GOLF recently released its latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S. (2024-25), a list that includes 11 newcomers. Some of them you might know. Others you might not. Here, in our newcomer spotlights, we’ll introduce you to these rookie Top 100 gems.
Newcomer spotlight: Sankaty Head / Rank: 92nd
Location: Nantucket, Mass.
Type: Private
Year opened: 1923
Architect: H. Emerson Armstrong
What you need to know about Sankaty Head
According to panelist Roger Hoit: “Magical, mystical, whimsical, beautiful, fun — a day at Sankaty Head on the idyllic island of Nantucket is all of those things and more. Sankaty is a course for everyone. It’s highly playable from the stress-free forward tees but also a stiff test from the back tees, especially in the prevailing southwest breeze, as players learned at the 2021 U.S. Mid-Amateur here. Jim Urbina did a wonderful job with a 2017 restoration of the original Emerson Armstrong design. Highlights include the 4th hole, a 520-yard reachable par-5 where a well-positioned drive sets up the opportunity to go for the green. The Sankaty Head lighthouse dominates the horizon for the second shot that requires navigating fantastic bunkering, including a trench bunker over the green. Another standout is the par-4 15th. The approach to this 410-yard hole is my single favorite shot on the course as it plays uphill with the iconic clubhouse and lighthouse looming on the horizon. Sankaty Head is one of the game’s great one-hit wonders as it was Armstrong’s only design.
What our raters say
“Sankaty, situated on tiny Nantucket Island, looks old fashioned and understated, and there’s a sense of remoteness and timelessness. These are qualities that very few venues in the U.S. exhibit. It’s not especially difficult, and like all courses of this ilk requires wind to expose all its guile.”
“I played Sankaty in 2023 and placed it just outside my U.S. Top 100 for 2024. I reckoned that, if one put Sankaty Head in a parkland setting (almost any other setting), it would strike discerning golfers as a bit…plain. Whereas, if one took Salem CC and dropped it in the dunes, we’d never stop salivating. Of course, it wouldn’t look and play like a natural product of its surroundings, and that dynamic can and should matter. What’s more, while Sankaty would fare less well against so many similar designs in the U.K., we just don’t have that many courses like this in North America. That scarcity is part of what makes Sankaty Head so distinct and ultimately enjoyable: super terrain and smart, largely unadorned bunkering that brilliantly/strategically intrudes on progress down most fairways. When the rough and wind are down, the course can present as almost kittenish. If either one is up, watch out.”
