Golf architect John Sanford has called the creation of Granite Links Golf Club outside Boston a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” In the early 2000s, Sanford and his team turned two large municipal landfills (and abandoned granite quarries on the site) into a vibrant and award-winning 27-hole golf facility thanks in large part to 13 million tons of fill material that came out of the city’s $24 billion “Big Dig” tunnel and highway project.

That material, 900,000 truckloads worth, was used to cap and close the landfills that were just seven miles from the epicenter of the Big Dig. 

It was also a unique way to save taxpayers money — as the state’s original plan was to haul the material much further away at significant expense — and turn lost land close to downtown Boston into a local landmark. 

The $160 million golf course project wasn’t without its challenges. It required 74 permits from local, state, and federal agencies. The steep slopes or domes posed significant engineering hurdles, among them settling issues, layering challenges and the venting of methane gases from the landfills. But the course was recognized by the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) and is regarded as one of the state’s finest public offerings.

Granite Links is among a growing group of U.S. golf courses that have been built atop former landfills. The list of noteworthy reclamation projects includes high-end private clubs like Bayonne Golf Club in New Jersey and Trinity Forest in Dallas, but the following touches on a handful of top public golf facilities that today look far different from the dumping grounds that preceded them.