Best College Golf Courses
College, much like golf, evokes strong feelings of growth, achievement, camaraderie, curiosity and entertainment, and this journey celebrates the perfect marriage of the two in a convivial dissertation on tremendous university golf courses. Or to put it in a non-professorial fashion, golf and college are crazy fun and these spots are better than any fraternity or sorority party you ever stepped foot into.
So we begin our journey to the finest university golf courses in lockstep with history at the oldest state-chartered place of public higher education in America, The University of Georgia, and its golf course, The University of Georgia Golf Course. Perfectly situated in the iconic college town of Athens, Georgia, the UGA Golf Course extends the fun from the streets into a Robert Trent Jones designed track that tips out at well over 7,000 yards and offers golfers course conditions that rival the perfectly trimmed hedges at Sanford Stadium. Far from easy, UGA Golf Course takes a page out of the song book of Athens’ legends, R.E.M., in its frequent reminder to players that “Everybody Hurts”.
Staying in the South, The Course at Sewanee in Sewanee, Tennessee, is a Gil Hanse redesign that has managed to remain one of the best-kept secrets in the region. Laid out as a 9-hole track over an incredible, undulating landscape, The Course at Sewanee is a picture-perfect representation of Hanse’s commitment to highlighting all the unique elements of the land to paint a raw- yet calculated- portrait of beauty. Plus, the Course at Sewanee has an Inn that might just be the best on campus housing option in the country.
The Rawls Course at Texas Tech, in Lubbock, Texas, is consistently rated as one of the best courses you can play in the state, and Tom Doak should be revered for his ability to transform what was a perfectly flat cotton field into a series of subtle valleys and canyons that look as though they’ve been there since the beginning of time. And true to other Doak designs, the Rawls Course features aggressively contoured greens and Texas-size fairways that are as wide as the University’s quad.
Moving westward to Arizona, Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson and The University of Arizona Karstens Golf Course in Tempe are two phenomenal desert gems that have not only produced some of the best players on the PGA TOUR, but they’ve entertained countless golf matches between golf buddies that are on par with the rivalry between the two universities. Designed by Pac 12 legend, Notah Begay III, Sewailo is a links design that features pristine course conditions and beautiful water features that are best admired from afar. ASU Karstens offers golfers a similar links style flavor, and the Pete Dye design is well known amongst Sun Devils (and Bears too, although they might not admit it) as having the best finishing hole in the state.
Seven Oaks Golf Club in Hamilton, New York, is the perfect place to end our quick sojourn to a few of the nation’s best college golf courses. Located just beyond the campus of Colgate University, Seven Oaks Golf Club is a quintessential, Robert Trent Jones-designed parkland layout with big trees as old as America and small, perfectly placed greens that have rolled true for over half a century. Locals at Seven Oaks advise to play it safe off the tee and bring a little extra money for a piece of pizza at Slices after the round. And after our last trip up there, we couldn’t agree more with that advice!