One of the top examples of great architecture available to all, Lawsonia’s Links Course was built by the relatively unheralded Langford & Moreau toward the end of America’s best era of design. The course represents the best parts of the Golden Age as well as a few trends of the next era of architecture, specifically with regard to earthmoving capabilities. Lawsonia Links has served a number of purposes through the years, including as a summer-vacation golf course and a prison for POWs during World War II. Today it’s owned by the American Baptist Association.

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Take Note…

Club POW. Guard towers from the POW-prison days can be seen from the course. The first you’ll encounter is behind the second green. POWs were apparently treated well at Lawsonia—so well, in fact, that some of them didn’t want to leave at the end of the war.

Variety in green contouring. One of the most difficult things about building push-up greens like the ones at Lawsonia Links is making each feel distinct from the others. Often greens of this type have repetitive back-to-front slopes, but at Lawsonia, Langford & Moreau figured out many variations on the push-up style. Some even fall away from the line of play.

36 holes. Lawsonia has a second 18 called the Woodlands. Craig Haltom and his firm Oliphant Golf have made substantial progress on this course in recent years, but I’d never, ever pass up a chance to play the Links again. This is not a knock on the Woodlands—more a reflection of how great the Links is.