Golf architecture has a short list of names that make serious players stop and pay attention. Right now, David McLay Kidd is at the top of it.
In the last two years alone, Kidd opened GrayBull Club in the Nebraska Sandhills—ranked in Golf Digest’s Best New Courses of 2024—and Loraloma outside Austin, which Golf Digest reviewers have already hailed as one of the best courses in Texas. Scarecrow at Gamble Sands won Best New Public Course of 2025 after fewer than 90 days open. He has two more courses in the pipeline, including a fourth layout at Streamsong that will make it the only resort in the world with courses from golf’s four most influential living architects. The man is on a run.
What makes it more remarkable is where he started. Kidd was 27 years old and completely unknown when he designed Bandon Dunes—a course that essentially redefined the modern American golf resort as we know it and still ranks among the finest courses in the country a quarter century later. Most architects would have coasted on that. But Kidd spent the next three decades getting better.
Here’s a complete guide to the DMK courses worth playing, and the ones worth planning ahead for.
Who Is David McLay Kidd?
Born in Johnstone, Scotland in 1967, Kidd grew up with golf in the family. His father, Jimmy, managed the legendary courses at Gleneagles, and the experience of watching a world-class operation up close shaped everything that followed. After studying Landscape Management at Writtle College in England, a 27-year-old Kidd made the trip to the Oregon coast to survey a stretch of windswept duneland outside Bandon, and came back with the commission that launched his entire career.
What sets Kidd apart isn’t just an eye for terrain. It’s a philosophy that’s easy to state and hard to execute: playability and challenge are not opposites. In his own words, “You can create an extremely playable golf course that is still very challenging.” That belief runs through every DMK project—in the wide fairways at Gamble Sands, the rolling accessibility of Mammoth Dunes, the audacity of building a links course in the Texas Hill Country.
Best David McLay Kidd Golf Courses
1. Bandon Dunes
Bandon, Oregon
Opened in 1999 as the first course at what would become one of America’s great resort destinations, Bandon Dunes is a true links experience—firm, fast, windswept, and relentlessly beautiful, with the Pacific Ocean framing nearly every hole. Golf Magazine consistently ranks it among the top courses in the world.
The course is also, in a small way, part of ShipSticks’ history. When golfers started making the pilgrimage to Bandon—notoriously remote, deliberately uncommercialized, and a long way from the nearest major airport—shipping clubs directly to the resort rather than wrestling them through check-in became one of the company’s earliest and fastest-growing routes.
2. The Castle Course at St Andrews
St Andrews, Scotland
Kidd was given the responsibility of designing the seventh course at the Home of Golf, a commission that doesn’t come along twice. Perched on a clifftop with sweeping views of the sea and the old town, the Castle Course is dramatic in the best possible way. It attracted controversy at opening (the greens, in particular, had their critics), but subsequent refinements have smoothed things out considerably, and the setting alone makes it one of the most memorable rounds in all of Scotland. Combine it with a round on the Old Course, and you have yourself a proper pilgrimage.
3. Laucala Island Golf Course
Fiji
Commissioned by Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz on a private 3,000-acre island in the Fijian archipelago, the Laucala course may be the most exotic piece of real estate Kidd has ever worked with. The build was old-school from the start—machete through jungle, wading through marshes, navigating volcanic rock and torrential rain—and the result is one of the most visually extraordinary courses on earth.
Holes wind through dense tropical forest, greens brush up against palm-fringed beaches, and fairways skip across lava streams. Access requires a stay at the exclusive Laucala Island Resort, and rates reflect that. But if a round of golf on a private Fijian island has ever crossed your mind, this is the course that justifies the plane ticket.
4. Gamble Sands
Brewster, Washington
Gamble Sands was a turning point in Kidd’s career and one of the best public-access courses in the Pacific Northwest. Set in the semi-arid high desert of central Washington on sandy, fescue-covered terrain, this is links golf without an ocean in sight. Wide fairways, enormous greens, and a routing that rewards creativity over power made it an instant hit.
5. Scarecrow at Gamble Sands
Brewster, Washington
As if one world-class DMK course at the same property wasn’t enough, Scarecrow opened in 2025 as the second 18-hole addition to Gamble Sands Resort—and pulled off the rare feat of matching its older sibling’s accolades almost immediately, earning Golf Digest’s Best New Public Course of 2025 and Sports Illustrated’s Best New Resort Course after fewer than 90 days open. There’s also a 14-hole short course called Quicksands for when you want to squeeze in extra holes before dinner.
As a pure golf destination, Gamble Sands now rivals Bandon for sheer variety and value. The drive to Brewster is worth every mile.
6. Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley
Nekoosa, Wisconsin
Sand Valley has become one of those rare bucket-list resorts that actually delivers, and Mammoth Dunes is a big reason why. Designed as a more accessible complement to the property’s flagship course, Mammoth Dunes leans hard into playability. It features wide, rollicking fairways, massive greens, and that firm-and-fast feel that encourages low, running shots along the ground. Paired with Sand Valley’s other outstanding offerings, it’s a Midwest golf trip that punches well above its weight class.
7. Tetherow Golf Club
Bend, Oregon
If Bandon Dunes is Kidd’s magnum opus, Tetherow is the one that divides the room, and that’s exactly why it’s worth playing. Set on 700 acres bordering the Deschutes National Forest just outside Bend, Tetherow is a links-style course in a high-desert setting, with panoramic views of the Cascades (Three Sisters, Broken Top, and on a clear day, Mt. Hood) reminding you at every turn that you’re somewhere singular.
The all-fescue layout stretches to 7,298 yards from the tips, with dramatic rolling terrain and ragged bunkering. It’s a course that rewards repeat visits, with the kind of design you don’t fully understand until the second or third time around.
8. Machrihanish Dunes
Argyll, Scotland
For the golfer who wants to trace Kidd’s Scottish roots, Machrihanish Dunes is the one to find. Built on a wild stretch of duneland on the Kintyre Peninsula, with several greens and tees positioned just meters from the sea, it’s as pure a links experience as you’ll find anywhere on earth. The course sits on a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which meant Kidd had to work entirely with the land rather than reshaping it. The result is a course that feels like it’s always been there, the kind of golf that requires a sweater, a caddie, and a good whisky afterward.
9. GrayBull Club
Maxwell, Nebraska
Located in the southern Nebraska Sandhills, one of the game’s great natural habitats for golf, GrayBull was named Sports Illustrated’s Best New Private Course and ranked in Golf Digest’s Top 5 Best New Courses of 2024.
GrayBull is a private club, so access requires membership or an invitation, but it’s exactly the kind of course that sends golf architecture devotees booking flights to North Platte. For those who’ve already made the pilgrimage to Sand Hills or Prairie Club and want another Sandhills gem to add to the collection, this is the answer.
On the Horizon: DMK Courses Worth Planning For
Kidd isn’t slowing down. If anything, the next few years represent the most exciting stretch of new openings on his career timeline.
Loraloma (Opened Fall 2025)
Austin, Texas
Kidd’s first course in the South opened in late 2025 to considerable buzz, and early reviews have been exceptional. Set along the rocky bluffs of the Pedernales River about 30 miles west of Austin, Loraloma is the boldest golf experiment Texas has seen in years. Kidd carved a links-style layout into rugged Hill Country terrain, which sounds impossible until you see it. More than half the holes trace clifftops above the river, and the all-Zoysia playing surfaces deliver the firm, fast, run-out conditions Kidd is known for.
Streamsong White (Expected Fall 2026)
Bowling Green, Florida
This is the opening golf architecture fans have been waiting for. Streamsong Resort in central Florida is already home to three of the country’s best public-access courses—Tom Doak’s Blue, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s Red, and Gil Hanse’s Black. Kidd is now adding a fourth. Construction began in early 2025, with an expected opening in fall 2026. When it’s complete, Streamsong will be the only resort in the world with courses from all four of the game’s most influential modern architects. If you’re planning a Streamsong trip, it may be worth waiting a little longer.
River Ranch Golf Resort (Expected August 2027)
Pasco, Washington
The newest project in the DMK pipeline, and by Kidd’s own description, another “unicorn.” River Ranch is a public destination resort taking shape on the bluffs above the Snake River in southeastern Washington, about 20 minutes from the Tri-Cities Airport. Kidd has promised fescue fairways and dramatic elevation changes. Overnight cottages and a clubhouse are part of the plan. Mark your calendars.
Pack Your Clubs and Ship Them Ahead
Whether you’re heading to Bandon, Gamble Sands, Sand Valley, or anywhere else on the DMK trail, one thing holds: these courses deserve to be played with your own clubs.
ShipSticks delivers directly to the resort so your clubs arrive before you do, ready to go. David McLay Kidd has spent 30 years making sure the golf is worth the journey. ShipSticks makes getting there easy.
