7,147 yards, par72; Greens fee: $22 and up
801-546-1630,
golfingutah.com/valleyview | GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
Fifteen miles north of Salt Lake City is the simply named layout that offers simply superb value-a scenic, true championship track for under $30. The course name refers to the Salt Lake Valley, but other attractions are the Wasatch Mountain backdrops, multiple elevated tees and a variety of sidehill lies and creek-influenced holes.
15. Capstone Club of Alabama Brookwood, Ala.
7,032 yards, par 71; Greens fee: $39 and up
205-462-0590,
capstoneclub.co
Architect Gil Hanse proved he could create sophisticated, yet affordable courses with California's Rustic Canyon and this Deep South design just east of Tuscaloosa is further proof. The layout balances thickly treed holes with more wide open ones, but always there's something interesting going on, be it the huge variety of bunker shapes, the 120-foot drop to the fifth green or the curling stream to negotiate at the 17th.
16. Chickasaw Pointe Golf Resort
Kingston, Okla.
7,085 yards, par 72; Greens fee: $30 and up
580-564-2581,
oklahomagolf.com | GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
OK, so Oklahoma isn't the first place you think of for great resort golf courses, but this seven-year-old Randy Heckenkemper design could help alter that perception. With typical prairie winds, dense tree cover and 15 holes routed on hilly bluffs above Lake Texoma, near the Texas border, Chickasaw Pointe offers one of the best state park tests in golf.
17. The Rawls Course at Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
7,207 yards, par 72; Greens fee: $35 and up
806-742-4653,
texastechgolf.ttu.edu | GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
With its high-octane football air attack and Bobby Knight running the basketball team, Texas Tech's three-year-old golf course might get overshadowed-except that it's such a dynamo in its own right, it more than holds its own. Minimalist Tom Doak maxed out the dirt-moving here, converting a flat old cotton field into vast mounded fairways with greens to match that successfully accommodate the strong West Texas winds.
18. Riverdale Golf Club (Dunes Course)
Brighton, Colo.
7,067 yards, par 72; Greens fee: $35 and up
303-659-6700,
riverdalegolf.com | GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
Suburban Denver is blessed with an abundance of topnotch value-priced courses and this 1985 Pete and Perry Dye design leads the way, with a plethora of water hazards, railroad ties, British links-style native roughs and pot bunkers. Wide fairways wind along the South Platte River, making for a scenic, if windy experience, especially at such holes as the lake-guarded par-3 eighth.
19. Eaglesticks Golf Club
Zanesville, Ohio
6,508 yards, par 70; Greens fee: $40 and up
800-782-4493,
eaglesticks.com | GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
Fifty-five miles east of Columbus is Zanesville, the self-proclaimed pottery capital of the U.S., and perhaps it's not a bad idea for first-timers to this 1990 Michael Hurdzan design to grab some clay and mold it to the firm, fast putting surfaces to get them to slow down. Besides fast greens, the challenges include significant elevation change and club-twisting rough all on a compact site that lends a classical feel to the layout.
20. The Tennessean Golf Club
Paris, Tenn.
7,183 yards, par 72; Greens fee: $36 and up
866-710-4653,
GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
Paris in the spring is quite lovely, especially if you're teeing it up at the The Tennessean, a heavily forested layout in Paris, Tennessee, 100 miles west of Nashville near the Kentucky border. It was the perfect job for architect Keith Foster, who lives in Paris, Kentucky. We're not sure if Foster speaks French or not, but his design oozes joie de vivre in the form of severely undulating fairways and greens, rock outcroppings, chasms and creeks.
21. Texarkana Golf Ranch
Texarkana, Texas
7,370 yards, par 72; Greens fee: $23.50 and up
903-334-7401
hankhaney.com
There can't be a tougher golf course in the United States that costs less to play than this untamed Ranch. Hacked out of wooded terrain adjacent to Bringle Lake, this Jim Fazio Jr./Hank Haney design is so demanding, you might even pay Haney his hourly rate just to guide you around the eight dramatic shoreline holes. With holes like the 234-yard par-3 15th that plays to an island green, it's easy to see how the Ranch earned its 76.7 rating and 149 slope.
22. Amana Colonies Golf Course
Amana, Iowa
6,824 yards, par 72; Greens fee: $45 and up
800-383-3636
amanagolfcourse.com | GOLFCOURSE.com Profile
Prayer and contemplation may be in order at this 1989 Jim Spear design that's not only situated 20 miles southwest of Cedar Rapid, but also sits within a utopian religious site that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Unless you can keep it out of the white oaks that frame the hilly fairways, however, you will find no salvation in your score.
