Hawktree Golf Club

Jim Engh's 1999 Hawktree Golf Club, the flagship public course in North Dakota and a top-50 Engh design, routed along Burnt Creek north of Bismarck with eight fairways weaving in and around the creek and three holes built around man-made lakes. Engh's Scottish-links sensibility applied to Great Plains prairie terrain produces something genuinely distinctive. The signature feature is the black sand bunkers, Engh's workaround for North Dakota's lack of white sand (and for the prairie wind, which blows white sand around). The black sand has become the course's visual calling card. Signature holes: the par-3 3rd drops 70 feet from tee to a green tucked between trees and hillside; the par-5 7th plays 569 yards with 100 feet of elevation drop tee-to-green. #2 Best New Affordable Public Courses in America by Golf Digest (2000). #71 on Golfweek's 100 Best Modern Courses (2001). Travel + Leisure Golf #3 'Most Bang For Your Buck' (2002). Currently #2 North Dakota on Golf Digest's Best Courses (2025-26). A bucket-list Engh round.