Rustic Canyon Golf Course - California, U.S.A.

Rustic Canyon Golf Course is a public course, spread out over 350 acres on the floor of a secluded canyon in Ventura County north of Los Angeles. The broad green fairways hug the canyon base, separated by a sandy wash bristling with native broom. Rustic Canyon is a resounding affirmation of the vision of its designer, young American architect Gil Hanse, who collaborated with golf writer-historian Geoff Shackelford on the project. Hanse is a leading proponent of the minimalist, lay-of-the-land school of design that emphasizes the firm, fast-running ground game and strategic bunkering found at the great links courses of Scotland. Very little earth was moved at Rustic Canyon, but the natural features of the land were used to maximum effect, with the expanses of low-lying fairway strikingly offset by the sepia shades of the surrounding hills and the backdrop of the Santa Susana Mountains. 

Las Vegas Paiute Resort - Nevada, U.S.A.

There are three courses at the Las Vegas Paiute Resort operated by the Paiute Tribe on their ancestral lands in the open desert 25 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip. The Wolf Course, Snow Mountain, and Sun Mountain were all designed by Pete Dye, with wide panoramic views out to bare, beige and blue Mount Charleston and Sheep Mountain. The Wolf Course has broad fairways, flanked by desert ridges covered with a brocade of red and orange mission poppies, while yuccas and Joshua trees grow in the waste areas. There is plenty of water in playas a result of natural wells on the site, including the pond that surrounds the rock-strewn island green on the 15th hole, but the real strengths of the course are the natural flow of the holes and the overpowering desolation of the surrounding desert.