Torrey Pines - California, U.S.A.

The Torrey Pines South Course in La Jolla, near San Diego, has long been recognized as the premier municipal course in Southern California and is familiar to golf fans as the site of the Buick Invitational. Rees Jones, "the Open Doctor," was hired in 2001 to strengthen the South Course, and he did just that, stretching it to a Herculean 7,600 yards from the tips and increasing the bunker tally from 44 to 72. Jones also added drama, shifting greens to bring the seaside cliffs and canyons more into play. The favorable reviews led to the USGA selecting Torrey Pines to host the 2008 U.S. Open, only the second municipal course ever to host the event. To go with the remodeled course, the luxurious Lodge at Torrey Pines opened in 2002. The Lodge, designed by Randell Makinson, emulates the Arts and Crafts Style that found great creative expression in Southern California in the early 1900s. The Course adjoins the 2,000-acre Torrey Pines State Reserve, named for the rare torrey pine that is only found in the wild here and on Santa Rosa Island, forty miles off the coast from Ventura.

Seminole Golf Club - Florida, U.S.A.

Seminole Golf Club, ten miles north of Palm Beach, may have the most mystique of any club in the United States, in part because it was a favorite haunt of Ben Hogan, who was a member. Each year late in his career Hogan would play the course for 30 days straight to prepare himself for the Masters. Opened in 1929, Seminole was designed by Donald Ross, who made the most of the 40-foot high dune ridge running through the site. Seminole features the sloping, crowned greens for which Ross became famous at Pinehurst, but Seminole runs directly along the Atlantic, its fairways dotted with palms, and the wind is a constant fac­tor. The nearly 200 swagged and sculpted bunkers encircling the greens and rippling across the fairways also weigh heavily on the player's mind. Ross was a modest man, but he was clearly pleased with his work at Seminole, declaring: "I don't say it is the best I have ever designed. Nevertheless, I like it very much." Claude Harmon, who was the professional at Seminole during the winter months and Winged Foot in the summer, shot the course record of 60 in 1947.