The new year will bring dozens of new (and newly renovated) courses. But to keep our expectations realistic, we’ve focused on public-access projects. Here are nine that we’ve resolved to play.
Poppy Ridge Golf Course
Livermore, Calif.
Opening date: Summer
Like its sibling, Poppy Hills, in Monterey, Poppy Ridge belongs to the Northern California Golf Association and has long been one of the Bay Area’s better daily-fee values. But in its original configuration, the 27-hole facility had awkward stretches, marked by steep elevation changes and long hikes between holes. Enter the architect Jay Blasi. In what amounts to a new build, Blasi created a championship 18-hole routing, using choice land from each of the three existing nines. The result is a compelling, walker-friendly course, stitched through rolling, vineyard-fringed terrain, about an hour east of San Francisco. Call it a good value, vastly improved.
Scarecrow at Gamble Sands
Brewster, Wash.
Opening date: Aug. 1
Returning to work in apple-orchard country in eastern Washington, David McLay Kidd has put the final touches on his second 18-hole course at Gamble Sands. This one occupies a site that McLay Kidd had hoped to use more than a decade ago for his first course at the resort but couldn’t because power lines were in the way. With those lines removed, a great canvas was made ready for a follow up. Though similar in spirit to the original Gamble Sands course (which ranks on GOLF’s list of Top 100 Courses in the U.S. You Can Play), with wide landing areas and myriad ground-game options, the new layout, Scarecrow, is more demanding tee to green — and more dramatic in its movement and its river-valley views. After limited sneak-peek play this past fall, the course is set for an August ribbon cutting.
Pasatiempo
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Opening date: Now
At the California course where he chose to make his home, the Golden Age giant Alister Mackenzie foreshadowed elements of his later work at Augusta National, with yawning paw-print bunkers and exhilarating, tilt-a-whirl greens. Now, the architect Jim Urbina has restored those greens to their original push-up style and rebuilt the bunkers with modern construction methods, bringing a brilliant course into even brighter light. Technically, Pasatiempo violates our timeframe, as it fully reopened in December of 2024. But that unveiling was so recent, relatively few golfers have experienced the freshened-up course.
Old Petty at Cabot Highlands
Inverness, Scotland
Opening date: Preview play in the summer of 2025/grand opening in 2026
Already home to Castle Stuart (No. 89 on GOLF’s list of Top 100 Courses in the World), Cabot Highlands will soon have a complement, courtesy of Tom Doak. In collaboration with Clyde Johnson, his on-site project lead, the architect has conjured a routing that turns a walk into a scenic tour, with the Moray Firth photobombing in the backdrop and historic Old Petty church (the landmark that gives the course its name) making a cameo along the way. Though the grand opening is scheduled for 2026, preview play will be available from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 of this year.
7 Mile Beach Golf Club
Hobart, Tasmania
Projected opening: Spring/summer 2025
If you need a good excuse to haul your sticks halfway around the world, Mike Clayton, Mike DeVries and Frank Pont have you covered. They’re the architects of 7 Mile Beach, on a postcard-ready site beside a sandy stretch of the same name, roughly 20 minutes from the Tasmanian capital. Delayed for years by a host of roadblocks, the course has cleared the last of its obstacles and is expected to be ready in the first half of 2025.
Karoo Course, Cabot Citrus Farms
Brooksville, Fla.
Opening date: Jan. 21
A ‘karoo’ is the sound made by sandhill cranes, whose trumpeting echoes around the grounds of this rugged Kyle Franz design in the sand barrens of the Sunshine State. The course is one of two 18-holers at Cabot Citrus Farms (its just-completed sibling is the Roost, by Franz, Ran Morrissett, Mike Nuzzo and Rod Whitman) a newborn destination that also has a pair of entertaining short courses. Preview play began on the Karoo 2024, but Jan. 21 marks its official opening — and the grand opening of the resort itself.
Other notables:
Karsten Creek Golf Club
Stillwater, Okla.
Hailed for his restorations of such vaunted venues as Oak Hill and Congressional, Andrew Green was enlisted for a slate of improvements at the home course of Oklahoma State. Along with some rerouting, the work includes new geothermal greens, better suited to the climate, and a host of refinements aimed at posing a stouter challenge to the elite college players who get priority access to the property. With proper planning — and at a premium — the public can peg it at Karsten Creek, too. The course should be ready by the start of the 2025 season.
Teeth of the Dog
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Re-grassing, sand-capping, and bunker and green restoration rank among the slated upgrades at Pete Dye’s seaside gem in the Caribbean. Jerry Pate’s design firm is handling the work, which is scheduled for completion in late 2025.
PGA West Stadium Course
Palm Springs, Calif.
When you tune in to the American Express later this month, you’ll be looking at a spiffed-up Stadium Course, Pete Dye’s famed desert design, where the greens have been restored to their original size and shape, among other enhancements. The just-completed work was part of a three-year multi-million-dollar project that included upgrades to two other Dye tracks at PGA West (the Mountain and the Dunes). The Stadium is the headliner, though, and, two weeks from now, you can watch the pros play it before you take it on yourself.
