Forget Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas or local favorite Adam Scott – the star of the Presidents Cup was the course.
Royal Melbourne Golf Club proved to be every bit the test that it had been in previous matches held there in 1998 and 2011. It is a course that has stood the test of time.
As Tiger Woods so eloquently put it, Royal Melbourne is a British Open layout with Augusta National greens. But did you know that it is actually two courses? Twelve holes from the West Course and six from the East Course were combined to make the routing for the Presidents Cup. It’s arguably the world’s most famous composite course, but it is in good company for that honor.
Here are 10 of the best composite courses – and a couple honorable mentions – to host some of golf’s biggest events through the years.
Royal Melbourne
Presidents Cup
Royal Melbourne’s composite course now has hosted three Presidents Cup – 1998, the first one played outside the U.S., 2011 and 2019. It has also hosted 16 Australian Opens, the 1972 World Cup, the 2012 and ’15 Women’s Australian Opens. The Composite Course came into being in 1959 when Royal Melbourne was asked to hold the World Cup (known as the Canada Cup at that time). The composite maximizes the viewing experience amid a number of logistical issues such as road closures while providing a daunting test.
Blackwolf Run
U.S. Women’s Open
Herb Kohler’s The American Club completed the original championship course at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin, which became the catalyst for Wisconsin’s golf boom,in 1988. This featured holes 10-18 of today’s Meadow Valley Course and Nos. 1-4 and 14-18 of today’s River Course. In 1989, architect Pete Dye added nine holes (1-9) to Meadow Valleys, and in 1990, nine additional holes were added, which today are holes 5-13 of the River Course. Ranked No. 24 on Golfweek’s 2019 Top 200 Resort Golf Courses, Blackwolf Run hosted the 1998 and 2012 U.S. Women’s Open and the 1995-97 WGC-Anderson Consulting Championship.
Congressional Country Club
U.S. Open/PGA Championship
Congressional’s Blue Course hosted the 1964 U.S. Open, 1976 PGA Championship and seven Kemper Opens on the PGA Tour from 1980-86, while borrowing two holes from the Gold Course and dropping the 16th and par-3 18th. In the 1994 Senior Open at Congressional and the 2011 U.S. Open, the USGA included the par-3 18thhole, but changed the routing of the course so that the 18th was played as the 10th.
Detroit Golf Club
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club, a 36-hole Donald Ross-designed facility dating to 1916, became home of the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic this year. It used mostly the North Course, while cherry-picking one hole from the South to stretch the length to 7,303 and allow it to qualify for this list. Rather than start with the North’s 305-yard drivable par, the South’s first hole, a 410-yard par par 4, served as the third hole and fit in nicely with the North’s 4th.
Gullane Nos. 1 and 2
Scottish Open
Gullane, located in East Lothian, Scotland, has hosted the 2015 and ’18 Scottish Open. It has used 16 holes from Gullane No. 1 and two holes from No. 2 – Nos. 7 and 8. The opening hole was benched because construction of grandstands around the final green would otherwise be too close to the nearby road. As a result, the second hole was used as the start.
Kingston Heath
Australian Open
This Australian Sandbelt gem formerly was the site of the Australian Masters and will reprise its role as host of the Australian Open in 2020. For tournament play the 10th hole, regarded as one of the best par 3s in all of Australia, if not golf, is replaced by the club’s 19th hole. The tee box for the 10th is used to lengthen the course’s 4thhole and while it may allow for better spectator movement (there’s usually a food station there), Ian Baker-Finch says it’s “sacrilege” not to play this great specimen of the beauty of short par 3s. However, it should be pointed out that its replacement is none too shabby and blends in well with the holes it is cozied up in between.
Ridgewood Country Club
The Barclays/The Northern Trust
Ridgewood Country Club, is a 27-hole A.W. Tillinghast layout (East, Center, West), that has hosted the 1935 Ryder Cup, the 1974 U.S. Amateur, the 1990 U.S. Senior Open and the 2001 Senior PGA Championship. But ever since it began hosting multiple editions of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs stop known originally as The Barclays and now as The Northern Trust, it has assembled a greatest hits of holes to challenge the pros, using the first seven holes from East, Nos. 2-6 from the Center nine, and Nos. 4-9 from the West to round out the layout.
Royal Portrush
British Open
This one may require an asterisk, but there are two courses at Royal Portrush – the Dunluce and Valley. The 2019 Open Championship was held on the Dunluce, but only after a renovation that included taking two holes from the Valley to build a new 7th (par 5) and 8th (par 4) to replace the old 17th and 18th holes, and turning the original 16th into the finishing hole. To make the Dunluce Links feasible to host a major championship required space for the exhibition tent, among other things.
The Country Club at Brookline
U.S. Amateurs, U.S. Opens, and a Ryder Cup
The Country Club has hosted multiple U.S. Opens and the 1999 Ryder Cup. Holes from the Primrose Course are used to replace three from the Clyde. The composite course was first used at the 1957 U.S. Amateur and subsequently at the 1963 and 1988 U.S. Open the 1999 Ryder Cup. The first eight holes of the “composite” course are lifted from the regular course. The 9th, 10th and 12th holes are dropped from the regular course layout, and holes 11-13 makes up a formidable stretch of demanding par-4 holes. The Country Club is set to host the 2022 U.S. Open.
Walton Heath
Ryder Cup, British Masters
Just South of London is the 36-hole Walton Heath, where the Old and the New have joined to make a composite (primarily of the Old). The Henry Fowler design has played host to the 1981 Ryder Cup and several iterations of the European Tour’s European Open, the 2011 British Senior Open and, more recently, the 2018 British Masters (16 holes from the Old and two from the New).
Others receiving votes
Hong Kong GC – A composite of 10 holes from the Eden Course and 8 holes from the New Course are used.
Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club – The host of the PGA Tour’s Zozo Championship in Japan and site of Tiger Woods’s 82nd Tour title was contested for the first time on a composite of the 36-hole resort facility.
