by The fall swing has been surprisingly captivating this PGA Tour season. The combination of big fields, high stakes, and real cutlines have injected a breath of fresh air into a schedule devoid of much juice this season. The key area, though, in which the fall swing lacks is the venue department. The fall swing has been entertaining in spite of its venues, not because of its venues.
Below I’ve ranked the eight FedEx Cup Fall golf courses along with a critical and a positive comment about each. If you take issue with any of the course’s rankings between two and eight, you could talk me into minor edits. The only spot that isn’t up for debate is the number one position. The top-ranked course is the best venue by a wide margin because it’s good and the others are far from.
Without further ado, let’s talk about some golf courses.
8. TPC Summerlin
Positive: Windy and firm is a great combination for testing professional golfers, even on the least inspiring designs. Las Vegas reliably presents firm conditions, so when the wind blows like it did during the second round of this year’s tournament, it’s a fun watch.
Negative: TPC Summerlin is a truly offensive golf course. Woven between houses, the layout is disjointed, often with significant distances between greens and tees. There are very few holes with character, and I’d be hard-pressed to make the case that a single hole is good. If this golf course never hosted another televised tournament, it’d be a win for golf fans.
7. The Country Club of Jackson
Positive: Players rave about how purely the greens roll. Please don’t make me come up with another positive comment.
Negative: Rough, some bunkers, some water, and some trees. That’s what this golf course is. It’s essentially a worse version of East Lake, which isn’t how you want to be described.
6. Port Royal Golf Course
Positive: Port Royal is sort of a quirky golf course, often played in choppy conditions. With so many PGA Tour courses feeling the same, I appreciate something that looks and plays completely different from the run of the mill Tour course. And the 235-yard par-3 16th is awesome.
Negative: Brian Gay has a win and three other top-12 finishes on this golf course in the last five years.
5. Sea Island (Seaside Course)
Positive: The Seaside Course at Sea Island, originally designed by Harry Colt and Charles Alison, features quite a few cool holes. The lengthy par-3 third is an under-the-radar fun par 3 on Tour.
Negative: Measuring just 7,000 yards with large greens, the Seaside Course is a classic tale of a place that’s been driven into obsolescence by the modern game. Much like PGA West, this golf course is a defenseless wedge-fest in the absence of adverse conditions. Without wind, this golf course doesn’t pose a challenge to me, let alone Ludvig Aberg, who fired 61-61 on the weekend last year to win the RSM Classic.
4. Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club
Positive: Accordia Golf is historic to the Japanese golf scene and distinctly Japanese, featuring double greens on each hole. This tournament brings golf to an enthusiastic fanbase in a part of the world underserved by the PGA Tour. The layout itself leaves a lot to be desired for testing the best modern golfers in the world, but it’s hard to take too much issue with a historic golf venue in Japan, considering the alternatives.
Negative: One of my biggest criteria in evaluating a golf course is how many holes I remember after playing or seeing it. I’ve stayed up to watch every edition of the Zozo Championship, and I’m not sure I could draw a single hole on the golf course. I’d liken the course to a Japanese version of Club de Golf Chapultepec, formerly the host of the WGC-Mexico Championship. That’s not high praise, but it could be worse.
3. El Cardonal at Diamante
Positive: El Cardonal is scenic and pleasant to watch, especially as many viewers plunge into the darker, colder months of the year. The golf course’s primary defense is wind, and it relies on width and angles to create a strategic test. That’s a refreshing departure from the philosophy of rough as a defense, even if El Cardonal isn’t a particularly strong version of that style of test.
Negative: This PGA Tour video inadvertently presents some of El Cardonal’s negatives. An amusing watch!
2. Silverado Resort (North Course)
Positive: Maybe too generous of a ranking, but I’ve always enjoyed watching tournaments at Silverado. With tight corridors nestled between pine and redwood trees in Napa Valley, Silverado might create the best sense of place on the fall swing. Playing the course successfully requires restraint, positioning, and high-level wedge play. It’s still a wedge-fest, but it’s not a “bash driver anywhere, flip a wedge in” wedge-fest. Is it the most captivating style of golf? No. But given its distinct character and attractive primetime window, this a sneaky good PGA Tour venue.
Negative: The design itself is average. Nothing is egregious, but nothing is particularly creative.
1. Black Desert Resort
Positive: The newest addition to the fall swing, Black Desert Resort is the one fall PGA Tour venue that truly rocks. Offline shots face an enormous penalty in the lava rocks, a one-of-a-kind hazard in professional golf. Add in stunning Utah scenery and you have yourself a wonderful venue. In gusty conditions, Black Desert is one of the most entertaining PGA Tour courses of the entire season, let alone the fall swing.
Negative: The course closes with a boring par 3 into a less-than-stellar cakewalk par 5. It’s a great movie with an underwhelming ending. If the closing stretch were better, Black Desert would be one of the most fun courses on the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour fall swing is never going to rack up massive ratings numbers, especially given how infrequently top players compete, but it’s not a bad product. That said, when you look at the venues on paper, it’s not exactly a roster of bangers. Should the PGA Tour, or whatever entity rules golf in a few years, devote some energy into finding or building better venues, the fall swing could be a much better product.
