Sutton Bay Golf Course

Sutton Bay is a remote private golf, hunting and fishing retreat set on a former cattle ranch on the bluffs above Lake Oahe, the Missouri River reservoir north of Pierre. Australian architect Graham Marsh routed the original course through basins and dunes toward the shoreline, and it opened in 2003 to wide acclaim for its dramatic, treeless links character. A serious problem followed: within a few years the unstable shale ground near the lake began slipping, and holes started sliding down the ledge toward the water. Rather than abandon the site, the club brought Marsh back to build an entirely new eighteen atop the adjacent canyon rim, which opened around 2013. That replacement layout preserved the wild, wind-swept setting that makes Sutton Bay one of the most distinctive courses on the Great Plains.