Contributor Larry Olmsted compiled the list based on unusual location, historical significance, and the amount of work necessary to transform traditionally unattractive sites (flat desert wasteland, clay and copper mines, and a former cement factory) into acclaimed golf courses.

  Streamsong Resort, Polk County, Fla., promises to provide visitors with a getaway destination that offers amenities and activities that will embrace the landscape of the state’s historic heartland when it opens in the fall of 2013. Situated on 16,000 acres of land, Streamsong will be home to two highly distinctive 18-hole golf courses, more…