The 8 best island greens you won’t see on TV this week

Often emulated, by no means equaled. So it has been mentioned of the island-green seventeenth gap at TPC Sawgrass, a par-3 that has impressed extra copycats than we will depend. Yet not all island greens are would-be Sawgrass clones. Quite a couple of are characters all their very own. Here are eight nice examples of the shape.

Coeur d’Alene Resort, Couer d’Alene, Idaho

14th gap, 218 yards, par-3

Most island greens aren’t actually islands; they’re linked to terra firma by a walkway or a bridge. The 14th at Couer d’Alene is a special story. Its expansive placing floor, fringed by flowers and pines, floats in a crystalline lake, with no bodily hyperlink to land. It is reachable solely by a six-passenger boat. 

The Creek Club, Locust Valley, N.Y.

eleventh gap, 195 yards, par-3

All due respect to Pete Dye, however C.B. Macdonald had the concept way back. Working with Seth Raynor at this high-end non-public membership, the Golden Age grasp dreamed up a gap aptly named “Island,” with a Biarritz inexperienced ringed by marshland and waters that rise with the tide.

Golden Horseshoe, Gold Course, Williamsburg, Va.

sixteenth gap, 169 yards, par-3

One of the early island greens of the trendy period, this one was designed by the unique “Open Doctor,” Robert Trent Jones Sr. And although it doesn’t fairly require surgical precision, you do have to be on level if you need a affordable have a look at birdie on the massive and subtly contoured placing floor.

The Kittansett Club, Marion, Mass.

third gap, 167 yards, par-3

Miss most island greens, and you’re within the water. On this exhilarating gap, designed by William Flynn, an errant shot is extra apt to splash within the sand, which rings your entire inexperienced, creating a special form of island impact.

Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, Ocean Course, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

ninth gap, 144 yards, par-3

Pete Dye credited his spouse, Alice, for suggesting the concept of an island inexperienced at Sawgrass. Alice, in flip, mentioned she was impressed by the island inexperienced on the Ocean Course, a 1928 Herbert Strong design.

PGA West, La Quinta, Calif.

seventeenth gap, 168 yards, par-3

Born of the identical Dye parentage, and host to a PGA Tour occasion, the island inexperienced here’s a Sawgrass sibling however not a twin. For starters, it’s longer than the one in Ponte Vedra. It additionally performs downhill to a rock-ringed inexperienced. Hence its nickname: Alcatraz.

Punta Mita Pacifico Golf Course, Punta Mita, Mexico

Hole 3B, 194 yards, par-3

Known because the “Tail of the Whale” and billed as the one island inexperienced set within the Pacific Ocean, this arresting par-3 performs as an non-obligatory gap. But if you need to putt out, there’s no alternative: you’ve obtained to take a little bit motorboat to get to the inexperienced.

TPC Scottsdale (Stadium), Scottsdale, Ariz.

fifteenth gap, 558 yards, par-5

Not all island greens are on par 3s. At this 12 months’s WM Phoenix Open, Nick Taylor took three photographs to achieve the fifteenth inexperienced, laying up on the water-guarded par-5 en path to victory.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Editor

A golf, meals and journey author, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Magazine contributor since 2004 and now contributes throughout all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting. He can also be the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Fun Yet: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.