No matter which national golf publications you read, you’ll likely be familiar with the allure of the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island, since it is home to Tara Iti Golf Club, a private course built by Tom Doak in 2015 that routinely ranks among the very best courses in the world. The vast majority of golfers will never get to experience a round played at Tara Iti due to the club’s private status and incredibly small and exclusive membership. But avid and enthusiastic golf travelers will soon have the opportunity to experience what a round is like on those sandy windswept dunes once Te Arai Links opens for play later this year.            

The property will be home to two pure links courses, the nearly completed design by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and the other designed by Tom Doak, who will break ground on the layout at the beginning of next year.            

The landforms that define Te Arai’s property vary considerably, from heaving sand ridges and meandering valleys to rumpled contours like the classic links land in the United Kingdom where the sport was born. The site was perfect for Coore & Crenshaw, since the duo seek out sites that are sand-based and have been shaped by the wind—places where natural contours become the decisive factor in determining the character of the course. “The South Course at Te Arai Links has 16 ocean-view golf holes and 8 holes bordering directly on the sea,” says Coore. “Without question, it will be photogenic and visually stunning.”            

Similarly, several holes on the North Course are at least partially defined by the ocean, though Doak feels confident that golfers will appreciate the equally striking inland topography and terrain. “It is odd having to apologize for a golf course that only features the ocean for 7 of the 18 holes,” he says, “but that is how spoiled golfers have become by the best of New Zealand’s modern courses.” tearai.com

Last March, when course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw toured the site of their upcoming course in St. Lucia, they reveled in the opportunity to work on such a stunning piece of property, one that has all the makings of a truly world-class golf course. “We’ve been given some amazing and spectacular sites with which to work,” Coore said at the time, “but this one visually is probably the most spectacular.”“It’s an incredible site,” Crenshaw added. “To try to bring out more of its beauty and provide a test of golf in such spectacular surroundings is a tall order. But it’s an honor to do.”            

During Coore and Crenshaw’s visit to the northeastern coast of the island and the future site of Cabot Saint Lucia—the resort and private residential community where their course, Cabot Point, will be based—the co-founder of Cabot, Mike Keiser, was also present to see the course in its early stages of development. During his stay, Keiser walked the layout, scoring each of the holes on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the visceral response that he deemed golfers are likely to have while playing them.            

This method of course analysis is one that Keiser has used at all of his properties, and historically he rarely rates a hole higher than an 8 or a 9. But he did at Cabot Point. In particular, he scored the 16th and 17th holes, which play as back-to-back par 3s, as 10s. Only one other golf hole in the world—the 16th at Cypress Point—has earned a perfect 10 from Keiser. “Par 3s are the most important thing about a golf course,” he says. “It’s what we remember because it’s only one shot, and the par 3s here are as good as anything that you have dreamed of. If one of those par 3s—just one—was on a golf course that was right on the verge of the Top 100, it would push it over the edge. And we have four.” Currently, the course is slated to open in 2022. cabotsaintlucia.com

The Lido Golf Club, in its original 1910s form on Long Island, existed until the early 1940s, at which point the US Navy purchased the property and transformed it into a World War II military base. In the process, the classic golf layout by famed course architect C.B. Macdonald—a course that many deemed to be one of the greatest designs of its time—was thoroughly destroyed.            

The caliber of the course was categorically affirmed by the esteemed British golf writer, Bernard Darwin, who once wrote: “Our golfing ancestors could have desired nothing better.” Almost 80 years later, Michael and Chris Keiser—the sons of aforementioned golf resort developer Mike Keiser, who created Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley—deemed that such a jewel shouldn’t stay extinct. With the help of Peter Flory, an amateur golf historian who spent three years researching and constructing three-dimensional, digital renderings of the original holes, the Keiser brothers will now have a roadmap to rebuild the 6,582-yard-long course as it once existed—albeit more than 860 miles away from its origin point.

To turn those digital renderings into actual golfing terrain, the Keisers have hired Tom Doak, whose resume includes more than 20 significant course restoration projects, some of which bear C.B. Macdonald’s original handiwork. Doak also previously worked with Mike Keiser building two of the six courses at Bandon Dunes.
‍
When all the work is completed, the new (old) Lido Golf Club will sit on an 850-acre site adjacent to Sand Valley, yet it won’t formally be a part of the resort. Instead, The Lido will exist as a semi-private course, open to limited play for resort guests Sunday afternoon through Thursday evening. The rest of the time it will operate as a private, members-only club. As of now, the course is tentatively scheduled to open in 2023. thelido.com

With its headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the PGA of America has been surrounded by exceptional golf courses. Those surroundings will soon change as the organization is moving its headquarters to Frisco, Texas, but the proximity of championship golf courses will remain the same. That’s because a 600-acre development known as PGA Frisco, already under construction, will transform the metropolitan area north of Dallas into a remarkable, golf-centric locale, one that golf course architect Gil Hanse believes has the potential to someday become the St. Andrews of American golf.            

Hanse should know, since he is tasked with creating one of the development’s two golf courses. (Beau Welling serves as the lead designer for the other 18-hole layout.) The East Course, which reflects Hanse’s handiwork (along with that of his partner Jim Wagner), is defined in many respects by golf’s classic risk-versus-reward philosophy. The layout will include two drivable par 4s, and the course’s back nine will test golfers’ course management skills—as well as their resolve—given that a creek meanders through much of the land. “There’s some pretty good topography out there. For North Texas, I figured it’d be a lot flatter than it was. I was very pleasantly surprised,” Hanse says. “There were so many good natural attributes, and we all worked hard to figure out the best way to take care of the soil.”  

Jimmy Terry, the senior director of PGA Golf Properties, feels similarly about the dynamic characteristics of the site. “I don’t think anyone expects to see the elevation changes,” he says. “We have about 75-foot elevation from the high point to the low point. The way they’ve routed their golf courses to take advantage of these hilltops and ridge lines is really incredible.” Both golf courses are slated to open during the summer of 2022, while a 500-room resort developed by Omni Hotels is projected to be completed within six months of the courses’ grand openings. In total, the PGA Frisco development represents a more than $520 million investment, and it’s already secured host duties for six PGA Championships. visitfrisco.com; omnihotels.com; pga.com