Tobacco Road

Mike Strantz built Tobacco Road in 1998 on 230 acres of a former sand mine in the Carolina Sandhills, and he set out to break as many design conventions as he could—blind tee shots, greens tucked behind towering dune walls, fairways that arc against raw sandy waste rather than around it.

It's been ranked among the top 50 public courses in America and the top 50 in the world by architects, but the reputation is genuinely split: some players call it the most inspired, entertaining course they've ever played, others walk off it. Nobody who plays it is indifferent.

The opener

The round starts with a dare

Tobacco Road announces itself on the very first swing—a par 5 that plunges off an elevated tee into a chute between two dunes the height of ten men, to a fairway you have to trust is there. The approach comes in blind over sand to one of Strantz's enormous, heaving greens. It's 558 from the Ripper tees, and by the time you walk off it you know exactly what kind of round this is going to be.