Wine Valley Golf Club

Wine Valley, in southeast Washington State, is one of Pacific Northwest native architect Dan Hixson's first original designs, and he left nothing in the bag (Hixson also designed Bandon Crossings, the courses at Silvies Valley Ranch and Bar Run, all in Oregon). The holes feature enormous fairways draped across an agricultural plain that are punched up with ragged bunkers that force players to either attack head-on or lay back into more cautious positions. With no shelter or trees, the course is vulnerable to the frequently intense winds, so that width is needed to navigate shots into the often wildly contoured greens. With wind, undulation and elastic hole locations, his thrill-a-minute design will never play the same way twice.