Front Nine

New Kids on the Tee Block

Nine courses recently deemed ready for play

In case you’ve already played all the more than 30,000 golf courses around the world, the good news is that new ones are still opening every year despite a slowdown in the golf boom — though a growing percentage of new venues are located outside the United States. Following are nine great recent debuts. By the time you’ve traveled to play these, we’ll have another crop for you.

Going to School on a Putt
John Harbottle III designed an exciting syllabus for the Palouse Ridge Golf Club at Washington State University, five hours east of Seattle. The environmentally responsible 7,308-yard layout carves through nearly treeless hills and incorporates swirling breezes, 100-foot elevation changes, 49 shaggy-edged bunkers, and two lakes. Home to the university’s golf teams, it’s sure to test your golf faculties as well. palouseridge.com

The Sound of One Glove Clapping
About an hour from Ontario, Calif., Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest’s Journey at Pechanga course begins — like all Zen journeys — with one tee shot, er, step. Forrest describes the layout like this: “The journey starts out at the base of a large mountain, crosses the Pechanga River, a dry wash where I have not yet seen any water, then basically sets off into the sky.” The 488-yard sixth hole alone drops 175 feet from tee to green. journeyatpechanga.com

What’s Old Is New
South of Portland, Maine, golf course architect Brian Silva outlasted several developers who tried and failed to make a go of what is now, finally, the Shadow Ridge Golf Club. Silva emulated such golden-age architects as C. B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor in creating this semiprivate course across flat terrain pocked with wetlands and seven ponds. The 14th hole presents a drivable par 4. sundayrivergolf.com

Great Dane
Lübker Golf Resort in Djursland, 3.5 hours from Copenhagen, is the first real estate golf course in Denmark — and 95 percent of the homes sold out before construction even began. Robert Trent Jones II routed this course amid gently rolling hills, ponds, and a natural stream and used the sandy soil to create waste areas reminiscent of Pine Valley. Huge stands of birch, maple, and pine insulate the holes and create vertical hazards. lubker.com

Moorish or Lessish
A couple of hours south of Lisbon, Portugal, Amendoeira Golf Resort features new courses by Nick Faldo and Christy O’Connor Jr. Faldo got the dry site and incorporated cacti, wild herbs, oak and olive trees, and crushed-limestone bunkers. O’Connor’s terrain features rich valley soil, lakes, and streams and encompasses orange groves and Moorish-style walls at the 13th green. oceanicogolf.com

I’ll See You in Chambers
If you play the new Chambers Bay golf course, outside Seattle, you’ll be holding court on the youngest course ever selected to host a U.S. Open event (in 2015). This Robert Trent Jones II links course on Puget Sound, built on the former site of a gravel quarry, distills the essence of the best Scottish and Irish seaside layouts. Brad Klein wrote in Golfweek, “Chambers Bay is the most carefully crafted and well-designed municipal golf course to open since Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in 1936.” chambersbaygolf.com

Eight Is Enough
It might be auspicious to card a “snowman” on the 8th hole of Palmilla Resort in Beijing, which opened on the first day of the Olympics — the eighth day of the eighth month in the century’s eighth year. The 36-hole complex might inspire birdies with its views of the Olympic stadium, aka the Bird’s Nest. asiangolfexplorer.com

Golf Package
Built along a historic mail route between Missouri and San Francisco, Butterfield Trail Golf Club gives fresh meaning to the concept of “airmailing” a drive. The Tom Fazio layout outside El Paso, Texas, routes through natural dunes. Part of the original trail actually runs through the course, and holes are named for old stagecoach stops. butterfieldtrailgolf.com

What’s Mayan Is Yours
The Golden Bear encounters El Jaguar 10 minutes from Mérida, on the Yucatán Peninsula. The newest Mexican course design from Jack Nicklaus, at the Yucatán Country Club and Resort, features holes representing the months of the Mayan calendar (there were 19, so this must include the clubhouse bar). Two holes play around Mayan ruins. yucatangolf.com

Getting There: All the destinations covered in “Front Nine” can be reached by flying Continental Airlines. To book your trip, contact Continental Airlines Vacations at covacations.com.