Coyote Springs, Cougar Canyon, Creighton Farms lead way for five Nicklaus Design courses named to Golf Digest’s “America’s Best New”
The mantles of three Nicklaus Design golf courses are decorated with more than stockings this holiday season as The Chase course at the PGA Golf Club at Coyote Springs, Cougar Canyon Golf Links, and The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Creighton Farms, have been honored this year with awards from at least four major golf publications, including Golf Digest, GOLF Magazine, Travel & Leisure Golf and Golfweek.
The Chase, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course that serves as the centerpiece for the Coyote Springs development, just north of Las Vegas, recently took top honors for Nicklaus Design as the No. 2 Best New Private Course in Golf Digest’s coveted list of “America’s Best New Courses,” and was honored in Travel & Leisure Golf as one of the “10 Best New Courses in the World.”
Nicklaus Design had five courses named to Golf Digest’s annual survey—more than any other firm worldwide—and all but one of the Nicklaus layouts finished in the top four of their respective category. ”America’s Best New Courses” survey is conducted by a panel of more than 800 golfers who considered nominees that opened between May 1, 2007, and April 30, 2008. The panelists rated courses in the categories of shot values, design variety, resistance to scoring, memorability and aesthetics.
The par-72 Chase course, stretching to 7,471 yards from the championship tees, completed a sweep of sorts when it was named to GOLF Magazine’s list of the “Top 10 You Can Play 2008.”
The GOLF Magazine honor extends Nicklaus Design’s record streak of having at least one course in the “Top 10 You Can Play” for 12 straight years, which is the longest active run by any firm in the rankings’ history. Since the first “Top 10 You Can Play” was released in 1990, Nicklaus Design has placed 19 courses, including 15 from 1997-2008.
Cougar Canyon Golf Links in the Southern Colorado town of Trinidad also completed its own sweep of awards. Adding to rave reviews from GOLF Magazine (“Top 10 You Can Play 2007”), and Golfweek (No. 5, Top 50 “Best New Courses 2008”), Cougar Canyon, took the No. 3 spot in the Public Golf Course category in Golf Digest’s “Best New” ranking. This was the first year in which Digest did not feature a category for Affordable Public Courses, and had the magazine done so, Cougar Canyon would have been the highest-ranking public layout in the country.
A links-style course led by Senior Design Associate Chris Cochran, Cougar Canyon offers a unique combination of mountain and desert terrain with split fairways, pedestal greens, and black sand bunkers. The Sangre de Cristo mountain range provides the backdrop to this 7,789-yard track, setting the stage for an enjoyable golf experience that is open year-round for public play.
With the honor of being Golf Digest’s No. 4 “Best New Private Course,” Creighton Farms in Aldie, Va., was the third Nicklaus Design golf course among those receiving multiple honors, including a nod from Golfweek as one of the “Best New Courses 2008.” The Nicklaus Signature Course at Creighton Farms places a premium on strategy and precision rather than power with a variety of holes and challenges available on this 7,410-yard layout that winds its way around a creek, among mature trees, and through verdant meadows.
Also on Golf Digest’s list, Promontory’s Painted Valley course in Park City, Utah, came in at No. 3 in the Best New Private Course category, while also finishing 16th in Golfweek’s Top 50 Best New Courses. Sailfish Point Golf Club on Hutchinson Island, Fla., rounded out the list of Digest winners, coming in at No. 9 in the Best New Remodel category.
The Cliffs at Keowee Falls (S.C.), the second Nicklaus Signature Golf Course in the The Cliffs Communities, also made Golfweek’s list of Top 50 Best New Courses.
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