MADE IN AMERICA

Arguments abound about who birthed the game, but we'd argue that, whatever its origin, golf's fullest expression—in contemporary course design and the passion of its players—is here in the United States.

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To celebrate the homegrown game, GOLF has woven together two penetrating and, hopefully, debate-provoking features: our list of The 100 Best Golf Holes in the U.S. and a deep-dive poll of our golf-obsessed readers. When the results of The 10,000 Golfer Survey aren't amusing you (an insane number of you own more than 30 golf hats), they'll give you the comfort of recognition (one in five of us loses two balls per round). Without a doubt, all of it—our nation's magnificent par 3s, 4s, 5s and unapologetic gusto for the game—will inspire you to get out and play more.

Among architecture buffs, the term “signature hole” is pretty much forbidden, dismissed for its emphasis on optics. Whether a hole is photogenic should not be the standard by which it’s judged. What’s more, the thinking goes, narrowing the focus to a single hole distracts attention from where it belongs—on the entirety of the course.

That makes sense. But it doesn’t make individual holes off-limits for discussion.

What constitutes a great hole? In Alister MacKenzie’s view, the best holes were those that gave the greatest enjoyment to the greatest number of golfers. A nice definition. But enjoyment can spring from many sources. Aesthetics, for instance. Strategic challenge. A fair balance of penalties and payoffs.