Tom Terrific

The top 25 Tom Fazio courses you can play

Links Magazine

Tom Fazio got his start in the course design business by working with his uncle, former player George Fazio. In addition to designing Jupiter Hills and Butler National, the pair redesigned a pair of major sites: Inverness and Oak Hill.

While the duo was successful, it wasn’t until after going solo that Tom became one of the most sought-after designers in golf, known for his consistently eye-pleasing and strategic courses that sit seamlessly on nearly any landscape.

Another Fazio hallmark is his ability to make courses look harder than they are, which is why teeing it up at his layouts is always a lot of fun. No doubt, players will enjoy playing the Seaside course at Sea Island during this week’s McGladrey Classic.

And if you’re looking for some playable, entertaining golf, find your way to the following 25 courses on our exclusive list of Fazio’s best public-access courses (listed alphabetically):

Barefoot Resort & Golf (Fazio)
It’s hard to believe you’re in coastal South Carolina when you play this layout, one of four at the resort. (The others are designed by Pete Dye, Davis Love III and Greg Norman.) Fazio’s course features a pair of unusual features for the area: elevation changes and rumpled fairways.
LOCATION Myrtle Beach, S.C.
PAR 71
YARDAGE 6,834
YEAR BUILT 2000

Barton Creek Resort & Spa (Fazio Canyons)
Fazio designed two of the four courses at this Texas Hill Country resort. The Canyons takes advantage of the area’s rolling landscape, winding around creeks, oaks and sycamores, with views of the surrounding area.
LOCATION Austin, Texas
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,153
YEAR BUILT 1999

Barton Creek Resort & Spa (Fazio Foothills)
Fazio has designed more than one course at plenty of properties, including at Barton Creek, where his one-two punch has helped to make the resort one of the best in the country.
LOCATION Austin, Texas
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,125
YEAR BUILT 1986

Belterra Casino Resort & Spa
Fazio transformed a formerly flat cornfield into a scenic course with nearly 100 feet of elevation change. The holes offer ample room off the tee but the approaches are demanding.
LOCATION Florence, Ind.
PAR 71
YARDAGE 6,925
YEAR BUILT 2001

Branson Creek Golf Club
Set among the Ozark Mountains, this tranquil course has a number of downhill holes, wide fairways, receptive greens, great views and plenty of wildlife.
LOCATION Branson, Mo.
PAR 70
YARDAGE 7,036
YEAR BUILT 2000

Butterfield Trail Golf Club
Distinguished by natural sand dunes, this links-like design is one of the best munis in the country. Holes have plenty of room, both to accommodate west Texas’ notorious winds and to offer strategic options from tee to green.
LOCATION El Paso, Texas
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,307
YEAR BUILT 2007

Dancing Rabbit Golf Club (Azaleas)
Fazio collaborated with Jerry Pate to design two courses at this facility associated with the Pearl River Resort. Azaleas is the better layout (Oaks is the other), winding through a pine forest and featuring a series of challenging holes.
LOCATION Choctaw, Miss.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,128
YEAR BUILT 1997

Fallen Oak
Located on 510 acres next to the DeSoto National Forest, this layout offers a sanctuary for guests of the bustling Beau Rivage hotel and casino. The course’s features—bunkers, greens, fairways—are as large as the epic landscape.
LOCATION Saucier, Miss.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,487
YEAR BUILT 2006

Glen Club
The Chicago area stands alone when it comes to public golf. And among the scores of great tracks, this layout west of the Loop rivals Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course as the best public course in the city.
LOCATION Glenview, Ill.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,149
YEAR BUILT 2001

Karsten Creek
Oklahoma State, the most successful college program, has a worthwhile home course, one of the best university layouts in the country. Players helped to build the course, which was made possible by individual donations, including one from Ping founder Karsten Solheim, a longtime supporter of college golf.
LOCATION Stillwater, Okla.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,407
YEAR BUILT 1994

Loews Ventana Canyon (Mountain)
With thousands of saguaro cacti standing sentry, this desert gem plays through massive rock formations in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains and offers incredible views.
LOCATION Tucson, Ariz.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 6,902
YEAR BUILT 1984

Missouri Bluffs Golf Club
Located just west of the mighty Mississippi River, this is Fazio’s only course in the St. Louis area. The fairways, lined by huge century-old trees, lead to fast bentgrass greens.
LOCATION St. Charles, Mo.
PAR 71
YARDAGE 7,047
YEAR BUILT 1995

Pinehurst Resort (No. 4)
The name and routing of Donald Ross’ original 1919 design remain, but that’s about it. Fazio’s renovation elicited a completely new course that is nearly as challenging from tee to green as its famous neighbor, No. 2.
LOCATION Pinehurst, N.C.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,117
YEAR BUILT 2000

Pinehurst Resort (No. 8)
Built to commemorate the resort’s centennial, the property’s newest layout winds around 450 acres of forest and wetlands, offering a modern-style test that complements the older layout.
LOCATION Pinehurst, N.C.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,092
YEAR BUILT 1996

Puntacana Resort & Club (Corales)
The Dominican Republic has enjoyed several high-profile course openings in the past several years, including this Fazio design that is the second layout at this resort community. With six clifftop holes, including the closing three, Corales is a Caribbean must play.
LOCATION Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,555
YEAR BUILT 2010

Red Sky Ranch & Golf Club (Fazio)
On mountainous terrain, Fazio managed a bit of routing magic to build a surprisingly playable course that fits into the site’s slopes and offers long views of the Rockies.
LOCATION Wolcott, Colo.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,113
YEAR BUILT 2002

Resort at Pelican Hill (Ocean South)
Now part of a luxury resort, Pelican Hill features a pair of courses that have become an Orange County mainstay. Both the Ocean North and Ocean South courses offer views of the Pacific Ocean, but the South has a series of holes that skirt the water.
LOCATION Newport Coast, Calif.
PAR 70
YARDAGE 6,580
YEAR BUILT 1991

Sandy Lane (Green Monkey)
Set in a former limestone quarry, this lush layout has some surprising elevation changes for a Caribbean course. The signature 16th has a grass island in the shape of the namesake simian in the center of a giant bunker.
LOCATION St. James, Barbados
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,343
YEAR BUILT 2004

Sea Island (Seaside)
Fazio melded two separate nines into a completely new course, which is marked by crowned greens that place a premium on short-game shots. He also created dunes that give the course a distinctive look along the Intracoastal Waterway.
LOCATION St. Simons Island, Ga.
PAR 70
YARDAGE 7,055
YEAR BUILT 1999

Shadow Creek
This lush layout set in a constructed-from-scratch oasis in the middle of the desert set a new standard for completely manufactured courses—not to mention budgets for constructing new courses. But the setting shouldn’t overshadow the quality of the holes.
LOCATION North Las Vegas, Nev.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,560
YEAR BUILT 1989

Turning Stone Resort (Atunyote)
Fazio was allowed to pick the property on which to build the marquee layout of this four-course resort. Featuring wide, rolling fairways, Atunyote receives its star turn as the challenging host of the PGA Tour stop.
LOCATION Verona, N.Y.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,315
YEAR BUILT 2004

Wild Dunes Resort (Links)
This stunner, which finishes along the Atlantic Ocean, was Fazio’s first major solo design and helped to establish him as one of the premier modern architects. The 18th reopened last year after a restoration project to protect it from erosion.
LOCATION Isle of Palms, S.C.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 6,709
YEAR BUILT 1981

World Woods Golf Club (Pine Barrens)
Located an hour north of Tampa, this 36-hole facility features some of the best public golf in the Sunshine State. The better of the two courses is the one that is modeled after Pine Valley and has sandy scrub areas bordering the holes.
LOCATION Brooksville, Fla.
PAR 71
YARDAGE 7,259
YEAR BUILT 1993

World Woods Golf Club (Rolling Oaks)
Featuring sharply edged bunkers and rolling fairways, the other course is modeled after Augusta National, offering a marked contrast in looks to Pine Barrens. Rolling Oaks will open November 1 following a renovation of the greens and course lengthening.
LOCATION Brooksville, Fla.
PAR 72
YARDAGE 7,279
YEAR BUILT 1993

Wynn Golf Club
Years after building Shadow Creek, Fazio teamed up with Steve Wynn again to build another lush course in the desert—this time right off the Strip. Fazio moved 800,000 cubic yards of dirt to create the seclusion and elevation changes and brought in 100,000 shrubs and 4,800 trees.
LOCATION Las Vegas, Nev.
PAR 70
YARDAGE 7,042
YEAR BUILT 2005