My ideas on golf course design are shaped by having seen nearly every great course in the world — more than 1,000 in all. It still fascinates me how different good courses can be from one another. Sometimes a stretch of ground will remind me of a golf hole I saw in Britain twenty years ago, but the best designs of all are organic, evolving from the subtleties of the ground they inhabit. The chance to create an interesting golf hole which is a bit different than anything I’ve seen before is what makes all the travel worthwhile.
In Tom Doak’s Confidential Guide to Golf (Volume 3), he visited Hooper and had some pretty positive things to say as he considers “Hooper” the 2nd best 9-hole course in America.
His list of the best 3 opening holes in golf:
- Hooper GC
- Yale GC
- Garden City GC
- Chicago GC
- Nation Golf Links of America
- White Bear Yacht Club
- Pine Valley GC
Quote about Hooper:
“I racked my brain trying to think if I’d ever seen a better pair of opening holes and in the moment, anyway, I could think of none”
Click here to read more about the Confidential Guide to Golf, Volume 3.