TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
This was Jack Nicklaus’ first course in South America, which he designed with his son Jackie.
CHAPELCO GOLF & RESORT
Ruta Nacional 40 Km 2226 CP 8370, San Martín de los Andes, Neuquén, Argentina
The Golden Bear couldn’t have picked a more scenic place for his first course in South America. Chapelco Golf & Resort, designed by Jack Nicklaus and his son Jackie, is located in the Patagonian Andes, and the mountain backdrop is nothing short of breathtaking. But the landscape provides a lot of variety as you play through the 18 holes. In some areas you’ll be surrounded by pampas grass plains, while in others you’ll be in the pine forest. And between the two types of terrain, there are plenty of natural lakes and streams to keep things interesting. As with many Nicklaus designs, Chapelco strikes the right balance of being appropriately challenging without being overly frustrating.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
You play in the middle of Nahuel Huapi National Park, an unbelievably scenic destination.
LLAO LLAO RESORT, GOLF, & SPA
Avenida Ezequiel Bustillo Km. 25 (R8401ALN), Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
The setting for the Llao Llao Resort in Bariloche is reminiscent of a fantasy landscape in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. But this is real life, and you’re actually in the scenic Nahuel Huapi National Park, right on the shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake with the mountains of Patagonia behind you. It’s one of the most breathtaking places to play golf, which is why it’s worth the long trek to this remote destination. The original nine holes were designed by Luther Koontz, while the second nine were added in 1994 by Emilio Serra.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
This is the most southerly golf course in the world.
USHUAIA GOLF CLUB
Ruta Nacional 3, Camino Al Parque Nacional Lapataia 9410, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
If playing the world’s most extreme courses is your goal, add Ushuaia Golf Club to your bucket list. Located on the edge of Tierra del Fuego National Park in Argentine Patagonia, it’s the southernmost golf course in the world (excluding the makeshift courses in Antarctica run by research station staff). Its nine holes, five of which surround the powerful Pipo River, are open during the Southern Hemisphere’s warmest seasons—roughly October through May—though players are often subject to pretty harsh weather conditions. It rains about half of the year here, and there are strong, freezing winds coming over the Drake Passage from Antarctica. Nevertheless, golfers persist, enjoying the chance to play on this atypical course.
Rio de Janeiro’s first golf course still delights players a hundred years after it was built.
GÁVEA GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB
Estrada da Gávea, 800, São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro 22610-002, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro might be famous for its beaches, but it also has a long golf history worth exploring if you’re a fan of the sport. Founded in 1921 as the Rio de Janeiro Golf Club, Gávea, as it’s known today, was the first golf course and club in the Brazilian city, and it remains the most prestigious. Throughout its history, Gávea has undergone a number renovations by Stanley Thompson, A. M. Davidson, Dan Blankenship, and Gil Hanse, all of whom have had their hand in updating the course. While the club is primarily for members only, guests of certain local hotels are able to score tee times. TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
Golfers play through the rain forest before emerging atop oceanfront cliffs.
TERRAVISTA GOLF COURSE
Estrada Municipal de Trancoso, Km 18, 45810-000 Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil
One of Brazil’s flagship golf courses, Terravista in jet-set chic Trancoso, allows golfers to enjoy two of the country’s most scenic landscapes: The rain forest and the beach. The course was designed by American architect Dan Blankenship, with the first nine holes meandering through the dense forest, while the second half of the course moves toward the coast. Four holes abut 150-foot-tall cliffs overlooking the Atlantic; the particularly picturesque hole 14 is the standout as it’s set on a section of the cliffs that juts out over the beaches below.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
The imposing Mount Rundle and Sulphur Mountain lend a sense of gravitas to this dramatic course.
THE FAIRMONT BANFF SPRINGS GOLF COURSE: STANLEY THOMPSON
Golf Course Road, Banff, Alberta, T0L 0C0, Canada
The Fairmont Banff Springs is an iconic hotel in itself, but for golfers the property’s adjacent Banff Springs Golf Course is the cherry on the top. Canadian designer Stanley Thompson designed an 18-hole course that follows the Bow River beneath Mount Rundle and Sulphur Mountain. At every hole, there’s a postcard-perfect backdrop that could easily distract you from your swing. So, take your time and absorb the view before you tee off! There’s also a nine-hole course here by Cornish and Robinson if you’re short on time, or you can play on it too before or after the Stanley Thompson course to extend your day.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
This course is set in the quintessential British Columbian landscape—there are mountains, forests, and a sound.
FURRY CREEK GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB
150 Country Club Road, Furry Creek, British Columbia V8B 1A3, Canada
Furry Creek might have a funny name (from the aptly named trapper Oliver Furry), but there’s nothing funny about this golf course. Designed by Robert Muir Graves—it's the acclaimed American architect’s only course in Canada—Furry Creek has one of the most dramatically beautiful settings of all courses in Canada. Furry Creek, known as “British Columbia’s most scenic golf course," twists through the forested shoreline of Howe Sound Bay beneath snowcapped mountains in this stunning location. Hole 14, known as “tee to sea” is the signature green, descending right to the waterfront.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
The backdrop of the Canadian Rockies is truly special.
KANANASKIS COUNTRY GOLF COURSE: MOUNT KIDD
#1 Lorette Drive, Kananaskis, Alberta, TOL 2HO, Canada
Albertans are lucky to have Kananaskis Country Golf Course as their home playing field. But tragedy struck in 2013, when floods wiped out much of the area, including Mount Kidd and its sister course, Mount Lorette. But the club brought in Gary Browning to restore the two courses, originally designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1983. Today, the courses continue to be the local golf community’s hub. Mount Kidd Course is the superior course in terms of difficulty, though many golfers find it suitable for all levels.
Many golfers regard this as one of the best Jack Nicklaus courses in the world.
PUNTA ESPADA GOLF CLUB
Cap Cana, Punta Cana 23000, Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic’s Punta Cana is already one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean, but it’s the exclusive Cap Cana resort there that’s turning golfers’ heads. The Jack Nicklaus–designed Punta Espada was the first course to be built on the property, and among the prolific designer’s many courses, it’s considered one of his best. Of particular note are the coastal greens right up against the bright blue Caribbean Sea, though the inland holes (which still have ocean views) also have eye-catching features, from lakes to bluffs and lush landscaping. The signature hole is the 13th, which requires a shot over the ocean to a cliffside green. TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
The eponymous dunes create an otherworldly golf landscape.
DIAMANTE CABO SAN LUCAS: DUNES
Diamante Boulevard, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur 23450, Mexico
The contrasts are stark at Diamante Cabo San Lucas’ Dunes Course, one of the most highly ranked in Latin America. There’s the bright green of the grass, the deep azure of the sea, the pale blue of the sky, and the stark beige of the sand dunes, which all together make for one beautiful golf course. “When you walk out here, you just all of a sudden think you're in Ireland or Scotland in true links land,” the course’s designer, Davis Love III, said in a video interview about the project. “The dramatic dunes and the windswept links of Ireland and Scotland are really the only things you can compare this piece of property to.”
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
You work your way up and down the scenic desert cliffs at this beachside course.
QUIVIRA GOLF CLUB
Prédio Paraíso Escondido S/N, 23450 Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico
For his sixth course in Los Cabos, Mexico, Jack Nicklaus went big on the views. According to some golfers, Quivira Golf Club, named for the mythical city of gold sought by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, rivals California’s acclaimed Pebble Beach in its scenic beauty. The course starts at a beachfront clubhouse before ascending the desert cliffs, running along their tops in what seems to be a gravity-defying manner (at least from the air), then descending back down to the beach. The resulting views are awe-inspiring, no matter how you think this course compares to Pebble Beach. Keep an eye out for whales as you play.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
It is a haven of tranquility and beauty in the heart of bustling Lima.
LIMA GOLF CLUB
770 Avenida Camino Real, San Isidro 15073, Peru
Lima is one of the most exclusive golf destinations, with many of its courses restricted to members only. However, there are a few loopholes for visitors. For instance, the historic Lima Golf Club, founded in 1924, is open to guests staying at the Country Club Lima Hotel, a heritage-protected establishment. The course is located bang in the middle of the residential San Isidro neighborhood—it grew around the course—and it’s one of the largest green spaces in the city today. Because of its exclusivity, it’s rarely crowded, which is a delight for those who play it.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
The towering red sandstone rock formations provide a stunning atmosphere.
ARROWHEAD GOLF COURSE
10850 Sundown Trail, Littleton, Colorado 80125, USA
Geology is the name of the game at Arrowhead Golf Course in Colorado. The course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., runs parallel to some of the most sublime rock formations in the United States. Sheets of red rocks called flatirons jut out of the Earth at a severe angle, contrasting the rolling fairways and greens—it's hard to fathom the strength of Mother Nature's cataclysmic forces that led to this landscape. If you wanted to put down your club and just marvel in the beauty here, no one would blame you.
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
Designers Tom Doak and Jim Urbina channel the spirit of Charles Blair Macdonald at this course.
BANDON DUNES GOLF RESORT: OLD MACDONALD
57744 Round Lake Road, Bandon, Oregon 97411, USA
Mike Keiser, owner of Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon, posed a simple question (perhaps figuratively, if not literally): “What if Charles Blair Macdonald built a course here?” Given that the great golf architect died in 1939, we will never actually know. But Tom Doak and Jim Urbina gave it their best guess, designing the Old Macdonald Course, the fourth at the resort, in Macdonald’s iconic style. They ended up pulling together a true links course, with many holes here drawing inspiration from some of the most famous holes in the history of golf—the template hole method created by Macdonald himself.
www.bandondunesgolf.com/
TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE BECAUSE
At this extremely remote course you’re transported back to the days of the Wild West.
BLACK JACK’S CROSSING
21701 FM 170 Lajitas, Texas 79852, USA
Unless you have a private jet, it’s going to take some time to get to the farthest-flung golf course in Texas. Black Jack’s Crossing at the Lajitas Golf Resort is located at the Mexican border in southwest Texas, a five-hour drive from El Paso and a seven-hour drive from San Antonio. But the payoff is worth the journey. Not only are you golfing amid the dramatic, Marslike landscape of the Chihuahuan Desert, you’re right next to Big Bend National Park. The resort itself is built around the former Lajitas Trading Post, a 19th-century structure that now houses the Pro Shop and the Yates Longhorn Museum. You can see bullet holes in its walls from the Wild West days—yeehaw indeed.
Stefanie Waldek
Copy-editing
Bracha de Man
Book Design
ASB
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© Lannoo Publishers, Belgium, 2022
D/2022/45/15 – NUR 450/500 ISBN: 9789401481953 www.lannoo.com
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