The Broadmoor West Course in Colorado Springs is a classic mountain resort course that plays more difficult than it looks — not because of a punishing design, but because of one maddening phenomenon that the starter warned me about before I even teed off: everything breaks away from the mountain.

The Broadmoor East Course is the older, more storied of the two Broadmoor layouts — a Donald Ross design that dates to 1918 and plays like it. Where the West Course lures you in with stunning mountain views and punishes you with counterintuitive greens, the East Course engages you strategically from the first hole to the last.

If Black Wolf Run is the Pete Dye course that tests your nerve, Meadow Valleys at Kohler is the one that tests your patience. Played the same trip from 6,500 yards, shot an 81 with shots left out there — and walked off wanting another crack at it. That alone separates it from its more punishing sibling down the road.

There are golf courses you play and courses you experience. Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin is firmly in the second category. Host of three PGA Championships and the 2021 Ryder Cup, this is Pete Dye's masterpiece along the Lake Michigan shoreline. After playing courses across the Caribbean, the Midwest, and Florida, Whistling Straits sits at the top of my list — and it earns that spot.

Erin Hills Golf Course in Wisconsin doesn't try to seduce you with beauty. It tries to break you. Host of the 2017 U.S. Open, this is a course built around difficulty — wide fairways that lure you into false confidence, fescue rough that will end your round if you're not careful, elevated greens surrounded by bunkers, and winds that turn a good swing into a bad result without warning.

Black Wolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin is one of those courses that earns your respect before it earns your affection. Winding through the natural landscape along the Sheboygan River, Pete Dye's design is genuinely pretty — and genuinely punishing. I played from 6,500 yards, shot an 85 hitting the ball reasonably well, and lost eight golf balls in the process. That tells you everything you need to know about what you're walking into.