Hammock Dunes Club: Creek

This design, one of two stellar courses at this club in Palm Coast and one of Rees Jones' favorites, is set in the dark interior of the Intracoastal Waterway marshes and plays like an animal leaping from one dry place to another over stretches of wetlands. Not for the feint of heart or weak of swing, it was an extreme effort to build and locate enough land to support golf, and the design roams far and wide to find just enough. But the journey is worth the effort due to holes like 13, 14 and 15 that feel like dancing on a highwire over the marsh, the latter hole being a gambling go-for-broke short par 4. Each of the par 3s, particularly seven, 12 and 16, require unflinching shots over swamp or water, with miss-hits reaching into the pocket for another ball.