Derek Duncan and Ron Whitten of Golf Digest have updated Dan Jenkins’ All-Star Team of golf holes. Back in 1965 Jenkins created a list of the best 18 golf holes in America, each corresponding with their natural position on the course. Duncan and Whitten have decided to make their own but with the twist of only courses built since 2000.
We’re honored that Kingsley Club has made it on as their hole #1!
Our opening hole, with its 90-yard-wide corridor, would seem to be a comfortable par 5 to ease us into the round. The first hole at the private Kingsley Club, near Traverse City, actually has two fairways, a high-right avenue and a lower-left route, the two separated by a cluster of bunkers. But here’s where Mike DeVries messes with our heads (the goal of every great architect), by making us pick and choose on the first shot of the day. Do we play up the narrow right side? Can we reach the crest? Or do we aim at the wider left side, at the risk of rolling down into the trees? Or do we split the difference and try to carry over that frightful field of pits? Kingsley’s wonderful glacial domes and hollows provide brain teasers and aggravating options throughout the round, demanding that our mental game be focused on the shot in front of us and nothing else. Which is good, as golf is meant to be an escape.
-RW
Thanks, Ron!