Champions Retreat: Bluff/Island

Champions Retreat was originally going to be called "The Big Three" club. It was the idea of a South African developer who brought together Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer (the original Big Three of golf) during a Masters in the 1990s to discuss the prospect of each of them building a course at his proposed club. The idea worked. Each contributed nine holes at the more enduringly-named Champions Retreat west of Augusta on the Savannah River. The composite 18 for this ranking includes the Bluff Nine (Nicklaus), playing in the pines where it climbs a series of forested ridges that demand precise drives and several demanding uphill approches, and Palmer's Island Nine, more gracious in its width featuring artistically-shaped bunkers, a scenic five-hole foray onto a secluded island along the river and two par 3s that plays across watery inlets.