Recognition
America's 50 Greatest Golf Retreats
Golf Digest Index; Winter 2006 - 2007
Graham Marsh took acres of a South Dakota cattle ranch and turned it into the state's best golf course.
Best New Private Course of 2004
Golf Digest; January 2005
Other than a preliminary routing, Marsh prepared no blueprints and instead took a hands-on approach to field-designing every hole, which took 18 months. "That's why he played so poorly [in 2002]," Amundson says. "He would fly in on Sunday night and not leave for the next tournament until Wednesday night." Building a course without architectural plans was a new experience for everyone involved. "We spent a lot of time just trying to understand the site, its topography, its views, its potential," Marsh says. "We didn't want to impose anything artificial onto the site. We were determined to get the maximum out of the land."
America's Best
Golfweek; March 2005
At No. 13, the private Sutton Bay Club, 40 miles north of Pierre, is the highest-debuting Modern course. Designed by [Graham] Marsh, a Champions Tour player from Australia, Sutton Bay sits on bluffs overlooking the Missouri river. The 5,000-acre site was transformed by club developer Mark Amundson into a hunting, fishing, and golf retreat.
One of the Ten Best New Courses in the U.S.
The Golfer Magazine; The Best in the World, 2004
Most golf courses are like wine, requiring time and the subtle ministrations of nature to comfortably settle into their surroundings and to soften their rough edges. Still, certain wines are ready to be enjoyed at a younger age. So too the finest of the new courses, like Beaujolais Nouveau, have character that is immediately and undeniably unique.
High Plains Dazzler
Links Magazine; April 2004
[...] Sutton Bay has even improved on the formula. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s design at Sand Hills features returning nines, while Sutton Bay is a more authentic out-and-back routing in which the ninth green and 10th tee are nestled right up against a boundary fence. Its other leg up is the presence of Lake Oahe, a portion of the Missouri River dammed in the 1960s and visible from all 18 holes. Indeed, the “lake”—which is big enough (three miles wide, 230 miles long) to conjure its own weather systems—provides a visual presence at Sutton Bay which arguably exceeds that of the Pacific Ocean at either Bandon Dunes layout.
Home on the Range; The Rugged Splendor of Sutton Bay
The Golfer; Design 2004
The setting is startling and grand — the wild pitch-and-tumble of the remote High Plains breaks upon the steel waters of Lake Oahe, and the austere yellow of the prairie grasses collides with emerald fairways and greens. Sweeping fairway vistas, cavernous bunkers and bold green complexes converge with an excellent strategic routing to make Sutton Bay one of the most surprising great designs in recent memory.
Design Build: A Better Way To Do It
Golf Course News; April 2004
"The property offered a panorama of massive dunes abutting Lake Oahe, a 200-mile-long reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River," Bill Kubly, chief executive officer of golf course builder Landscapes Unlimited, says. "It was an extraordinary opportunity, but we knew the team had to be on the same page. The goal of using a turnkey design-build approach was to speed up the process. Missing a season meant losing opportunity."
Sutton Bay Shines Among Dramatic Landforms in Spacious South Dakota
Travel Golf; October 2004
The day I played the Sutton Bay Golf Club weightless, fleecy-white clouds dappled a steel blue sky. For as far as I could see, Lake Oahe glistened, glowed, and fanned itself around the far-away mustard coloured hills on the other side. Save for the flagsticks, the checkerboard fairways that swerved through the boulder-scattered hills, there was no sign of man. I was the only one out there. It was surreal, one of the dreamiest golf experiences I've ever had.
Course Critic
GolfDigest.com; October 26, 2003
I'll suggest that it'll someday merit serious consideration for a spot on America's 100 Greatest. It has that potential, given its wide range of shotmaking challenges, its bold greens, flashy bunkering and grand vistas. In other words, it has "It" all. Which makes it an "It Course."
Sutton Bay: The Architect's Story
Golf Architecture: Journal of the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects; Issue 7, 2004
Golf is a game of a lifetime and along with this comes the opportunity to experience over time the many arenas in which golf is played. There are holes at Sutton Bay which are classic and never reproducible simply because of the environment in which they exist. It is a golfing experience and memorable journey from the time stand on the first tee and witness a view unparalleled on any American golf course. The final tee shot is a culmination of all that has been before and I am confident that memories of shots played and views sighted will be etched in the mind forever.
Full article not available electronically. Click here to visit the Golf Architecture site
The Greatest Golf Holes in the World: 16th Hole at Sutton Bay
Today's Golfer; March 2004
This gem is the jewel in the crown of a spectacular new layout carved out of the dramatic landscape of the old prairies of South Dakota — surely on of America's most unique prices of golfing territory. Visually and playing-wise, the hole is a classic. One day you can be hitting driver and a fairway wood to reach it, while on others it can be a driver and a medium or even a short iron.
Full article not available electronically. Click here to visit the Today's Golfer site
Development of the Year; Private Course Under $5 Million Construction Cost
Golf Inc.; December 2004
This exclusive private club was designed as a rustic yet elegant sportman's getaway, with fishing, hunting, sporting clays, horseback riding and hiking available in addition to the championship golf course. [...] the results were outstanding. "It was terrific use of the natural surroundings," said competition judge Todd Aterburn.
Full article not available electronically. Click here to visit the Golf Inc. site
Golf: Designs on Offering Fair Game
The New Zealand Herald; January 7, 2005
Located on majestic plains and perched high above the Missouri River in South Dakota, Sutton Bay has been developed on a historic cattle ranch that has grazed herds, including the buffalo used in the film "Dances with Wolves." The 6500m championship course features spectacular elevation changes, natural green sites and fairways carved amongst the magnificent landforms [...]