\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Golfers often have a bucket list of courses they dream of playing. Maybe they want to putt while ocean waves crash behind them or\u00a0walk on the hallowed ground where legends have played in North Carolina and Florida.\u00a0Coastal fantasies are great, but they shouldn’t skip over the Midwest. USA Today<\/a> recently ranked three courses in the heartland among the country’s top 10 public courses \u2013\u00a0Bully Pulpit Golf Course<\/a> in Medora, North Dakota;\u00a0Payne’s Valley<\/a> in Hollister, Missouri; and the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort<\/a> in Indiana.<\/p>\n Selected by both an expert panel and readers, these golfing havens met the\u00a0award’s criteria for impeccable maintenance, stunning landscapes, and thoughtful design.\u00a0Think lush ribbons of fairway, tee-boxes on stark sandstone hills, and holes lined with volcano bunkers.\u00a0These are the kind of courses where each hole is an experience, where you may lose lots of balls, and where each venue is more postcard-worthy than the next.\u00a0So, start hitting the driving range, buying more polo shirts, and investing in that vacation fund.<\/p>\n Getting to these verdant beauties isn’t difficult. None of them is more than two hours away from an airport. They all have nearby lodging options, from the western charm of Rough Riders Hotel<\/a> in Medora\u00a0to the spacious rooms at Big Cedar Lodge<\/a> in Ridgedale\u00a0near Hollister to the stately feel of French Lick Springs Hotel<\/a>. Their proximity to amenities can also entertain non-golfers in your group, such as the bowling alley, arcade, walking trails,\u00a0and on-site casino at the French Lick resort, making them an ideal getaway for the whole family.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Golfing at the country’s best in the Midwest<\/p>\n Named for President Theodore Roosevelt’s refrain about the president’s platform, Bully Pulpit is a majestic course amid the buttes of the Badlands,\u00a0a National Geographic must-visit destination<\/a>.\u00a0Errant shots will land in heaps of trouble here\u00a0with holes winding through meadows and woodlands along the Little Missouri River.\u00a0Pro golfer Zac Radford says on his YouTube<\/a> channel that the landscape “is nothing what he thought North Dakota would be like.” You’ll play off cliffside tee boxes with mesmerizing sunsets, tackling lengthy par-5s studded with bunkers or muscling over long patches of rough.\u00a0Hole 15, the par-3 nicknamed Bully Pulpit, will test your shot-making over a 100-foot deep canyon. A\u00a0tee time here costs about $107 and includes the golf cart and warm-up range balls.\u00a0It landed at No. 3 on USA Today’s list.<\/p>\n Boasting a 4.9 rating on Google<\/a> (and ranking fifth on USA Today’s list),\u00a0the Pete Dye Course at French Lick, one of the most unique courses on Indiana’s Pete Dye Golf Trail,<\/a> seems to appeal to every level of player \u2014 from scratch golfers to amateurs to weekend whackers \u2014 in spite of its brutish length of 8,100 yards. Perched on the state’s highest point, the jaw-dropping, 40-mile views “make even a double-bogey feel like a win,” declares one Google<\/a> golfer. Undulating terrain, sidehill lies, and infinity greens are some of the challenges dreamed up by the architect on a napkin sketch. Initially opposed to building a golf course on the rugged terrain, Dye thankfully changed his mind and, of course, included his signature intimidations such as the confounding 16th hole, a whopping 300-yard par-3 with a water hazard.\u00a0Driving range privileges are part of the $450 rate for Sunday through Friday tee times, which climbs to $500 on Saturday and Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n This is public golf?<\/p>\n Rated the No. 1 public course, Payne’s Valley is like a love letter from Tiger Woods to his friend,\u00a0the beret-wearing, knickers-loving Payne Stewart,\u00a0a Springfield native and\u00a0three-time Major champion who died in a plane crash in 1999. This striking, par-72 course in the Ozarks, set amid limestone formations, topsy-turvy fairways, and cascading waterfalls, was designed by Woods’ firm, TGR Design,<\/a> in partnership with Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, and Stewart’s family in 2020.\u00a0Woods befriended Morris when he bought a fishing boat at Bass Pro Shops after winning the 1997 Masters and went fishing with Morris and his son.\u00a0<\/p>\n