We’ll talk a lot more about Poppy Hills in my new “Elysian Fields” column in Golf Course Trades Magazine early in 2016, but the Robert Trent Jones, Jr./Bruce Charlton redesign takes home top honors this year. Their redesign of the Monterey Peninsula course that hangs out in such rarified air as Pebble Beach, Spanish Bay, and Spyglass Hill not only turned a penal-style course into a strategic marvel, but solved drainage and conditioning problems that had plagued Poppy from its opening. While water conservation and drainage were the primary issues, they also made the contours more natural and reshape the course so that everything could be mowed and played as fairway. Drier, faster, firmer, wider, more interesting, and most importantly, more fun, the result is a completely different Poppy Hills, one that not only culls its identity from architectural concepts found at three of the world’s greatest courses – Pine Valley, Augusta National, and but also showcases state-of-the-art agronomic problem solving.
Past Winners
2014 Old Town Club
2013 Philly Cricket Club (Wissahickon)
2012 Crestwood Golf Club
2011 Rockaway Hunting Club
2010 Dorado Beach ((East)
