Another year down the road, another twenty-four courses logged on the way to 1000. Throw in another fourteen we revisited and you've got another great year for The Golf Crusade!
If you've been with us awhile, you may recall we put together one of this stories when the calendar flips to December. Even in the South, this usually signals the end of the golf season and the Bermuda grass lays down for its long winter's nap. Serve's as good a time as any to look back on some of the best things we encountered around the game of golf in 2024.
We're going to shake things up a little in how we identify those 'best of the best'. In the past we'd name a few top courses in the public, private and alternative golf categories, before falling down a rabbit hole of superlative golf madness. We'll still do the former, but in order to evolve this space, we're going to follow one quasi-recent trend and hopefully start another.
We'll hand out five main fake awards. Yes, they're fake. We don't make plaques and mail them out... come on.
Best Private
Best Public
Best Alternative Golf Facility Best Replay
For the first three, they must be 'new' to us, whilst the replay obviously speaks for those we revisited. Alternative facilities include par-3 and short courses, practice facilities, TopGolf, indoor golf lounges, etc.; basically anything that involves golf but does not conform to nine or eighteen hole standards.
Over on The Golfer's Journal Discord board, readers get to nominate the best holes they'd played over the course of the year, then vote on the best hole that corresponds with its hole number. The top vote getters create a composite course that's celebrated by printing the scorecard in the first issue of the next year. After a year or two of nominating some of our favorites, we had a horse come in! You'll have to read the next issue to see which one (or ones??) came in.
In that vein, instead of a rapid fire rabbit hole of golf shit, we'll unveil our 'Dream 18' from the year that was. The only rule is that each hole must match the hole number on the course it belongs to originally. Rule 1.1 - If a 9-hole course bills itself as an 18 hole course, we can go to the well for either side. Yet, if a course less than eighteen doesn't run its card back around, we stop at the last hole and that's it.
Finally, in an attempt to be original - and to celebrate our love for the short course - we're going to create our first 'Composite Par-3 Course'. The only rule here is simple, pick the eighteen absolute best one-shotters we played in 2024, regardless of hole number. One exception: par-3 holes making the 'Dream 18' will not appear on the composite par-3 course list. We want to spread the love.
In either case of the two fantasy courses, we are choosing from any of the thirty-eight courses we've played this year, not just the newbies.
Lastly, a photo viewing note: you may click on any photo for a full screen view. It will also scroll through them all from there. While any one of our stories can be viewed on a phone, it's best consumed on a larger screen!
So, in the words of the late, great & honorable Mills Lane... "Let's get it on!"
BEST NEW PRIVATE COURSE: OLD BARNWELL Aiken, South Carolina | Architects: Brian Schneider & Blake Conant
In any other year, either of the two honorable mentions listed below could have been the champ here. However, this year we played Old Barnwell in January. We don't really "rank" the best places we've played, instead favoring an appreciative approach where we try to find the best among each of the nearly 600 courses we've had the good fortune to play.
That said, if we did rank them, Old Barnwell would be in the first sentence of the conversation for the top spot among the ones we've played to date.
It's that good. In fact, its beyond good. It's a gamechanger.
Brian Schneider and Blake Conant created something magical - almost mythical - in the sandy soils just outside of Aiken, South Carolina. They've already added a Kids Course that opened last this year and plans call for a second championship course to open around 2030. For more, check out the Aiken story we published earlier this year.
Honorable Mention: CC of Spartanburg (SC), Manchester CC (NH)
BEST NEW PUBLIC COURSES SWEETENS COVE
South Pittsburg, Tennessee | Tad King & Rob Collins
THE COURSE AT SEWANEE
Sewanee, Tennessee | Gil Hanse
Wait. That's two courses? We know. In past years, we each picked a 'winner' in each category. Since this was a rare year we got together a couple of times - and for some of the best courses - it was pretty apparent we didn't need to do that. However, so many people play these two 9-hole gems together, often on the same day, that we deemed that we'd take the liberty to combine them into our 'Best Day' of new public courses.
What's left to be said about Sweetens Cove? We're not sure, but in our opinion, it lives up to the hype. In many cases, courses can't exceed the lofty ideals golfers build up in their heads, but Sweetens delivers. Was it bolstered by the fact we visited about a month after it reopened following a complete regrassing of the golf course (due to severe winter kill in 2023-24)? Perhaps, but that's not our fault! That's just good timing.
No it's not just good timing.
It's just... too... SWEEEEEET!
Yes, the par 4s are bomb and chip, but the defense of the greens makes for such a unique/fun/challenging experience. After figuring out how to get it close, it was a pleasure to play. The comradery and community of the players making their pilgrimage is also such an important piece of this place.
It unites people. Therefore, everyone must try it.
Sewanee is thirty minutes up the mountain heading towards Nashville on I-24, but its worth the effort. Completely different from its valley neighbor, these views from the escarpment are to die for!
Add to the fact this course is on the campus of Sewanee - The University of the South, complete with stay-and-play accommodations at The Sewanee Inn, and these kids got it good! Gil Hanse courses usually require a membership or a green fee starting with a crooked number followed by a couple zeros, but a loop around this bad boy goes for $45.
Enjoy a few more stunning views from the Tennessee Two-Step...
Sweetens Cove
The Course at Sewanee
Honorable Mention: Omni Mount Washington (NH)
BEST ALTERNATIVE GOLF FACILITY: THE CHALKMINE
Aiken, South Carolina | Jim McNair, Jr.
We remember first learning of The Chalkmine right before it opened, even before it went viral for one of the Bryan Bros on-camera ace. The reaction we had to seeing the course and its purpose elicited the pinning of it on the future road trip maps. It took us two years, but it also inspired the idea for us to pin ALL of the similar college campus courses and team practice facilities in the United States (plus a few north of the border) on a map for anyone to consume in one place. If you haven't yet, check it out - not because it took us months to compile, but because its a mega-time drain to dig into the 400+ pins on the map!
The Chalkmine also takes home the awards for Best Course Signage! If you want to see the whole course and are short on time, we recorded BMAC's speed golf round then condensed it tightly into a 90 second time-lapse for you on our YouTube page.
Honorable Mention: Crosswinds Par 3 Course (GA), The Loop at UT-Chattanooga Player Development Center, 3's Greenville (night round), The First Tee (Augusta, GA)
BEST REPLAY: TOT HILL FARM
Asheboro, North Carolina | Mike Strantz
A hotly contested category this year! Muni is always a joy and BMAC's most frequented home game. Aiken GC and 3's Greenville entered the mix thanks to previous visits from BMAC that Dooner had to get caught up on. Dooner finally made the journey back to Lynch Country Club - this time as a member - for the L.I.T. (one of those IYKYK events and courses). None of this even mentions Biltmore Forest CC, one of NC's most storied clubs.
However, thanks to a hurricane forcing a third planned meet up of the year and a round on Kiawah Island, the fates brought the ol' family station wagon to Asheboro, NC to break up the drive home. We just couldn't resist the urge to rise with the sun and visit our newly (long overdue) proclaimed home course of The Golf Crusade, Tot Hill Farm.
Making this trip all the more special, I (Dooner) got to bring my son out for his first full round of golf with his old man. Did he play every shot? No chance. Did we have the time of our lives? You know we did. Core memories engaged! Dude hit some solid shots and will never be scared of a hole for the rest of his life having been blown away by the one and only Michael J. Strantz.
Honorable Mention: Aiken GC (SC), Biltmore Forest (NC), Muni (SC), 3's (SC), Lynch (KY)
THE 2024 GOLF CRUSADE "DREAM 18"
Hole 1 Omni Mount Washington, Donald Ross, par-4, 407 yards
Ross's patented "gentle handshake" is extended by the resort's namesake towering far behind the green. No better way to start this course than with sunbeams breaking through the clouds, showing us the road to glory!
Hole 2 The Club at Longview, Jack Nicklaus, par-4, 381 yards
Jack's Charlotte Club kicks into gear on the second - a short uphill two-shotter featuring a massive bunker cluster to the right and the signature #golfsilo on the left.
Hole 3 Tot Hill Farm, Mike Strantz, par-3, 180 yards The awards keep piling up for this one: Golf Digest's Best 3rd Hole Built Since 2000, The Golfer's Journal 2024 Composite Course (SPOILER), and now this. What's next?
Hole 4 Old Barnwell, B. Schneider/B. Conant, par-3, 165 yards (White Tee)
You may think you've put a perfect swing on it, with great ball flight and aim, but still end up with double bogey. Ask Dooner. But man, what a hole!
Hole 5 Country Club of Spartanburg, Kris Spence, par-5, 494 yards CCOSparty is so strong. This reachable par-5 plays along the highest portion of the front side, past a bunker cluster on your tee shot and around a blind corner to a sunken green that sits high above the lake. Add that it boomerangs around the idyllic par-3 3rd, and the setting sets this baby off right!
Hole 6 Egwani Farms, D.J. DeVictor, par-5, 555 yards Yep, B2B par-5s after B2B par-3s. The AUDACITY! Right? Teeing off onto a diagonal peninsula fairway that engulfs the entire hole can help you put up a big number if you're not precise on all levels. And yes, she photographs well. That matters here.
Hole 7 Old Barnwell, B. Schneider/B. Conant, par-4, 445 yards This hole just kicks your ass. And it's glorious. At most holes at OB, there is plenty of landing area, but this one pinches on you in the key spot. The green is no picnic either, but at least its a short walk to the next tee :)
Hole 8 The Chalkmine, Jim McNair, Jr., par-3, 72 yards
The shortest hole on our Dream 18 certainly qualifies as 'dreamy'. The entire site for that matter is a dreamboat, and this hole steers the ship with its rocky mining outcrop framing the small green. Good note when doing this exercise is that the 8th hole is often one of the best holes on a lot of courses. This was easily the most difficult hole to pick, yet this one comes on on top as our Par-3 of The Year as well!
