THE BEST GOLF COURSES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF

Not much gets past today’s conventional and social media outlets, but when it comes to great golf courses, there remain a few terrific tests that have somehow evaded the spotlight. Here are the 10 best courses you’ve never heard of.

GLEN OAKS CLUB, OLD WESTBURY, N.Y.

Lacking the luster of other Long Island gems such as Bethpage, Shinnecock and National, this 27-hole, 1971 Joe Finger design earned unwanted publicity in 2009 as the club where Bernie Madoff’s brother, Peter, was a member. Now it’s garnered kudos for its superior conditioning, after hiring former Bethpage superintendent Craig Currier in 2009, for a renovation by Joel Weiman and also as the recently announced host for the 2017 Barclays.

VINEYARD GOLF CLUB, EDGARTOWN, MASS.

A quiet, moneyed enclave two miles inland on Martha’s Vineyard, it enjoyed status on the social register immediately after its 2002 debut, but its Donald Steel design never quite captured critical acclaim. Today, following a complete makeover by Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner, it resembles an authentic links, with massive sand features, firm-and-fast fairways and expansive, beguilingly contoured greens.

YAS LINKS, ABU DHABI, UAE

It doesn’t host a European Tour event, so we haven’t seen it on television, but this 2010 Kyle Phillips design was a game-changer in the Middle East. Said Graeme McDowell after a pro-am here in 2011, “Kyle Phillips created a genuine links course in the desert. Sometimes you can close your eyes and think you’re on Kingsbarns.” With its tight, linksy lies and five of the final six holes along the Arabian Gulf, McDowell isn’t far off.

TARA ITI, TE ARAI, NEW ZEALAND

Already drawing comparisons to Royal Dornoch and Cypress Point, this private, low-key club doesn’t officially open until October 2015. Still, its enviable location in the dunes along the Pacific Ocean has its architect, Tom Doak, proclaiming, “Top 50 or bust!” Seaside breezes, swift-running fairways and multiple options around the greens lend an honest Scottish feel, despite being less than 100 km from Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island.

ASKERNISH, SOUTH UIST, OUTER HEBRIDES, SCOTLAND

The ultimate cult course among course cognoscenti, this once-abandoned 1891 Old Tom Morris/Horace Hutchinson design had been virtually abandoned until 2005. Its remote island location, a hindrance to some and a powerful enticement for others attracted architect Martin Ebert and superintendent Gordon Irvine, who restored what they could and recreated elsewhere, with the result being a lay-of-the-land links as natural as anything in golf.

POCANTICO HILLS, TARRYTOWN, N.Y.

The private estate course for John D. Rockefeller was crafted by William Flynn in 1930, the architect best known for designing Shinnecock Hills, among others. It’s a reversible course with ten single greens and one double green that can be played forward or backwards. Laid out as if part of a formal garden, Pocantico enjoys sensational views of the Hudson River. While parts of the estate and grounds are open to limited public tours, the golf course remains strictly invitation-only.

ARROWTOWN, CENTRAL OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND

A course that Tom Doak calls “the North Berwick of New Zealand,” the short, quirky, 80-year-old layout in the southwest of the South Island is ringed with mountains that make up the Southern Alps, best known as backdrops in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Its 6,003 yards aren’t much, but are loaded with character, with undulating holes framed by landmarks such as the Remarkables and Coronet Peak.

SUNNYLANDS, RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.

Dick Wilson, who designed Bay Hill and Royal Montreal, created this nine-holer with 18 tees in 1964 as the private estate course for the late Walter Annenberg, the publishing magnate whose holdings included TV Guide. Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41 and Obama have been frequent guests. A parkland-style track in the desert which is framed with unusual trees and statuary, it’s undergone a recent facelift by Tim Jackson and David Kahn.

PORCUPINE CREEK, RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.

Built as the private domain of Tim Blixseth, with consulting help from Tom Weiskopf, Porcupine Creek was lost in a divorce and bankruptcy and acquired by Oracle’s Larry Ellison in 2011. President Obama spent Presidents Day weekend in 2015 playing it twice. Boasting superior mountain panoramas, it sports a handful of memorable holes, notably the 245-yard, par-3 15th, which plunges 200 feet downhill.

ROYAL WEST NORFOLK, BRANCASTER, NORFOLK, ENGLAND

In the most remote reaches of southeast England lies one of golf's hidden treasures. So low-lying is this coastal retreat that the tides wash over the club's entrance road twice a day, so you have to plan your entrance and exit carefully. Dating to 1891, the treeless course sports a mix of inland holes where tidal marsh carries dominate and coastal tests that demand carries over vast bunkers shored up by wooden boards.

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