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From our Directory of the most recommended golf courses
Hawktree Golf Club
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This 18 hole, Par 72, 7100 yard course is just 15 minutes northeast of Bismarck, was designed by James Engh, opened in 2000, and is probably the top public course in North Dakota. The course features rolling hills, water features, and native grasses. Visually stunning from the elevation changes to the contrasts of color, each hole is separate and unique. One of its distinctive features is the black sand, or coal slag in the bunkers. It's fine grained like sand, but maybe doesn't provide the spin you usually expect. The greens are large and undulating, protected by numerous bunkers, the fairways framed by the tall grasses, and mounding of the natural terrain. If it wasn't in Bismark, it would be one of my favorite courses.
Published by: paulb
Posted by: Gonzo
May 22nd, 2011
Course is in good early season shape. Greens are large and almost perfect. Fairways and especially the rough need to grow in a little more. Traps are in great shape, unfortunately I was in most of them! Excellent snack bar.
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Posted by: Jim Mullins
Apr 2nd, 2010
Hawktree Golf Club in Bismarck is Jim Engh's second solo design project and his first public effort. Engh, a former North Dakotan, was thrilled to work in his one-time home state. "I grew up riding on a tractor in my dad's lap, so it's nice to close the circle, so to speak, and come back home." The course is unmistakably Engh and, therefore, looks nothing like either Bully Pulpit or Links of North Dakota. Seeking something unique in the golf-design industry, but which would incorporate the same important and traditional design elements from the great courses of the U.K. - wind, ground game, fairway and green undulations, and diagonal or center-line hazards, Engh designed a few holes with side-walled fairways and bowl-shaped green settings (both of which give player-friendly bounces and help keep play moving). He also designed squiggle-shaped "muscle bunkers," this time filled with black slag, a burned coal byproduct, instead of sand. He calls them "muscle bunkers" since the walls of the bunker resemble a flexed bicep. The look proves both fashionable and functional, and Engh has exported his concepts around the country with great success, building widely-acclaimed courses in Arizona's desert, Georgia's tall timber, Colorado's mountains, and Michigan's lake country. Over time, Engh's aesthetic style has become the golf world's version of cubism with its neo-geometricism, and it all began here at Hawktree. Engh has some other recurring themes in his work regarding routing that are present at Hawktree, as well. He loves ending on a par-5 to increase the potential for 18th-hole swings in fortune. He also prefers giving players five par-5s and five par-3s for more diversity throughout the round. As usual for Engh, the par-5s are all showstoppers, the centerpieces of his courses. The fifth is a long dogleg-right, which requires a drive over a diagonal hazard. Then it turns severely uphill, the fairway tapering as you near the green, which sits atop one of the highest hills on the course. No. 7 contains another Engh staple of the design repertoire: an expansive water hazard at the green ringed by a sunburst-shaped bunker to "save" balls so they don't bounce in the water. He has used this hazard successfully at Redlands Mesa (No. 13) and Sanctuary (13) as well. At the closing hole, Engh tucks the green behind left sidewall mound. Approaches from the left are blind and uphill; approaches from the far right are clear. You don't get much of a break on the par-3s. Two are particularly long (the 180-yard eighth and 208-yard 13th) and both involve carries over scrub brush, while another - the 150-yard 15th - is all carry over water. Only the drop-shot third hole, which plays to a green framed by four trees - and offering an expansive view of the hills beyond - provides a breather. Otherwise, the par-3s are like the NCAA men's basketball tournament: Simply "survive and advance." After the fifth, the 430-yard, par-4 12th is the best hole on the course. The downhill drive will reach one of several staggered landing areas. The hole then bends gently to the left to reveal a green set on the edge of a hill overlooking the vale of most of the rest of the back nine, with North Dakota hills beyond. It's a singularly beautiful test that requires your best drive and crispest fairway-metal or long-iron to reach in regulation. This is a stout par-4, yet a charming one as well. 7th at Hawktree; note the black-slag bunker Hawktree gives you a chance to see Engh's earliest work and compare and contrast his style and design features as his work has evolved over time. Hawktree is primordial, yet still vintage Engh. "I wanted to have a style that looked cool, but also made you think the whole way around," he said. "Since it was my second course here in the States and my first public course, the shapes and forms are simpler, and the greens are less complex than courses that came afterwards." Indeed, Hawktree's greens are a little flatter than his later work and are not as varied in shape. They are also the mildest among the courses described here. "Since Hawktree, I've wanted to keep what resonated with both the golfer and with the clients that are asking me to build for them. But I also don't want to be self-indulgent or lose sight of what really energizes people about golf," Engh adds. "Look at Bruce Springsteen. The first three albums are great, but after that he lost me because his music got too caught up in a self-absorbed message and forgot about the music. I simply tried to refine and expand on some ideas that seemed to resonate with golfers at Hawktree, while keeping the unique character of each piece of property on which I get to work. As long as I keep people both excited about the course and thinking on every shot, that's my goal." Hawktree is also by far Engh's easiest public course to walk. It makes one reflect upon exactly how much of the "unwalkable" myth of his courses, such as Redlands Mesa or Lakota Canyon Ranch, is due to their extreme altitude. As it is located just outside of Bismarck, the airlines' gateway to the state, it makes for a great opener and/or closer to your North Dakota trip. For more information about Hawktree Golf Club, visit www.hawktree.com. Design - Five and ½ stars (all ratings out of seven) Natural Setting - Five and ½ stars Conditioning - Six stars Cost - $60 peak, $50 twilight and replay+ cart $15 per person Value - Six stars Overall - Five and ½ stars
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Posted by: JulianB
Mar 24th, 2010
Great golf course up and down, over and under the prairie hills. It was not in the greatest of shape this early in the season, but the fescue bordering the fairways was already starting to grow in. The first hole starts off with a bang, nice drop-off, very few holes are straightforward, most with ponds, wetlands, creeks, doglegs, quite a challenging course and plenty of risk/reward. Will be back later this year to play in peak condition
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