Day: May 15, 2022

Tiger Woods’ 10 lowest rounds in major championship historyTiger Woods’ 10 lowest rounds in major championship history

Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost, sometimes he merely proved a point. Tiger Woods has a history of going low no matter the course, but his lowest scores in the majors have spoken loudest. He shot a 63 that could have, should have, would have been one better at the 2007 PGA Championship, the ball falling partially into the hole before seeming to change its mind and lipping out. The round was instantly dubbed a 62 1/2; Woods shrugged and won the Wanamaker Trophy anyway. Other thunderously low scores in the majors have set up yet more victories. They’ve also made believers out of even hardened skeptics. Colin Montgomerie was one of the few who remained unconvinced that Woods was destined to win the 1997 Masters Tournament – until Montgomerie was paired with Woods in the third round, and Woods demolished him, 65-74. Montgomerie admitted he’d been wrong, no one else had a chance to win the next day, and, of course, Woods made history. Still other great rounds have left him just short of glory. And one of his 10 best, the day after a freak storm wiped out his chances of winning the 2002 Open and the Grand Slam, was for pride but little else. The list below looks at Woods’ 10 career rounds of 65 or lower in the majors, starting with the personal record he set at the site of this week’s PGA Championship. 1. 63, 2007 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP (2nd rd.) Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla. End of round position: 1st (from T23) Finish: Won The hottest major on record – the thermometer hit 101 in the first two rounds – also was the site of one of Woods’ personal records. His 63 in the second round of the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills remains his lowest round in a major. At the time, no one had gone lower in one of golf’s Grand Slam events. Ten years later, Branden Grace shot a third-round 62 at the 2017 Open Championship, but Woods was millimeters from beating him to it. He raised his putter as his 15-foot birdie putt on Southern Hills’ uphill 18th neared the hole, only to watch his ball ring the cup. “I knew if I made that putt on the last hole it would have been a nice little record to have,” Woods said. “A 62 1/2 is all right.” It was the day’s lowest round by three shots. The scorecard shows he made eight birdies and only one bogey; what it doesn’t show is that half his birdie putts came from 6 feet or less. He also sank an 8-footer, chipped in once and holed two 20-foot birdie putts. With the sweltering heat sending the ball soaring long distances, Woods only used driver on one of the holes he birdied, the 653-yard, par-5 fifth hole. He completely changed the narrative. An opening-round 71 led to questions about whether the Perry Maxwell design, with its tight, doglegged fairways, fit his game. Some called the course a “Tiger-tamer,” for Woods had done little of note in two previous appearances at Southern Hills. He finished T21 in the 30-man TOUR Championship in 1996 – his father, Earl, was hospitalized before the second round – and T12 in the 2001 U.S. Open, which marked an end to his run of four consecutive major triumphs. He was 12 over par for his nine competitive rounds at Southern Hills entering the second round of the 2007 PGA. He started that day T23, six back of surprise leader Graeme Storm and four back of John Daly. The second round, though, changed everything. Woods’ 63 gave him a two-shot lead over Oklahoma State alum Scott Verplank. Consecutive 69s on the weekend gave Woods a two-shot win over Woody Austin, while Ernie Els finished alone in third, three shots back. With the win, the 13th of his 15 major titles, Woods improved to 8-0 when holding the 36-hole lead in a major. 2. 64, 2018 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP (4th rd.) Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis, Missouri End of round position: 2nd (from T6) Finish: 2nd It felt like history in the making. On a sweltering Sunday in St. Louis, amongst a never-ending sea of spectators, Woods turned even the staunchest disbelievers into cheerleaders. A decade since his last major victory and after a series of back operations that left his career in question, the 2018 PGA was where Woods shot the lowest final round in a major in his historic career. Starting the final round four shots behind Brooks Koepka, Woods made eight final-round birdies and matched the low score of the day. Bellerive erupted into paroxysms of joy, the massive gallery roaring with delight at vintage Tiger. Woods shot 32 on the front despite not hitting a fairway, punctuating it with a 173-yard approach from the gallery to birdie No. 9 and send shockwaves around the course. Birdies at 12 and 13 created a crowd crush so dense that there were fears for fan safety. Woods was within a stroke before a bogey at 14, coupled with Koepka’s birdies at 15 and 16, led to Koepka’s third major victory. He now had a Wanamaker Trophy to go with his two U.S. Open triumphs. Six weeks later, Woods won the TOUR Championship for his first victory in five years, and not long after that he would win his next major start, at the 2019 Masters. 3. 64, 1997 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (3rd rd.) Royal Troon G.C., Troon, Scotland End of round position: T8 (from T49) Finish: T24 Woods came into his first Open as a professional with no shortage of buzz after his game-changing Masters win four months earlier. The U.K. tabloids embraced the Tiger frenzy with headlines like, “Claws Celebre,” but with Woods already making some swing changes – coach Butch Harmon followed his every shot of the Wednesday practice round – it was an open question how he might do. Sure enough, with his swing a work in progress, he was more mistake-prone than usual. He seemingly doomed his chances with a triple bogey on the way to a first-round 72, and a quadruple bogey, including a whiff with a sand wedge, en route to a second-round 74. He made the cut with just a shot to spare. The greats, though, can never be counted out, and Woods dazzled with a third-round 64, which tied Greg Norman’s course record and vaulted Woods from T49 to inside the top 10. At the par-5 16th, he hit driver off the deck to 15 feet to set up an eagle. By the end of the round, after a chip-in at the par-3 17th, Woods had taken just 24 putts – including just 10 on the back nine – and sprinkled in seven birdies against two bogeys. He would go into the last round with an outside shot, eight behind Jesper Parnevik. Asked if he could win, Woods said, “I believe I still can.” Alas, he shot a final-round 74, with another triple bogey, this time at the famed Postage Stamp par-3 8th hole, to finish T24. 4. 65, 2006 PGA Championship (3rd rd.) Medinah CC (No. 3), Chicago, Ill. End of round position: T1 (from T5) Finish: Won After his Open Championship victory at Royal Liverpool one month prior, memorably hitting just one driver all week, Woods returned to the site of his 1999 PGA Championship duel against Sergio Garcia (Woods won by one) in search of back-to-back major titles for the first time since 2002. Woods started steady with rounds of 69-68, one stroke back of four co-leaders into the weekend. The 30-year-old turned on the jets in Saturday’s third-round, shooting 7-under 65; he played the par-3s in 3 under, made four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine, and moved into a co-lead with Luke Donald at 14 under. Playing alongside childhood friend Chris Riley, Woods tied the course record that was set by Mike Weir earlier that day. He proceeded to pull away from the field in Sunday’s final round, carding 4-under 68 for an 18-under total and five-stroke win over Shaun Micheel. It marked Woods’ 12th major title. 5. 65, 2006 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (2nd rd.) The Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, England End of round position: 1st (from T2) Finish: Won In his first Open Championship since the loss of his father Earl, Woods produced an emotional victory for the ages at Royal Liverpool. His 7-under 65 in the second round, which included a hole-out eagle with a 4-iron, sent him from one behind Graeme McDowell to one in front of Ernie Els. Woods retained that lead through 54 holes (with Sergio Garcia and Chris DiMarco joining Els a shot back) before beating DiMarco by two, a win that brought Woods to tears in the arms of his caddie, Steve Williams. The win was also known for Woods’ clinical dissection of the dusty links, which were dried-out amid a heatwave. He left driver in the bag to avoid the pot bunkers, leaving himself longer clubs into the greens. His Friday 65 included an incredible 50-foot birdie on No. 8, but that putt from another zip code wasn’t even the highlight of the day. That came on the extremely difficult dogleg par-4 14th. Woods once again gave up distance for safety off the tee, leaving himself 200 yards to the green. But he hit a perfect 4-iron that bounced three times before disappearing into the cup for eagle. He never looked back. “Usually, it’s just a case of getting a 4 and getting out of there,” Woods said at the time. “I couldn’t see the flag and was just trying to get the ball on the green, but I hit it flush and it went in.” That 65 remains a record at Royal Liverpool in The Open, a mark he now shares with eight others. 6. 65, 2005 MASTERS (3rd rd.) Augusta National G.C., Augusta, Georgia End of round position: 1st (from 3rd) Finish: Won Woods was still retooling his swing under Hank Haney when he arrived at the Masters in 2005; his winless streak in the majors neared three years. His first round here didn’t begin well, either, as he putted a ball into Rae’s Creek at the par-5 13th en route to a 74. It would be the highest opening round of any of his major triumphs. Everything changed Saturday, when, thanks to weather delays, Woods played his second round, a 6-under 66 that got him back in the mix. He also played nine holes of his third round before darkness halted play again, making five birdies to cut Chris DiMarco’s lead from six to four shots. All told, Woods played 27 holes that day, making 12 birdies against just one three-putt bogey. After closing the first nine with three consecutive birdies, Woods split the 10th fairway before the horn blew. “Chris could have easily gone off and run away with this tournament,” he said. “At least now I’ve got a fighting chance.” He completed the round Sunday morning, making birdies on Nos. 10-13 to run his string of consecutive birdies to seven, tying a tournament record set by Steve Pate in 1999 (he also birdied Nos. 7-13). Woods’ third-round 65 gave him the lead by three going into the final round. That round was a doozy. Woods chipped in at the par-3 16th hole, one of the most replayed shots of all time, and rolled in a 15-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole to beat DiMarco for his ninth major title. 7. 65, 2002 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (4th rd.) Muirfield, Muirfield, Scotland End of round position: T28 (from T67) Finish: T28 Most of Woods’ best rounds in the majors have either led to victory of left him oh, so close. Not this one. Although his 6-under 65 (one eagle, five birdies, one bogey) in the final round matched the low round of the week, all it did was move Woods from T67 to T28. Hardly anything to write home about. No, there were two main stories this week, neither of them pertaining to Tiger’s 65. The first big story was his shot at the calendar year Grand Slam, with Woods having come into the Open having won the Masters and U.S. Open. That made him the first player to successfully clear the first two hurdles of the Grand Slam since Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Woods shot 70-68 the first two rounds, he said he was playing well, and all systems were set to keep it going on the weekend. The second big story was the weather. Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington and others have called the crud that rolled in for the late tee times Saturday afternoon as the worst they ever played in, and Woods would likely give them no argument. He shot 81, one of 10 scores in the 80s that day and the first time Woods had failed to break 80 as a professional. His chances at the Grand Slam had all but ended. His final-round 65 was payback, and proof that he really was playing well despite the freak storm. 8. 65, 2000 U.S. OPEN (1st rd.) Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, Calif. End of round position: 1st Event finish: Won Unsatisfied with the way the ball was coming off his putter, Woods spent some extra time on the practice green Wednesday. Boy did it pay off. Of his six opening-round birdies, four were of the kick-in variety, but a handful of mid-length par saves were equally crucial in this tone-setter. He only got better from there, showing total command from tee to green and making just about everything he looked at – a frightening combination to his peers. Woods took a 10-shot lead into the final round – “I knew I had no chance,” said Ernie Els, who led the chase pack – and at 12 under par overall authored a gaudy, 15-shot victory over Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Woods’ performance that week is considered perhaps the best golf ever played, none better than what he summoned in the opening round. He hit 11 of 14 fairways, and just 12 greens in regulation, and was positively automatic with the putter – a sign of things to come. “It’s unconscionable to me that he can make that many putts,” Hale Irwin said, “but he did.” 9. 65, 1998 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (1st rd.) Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England End of round position: T1 Event finish: 3rd It was a rare week in which Woods took the first-round lead and did not win. In light winds and sunshine in the opening round, he scrambled brilliantly for pars on the opening two holes, the latter after thrashing a 9-iron out of near knee-high rough to the middle of the green. The young and powerful Woods almost made a mockery of the 411-yard ninth, moving photographers and fans out of his line before blasting his ball over a diabolical bunker that guards the corner of the dogleg. His 380-yard tee ball left just a flick-wedge to the green. It was a shake-your-head moment for most, more proof the young phenom was changing the game. Three more birdies on the back side were countered by two bogeys, the last coming on 18 to give up sole possession of the lead. A lipped out 3-footer on 12 would prove costly. His opening 5-under 65 was enough to share the lead with John Huston, but the field would be blown off the map over the next two rounds, with Woods shooting 73-77. In an incredible turnaround, a final-round 66 from Woods – one of just nine sub-par rounds that Sunday – brought him all the way back to within one of a playoff, where his pal Mark O’Meara bested Brian Watts for the Claret Jug. 10. 65, 1997 MASTERS (3rd rd.) Augusta National G.C., Augusta, Ga. End of round position: 1st (from 1st) Event finish: Won As Tiger-mania built to a crescendo in Woods’ first Masters as a professional, the 21-year-old produced a nearly flawless ball-striking effort on Saturday at Augusta National, leaving all others behind. Woods hit 13 of 14 fairways, 17 of 18 greens and carded a bogey-free 65 that extended a three-stroke lead over Colin Montgomerie to a nine-stroke lead over Constantino Rocca. As the patrons roared at every turn, Woods methodically went about his business, making birdies on three of four par-5 holes and adding yet more birdies on Nos. 5, 7, 11 and 18. His 65 convinced even the last remaining skeptics he would win. Prior to Saturday’s third round, Montgomerie remarked that Woods’ lack of major-championship experience could prove a factor on the weekend. After their Saturday pairing, though, in which a humbled Montgomerie was beat by nine strokes, the Scotsman entered the press room to opine, “There is no chance humanly possible that Tiger is just going to lose this tournament.” He was correct, as Woods proceeded to shoot a final-round 69 for a 12-stroke runaway, his first of 15 major titles. “It was the easiest 65 I’ve ever seen,” Montgomerie said later.

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Nine Things to Know: Southern Hills Country ClubNine Things to Know: Southern Hills Country Club

His invincibility was shattered there with a tinge of shock in 2001. His aura was rekindled there with pulsating precision in 2007. The man: Tiger Woods. The place: Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Anticipation is ripe for a return to Southern Hills and the 104th PGA Championship. Gil Hanse has restored this Perry Maxwell gem, and now Woods at 46 returns to the site of disappointment (2001 U.S. Open) and triumph (’07 PGA Championship) in the prime of his career. Here are Nine Things to Know about Southern Hills: 1. Woods has looked both mortal and unbeatable At the 2001 U.S. Open, Woods was 26 and the winner of four consecutive major championships. That run ended at Southern Hills. He double-bogeyed his ninth and what turned out to be his final hole Thursday, thanks to torrential rain. Although he had not played a PGA TOUR event in an over-par score for 72 holes since July of 1999, he was 3-over for nine holes. “If he wins this time,” one adversary quipped, “he’ll be my idol.” It didn’t get much better. A whisper of a rally (69-69) left Woods at 3 over and T12. He accepted defeat, seemingly convinced he would do better should he get another chance at Southern Hills. Six years later, that chance arrived at the 2007 PGA Championship, where Woods opened with a modest 1-over 71. He was now 12 over in nine competitive rounds at Southern Hills, dating back to the 1996 TOUR Championship, but a second-round 63 changed everything. It could have been better, but his 18-foot birdie putt at the last ringed the cup. Woods called the round a “62 1/2.” His two-stroke lead might as well have been a 22-stroke lead. Ernie Els, who had watched his rival bounce back from the ’01 U.S. Open by winning six of the next 25 majors, said he would bet his house on another Woods victory at this PGA. Sure enough, Woods shot 69-69 (the same weekend scores he’d shot in ’01) for an 8-under 272 to beat Woody Austin by two. Woods had hit 37 of 56 fairways, and 50 greens, and one-putted 25 times. “It’s pretty much what he’s been doing since 1997,” Trevor Immelman said with a sigh. Immelman would win the next major, the 2008 Masters, eight months later. Runner-up: Woods. 2. Perry Maxwell put his stamp on it Perry Maxwell started as a bank vice president who decided he could design a golf course on his dairy farm. He became the awe-inspiring, incredibly prolific “Father of Oklahoma Golf.” Maxwell did the bulk of his work in that state – by the time he got to Southern Hills in 1935-36, during the Great Depression, he had already designed more than 40 golf courses – but, oh, how he shared his work beyond the borders of Oklahoma. Golf writer Mac Bentley once said of Maxwell that “his genius came from recognizing Mother Nature’s design.” Others agreed. Dr. Alister MacKenzie partnered with Maxwell to create Crystal Downs in Michigan, Melrose CC in Philadelphia, Oklahoma City Golf & CC, and Augusta National. Maxwell also helped renovate Pine Valley, Merion and the National Golf Links of America. He joined Marvin Leonard to build Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas; Maxwell and his son, J. Press Maxwell, gave life to Prairie Dunes in Kansas; and premier courses on the campuses of Oklahoma, Ohio State, Michigan, and Iowa State have Maxwell’s fingerprints all of them. Maxwell cited a trip to Scotland after his first wife, Ray, died in 1919 of appendicitis, as having inspired his design philosophies. He used the topography, embracing contours in fairways, undulated greens, and swells around and on the greens, so-called “Maxwell rolls.” When he took on Southern Hills, workers stood in line to earn 25 cents an hour, and the job was completed for $100,000. Every hole had twists and bends, bunkers were deep and well placed in prime spots where doglegs began, and a stream snaked through the property. But the most dynamic aspect to Southern Hills were the greens, and Gil Hanse, trusted to the restoration project in 2018, some 66 years after Maxwell’s death, said that hasn’t changed. 3. Gil Hanse restored the luster When they took on the task of restoring Southern Hills in 2018, Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and crew had a skeptic eying them from afar: Legendary Oklahoma head pro Jerry Cozby, whose workplace for 41 years had been another Perry Maxwell gem, Hillcrest CC, 45 miles away. Cozby had his doubts until his oldest son, Cary Cozby, the Director of Golf at Southern Hills, invited him out to see the restoration work being completed. Jerry Cozby loved it. “This guy (Hanse) gets it,” Jerry Cozby said to his son. Hanse said he didn’t really get the whole topography thing that Maxwell had going for him until he opened the place up. Too many trees had thickened, too much grass hid the stream, too many fairways had become narrow. Once Hanse’s crew got to trimming back trees and giving more prominence to the stream, they focused on shorter grass and sharper edges along the greens and return the slope and contours to the fairways. “The classic character of Southern Hills was preserved,” Jerry Cozby told reporters. 4. Three holes stand above the rest Give him a chair and time and Gil Hanse knows where he’s headed. “No. 10 is a cool hole. It’s probably where I’d camp out,” he told Andy Johnson on The Fried Egg podcast. It’s 441 yards but will play shorter thanks to a downhill tee shot. A bold tee shot will leave only a short iron into the severely sloped green, but players who get too aggressive off the tee will find the diabolical Southern Hills stream that cuts across the fairway. Ben Hogan sang the praises of the picturesque par-4 12th, Southern Hills’ signature hole. A 456-yard dogleg left, its fairway slopes right-to-left, pushing balls toward the stream that runs all the way to the green, which is also protected by three daunting bunkers. Give a guy a one-shot lead in a major on Sunday and the choice of which 18th hole he’d play to protect it, chances are no one would pick Southern Hills’ par-4 18th. “Killer finish,” said Hanse. “Quintessential finishing hole.” In seven men’s majors here, only two winners have managed to par the closing hole – Tommy Bolt at the 1958 U.S. Open and Tiger Woods at the 2007 PGA. The 18th will play up to 491 yards, with the second shot uphill to a green that slopes treacherously from back to front. Put it on the wrong spot on the green and good luck two-putting. In the fourth round of the 2001 U.S. Open, the top three finishers – Retief Goosen, Mark Brooks, and Stewart Cink – all three-putted 18 with victory in their grasp. 5. Hubert Green played under a death threat Hubert Green was leading the 1977 U.S. Open at Southern Hills by one stroke with four holes remaining when he pulled his tee shot left of the 15th fairway. He tried his best to keep his distance from his caddie, Shayne Grier. The caddie knew why. Told of a death threat on his life called into the Oklahoma City FBI – an anonymous woman said gunmen would shoot Green at the 15th hole – Green had been given options by USGA President Sandy Tatum and police officers. Green said there was only one option. He’d play on. In an interview with the Boston Globe in 2007, Grier said Green was keeping his distance so if there was a shooting, the player would be the only target. The gregarious Grier, still a volunteer official with Mass Golf, said he caught up with Green on the 15th and said, “Let’s give them two targets to shoot at.” The levity might have helped. Green recovered from the left rough and made par at 15, then birdied 16 to increase his lead to two. He negotiated a par at 17 and could afford the safe bogey at 18 to win by one over Lou Graham. 6. Frontrunners have held their position Of the seven men’s majors here – three U.S. Opens, four PGAs – the winner has had at least a share of the lead in each round on five occasions. The exceptions: Dave Stockton at the 1970 PGA opened with 70 and was T-5, two behind Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller; and in 2007, Woods had a first-round 71 and was T-23, six behind unheralded Englishman Graeme Storm. With rare collapses by Nicklaus (76) and Miller (77), Stockton’s second-round 70 got him into a share of first after Round 2, and he led the rest of the way. Woods’ second-round “62-and-a-half” (detailed above) put him in the 36-hole lead and he cruised from there. Beyond Stockton’s PGA win in ’70 and Woods’ PGA triumph in ’07, these SHCC major winners found the top spot to be quite comfortable start to finish: * Tommy Bolt at the 1958 U.S. Open, the year he birdied the first and reportedly said, “Who’s going to finish second?” * Green at the 1977 U.S. Open when he was part of a seven-way tie for first after Round 1, then was all alone the rest of the way. * Raymond Floyd, owner of arguably the greatest stare in golf history, led by three after opening with 63 and pretty much had it in his pocket all the way at the 1982 PGA. * Nick Price was tied with Colin Montgomerie after an opening-round 67, but followed it up with a 65 to seize command and eventually won by six at the 1994 PGA. * Retief Goosen opened with 66 for the solo lead, then shared it after the second, third and fourth rounds – he three-putted from 12 feet at the last Sunday but won a playoff. Of the seven SHCC winners above, only Stockton is not in the World Golf Hall of Fame. 7. The Babe was in all her glory When golf returned from the World War II break in 1946, Tusla fans got a treat as the U.S. Women’s Amateur came to Southern Hills. So did “Mrs. Babe Didrikson Zaharias of Denver, Colo., nonpareil of America’s women athletes,” as the AP called her. You could quibble with the reporter not using her real name, Mildred, but not with the “nonpareil” description. Then 35, The Babe was still a national hero for those two golds and one silver she won in track and field at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. At Southern Hills, her score of 156 in stroke play was four off the medalist’s score, but in five matches Didrikson steamrolled Peggy Kirk (4 and 3), Betty Rucker (4 and 3), Maureen Orcutt (5 and 4), Helen Siegel (3 and 2), and Clara Sherman (11 and 9 in the final) without ever once trailing. It remains the third-largest margin of victory in a U.S. Women’s Amateur final. It was win No. 5 on a 1946-47 stretch that saw The Babe win 17 consecutive tournaments. 8. The Cozby name is big If there is a little extra heat at Southern Hills next week, it might be Jerry Cozby’s smile beaming down. For 41 years he was the head pro at Hillcrest CC in Bartlesville, approximately 45 miles north of Tulsa. Beyond morphing into the dean of Oklahoma club professionals, Cozby – who died in 2020 at 79 – and his wife, Karole, raised three boys who are passionate about golf, played at Oklahoma University, and are fully involved in the game. Chance, the youngest, is Executive Director of the Thunderbirds, host organization to the WM Phoenix Open on the PGA TOUR. Craig, the middle son, is a sales rep for PING in Missouri. And the oldest, Cary, has been at Southern Hills since 1995, going from head professional to Director of Golf. (Jerry Cozby, in 1985, and Cary, in 2016, are the only father-son winners of the PGA Professional of the Year.) Cary gained some fame a few weeks ago when he caddied for Tiger Woods in the latter’s pre-PGA reconnaissance round. 9. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw built a nine-hole course Perry Maxwell built the original tournament course that was later renovated by Gil Hanse. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw built a nine-hole course there in 1990. How’s that for a world-class lineup? Land for the nine-hole course had been there since a fire destroyed the club’s horse stables in 1976. With the skeet range and polo field not drawing much interest, the club opted to double down on golf. Leaning on Coore and Crenshaw’s vision, the club built a nine-hole gem with two par 3s, two par 5s, four par 4s – and a whole lot of membership love for these 3,094 yards (3,301 from the tips) where the rating is 71.8 and the slope 126.

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