Whistling Straits - Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Ten years after he designed Blackwolf Run, Pete Dye returned to the Kohler Resort to design the Straits Course at Whistling Straits in 1998, which earned such rapid acclaim that it was named the site of the 2004 PGA Championship. Whistling Straits, which also includes Dye's Irish Course, is located nine miles east of Kohler in the village of Haven. Dye took a pancake-flat, 560-acre site adjoining Lake Michigan that had been a military encampment and proceeded to create a rock 'em sock 'em seaside links. Dye built huge drifting dunes nubbed with colorful grasses by literally moving mountains of earth, topped off with a liberal dusting of 800,000 cubic yards of sand. The 2004 PGA proved to be a rousing success, with the pros managing to fire sub-par rounds notwithstanding the course's unprecedented visual intimidation, some 1,300 bunkers give or take a hundred or two, and over 7,500 yards in length from the back tees. When it was all over, Vijay Singh took away the Wanamaker Trophy after a playoff with Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco.

Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club - Michigan, U.S.A.

Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club is a true links-that is, a course next to the sea routed through sandhills-overlooking Lake Michigan. Opened in 1998, the course is in the remote town of Arcadia, and it is an arcadia for golfers, laid out across 245 windswept acres of sand dunes. The dunes drop 225 feet from the highest point down to the bluff above Lake Michigan, with 3,100 feet of shore frontage. Designed by Warren Henderson and renowned teaching professional Rick Smith, Arcadia Bluffs emulates the great seaside Irish courses. There are wide fairways framed by tall fescue grasses that sway along the lake, 50 sod-walled bunkers, and big rippling greens. The flags ticks are short, three-foot wooden poles specially designed to resist the fierce winds off the lake.