The Golf Crusade's Best of 2025
- Dooner
- 3 days ago
- 15 min read
Another year down the road, another twenty-eight courses logged on the way to 1000. Throw in a dozen more 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 2025.
So alas (or rejoice), it's time to sift through our favorites courses, pics, shots and stories from the year that was!
We'll hand out four main fake awards. Yes, they're fake. We don't make plaques and mail them out... come on.
Best New Public Best New Private
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, mini-golf, indoor golf lounges, etc.; basically anything that involves golf but does not conform to nine or eighteen hole standards.
We will also unveil our 'Dream 18' hole composite course - a fictional course made up from the best holes we played this year.. 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 2025, 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 forty 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 PUBLIC COURSE
Thousand Acres - Swanton, MD | Hooper - Walpole, NH
We had planned a buddy trip to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland about eight years ago. At the time Thousand Acres was only nine holes, though it looked liked it would be in the top ten best 9-holers in the country. Let's just say the fates that made us wait until they had expanded to eighteen were wise. TA is a rare bird amongst public golf courses. Due to its quasi-remote nature and relative newness (as a full 18H track at least), it will likely garner some reduced play compared to more established courses and those with larger marketing budgets to draw you there.
It's green fees, while seasonally can push above $150, offer the shoulder season rate breaks to make it one of the best values we've EVER played. As our IG friend @thebossgolfs said in his review, "This is some high level public golf. Easily top three in Maryland. Conditions are PHEMONENAL. Best public course conditions in Maryland by a lot." You can review more about our experience on this Craig Schreiner design on our Deep Creek Lake Deep Dive feature.
Speaking of nine hole courses, we had two 9-holers take home the honor of Best Public last year (Sweetens Cove & Sewanee). We've got another one for you that we'd gladly put in the conversation of 'if you had one course to play the rest of your life...' courses. Hooper Golf Course, located in miniscule Walpole, New Hampshire is a quintessential New England gem. Nine holes, small parcel, loving tribe to care for it, community based.
We're going to do a feature on it this winter, so we won't spoil the whole story here, but enjoy a gallery of goodness from a Wayne Styles and John Van Kleek masterpiece (updated recently by Jeffery Stein) with four-wide fairways that seemingly fold into the hills like a fairy tale painted in golden hour green.
Honorable Mention: Poplar Grove - Amherst, VA | Wellman Club - Johnsonville, SC Pawleys Plantation - Pawleys Island, SC
BEST NEW PRIVATE COURSE Diamond Creek - Banner Elk, NC | Camden CC - Camden, SC | Quixote Club - Sumter, SC
We took our annual winter golf trip to the Camden area of South Carolina, collecting both Camden CC and Quixote Club. It was a perfect start to the year, but we knew we'd have eleven months of debating which private course was the best between the two Palmetto mid-state gems. In the end, we couldn't choose one, so we named both here. They couldn't be more different. Diamond Creek was a late, surprise add to the season and of course jumped to the front of the line, yet we couldn't justify removing an entire year's worth of good feelings and memories from the first two so we split this category three ways.
Quixote Club was built atop a former local country club, but the site is about all it could ever have in common with it. This Kris Spence / Jack Nicklaus II collaboration is about as fun a golf course as you'll find. Even in January there was nay a blade of grass out of place. Massive sandy waste areas, coast-to-coast views across the property and imaginative greens are only the beginning of the greatness you find here.
The Clubhouse is second to none (literally one of the best we've ever had the pleasure to poke around). The range is bookended by a short game facility on one end the club's new performance center on the other. The food was divine and the ballroom space for events is so impressive. Everything here is intentional. Nothing is overlooked.
Camden Country Club, by contrast, is as old school as it gets. Over a century old, Camden was originally laid out by Walter Travis before Donald Ross redid it in the 1920s. Recent efforts by Kris Spence - and now Scot Sherman of Love Golf Design - will allow Camden to maintain it's cult status as a player's club that will test the best for years to come.
Emerging out of the same ancient sand belt that runs through Pinehurst and Aiken too, Camden's topography is surprisingly violent when compared to Quixote's pancake flat yet subtly shaped landscape. CCC's modest clubhouse, low initiation and dues make it an everyman's club worthy of such grand recognition with today's escalating golf pricing wars.
Diamond Creek is currently the 4th ranked course in North Carolina and 95th in the Top 100 US according to Golf Digest in their latest ranking. We're here to say it's completely justified. Having now played all but one course in the golf-rich Linville, NC area, we weren't sure how much better DC could be compared to the already lofty reputations it's neighbors that we'd seen held. Well, we get it now!
It's hard to describe in paragraph or two what separates a Top 100 course/club from a Top 500 club. We'll sum it quickly by saying, "when you see it, you'll know." We see you Diamond Creek. We see you.
Honorable Mention: Hound Ears - Boone, NC | Kenmure CC - Flat Rock, NC
Dublin Lake Club | Dublin, NH
BEST ALTERNATIVE GOLF FACILITY
Links at Labelle Winery - Derry, NH | Waterfront Greens - Swanton, MD
The Links at Labelle Winery is a 9-hole par-3 course that is part of a greater campus the winery owns in Southern New Hampshire. It also features a fantastic mini-golf course, in addition to tons of other amenities (tasting room, wedding venue, restaurants, conference center, etc.). The course itself is fantastic and requires some skill to navigate it. There is also a "Snack Shack" that you pass twice where you can refill your wine or other beverage.
Also, the tee markers are a candidate for Tee Marker of the Year as its a brilliant branding tie-in. If this place was in our backyard, we'd be members.
Waterfront Greens is an almost secret golf course. No social media. Virtually no website. No clubhouse staff. It'll show up on Google Maps, but the only way to play it is if you own or rent one of the properties within the subdivision of the same name along the shores of Deep Creek Lake, Maryland's largest freshwater lake located in the hills near it's western border. This 9-hole par-3 course designed by Ed Ault, features dozens of native grass covered hummocks, a few bunkers and large greens.
You won't find any true teeing grounds, but there are often multiple obvious places from which to begin each hole. A PERFECT amenity (especially for match play) to a golf trip with the boys (or girls) as it affords endless match play options. If you come really prepared, you might even be able to make your own Night Golf Experience out of it?!?
Honorable Mention: Par Tee Golf Center - West Columbia, SC
BEST REPLAY Pete Dye GC - Bridgeport, WV
Very Honorable Mention: Muni - Charleston, SC | The Olde Farm - Bristol, VA Grandfather G&CC - Linville, NC | Blowing Rock - Blowing Rock, NC
Look, this category was absolutely LOADED this year, evidenced above. In fact, three of the four honorable mentions had previously won our Best Replay nod, while the 4th had been a frequent nominee in the category. Truth be told, we could have picked any of the five, but the fact that Pete Dye Golf Club had gone seventeen years between visits played a big factor in choosing this World Top 50 course when it comes to golf course architecture.
PDGC is just a modern marvel. The setting is second to none - built atop an active coal mine when it was originally constructed. Construction took so long in fact that Dye's design style had evolved over the years it took to complete.
There are zero weak holes and every single shot is a challenge. Add in the fact we got to play with our good buddy, long-time Golf Crusade supporter and PDGC's superintendent Jason Hollen, it was a banner (if not brutally tough scoring) day!
The club had removed huge swaths of trees, opening up views and options cross both sides (as well as adding difficulty when the wind kicks up).
It also recently became the official home of the West Virginia University Golf Team, complete with their own team practice facility on-site. We love seeing the innovation that has gone into these team facilities - evident by our ongoing mission to pin every such asset to our interactive College Golf Landscape Map.
THE 2025 GOLF CRUSADE "DREAM 18"
Hole 1 | Hooper | Par 4 | 436 Yards
One of the great opening holes we've ever played. Even if you're not familiar with Hooper, you may have seen this hole before. Jeffery Stein removed a large tree that had grown up between the left bunker cluster as well as thin out the forest behind the hole, leaving a cliffhanging green with the flexibility of playing as a stiff par-4 or short par-5. We like the two-shot setup on this one, but either way, it's a blood pumping start to our composite course!
Hole 2 | Kenmure | Par 5 | 535 yards
Bombs away on the par-5 second at Kenmure. The green is well protected as architect Joe Lee added a front bunker to a number of holes here. We reached in two, largely due to the fact the ground in the shadow portion was more tundra than fairway! Creek, native grasses, woods and bunkers await wayward shots, so make sure the reward follows the risk.
Hole 3 | Dublin Lake Club | Par 3 | 150 Yards
Two of the most hidden of all the gems we've ever found lie in the Granite State. This 9-hole, walking-only private club in southwestern New Hampshire is barely on the map and avoids being discovered at nearly all costs. Aside from this mention, you won't see much about it. This old house serves as the clubhouse and dates back more than a century before the 1903 mention on the club's flag.
Hole 4 | Camden | Par 4 | 385 Yards
You could pick any (or all) of the holes that converge in this little valley pocket at Camden CC. We chose the 385 yard tee because even a shot to the geometric center of the Ross turtleback green can be released off the collar or into a nasty bunker.
Hole 5 | Thousand Acres | Par 5 | 581 Yards
We could have moved the tee up to the 530 yard range, but as long as you can carry the ravine on your tee shot, there is plenty of room to navigate up this cavernous corridor. A great three-shot challenge as each of the three have to make some real estate.
Hole 6 | The Olde Farm | Par 3 | 209 Yards
Playing a little shorter than the yardage, "Long Barn" as the hole is aptly named, provides a backboard of sorts for deep shots. A trip through perhaps the greatest relief station in golf awaits - though the self-serve draft beer tastes much better after a birdie than a bogey (though you could argue is needed more after the latter).
Hole 7 | Den Brae | Par 4 | 288 Yards
Could have easily gone elsewhere, but just something about this short par-4 spoke to us. We always like to add one for the little guy and this locals 9-holer in central New Hampshire hit the nail on the head. Everything about this hole is intriguing from the staggered elevated tee boxes, to wide fairway below, a large rock out cropping to the right of a two-tiered green protected by an elongated bunker to swallow up the 'warning track power' that went for the green without the pop.
Hole 8 | Grandfather | Par 4 | 368 Yards
This all-world short par-4 plays uphill all the way with the summit of Grandfather Mountain 5965 feet directly above it. The fairway bunkers pitch at a crucial point, giving you an option for driver beyond them if you feel it or hanging back for a longer approach if you fear it. While the lake, beach club and entry road are in the photo, none are visible to one another from the ground.
Hole 9 | Blowing Rock | Par 4 | 346 Yards
Blocking Rock CC was Seth Raynor's only North Carolina design, but he's hardly the only one to have worked on the course. Donald Ross came next, then Charles Banks undid it, before Tom Jackson did a 1980s generic renovation. Kris Spence has brought the Raynor back little by little, with this fabulous Cape hole starting a multi-hole stretch of outstanding Golden Age architecture.
Hole 10 | Pete Dye | Par 4 | 468 Yards
Pete's playground kicks into high gear with this long par-4 kicking off the inward nine. The site's coal history shines on this hole as much as any with the spoil mounds and coal cars in view of the tee shot. A creek cascades off the mountain behind the green, gets piped underneath it and waterfalls out again on the low side, complete with orangish-hued water thanks to the iron the water runs through.
Hole 11 | Wellman Club | Par 5 | 587 Yards
After two right swinging Cape's, Ellis Maples throws the boomerang back the other way! Rees Jones technically has design credit here now, but this hole is trademark Maples. Drive it in the perfect spot and you'll have a chance to have the hero shot of a lifetime!
Hole 12 | Poplar Grove | Par 4 | 420 Yards
No let up on the run of beasts to start the back side of our 2025 composite course! Sam Sneed's final design, finished up with help from Ed Carton, gave us this shotmaker's par-4. Downhill tee ball can fly forever, but the second shot can be daunting if the drive line isn't precise. Notice the covered bridge on the creek crossing too! Beautiful hole.
Hole 13 | Muni | Par 4 | 370 Yards
Muni's 12th made our 2024 edition, but the 13th get's the honor this year. As long as we play Charleston's best public course on an annual basis, you'll likely see a new hole in future editions. Easily one of the coolest par-4s in the United States.
Hole 14 | Camden | Par 4 | 420 Yards
Camden makes it's second appearance with this testy two-shotter. Over 470 from the tips, we chose the second tee up as the bunkers are perfectly placed to provide protection to par. Besides, any hole with a live railroad track next to it get bonus points too!
Hole 15 | Hound Ears | Par 3 | 103 Yards
At just 103 yards from the tips, even less yardage is needed as this glorius drop shot par-3 falls off the world to a magnificent green complex. George Cobb found it, Hurricane Helene tried to destroy it, Kris Spence refined it. Read up more on Hound Ears recovery from the storm on our feature piece here.
Hole 16 | Diamond Creek | Par 4 | 481 Yards
If you don't know this hole is coming - and you might not since there isn't much out there documenting Diamond Creek's fantastic Fazio course - this is one of the best reveals you'll ever experience. Do yourself a favor coming off the 15th - don't peak and go all the way to the back tee for this hole. The higher elevation (4000'+) and downhill drop take a lot of the length out of this big boy par-4.
Hole 17 | Diamond Creek | Par 3 | 179 Yards
Whether or not you know the reveal is coming on Diamond Creek's 16th, you are likely aware of what awaits you on the 17th tee. One of the most famous holes in North Carolina. Years ago, we did a bracket poll to find the "Most Breathtaking Par 3 in the Carolinas" and this one was in the Final Four, but likely lost out due to the lack of great photos of it due to the club's no cell phone policy and lack of website or social media. Thankfully, we were able to snap this one with a camera and share it with you. Might have to do that poll again!?!
Hole 18 | Quixote Club | Par 4 | 415 Yards
As we bring us home, we are believers that a finishing hole should do three things: 1) have a driver in hand. 2) give the player willing to take a risk to catch up a reward if they pull it off. 3) finish in view of or better yet at the clubhouse. The diagonal drive on the 18th at Quixote gives you the driver and the risk over the water, while the killer clubhouse provides the backdrop. Toss in a gigantic American Flag and that'll tie a bow on this banger of a round!
CARD OF THE 2025 GOLF CRUSADE "DREAM 18" COMPOSITE COURSE
2025 COMPOSITE PAR THREE COURSE
Hole 1 | Waterfront Greens | 9th Hole | Up to 120 Yards
Hole 2 | Green Meadow | 8th Hole | 139 Yards
Hole 3 | Links at Labelle Winery | 6th Hole | 170 Yards
Hole 4 | Camden | 8th Hole | 140 Yards
Hole 5 | Quixote Club | 17th Hole | 182 Yards
Hole 6 | Hooper | 4th Hole | 155 Yards
Hole 7 | Diamond Creek | 8th Hole | 136 Yards
Hole 8 | Rock Harbor (Rock Course) | 13th Hole | 90 to 200 Yards
Hole 9 | The Olde Farm | 15th Hole | 165 Yards
Hole 10 | Pete Dye Golf Club | 7th Hole | 174 Yards
Hole 11 | Poplar Grove | 13th Hole | 131 Yards
Hole 12 | Clear Creek | 8th Hole | 165 Yards
Hole 13 | Blowing Rock | 10th Hole | 157 Yards
Hole 14 | Hooper | 6th Hole | 194 Yards
Hole 15 | Muni | 14th Hole | 122 Yards
Hole 16 | Pawleys Plantation | 13th Hole | 154 Yards
Hole 17 | Diamond Creek | 5th Hole | 184 Yards
Hole 18 | Thousand Acres | 17th Hole | 186 Yards
Hog Hole | Rock Harbor (Rock Course) | 17th Hole | 204 Yards
Best of the Rest See Gallery Below with Captions for Select Choices
Clock Hooper
Locker Room Quixote Club Comfort Station "The Long Barn" at The Olde Farm Drink Shack "The Snack Shack" at The Links at Labelle Winery Halfway House Blowing Rock & "Brick House Pub" at Wedgefield
Soup Seafood Bisque at Blowing Rock Hamburger Quixote Club Carts Diamond Creek Cart Paths Quixote Club (mostly all sand!) 19th hole "Caddyshack Bar & Grill" at Oakland (Place was packed! Stayed for Kentucky Derby post-round!) Course Renovation Hounds Ears & Broadmoor (you'll see more about the latter in 2026)
Hidden Gem Dublin Lake Club
Sign Dublin Lake Club Tee Markers Polish Pines Stay & Play on-site Watkins Tavern & Inn at Hooper
Buddy Trip House "Breeze Alley" at Waterfront Greens in Deep Creek Lake, MD Clubhouse (modern) Quixote Club (didn't get to explore Diamond Creek's much) Clubhouse (classic) Kenmure
Golf Barn The Olde Farm Wayfinding Markers Quixote Club Windmills
Logo (& mascot) Broadmoor (river otter) Alternate Logo The Olde Farm (Long Barn) Design Disasters Fantasy Valley 14th Hole, Rabun County 7th Hole Weirdest Hazard Electrified Elk Fences around greens at Willowbrook (VA)
College Practice Facility Liberty University
Milestones Achieved 600th Course Played on The Golf Crusade (Camden)
200th Course Played in Carolinas (Hound Ears)
And there you have it. As we do, we must thank all the courses that we played this year for doing what YOU do! Thank you for keeping this great game afloat so others may enjoy the fruits of your labors. We'll do our best to send people your way!
If you joined us for a round in 2025 or we got a chance to meet on the journey, we thank you as well. While we enjoy the occasional solo round, it's always more fun to partake with company!
As always, we hope your golf journey and ours cross at some point, even if its an outreach using the form below asking what course you should play when visiting a place you've never been. This site is a tool for you to unearth some hidden gems, plan your next golf trip or even find a college to attend that values the game of golf as a profession, recreational tool or intercollegiate competition!
Whatever your journey takes you, make it about that. The journey. Not the list, ranking or destination.
Happy New Year & Sincerely Fores,
BMAC & Dooner
Your Golf Crusade
The Golf Crusade's Best of 2025
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