A year after earning Golf Digest’s Best New Course for Stonehouse, Mike Strantz struck again with Royal New Kent, named the magazine’s 1997 Best New Upscale Public Course. Just a short drive west of Stonehouse yet stylistically its opposite, Royal New Kent channels the spirit of links across the British Isles. The opener—a lively par 4—offers one fairway corridor in plain view and another tucked behind a dune, setting the tone for a front nine rich with options, especially holes four through eight that ripple across a serene, heathland-like stretch. The zigzagging par-5 10th is another standout. While some later holes feel constrained by surrounding development, Strantz compensates with clever angles, hidden targets, and playful deception—manufacturing intrigue where the site gave him less to work with. Reopened under new ownership in 2020, the course now sits among the state’s elite, currently ranked 12th.