It’s not uncommon for golf enthusiasts to describe their first visits to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort as a “spiritual experience.” The destination was developed in the 1990s by Mike Keiser, an avid golfer who first traveled to the birthplace of the game and later committed himself to create a place where every American golfer could experience exceptional courses. And he did. At Bandon Dunes it’s as if Scotland’s classic courses have been transported almost 5,000 miles to the rugged, windswept dunes of Oregon’s southern coast.

With five full-length championship courses—plus a 13-hole, par-3 course and a 100,000-square-foot putting course—the resort is aptly equipped to host avid golfers who love the idea of playing multiple rounds in one day. Equally important, all of Bandon Dunes’ courses are walking only, as is customary throughout the British Isles. “We’re all striving for authenticity and experience, but when you play golf in a beautiful place without walking, you’re getting neither,” says course architect David McLay Kidd, who created the resort’s first course in 1999. “You don’t get to take in the fresh air or see the view or chuckle with your buddies as you walk the fairways.”

Steven Borror, the resort’s director of golf, shares a similar opinion. “There’s more intimacy and there’s greater camaraderie when you’re walking a golf course with your friends,” he says. “The pace gives you time to enjoy each other and the game. That’s the Bandon experience.” bandondunesgolf.com

Situated 40 miles southeast of Tampa and about 70 miles southwest of Orlando, Streamsong Resort is as unique a Floridian golfing destination as you’ll find anywhere in the Sunshine State. The resort was built upon a 16,000-acre parcel of land once used as a phosphate mine, and the remnants of those mining efforts—stacked mounds and trenches—have revegetated over the years, blanketing the site’s unnatural topography with a seemingly organic aesthetic. Such dynamic elevation changes cannot be found on any other Florida course. “If you brought me in blindfolded,” says Tom Doak, who designed the resort’s Blue course in 2012, “Florida would’ve been the last state that I would’ve guessed I was in.”

The Red course was designed and built at the same time as the Blue by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw; and the two courses are routed in such a way that they intersect and abut each other numerous times. Despite playing over and around many of the same landscape features, both courses are independent of one another thanks to the architects’ distinctive philosophies. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner created a third layout, the Black course, which opened for play in 2017 and successfully introduced links-style architecture to the property. “The landscape at Streamsong is simply like nothing we’ve experienced,” Hanse said at the time of the Black course’s construction. “It’s one of the very best.” streamsongresort.com

A visit to Forest Dunes Golf Club in north-central Michigan can be like a pilgrimage. The destination is home to three challenging championship-length courses—as well as a putting course and a new short course. But reaching the remote setting among the Huron National Forest requires a certain level of devotion to the game. “You drive into the middle of nowhere—and then about 30 miles more, where all you see is scrub pine and rough-looking native areas,” says Elliott Oscar, who served as the club’s head golf professional from 2016 until January of this year. “Then you get there and see these vibrant, green fairways cutting through the trees.”

Oscar’s description spotlights the property’s eponymous Forest Dunes course, a 7,100-yard championship layout designed by Tom Weiskopf, which opened for play in 2002. Links-course enthusiasts began to take notice in 2016, once Tom Doak designed The Loop, a reversible layout that plays much like classic links courses found throughout the British Isles. Separated by the club’s parking lot, which has cheekily been called the Atlantic Ocean, the two courses play like they’re set on separate continents. On the east side of the pavement, golfers familiar with American parkland courses feel right at home. The shots they’ll hit on the Weiskopf course will succeed or fail based on how far they fly through the air. On the west side, the fescue fairways and firm terrain surrounding the greens on Doak’s more rugged layout will condition golfers to embrace—and sometimes rue—unpredictable bounces. “It looks so simple when you’re standing on the tee boxes,” Oscar says of The Loop, “but the more you play the course, the more you’re able to appreciate it and see Doak’s intention and the genius behind it.” forestdunesgolf.com

Owned and developed by Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, Big Cedar Lodge—located in the Ozarks in the southwest corner of Missouri—delivers 77 exceptional golf holes spread out across three full-length championship layouts and two distinctive par-3 courses.

The resort’s two newest courses, Ozarks National (a Coore & Crenshaw design) and Payne’s Valley (a Tiger Woods–designed layout), introduce golfers to the region’s natural beauty and deliver two distinctive playing experiences. Some of the Ozarks National holes are visually intimidating and require shots hit over expansive-looking hazards. But co-designer Bill Coore reassures prospective players that those shots look much harder (and the hazards appear much larger) than they are. “There’s nothing more thrilling than to hit your ball and see it fly over something,” he says. Payne’s Valley, by contrast, is a course designed with a classic links approach, which means golfers can successfully play holes along the ground if they so choose. “I want the ball running, I want it traveling, I want it moving on the ground,” Woods says, “and this golf course allows us to do that.”

In all cases, the golf courses at Big Cedar Lodge reinforce Morris’ mission statement: to encourage people to explore and enjoy the surrounding natural world as he did growing up. “I think of golf like fishing in a way,” he says. “It’s an excuse to get outside and an opportunity to spend time with people you care about.” bigcedar.com