Loblolly

Situated on a tight, triangularly shaped property about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean in Hobe Sound, Fla., Loblolly is a challenging Pete and P.B. Dye design. Angles are key at Loblolly, as many of the narrow and tilted greens are best attacked from one side of the hole. The Dyes were ingenious when they built the course in the late 1980s, using excavated sand from the retention ponds to create rambling fairway movement and 40-foot-high dune ridges on which to place greens and separate holes. The same concept was later used by architects at Calusa Pines, McArthur and other South Florida courses, but Dye did it at Loblolly first. Highlights include the double-dogleg eighth with a huge bi-level green banked against water, the drivable par-4 13th, where the green is nestled in a sandy cove behind sentry pines, and the par-4 14th, a standout version of Dye’s Alps hole with the green obscured by a large ridge. The par-3 16th is one of the more dramatic holes in the region, as any shot coming up short and right will filter down into a bunker 20 feet below the putting surface. Golf course builder Jim Urbina, who worked for Dye in the 1980s, completed a full refurbishing of the course in 2023, painstakingly restoring the craft and details of the original design that had faded through the years.