— By MetroNews Staff
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In 2009, prestigious Golf Digest Magazine rated Pikewood National Golf Club in Morgantown the Best New Private Course in America.
In the current issue of Golf Digest that is available now, the magazine’s editorial staff has updated the best 18 holes of golf in the United States in a very unusual way – ranking them in the order golf is played. It lists the best opening hole in the country, the best No. 2 and so on.
Legendary golf writer Dan Jenkins first came up with the concept in 1965 and updated the list a second time in 2000. Now, twenty years later Dan Jenkins’ list has been updated a third time to include all of the courses that have been built in the past twenty years.
The No. 8 hole on the Golf Digest updated list is Pikewood National’s magnificent 562-yard sweeping dogleg right that follows a natural crescent ridge – and is included as the eighth stop in golf’s best 18 holes.
Here’s what Golf Digest said about Pikewood National’s number eight:
“Once John Raese and Bob Gwynne, the CEO and VP of Greer Industries, a mining concern, decided to build Pikewood National on surplus company property, the spent years travelling the forested mountaintop search for lay-of-the-land golf holes. On one trek, the discovered a crescent-shape rim around a deep kettle hole, all covered in trees, and agreed it would make a hell of a gambling Cape hole. The trees were clear-cut to the width of the fairway, and the bowl was deforested as well. After a little nudging from a bulldozer to form a green on the far horizon, Pikewood’s eight hole was grassed and put into play. It stands today as one of this century’s most natural holes, a true risk-reward par 5 with bite-off-what-you-dare opportunities on all three shots. When Golf Digest named Pikewood National its Best Private course of 2009, we wrote ‘the sort of audacity one would expect from amateur architects.’ The club promptly renamed the eighth hole Audacity.”
Video of all 18 holes at Pikewood National can be viewed here.
Here are America’s Best 18 Holes Since 2000 as determined by the Golf Digest editorial staff:
1 Kingsley Club • Kingsley, Michigan
Par 5 • 602 Yards
2 Gamble Sands • Brewster, Washington
Par 4 • 340 Yards
3 Tot Hill Farm Country Club •Asheboro, North Carolina
Par 3 • 180 Yards
4 Canyata Golf Course • Marshall, Illinois
Par 4 • 465 Yards
5 Streamsong Black • Bowling Green, Florida
Par 3 • 211 Yards
6 Black Creek Club • Chattanooga, Tennessee
Par 5 • 559 Yards
7 Ballyneal Golf Course • Holyoke, Colorado
Par 4 • 352 Yards
8 Pikewood National Golf Course • Morgantown, West Virginia
Par 5 • 562 Yards
9 Chicago Highlands Club • Westchester, Illinois
Par 4 • 344 Yards
10 Friar’s Head Golf Course • Riverhead, New York
Par 3 • 210 Yards
11 Arcadia Bluffs Golf Course • Arcadia, Michigan
Par 5 • 633 Yards
12 Chambers Bay • University Place, Washington
Par 4 • 281 Yards
13 The Quarry at Giants Ridge • Biwabik, Minnesota
Par 4 • 323 Yards
14 Oak Quarry Golf Course • Riverside, California
Par 3 • 214 Yards
15 Four Mile Ranch Golf Course • Canon City, Colorado
Par 5 • 579 Yards
16 Bayonne Golf Course • Bayonne, New Jersey
Par 4 • 486 Yards
17 Brooksville Country Club • Brooksville, Florida
Par 3 • 146 Yards
18 McLemore Club • Rising Farm, Georgia
Par 4 • 435 Yards