5. OAKMONT COUNTRY CLUB
OAKMONT / PA. / 7,255 YARDS / PAR 71
No kidding, this is the only place where the USGA asked the club to slow down its greens for a U.S. Open. At the 1935 Open, Gene Sarazen putted off a green into a bunker, prompting Ed Stimpson to invent a tool to measure green speeds, the infamous Stimpmeter. Problem is, no green at Oakmont has enough flat spots to use it. The club used to post estimates of the green speeds each day. They've now stopped that, but the old chalkboard sign still exists, etched with a ghostly image of the number 13. The club hosts its eighth Open in June when the greens and bunkers will inflict much pain. (The "Church Pews" bunker has been deepened, with new back benches added, to catch more sinners.)
6. BETHPAGE STATE PARK GOLF COURSES (BLACK)
FARMINGDALE / N.Y. / 7,386 YARDS / PAR 71
At one time, the Black was what public golf courses were like when we were kids, with hardpan fairways, crabgrass greens and pockmarked tees. After being revamped by Rees Jones for the 2002 U.S. Open, it's in much better shape, but still big and brawny--a 6 1/2-mile hike over hill and dale where no carts are allowed--with massive bunkers and tiny greens, several of them hidden from view, even from the center of some fairways. The Black's magic is that it makes us all feel like kids again, inadequate to the task. It's New York tough.
7. TOT HILL FARM GOLF CLUB
ASHEBORO / N.C. / 6,543 YARDS / PAR 72
This is where the late Mike Strantz perfected Extreme Golf and proved that golf courses don't need to be long to be murderous. Smashed from solid rock, holes plunge down mountainsides, jump creeks and climb canyon walls. Rock outcroppings congregate along the top edges of many bunkers. Boulders squeeze approach shots and frame greens as well as tees. Stones line Betty McGee's Creek, which intrudes on 13 holes. Hand-stacked rock walls even wind along several fairways. At Tot Hill Farm, a round without a ricochet is a major accomplishment.
8. WHISTLING STRAITS (STRAITS)
HAVEN / WIS. / 7,362 YARDS / PAR 72
Dire Straits would be a better name. Given the opportunity to transform an abandoned Army bombing range along Lake Michigan, Pete Dye produced a blend of Ballybunion and Beirut, with ragged 70-foot-high faux dunes peppered with a million bunkers, some the size of your golf bag, others the size of the clubhouse. When Pete's wife, Alice, urged him to create harder holes that even the pros would double bogey, he added more bunkers and some railroad ties. So much for Alice being the gentler half of the team.
9. PINE VALLEY GOLF CLUB
PINE VALLEY / N.J. / 6,999 YARDS / PAR 70
Long regarded as the best golf course in America, Pine Valley leads the league in intimidation. It might have a lot more green grass these days, but still, the turfed areas are just slivers compared to the acres of sand, with gnarly, twisted pine trees thrown in for good measure and hazards like "Hell's Half Acre" and the infamous "D.A." funnel-shape-bunker on the par-3 10th (the "D" stands for Devil's; you can figure out the "A"). The great writer Henry Longhurst put it best: "Your ball is either on the fairway, in which case it sits invitingly on a flawless carpet of turf, or it is not. If it is not, you play out sideways till it is." Brutally tough--but we'd never turn down an invitation to play it.
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