Diamond Creek

Diamond Creek Golf Club, a Tom Fazio design, opened in 2003 in a secluded mountain glen near Banner Elk, North Carolina, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The private, invitation-only club was built by entrepreneurs Wayne Huizenga and John McNeely as a relaxed retreat for friends, on land that had once been a sheep ranch. Fazio moved roughly a million cubic yards of earth but placed most of the property's 250 feet of elevation change between the holes rather than on them, keeping the par-72 layout, which stretches to about 7,175 yards, walkable and playable. Its signature is the par-3 seventeenth, whose green sits at the base of a granite wall down which a slender stream tumbles more than 100 feet. Highly ranked among modern American courses, Diamond Creek is prized for its seclusion, immaculate conditioning, and cool-weather mountain escape.