The Top 100 Newest GOLF Courses in the US ranking includes 11 newcomers, which we’ll introduce you to here. Meet Sankaty Head in Massachusetts.
Patrick Koenig
GOLF recently published its latest rankings of Top 100 Courses in USA (2024-2525)a list that includes 11 arrivals. Some of them you may recognize. Others you may not. Here, in the spotlight for newcomers, we’ll introduce you to these 100 best beginner gems.
Newcomers Spotlight: Sankaty Chief / Rank: 92
Location: Nantucket, Mass.
Business: Private
YEAR OPEN: 1923
Architect: H. Emerson Armstrong
What you need to know about Sankaty Head
According to panelist Roger Hoit: “Magical, mystical, strange, beautiful, fun – a day at Sankaty Head on the idyllic island of Nantucket is all of that and more. Sankaty is a course for everyone. It’s very playable from the stress-free front drives, but also a stiff test from the back tees, especially in the prevailing southwesterly breeze, as the players at the 2021 USA Mid-Amateur here learned. Jim Urbina did a wonderful job with a 2017 restoration of the original Emerson Armstrong model. Highlights include the 4th hole, an accessible 520-yard par-5 where a well-placed drive creates the opportunity to drive to the green. Sankaty Head Lighthouse dominates the horizon for the second shot which requires fantastic bunker navigation, including a trench bunker over the green. Another standout is the par-4 15th. The approach to this 410-yard hole is my single favorite shot on the course as it plays uphill with the iconic clubhouse and lighthouse looming on the horizon. The Sankaty Head is one of the greatest wonders of the one-shot game as it was Armstrong’s only design.
What our reviewers say
“Sankaty, located on the tiny island of Nantucket, looks old-fashioned and understated, and has a sense of remoteness and timelessness. These are qualities that very few venues in the US exhibit. It is not particularly difficult, and like all directions of this kind requires the wind to expose all its deception.”
“I played Sankaty in 2023 and put it off my US top 100 list for 2024. I thought that if someone put Sankaty Head in a park environment (almost any other environment), it would hit the players notable as a little… plain. Whereas, if someone took Salem CC and dropped it in the dunes, we’d never stop drooling. Of course, it wouldn’t look and play like a natural product of its surroundings, and that dynamic can and should matter. Additionally, while the Sankaty would fare less well against so many similar designs in the UK, we just don’t have as many courses like this in North America. This absence is part of what makes Sankaty Head so distinctive and ultimately enjoyable: a super and smart mostly unadorned terrain that brilliantly/strategically interferes with progress on most freeways. When the wind is strong and the wind is down, the course can appear almost catlike. If one is up, watch out.”
