America's 75 best golf resorts

Pasatiempo is arguably Alister MacKenzie's favorite design. He lived along its sixth fairway during his last years. With its elaborate greens and spectacular bunkering fully restored by Jim Urbina, it’s a prime example of MacKenzie's art. The five par 3s are daunting yet delightful, culminating with the 181-yard over-a-canyon 18th. The back nine is chock full of other great holes: 10, 11, 12 and 16 all play over barrancas. The storied course has hosted two USGA championships: the 1986 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 2004 U.S. Senior Women's Amateur. In 2014, Pasatiempo received a Golf Digest Green Star environmental award for its measures in dealing with drought. Today, water worries are in the past, in part because of a new storage tank that allows the club to capture and store recycled water. Urbina's last greens restoration, completed in late 2024, has resurrected lost hole locations throughout the course, and the club will maintain them at slightly slower speeds to embrace the brilliant contours MacKenzie designed. The Inn at Pasatiempo, a past Golf Digest Editors' Choice winner, is a charming lodging option with a retro 1950s facade, across the road from the front nine of one of MacKenzie's finest designs.

We-Ko-Pa boasts two of the best public courses in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, the Cholla and Saguaro, a previous honoree on Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public. The Coore and Crenshaw designs incorporate all the typical traits of a desert course while maintaining a traditional, walkable feel. The Saguaro features wide, forgiving fairways and greens situated close to the following tees. Similar to Coore and Crenshaw standouts like Bandon Trails, Sand Hills, Friar’s Head and Old Sandwich, We-Ko-Pa is a vibrant expression of the unique site, tracing its natural movements and siideslopes and providing 360-degree views of four surrounding mountains: Superstition, McDowell, Mazatzal and the Four Peaks.

The Highlands, located in Harbor Springs and formerly known as BOYNE Highlands, offers four 18-hole layouts, including the Heather course, which is a former member of our 100 Greatest and 100 Greatest Public lists. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. design sits at the base of the resort’s ski slopes and offers a stern ball-striking test, with tree-lined doglegs and water hazards demanding accuracy. The resort also just opened a new Ray Hearn-designed nine-hole short course called Doon Brae playing beneath the ski lifts and a Himalayas-style putting course, The Back Yaird, for yet more golf offerings.

The recently renovated, sandstone-faced Curio by Hilton lodging is fully integrated into perhaps the most dramatic rock formations in Arizona, which also served as backdrops to holes on two Jay Morrish-designed courses, the North and South. The South is a par-71 championship course known for its natural beauty and intricate layout among the Sonoran Desert foothills. As players navigate boulder formations and elevation changes throughout their rounds, they are likely to spot some unique wildlife: bobcats, coyotes and even javelina lurk among the scenic desert terrain. In June 2022, the course broke ground on a four-month bunker and greens renovation project. The greens, in addition to being expanded to their original shape and size, were resurfaced with TifEagle Bermuda. The older of the two 18-hole courses at the Boulders, the North Course presents stunning views of Black Mountain as it weaves throughout the rugged desert landscape. The North, also designed by Morrish, boasts bentgrass greens and several holes that are nestled tightly within ancient rock formations.

Caledonia was Mike Strantz’s first solo design in 1994, and his creativity shines on this golf-only, oak-dotted, sand-dune parcel abutting the marshes and rice paddies of Pawley’s Island. The design is ordered and composed, twisting low through the heavy tree canopy while setting up classic hole strategies into angled greens. There are touches of Pete Dye and just enough quirk to suggest something more intense and experimental brewing under the surface. Two musts: The chowder at the turn, and a drink on the porch behind the 18th hole. A stay-and-play at Caledonia and its sister course, True Blue, also designed by Strantz, should be at the top of your list for Myrtle Beach getaways.

Golf design is about transforming land. Sometimes it’s a native piece of soil, and in other cases, the subject is an existing course. In the late 1950s, Robert Trent Jones was hired to take a somewhat benign and toothless layout built in the 1920s for employees of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and toughen it up for the 1960 PGA Championship, much like what he did in turning Oakland Hills South into a “monster” prior to the 1951 U.S. Open. At Firestone, he added dozens of bunkers, closed off green fronts, lengthened it to over 7,000 yards and installed several new water hazards. If complaints from the pros about its difficulty were an indication, the remodel was a profound success. Over the decades, the tree-lined South Course, still a demanding tournament venue, has gained the respect of the best players who appreciate its unambiguous demands and ability to identify the best ball-strikers. Now it’s accessible to the public, who can reserve rooms and rounds through new stay-and-play packages.

The linchpin of the famous four-course complex previously known as Doral Golf Resort, the Blue Monster had hosted a PGA Tour event annually from 1962 to 2016. The fearsome layout was designed by Dick Wilson in 1962 and set the template for the modern south Florida course with lakes galore, deep bunkers and greenpads elevated above the fairways for drainage and aerial target golf. Several questionable renovations in the 1990s and early 2000s moved it away from the original Wilson look, and the design was lost for a period of time. Always intended to be a course presenting shot-making demands for good players, the Blue Monster was given added bite by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner through the creation of new slopes and ridges on several holes and the excavation of new lakes on the par-3 15th and drivable par-4 16th to add more excitement to the finish. They wisely left the legendary 18th nearly untouched. Why mess with history? The changes were completed shortly before the PGA Tour took the course out of its annual location. Now in 2026, Trump National Doral will reenter the tour's rotation with the Cadillac Championship coming to Miami two weeks before the PGA Championship.

Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course, just 30 minutes from Spokane, Wash., is known for its floating green and is one of the best golf experiences in the Pacific Northwest. A classic mahogany boat can take resort guests across the lake to the golf course, where guests are met by their forecaddie, who typically has the guest’s clubs already loaded on the luxurious carts. Carts feature a cooler, a trash can, heated seats, a trunk and ball washer. Plus, a massage therapist is available on the range to provide a warm-up massage in case you’d like one.

Pine Needles used to lurk quietly in the Pinehurst background before the USGA chose to put it in their regular women’s championship rotation. It got another big boost in 2017 after Kyle Franz reworked portions of the course, putting the Pinehurst touch on the borders, cross hazards and bunkers. Though it lacks the intimacy and connectivity of its sister course, Mid Pines, with the holes wandering far afield due to a being part of a 1920s residential development, it’s grown into a big, championship worthy course (most recently hosting the 2019 Senior Women’s Open and 2022 U.S. Women’s Open) with arguably the best set of greens after No. 2.

Edgewood Tahoe is one of golf’s most televised courses as the annual host of the American Century Championship. It also holds the distinction of being the only course in Nevada to have held a USGA championship, hosting a U.S. Senior Open and a U.S. Amateur Public Links in the 1980s. Once a member of Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Courses, Edgewood Tahoe is as telegenic as they come with fairways framed by stately pines, greens flanked by sparkling ponds and several holes positioned on Lake Tahoe, including the final three. At over 6,000 feet elevation, the ball flies roughly 10 percent further than sea level.

Situated between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles is the idyllic Ojai Valley Inn and golf course. Originally opened in 1923, the resort and golf course perfectly embody the laidback California lifestyle as the property sits in a stunning lush mountain valley with breathtaking views. The luxury resort boasts a 31,000-square-foot luxury spa, Michelin-star dining sourced with homegrown ingredients and access to a George C. Thomas Jr. and Billy Bell original golf course. Famous for their work at courses such as Riviera, Los Angeles Country Club and Bel-Air, Thomas’ and Bell’s spectacular original design was unfortunately in play for only a decade due to the Great Depression and the United States involvement in World War II. The current iteration of the golf course was crafted by Jay Morrish in the 1980s with amendments made by his son Carter in 1998 who reimplemented versions of two Thomas and Bell originals that were reclaimed by land during the war. The course features scenic views into the surrounding mountains and tumbling fairways framed by ancient oak trees and dense barranca. The standout hole at the Ojai Valley Inn course is Carter Morrish’s redesign of the Thomas and Bell original third hole, now the par-3 16th, played on a dramatic mountainside to a sloped green protected by a host of bunkers.

TPC San Antonio’s Oaks course has hosted the Valero Texas Open since 2010. Playing through the dry outlands north of the city, the Greg Norman design is one of the most strategically compelling courses on tour with aggressive bunkering, some wonderful short par 4s and several uniquely demanding par 5s, including the 18th, one of the most underrated and frustrating closing holes the professionals play. The resort boasts 36 holes, including the Canyon course designed by Pete Dye. And the luxurious accommodations also include a nine-acre water park with a 1,100-foot lazy river.

Donald Ross' design at Grove Park leverages the rolling terrain very well with holes that traverse up the mountain and many that go down. The rough and the undulating greens provide some difficulty even though the course measures only 6,700 yards from the back tees (par 70). The backdrop of the N.C. mountains and the historic Grove Park Inn are beautiful and provide for a lovely environment with which to play.

Aviara, part of an upscale Hyatt resort, has held the LPGA's JTBC Classic (formerly the Kia Classic) for the past nine years. The only Arnold Palmer design in the area, this resort course meanders through rolling hillsides and is landscaped with native Southern California wildflowers.

Formerly home to the PGA Tour’s WGC match-play event, the Saguaro and Tortolita nines feature guarded greens with some of the wildest contours Team Nicklaus has created, making the approach targets quite small. The Saguaro side lines a vast cactus forest, while the Tortolita sneaks through a secluded canyon. A natural stadium-like bowl surrounds the final green of the Tortolita, the perfect setting for matches that come down to the wire.

The Ocean Course might have a much different reputation in the world of golf had it hosted the Ryder Cup, which it was scheduled to do in 1939 before it was cancelled due to World War II. Ponte Vedra Inn & Club’s Ocean course—though a bit of a misnomer since there are no ocean views—is a unique and creative routing with high shot options and impeccable conditioning. This is a very demanding test with the wind being very prevalent. The greens are somewhat forgiving, as if they were too demanding with the potential weather conditions, this would be nearly impossible to score. An absolute gem and must play at this great, historic inn.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:

Back in mid-1980s, George Bryan, who ran Bryan Foods, now part of Sara Lee Corp., created Old Waverly Golf Club in tiny West Point, Miss., a Bob Cupp/Jerry Pate design and former U.S. Women’s Open host that to me is a bit underrated. In the early 2000s, Bryan bought an old dairy farm (Knob Hill Dairy) across the highway and hired Gil Hanse to give him an Old School public golf course.

George named it Mossy Oak, after a West Point company of the same name that supplies outdoor camouflage gear. (The company has a 10-percent interest in the course.) He was going to call it Howlin' Wolf after a legendary blues singer born in West Point, but his heirs wanted too much money.

Hanse got the job before he was awarded the Rio Olympics design in 2012, and it was the first project he tackled after completing his work in Brazil. The site footprint is smaller than Old Waverly across the road, but except for some cottages along No. 10, there's no residential on Mossy Oak, so the course feels more expansive.

Explore our complete review here—including bonus photography and ratings from our expert panelists.

One of Texas' best golf resorts is the Omni Barton Creek, located just 25 minutes outside of Austin. The resort features four 18-hole designs, and the highest-ranked layout is the Fazio Canyons design, a former Golf Digest America's 100 Greatest Public winner. This signature Tom Fazio design, which offers scenic views of Austin’s Hill Country, recently underwent an extensive renovation.

The famed home of the WM Phoenix Open boasts probably the most well-known stadium hole in golf: the par-3 16th. Tiger Woods' hole-in-one in 1997 put it on the map for casual fans, who now flock to Scottsdale during Super Bowl week. The layout has architectural merit, too, with its risk-and-reward-filled back nine. The late Tom Weiskopf, who designed the course with Jay Morrish, oversaw a series of renovations of the course—making tweaks to please the tour player and resort guest alike.

A short 30-minute drive from Vail’s airport is the Beaver Creek Resort and village. Perhaps best known for being a world-renowned ski resort, Beaver Creek Resort turns into a golf and outdoor enthusiasts paradise when summer rolls around. The European-themed resort and village includes 12 lodging options and over 20 dining choices with boutique shopping and a premier member-only golf course at Beaver Creek Golf Club as well as at Red Sky Ranch and Golf Club. The Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed golf course at Beaver Creek Club opened in 1982 and is built over naturally undulating valleys bordered by dense trees and Beaver Creek itself. Select properties within the Beaver Creek resort are granted access to the exclusive Red Sky Golf Club, located above the resort village, and home to the Tom Fazio and Greg Norman courses. The Fazio course opened in 2002 and is known for its difficult par 3s and greensites protected by sprawling sage meadows, dense groves of Aspen trees and breathtaking views across the valley to Vail mountain’s backbowls. Debuting a year later, the Norman course is the more challenging of the two and features naturally sloping fairways that snake through wild flowers groves and ancient trees that distract the player from the over 400 feet of elevation change throughout the round.

Originally private, the Stadium Course (the original 18 at PGA West) was among the rota of courses for the old Bob Hope Desert Classic until some pros, objecting to its difficulty, petitioned to remove it (it’s now back). It's Pete Dye at his rambunctious best, with a finish mimicking his later design at TPC Sawgrass: a gambling par-5 16th (called San Andreas Fault), a short par-3 17th to an island green and an intimidating par-4 18th with water all the way to the green. Though hideous in its difficulty and aesthetics by 1980s standards (it was can't miss television when it hosted the 1987 Skins Game), it's matured into a noble piece of architecture that represents the tail end of Dye's extreme middle phase. In 2024, Tim Liddy, a protégé of Dye, returned to PGA West to perform a restoration to return putting surfaces and bunker complexes to their original dimensions, as well as grassing the greens in more drought-tolerant TifEagle bermuda.

Torrey Pines sits on one of the prettiest golf course sites in America, atop coastal bluffs north of San Diego with eye-dazzling views of the Pacific. Rees Jones’ remodeling of the South Course in the early 2000s not only made the course competitive for the 2008 U.S. Open (won by Tiger Woods in a playoff over Rocco Mediate), but it also brought several coastal canyons into play for everyday play, especially on the par-3 third and par-4 14th. An annual PGA Tour stop, Torrey Pines received another boost by Jones prior to hosting its second U.S. Open in 2021, this one won by Jon Rahm.

The pinnacle of luxury and relaxation can be found in the San Diego foothills at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar and its golf course the Grand Golf Club. With European and Mediterranean-style rooms, suites and villas set on over 400 acres of the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve and natural area, the resort is a blissful natural getaway. The Fairmont is home to a recently renovated five-star spa as well as six unique dining experiences highlighted by Addison, the first Michelin three-star restaurant in San Diego. Partnered with the resort is the members-only Tom Fazio-designed Grand Golf Club opened in 1999 and features subtly undulating fairways guarded tightly by canyon walls and thick trees. Perfectly maintained green complexes give way to stunning views into the Los Peñasquitos reserve creating idyllic picturesque moments. The Grand Club is highlighted by its dramatic and intimidating par 3s at the sixth and 17th holes, as well as the standout par-4 finishing hole played over a waterfall with the 50,000 square foot clubhouse in the backdrop.

La Quinta Resort & Club attracted Hollywood’s biggest stars to the Coachella Valley 100 years ago, and the resort still remains one of golf’s most tranquil, elegant experiences with nearly 800 rooms and access to five golf courses. Pete Dye built two courses for the recently acquired La Quinta Hotel in 1980, then was brought back as the development expanded to include the PGA’s western headquarters, now known as PGA West, housing the Pete Dye Stadium Course, billed as the toughest course when it opened, hosting Q-school for years and now the home of The American Express (the old Bob Hope Desert Classic).  

Pete Dye’s mountaintop design, Golf Digest’s 2009 Best New Public winner, established that at age 80 the designer still had fresh ideas, including rumpled chipping swales, country-lane cart paths and volcano bunkers. Measuring just over 8,100 yards from the tips, Pete Dye at French Lick is not the first course over 8,000 yards to land on our rankings. That would be, in 1967, the original 8,040-yard Runaway Brook in Massachusetts, later turned into the 8,325-yard Pines Course at The International Golf Club (and now completely remodeled by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, nowhere near 8,000 yards). The world’s longest is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in China at 8,548 yards, not counting Australia's Nullarbor Links, a course that stretches 1,365 kilometers with each hole stretched out in a different town along a highway. The yardage may be a talking point, but what golfers will remember about Dye's French Lick course are the multi-mile views in all directions and the roominess of the fairways and greens that hang out over the edges of the sweeping land formations.

Situated between Birmingham and Montgomery, FarmLinks is a Michael Hurdzan/Dana Fry layout at Pursell Farms, a Golf Digest Editors’ Choice resort at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The FarmLinks layout continually switches scenes, moving from meadows to woods to rugged foothills and back into the meadows. The course is also an agronomist laboratory with spacious fairways, tees and wavy greens planted with different strains and combinations of Zoysia and Bermudagrass, so visiting turf managers can study how they grow across the site's different microclimates. But the fun is in the design and the journey through the vast, serene property, highlighted by an eccentric variety of par 3s that include the memorable fifth with one of the steepest drops in the U.S., a picturesque swan dive of almost 175 feet from tee to green.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:

I've always been fascinated by the design of Bay Hill, Arnold Palmer's home course for over 45 years (although Tiger Woods owns it, competitively-speaking, as he's won there eight times.) For one thing, it's rather hilly, a rarity in Florida (although not in the Orlando market) and dotted with sinkhole ponds incorporated in the design in dramatic ways.

I always thought the wrap-around-a-lake par-5 sixth was Dick Wilson's version of Robert Trent Jones's decade-older 13th at The Dunes Club at Myrtle Beach. Each of the two rivals had claimed the other was always stealing his ideas. But the hole I like best at Bay Hill is the par-4 eighth, a lovely dogleg-right with a diagonal green perched above a small circular pond. OK, I admit that it reminds me of the sixth at Hazeltine National, another Trent Jones product, but I don't think Wilson picked Trent's pocket on this one, as both courses were built about the same time, in the early 1960s.I should pause here to point out that I have always given credit to Wilson (who died in 1965, four years after it opened) for the design of Bay Hill, going all the way back to the book I co-authored with Geoff Cornish, The Golf Course, first published in 1981. But the authorship of Bay Hill has been contested, and therein lies a story.

It starts with a call I received in late 1983 from Thomas F. Barnes, Jr., a Florida real estate developer, who saw my book and called to tell me that I had it wrong. Dick Wilson didn't design Bay Hill, Barnes said. He designed it, and Wilson merely reviewed his design, suggested a change and loaned him an associate, Bob Simmons, to construct the course.

Explore more about Bay Hill with our complete review here—including bonus photography and ratings from our expert panelists.

The lush, tree-lined SentryWorld won Golf Digest's first-ever Best New Public award in early 1984, but never made our 100 Greatest Public ranking until 2017, as the highest-ranking newcomer. A few years ago, Trent Jones Jr. partner Bruce Charlton and their former associate Jay Blasi remodeled SentryWorld, rerouting four holes and adding a new par-3 12th and par-4 13th, but they preserved the famous "Flower Hole," the par-3 16th which uses petunias, snapdragons, marigolds, geraniums and other annuals grown on site as decorative hazards. The flower beds are treated as lateral hazards. A more recent renovation by RTJII's team focused on preparing the course for the 2023 U.S. Senior Open. In an age when almost every renovation consists of enlarging fairway space to provide players better angles for more recoverability for mishits, SentryWorld went the opposite direction, narrowing its landing zones, enhancing roughs and converting a number of chipping areas into maintained bluegrass. Sub-Air systems were also installed under the greens. The alterations proved formidable as Bernhard Langer fended off Wisconsinites Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly to win the Open. SentryWorld has previously hosted several other USGA championships, including the 2019 U.S. Girls' Junior, where future U.S. Women's Open champion Yuka Saso was the stroke-play medalist.

McLemore is one of the hottest golf resorts in the United States, thanks to the recent opening of its second course, The Keep. While remodeling the original course at McLemore in northwest Georgia, architects Bill Bergin and Rees Jones located an unused strip of heavily wooded land on the precipice of a cliff that drops several hundred feet. They then crafted it into a new hole that Golf Digest would list as the best 18th hole built in the U.S. since 2000. The revelation of that jaw-dropping exposure encouraged the ownership group to explore the rest of their holdings for more golf, which led to the development of The Keep, a new Bergin-Jones course one-and-a-half miles south. Instead of one hole that walks along the clouds, The Keep has five. The rest play through undisturbed inland sections with 50-mile views into north Georgia. Tee times for The Keep are available to guests of the stunning Cloudland at McLemore Resort along with additional stay-and-play packages.

As Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul point out in their massive, comprehensive biography of William Flynn, Seth Raynor was originally consulted about building the Cascades Course, but declared the property insufficient. So the then-relatively unknown William Flynn got the job and made the most of it. The topography of Cascades is magnificent, and its bunkering is superb, particularly the cross-bunkers on the really fine 12th and 13th holes, both strong par 4s. The fourth and eighth are considered two of the great par 3s in the country, and Cascades finishes with another par 3, a rarity among top courses. The Virginia gem has hosted eight USGA championships, including a U.S. Women's Open, a U.S. Amateur and two U.S. Women's Amateurs.

Located on the dramatic windswept cliffs of Northern California, just under an hour from San Francisco, is the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. The resort is home to 260 luxury rooms and suites, three top-rated dining options that source local ingredients for contemporary dishes and a state-of-the-art spa focused on holistic and locally based remedies. The Ritz-Carlton is partnered with Half Moon Bay Golf Links, allowing guests access to the Ocean and Old courses. In 1973, Arnold Palmer and Francis Duane designed the parkland-style Old Course, considered the easier of the two, the course’s fairways that snake through cliffside bluffs offering an occasional view down to the Pacific. The Old Course has the most scenic and perhaps challenging hole on the property at the finishing par 4 with the Pacific Ocean on the right, forcing golfers to carry a hazard into the fairway, and then an approach uphill and often back into a strong wind. Almost 25 years later, Arthur Hills was commissioned to design the links-style Ocean Course, characterized by open driving areas covering steep elevation changes and playing to heavily sloped and windswept greens. The highlight here is the stunning three-hole closing stretch played alongside the Pacific ocean starting with the par-4 16th, dramatic par-3 17th styled after the seventh at Pebble Beach, and finishing at the intimidating risk-reward par-5 18th, snaking around the Pacific and finishing at the base of the resort.

Part of Crosswater was reportedly built in the meadow where John Wayne, as Rooster Cogburn, filmed his climactic charge with guns blazing in the 1969 film, True Grit. The Bob Cupp design is far more subtle than a Wayne Western, with low-profile greens edged by graceful chipping areas and fairways intersected repeatedly by the Big and Little Deschutes rivers. Crosswater was Golf Digest's Best New Resort Course of 1995.

The Dunes Course, as the name implies, flows through a rumpled blanket landscape of the rugged, treeless, windswept sand hills of central Nebraska. Most fairways are generously broad, most greens are perched, tucked or otherwise half-hidden to reward only shots correctly placed at certain angles. The most fascinating hole comes early, the par-4 second with out-of-bounds indicated by a barbed-wire fence hard along the right from tee to green, but other holes like the par-4 eighth with a notch in a dune that gives players a peek-a-boo look at the green as they approach and the multi-option sixth and 13th are just as entertaining.

Troon North is home to two of the best public golf courses in Scottsdale, the Monument and Pinnacle, both designed by Tom Weiskopf. The late designer's routings traverse ravines in the foothills of Pinnacle Peak, providing scenic vistas while also challenging golfers of all levels.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: 

The Tom Weiskopf-designed Forest Dunes in Michigan is a terrific layout on a terrific piece of property, with sand dunes deposited by the nearby Au Sable River and covered with mature pines. But it's not a unique piece of property. When I first played it, I was struck by how much Forest Dunes resembles a Texas course designed by Weiskopf's former partner, Jay Morrish. That course, Pine Dunes in Frankston, Texas, is built on much the same terrain, sand dunes covered in pines. Though they were working at the same time on their respective projects (Forest Dunes was completed in 2000 but didn't open until 2002; Pine Dunes opened in 2001), I don't think Weiskopf or Morrish had any idea that they were working on such similar courses, and I don't think they stole each other's ideas. But it's uncanny how they created kissing-cousin courses.
 

For the complete review on Forest Dunes from Ron Whitten's complete review, click here.

Forest Dunes also boasts The Loop, the clever reversible 18 designed by Tom Doak, as well as The Bootlegger, a new 10-hole pitch & putt by architects Riley Johns and Keith Rhebb.

TPC’s stadium concept was the idea of then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman. The 1980 design was pure Pete Dye, who set out to test the world’s best golfers by mixing the demands of distance with target golf. Most greens are ringed by random lumps, bumps and hollows, what Dye called his "grenade attack architecture." His ultimate target hole is the heart-pounding sink-or-swim island green 17th, which offers no bailout, perhaps unfairly in windy Atlantic coast conditions. The 17th has spawned over a hundred imitation island greens in the past 40 years. To make the layout even more exciting during tournament play, Steve Wenzloff of PGA Tour Design Services later remodeled several holes, most significantly the 12th, which he turned into a drivable par-4, something Dye was never a fan of.

Reynolds Lake Oconee is home to 90 holes of championship golf—with five courses ranked in the top 40 of Golf Digest’s list of the Best Courses in Georgia. The Great Waters course, a fun resort course by Jack Nicklaus, boasts 10 holes along Lake Oconee. The Oconee course earned honors in the Best New Upscale Public Course of 2002 and features views of the lake on five of the holes. The Landing and The Preserve were both designed by Bob Cupp and The National has 18 holes by Tom Fazio. The Creek Club is a private club typically not available to resort guests but also ranked on Golf Digest’s top 40 in state. In addition to other fantastic amenities at Reynolds Lake Oconee, you can’t miss the TaylorMade at The Kingdom at Reynolds Lake Oconee, one of the best equipment experiences in resort golf.

The East Course at the Omni PGA Frisco is one of two courses to open at the new Fields Ranch Golf Club. Alongside the Beau Welling-designed West course is the East, built by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, which measures over 7,800 yards from the championship tees and puts a greater emphasis on driving than the West, demanding length, accuracy and the courage to take on cross-bunkers and central hazards. The greens, perched above bunkers and chipping runoffs, are smaller and require controlled approaches, and the holes of the second nine prowl the basin of Panther Creek. Both courses opened in May 2023, and the East has already hosted the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. It is set to host a number of other prestigious events, including the PGA Championship (2027, 2034), the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (2025, 2031) and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship again in 2029.

Situated on the south shore of Kauai, Poipu Bay is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design that hosted the PGA Grand Slam of Golf from 1994 to 2006. Formerly a member of our 100 Greatest Public ranking, the course plays over 210 oceanfront acres and features wide fairways and large greens, making this a playable layout. There are numerous historical sites on the course, including several ancient Hawaiian heiau—places of worship—and centuries-old handmade stone walls.

The companion to the Norman Course at Red Sky, the Fazio 18 features more elevation change, with the mostly open front nine atop a bluff dotted with hand-planted sage and juniper bushes and the back nine rising in switchback fashion far up a mountain slope through groves of aspen before plunging downhill on the final three holes. The bunkers here are some of Fazio's most elaborate. Both Red Sky Ranch courses have flip-flopped positions on the America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses ranking, but Fazio’s design consistently gets the higher Aesthetics marks.

Can a course ranked this high be a sleeper? The Bluffs Course at Arcadia Bluffs has been overshadowed by Pacific Dunes ever since it finished second to it in the Best New Upscale Public Course race of 2001. And likewise, it’s been second-fiddle to Crystal Downs, a northern Michigan neighbor that every visitor wants to play, even though it’s private, and Arcadia is public. And even by Whistling Straits, the imitation links on the opposite side of Lake Michigan that Arcadia Bluffs resembles, although the sand dunes at Arcadia are natural, not manmade. More recently, the Bluffs faces competition from within, the newly opened sister layout, the South Course at Arcadia Bluffs, designed by Dana Fry in the style of C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor.

Situated on the Big Island’s northwest coast, Mauna Lani’s South course is one of two layouts at the resort. Host of the Champions Skins Game—a former exhibition with top over-50 circuit players—in the 1990s, the South course plays among lava outcroppings with views of the Pacific. The course features two scenic par 3s, including the 15th, which plays over the Pacific to a green set hard against the ocean.

Our highest-ranked course of the three at the Wailea Golf Club, the Gold course is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design on Maui’s southwest coast. The layout has plenty of elevation changes and ocean views, especially on the front nine, which several of our course-ranking panelists have noted is the better of the two sides. The most demanding course of the three at Wailea from tee to green, the Gold has well-placed fairway bunkers and a few forced carries over deep ravines. Though with five sets of tees, there’s a playable option for every handicap. In the early 2000s, the course hosted the Champions Skins Game, an exhibition with some of the best players from the over-50 circuit.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: Golf architects Ron Forse and Jim Nagle, the principals of Forse Golf Design, specialize in remodeling and restoration—Nagle from a base in western Pennsylvania, Forse from his relocated home in south Florida. They’re the perfect odd-couple team. The red-haired freckle-faced Forse, now in his mid-60s, has always looked like director Ron Howard (his childhood nickname was Opie) and is a bundle of nervous energy. Nagle, in his early 50s, looks like a suave leading man from one of Howard’s movies, and is so cool in every situation, I’d never want to play poker against him. Forse graduated from West Virginia in 1979 and after practicing landscape design for a decade, established his course design business in 1989. His first design associate was Bruce Hepner. Nagle, likewise a WVU grad (14 years after Forse), became Hepner's replacement in 1998. Forse has always been a student of classic architecture. He studies green contours the way a bettor studies a racing form, and can describe in remarkable detail the size and shape of a Ross or Tillinghast or Flynn putting surface that he hasn’t seen in half a dozen years. Nagle is the technician, making sure a green patterned from Forse’s memory will work under today’s technology. One of my personal favorites from their portfolio is The Old Course at Bedford Springs at The Omni Bedford Springs Resort in Bedford, Pa., where they rescued the resort's 18 holes from an unharnessed floodplain and years of neglect. (The restored Omni Bedford Springs Hotel is worth a sidebar. Built in 1806, it was in 1855 site of the only U.S. Supreme Court session held outside Washington, D.C. The hotel also served as President Buchanan’s summer White House before the Civil War. It's every bit as impressive as the hotel at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.) The Bedford Springs resort boasts that their course was the work of three “architectural masters”: Spencer Oldham, A.W. Tillinghast and Donald Ross. Oldham was no architectural master. He was simply a Baltimore club pro who staked out the first nine in 1898. Tillinghast and Ross were definitely involved at different times, and remnants of both were still evident when I walked the site back in 1997 after the course had been closed and was overgrown. But it looked to have been a mediocre layout, despite that pedigree. It took Forse and Nagle, a decade later, to turn it into a timeless golf design. In 2006 and 2007, they revitalized it by rebuilding every hole, retaining only a couple of good holes in the process. They kept the 225-yard uphill fourth, which was one of Ross’ most treacherous par 3s ever. It's dubbed “Volcano” because of the location of its green atop a domed hill. (Ross built the hole in 1923 and Walter Hagen soon thereafter declared it one of the best in America.) They also recaptured the spirit of Tillinghast’s 1916 pitch-shot par 3, “Tiny Tim,” played over marsh and pond to a tricky green ringed by knobs and bunkers. But mostly they created new holes in existing corridors that look, feel and play like classic oldies. Every hole at Bedford Springs is now a delight, even the final two that Forse and Nagle fashioned from the previous driving range. (A new range is behind the 15th green.) The par-3 17th, called “Ronnie,” is Forse's nod to a Redan, without the runaway green, while the short, S-shaped par-4 “Home” 18th throws a mix of Tillie and Ross at us, with challenge bunkers, cross bunkers and an elevated, canted green. I especially admire all their greens complexes, some with dramatic slopes, others with subtle rolls, every one of them sized to the appropriate shot and molded to the topography. Their work is so good, I put Bedford Springs a notch ahead of the glorious Old White TPC at The Greenbrier as a must-play resort course. Does that mean I consider Forse and Nagle better architects than C.B. Macdonald, who laid out Old White? No, but they’re great at what they do, and part of what they do is borrow from Macdonald’s playbook. For instance, on the par-5 13th at Bedford, they decided the second landing area needed a bunker, so they built one patterned after the Hell Bunker at St. Andrews. Not as deep, not as frightful, and off to the left side, but still recognizable to golf design fans as Hell Bunker. C.B., who spent his career replicating famous golf holes, would have been flattered.

The winner of Golf Digest’s Best New Course of 2014 award, Gamble Sands sits atop a sprawling, treeless plateau of sandy desert overlooking Washington’s Columbia River Valley. The extremely playable layout is oversized in every respect, with enormously wide and slick fescue fairways, gigantic greens, no rough and some of the most panoramic vistas in the Northwest. In using “friendly contours” that divert shots away from bunkers and toward targets, designer David Kidd wants everybody to have fun. He hopes good players will relish opportunities to score low and high handicappers will post their best rounds ever. With three reachable par 4s on the 18, that’s a possibility. Of course, Gamble Sands was Kidd’s precursor to ideas fleshed out at Mammoth Dunes, currently ranked 165th. The difference is that Gamble Sands is more invigorating off the tee, presenting different lines and degrees of risk, while Mammoth Dunes is more diverse from 100 yards and in.

Located on Beaver Creek mountain above the town of Avon is the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch. One of the most luxurious accommodations in the region, the resort’s convenient location on the mountain offers unparalleled vistas and outdoor recreation access. The list of world-class amenities include a 21,000-square-foot spa with private pools, as well as contemporary culinary choices that include special series from guest chefs as well as the Michelin-recommended WYLD restaurant. The Ritz-Carlton and its guests have access to the members-only Red Sky Ranch Golf Club, home to the Fazio and Norman courses. The courses at Red Sky Golf Club truly encapsulate western Colorado’s golf identity as fairways tumble through native sagebrush, wildflower meadows and groves of Aspen trees as they eventually reveal breathtaking views of the surrounding areas. The Norman course is the harder of the two, featuring stark elevation changes and playing 7,600 yards from the back tees. The Fazio course is set over more subtle terrain and is renowned for its use and incorporation of native ecology and plants, as well as its large and challenging green complexes. 

Located in the little-known but abundant golfing area south of San Jose, the gorgeous CordeValle was a private club when it first opened, but is a high-end resort destination these days, with climbing and descending soft hills dotted by gnarled oaks. It hosted both the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur and PGA Tour's Frys.com Open in 2013 and the U.S. Women's Open in 2016, won by Brittany Lang in a playoff against Anna Nordqvist.

Overhauled by David Love III, Atlantic Dunes is the reconstruction of The Sea Pines Resort’s Ocean Course, Hilton Head’s first golf course. This lowcountry track features water on almost every hole, beautiful Spanish moss-draped oaks and lurking gators, if you look close enough. The seaside feel of the course is accentuated by the native grasses and coquina shells scattered throughout.