that the same raised mounds that partially hide the green serve to gather off-line shots and steer them toward the flag. Click here for more information about Blackstone!
Hole No. 5, Ross Bridge (13th), Hoover, AL Ross Bridge is a private community set within an exciting golf resort and spa complex in a woodland setting near Birmingham. It combines small-town comforts with sweeping views of the surrounding foothills, plus a destination golf course that is part of the famed Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The Ross Bridge course is big and brawny in the Jones tradition, sprawling over 330 acres and stretching almost 8,200 yards. The hole at Ross Bridge that truly tests a player’s fortitude is the 698-yard (no typo) par-5 13th, lined with hazards from tee to green. Click here for more information Ross Bridge!
Hole No. 6, Montreux (17th) Reno, NV Montrêux is a private, gated golf community bordering Toiyabe National Forest in the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Lake Tahoe. It is home to the only Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course in northern Nevada and the host site of the PGA Tour’s Reno-Tahoe Open. Montrêux’s 18-hole Nicklaus Signature course winds over 7,552 yards. Also, the tee elevation above the fairway on the 17th hole is 138 feet, giving the drive a heroic “hang time” that leaves players sighing their approval. Click here for more information about Montreux!
Hole No. 7, The Club at Olde Stone (16th) Alvaton, KY. Tucked serenely into the rolling hills of Kentucky, Olde Stone offers all the amenities of your favorite club community. It starts with a championship golf course designed by Arthur Hills, a resort-style swimming pool with a zero entry feature and an adult Jacuzzi garden. The golf course was named a "Best New Private Course" for 2007 by Golf Digest, partly on the strength of its “Redan-style” par-3 16th, featuring the classic front-right bunker placement and a side-sloping green that allows shots to be played short and right of the putting surface, so that they kick toward the standard pin placement in the back left portion of the green. Click here for more information about The Club at Olde Stone!
Hole No. 8, Sugarloaf Mountain (13th), Cleremont, FL. This new, 1,400-acre private community occupies the highest point in the Florida peninsula and is home to the Sunshine State’s only Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw golf course. One of its highlights is the 507-yard 13th, a par-4 of seemingly prodigious length. In fact, it's the longest par 4 in Florida, but the blind tee shot plays severely downhill, reminiscent of the 10th at Augusta National, so the hole plays quite a bit shorter than its stated yardage. If the drive comes “slingshotting” off the slope correctly, your second shot can be played with a short iron. Click here for more information about Sugarloaf Mountain!
Hole No. 9, Heron Point by Pete Dye, Sea Pines (18th), Hilton Head, SC. Probably the newest hole in this collection, the closing hole at Heron Point is knee-knocking par-4, especially for the hook-prone golfer staring at water all the way down the left side, and more water behind the green— which is fortified at the edges by Pete Dye’s trademark railroad ties. Graceful mounds and folds to the right of the green ensures a tricky stance and lie for the player who chickened out and faded or blocked the approach shot. Dye was hired to “tear down” the decades-old Sea Marsh course that helped establish Sea Pines as a Sunbelt resort-residential community for the affluent golfer. Click here for more information about Sea Pines Plantation!
