Shangri-La Golf Club

Shangri-La is a 27-hole resort complex at the tip of Monkey Island on Grand Lake in Afton, Oklahoma, 82 miles north of Tulsa. The property has a complicated history: the original 1964 Shangri-La had faded by the 2000s, and in 2010 investor Eddy Gibbs purchased the resort and spent $35 million restoring it top to bottom. The old courses were gutted and replaced with 27 holes of championship golf, reopening in 2011-2012. The Champions Nine was redesigned by Randy Heckenkemper; the Heritage and Legends nines were designed by Tom Clark. Combined into 18-hole play (any two nines), the Shangri-La routing touches Grand Lake on multiple holes, with water and oak-lined corridors framing the layout. Heckenkemper's Champions nine is the most aggressive of the three, the test that anchors the 27-hole championship course. Shangri-La's 27-hole Championship Course is consistently rated in Oklahoma's top 5, and the full resort promotes itself as a top-five Oklahoma destination. For an Oklahoma Trail itinerary, pair Shangri-La with Dornick Hills (Maxwell 1914 restored by Tom Doak) for a two-course state tour that spans 100 years of American golf architecture.