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Our new ranking of every PGA Tour course—from best to worst

By Stephen Hennessey and Drew Powell
January 17, 2026
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Courses on the PGA Tour are loved for a variety of reasons. It might be the nostalgia of watching an event at the same venue each year, or a specific memory from a given year that makes golf fans have favorite PGA Tour courses. We’re not here to pick favorites. We took the data from evaluations by our 1,800 course-ranking panelists used to calculate our most recent national and state rankings to determine what are, objectively, the best courses on the PGA Tour.

This ranking combines the scores of the 36 courses part of the 50 states in the United States that will host PGA Tour events in 2026. (Not included are the international events in Canada, Scotland, England, Japan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Bermuda.) There are also a number of new events at courses that haven't held PGA Tour events before, like The Cliffs at Walnut Cove in Asheville, N.C., and Omni Barton Creek in Austin. You can get an early look at those venues below. 

You might be surprised how the architectural merits of a layout don’t always align with the prestige of the tour event played there. Our panelists evaluate courses on six scoring criteria, ranging from Shot Options and Layout Variety to Conditioning and Aesthetics. Also note that we only rank the primary course at multi-course events such as Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach.)

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Scroll on for the complete ranking, and be sure to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography and reviews from our course panelists. We also encourage you to leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … so you can make your case for why a course should be higher or lower on our rankings.

36. TPC Louisiana (Zurich Classic of New Orleans)

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TPC Louisiana
Avondale, LA
3.6
6 Panelists
Home of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans since 2007, this Pete Dye design exudes a flair of TPC Sawgrass with some more low-profile design features like hidden bunkers and green complexes that offer options on approach. Dye had help from fellow tour pros Steve Elkington and New Orleans native Kelly Gibson on this 7,400-yard par-72 layout. Consistently ranked in the top 10 of Golf Digest’s Best in State, TPC Louisiana offers a nice mix of challenging short and long holes.
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35. TPC Twin Cities (3M Open)

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TPC Twin Cities
Blaine, MN
4
6 Panelists
As if destined to be a golf course, TPC Twin Cities was built on the site of a former sod farm. The Arnold Palmer design 15 miles north of Minneapolis/St. Paul has hosted the PGA Tour’s 3M Open since 2019. A past member of our Best in Minnesota list, TPC Twin Cities plays among native prairie grasses and includes 27 bodies of water, notably at the par-5 18th, where a large lake guards the right side of the fairway and the front of the green.
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34. Memorial Park (Texas Children's Houston Open)

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Memorial Park Golf Course
Houston, TX
3.9
12 Panelists
A significant renovation was completed by Tom Doak (in collaboration with Brooks Koepka) to transform the old municipal course at Memorial Park—which hosted the first Houston Open in 1947 and then again from 1951 through 1965—into a layout worthy of being a PGA Tour venue. Originally built in 1912 at a hospital near Camp Logan for recovering soldiers to use, architect John Bredemus redesigned the course in 1935 and added a second nine. Now with signature Doak green complexes and tour-level conditioning, Memorial Park is once again a must-play in the state and averages 60,000 rounds a year.
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33. Detroit Golf Club (Rocket Classic)

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Detroit Golf Club: North
Detroit, MI
4.3
7 Panelists
Donald Ross designed two 18-hole courses at Detroit Golf Club on a tight plot of land in the middle of the city. An extensive renovation project was completed by Bruce Hepner in 2015 to restore the greens and bunkers. Immediately following the 2025 Rocket Classic, the club embarked on another massive renovation, for a reported $16 million, led by Tyler Rae's team to lean into bringing back strategic elements of Ross' design. Most holes are framed by trees and are mostly up and back on flat land, though subtle rumbles in the land provide enough movement to offer strategic value and demanding shotmaking into these Ross greens, which average 5,150 square feet. The results of Rae's work will be seen on the North course when it reopens ahead of the 2026 Rocket Classic, and the South course will come next.
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32. TPC Craig Ranch (The CJ Cup Byron Nelson)

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TPC Craig Ranch
McKinney, TX
3.3
3 Panelists
TPC Craig Ranch, located in the Dallas suburb of McKinney, is a Tom Weiskopf design that plays among gently rolling hills and on the limestone banks of Rowlett Creek, which crosses the course 14 times. In 2020, the course signed a five-year agreement to host the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson. South Korean K.H. Lee captured the first two titles at TPC Craig Ranch, which has surrendered low scoring in each of the three years it's held the event, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
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31. TPC Scottsdale (Stadium) (WM Phoenix Open)

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TPC Scottsdale: Stadium
Scottsdale, AZ
3.9
19 Panelists
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.
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30. TPC River Highlands (Travelers Championship)

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TPC River Highlands
Cromwell, CT
4.3
4 Panelists
TPC River Highlands has a long history hosting the annual Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour, dating back to 1984, when Pete Dye redesigned nine of the existing holes (formerly Edgewood Country Club). Then one of Dye's former associates, Bobby Weed, returned in 1989 to not only renovate the existing course but add holes as part of a newly built home-development project, one of the first of its kind. Weed has continued to return to renovate the course over the years, including most recently a substantial bunker project in 2016.
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29. The Cliffs at Walnut Cove (Biltmore Championship Asheville)

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The Cliffs At Walnut Cove
Arden, NC
4
3 Panelists
The Cliffs at Walnut Cove is a Jack Nicklaus design in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Pisgah National Forest. The course sits over 2,000 feet above elevation with wider playing corridors to be playable for all levels of players, but a number of bunkers that challenge the better players within landing zones. The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, which opened in 2005, will get its first taste of the limelight with a new event on the PGA Tour in 2026 as the kick off event of the fall.
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28. Omni Barton Creek (Fazio Canyons) (Good Good Championship)

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Omni Barton Creek Resort: Fazio Canyons
Austin, TX
4.3
13 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.
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27. TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic)

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TPC Deere Run
Silvis, IL
4.1
13 Panelists
The John Deere Classic began in 1971 as the Quad Cities Open (named for the four cities—Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island and Moline—that border the Iowa and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River, respectively). It moved to its current home, TPC Deere Run, in 2000, a layout designed at that time by former PGA Tour player D.A. Weibring and design partner Steve Wolfard. The architecture is befitting of a course that came off the desk of a tour pro and was calibrated to host a professional event: Though the strength of the field is typically diluted given the tournament’s traditional place on the schedule the week before the Open Championship, it’s a venue the players who participate in the John Deere Classic love.The routing constantly switches directions as it winds through a wooded property near Rock River, and most holes have some degree of left-to-right or right-to-left movement caused by doglegs and bunkers. At just over 7,200 yards and yielding winning scores around 20-under, it’s an attractive test for shorter players who like to work the ball as well as for those in dire need of seeing plenty of birdies on their card. --Derek Duncan
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26. Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead) (Valspar Championship)

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Innisbrook Resort: Copperhead
Palm Harbor, FL
4.2
11 Panelists
The Copperhead course is most famous for hosting the PGA Tour's Valspar Championship every April, but Innisbrook is home to three more championship courses—Island, North and South—with views more like the sand hills of the Carolinas than you might expect in Florida. The Copperhead course is a tough ball-striking challenge with tight, tree-lined fairways and a demanding three-hole finish—known as the Snake Pit—that often makes for dramatic finishes to the annual PGA Tour stop.
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25. PGA National Resort (Champions) (Cognizant Classic)

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PGA National Resort: Champion
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
4
21 Panelists

One of five courses at PGA National, the Champion Course has hosted the Honda Classic since 2007. (The event dates back to 1972, though with Honda pulling out as a tournament sponsor, the event is in question going forward.) Originally designed by Tom and George Fazio for tournament play, Jack Nicklaus redesigned the course in 2014, creating the infamous three-hole stretch aptly named "The Bear Trap." Routinely one of the toughest courses on tour, The Champion is a true ball-striking test that plays a lot differently than most courses, where winning scores push over 20 under par.

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24. Bay Hill Club and Lodge (Arnold Palmer Invitational)

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Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge: Challenger/Champion
Orlando, FL
4.1
24 Panelists

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.

 

Check out our architecture editor's complete review, here.

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23. Sedgefield Country Club (Wyndham Championship)

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Sedgefield Country Club
Greensboro, NC
4.4
5 Panelists
Opened in 1926, Sedgefield Country Club is a Donald Ross design that has been the longtime host of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship. The course co-hosted the inaugural Greater Greensboro Open (today’s Wyndham) in 1938, won by Sam Snead. The tournament has been played at several courses over the years, and Sedgefield has hosted it since 2008. In 2007, the course underwent a $3 million restoration project aimed at transforming the layout back to Ross’ original intent. In typical Ross style, the greens are quite busy, with prominent slopes demanding the player stay below the hole.
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22. TPC Southwind (FedEx St. Jude Classic)

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TPC Southwind
Memphis, TN
3.8
9 Panelists
The Ron Prichard design (with consultation from Hubert Green and Fuzzy Zoeller) has hosted an event on the PGA Tour since 1989, and starting in 2022, it hosts one of the premier events on the PGA Tour schedule, the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Located about a half hour from downtown Memphis on an old dairy farm, TPC Southwind holds its own against the best players in the game, with water coming into play on 11 holes. The par-3 11th hole is perhaps the course's signature hole, featuring a peninsula green that requires a short iron, similar to the 17th at TPC Sawgrass' Stadium course. The hole will be memorable for anyone who watched the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, when Will Zalatoris' tee shot ended up staying dry and wedging itself between the grass, in his playoff victory over Sepp Straka.
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21. Hurstbourne Country Club (ISCO Championship)

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Hurstbourne Country Club
Louisville, KY
3.9
12 Panelists
Hurstbourne Country Club is one of the finest clubs in Kentucky, boasting a course with excellent holes that test a player in a number of ways. The par-4 sixth hole is a good example—mandating a good drive into the fairway before requiring skilled placement on the long second shot over water to an undulating green. Two very challenging holes end the round—a short par-4 with a green bordered tightly by bunkers, then an uphill par-3. Good players will require some knowledge to master the subtlety of this classic design, renovated in recent years by Keith Foster.
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20. Waialae Country Club (Sony Open)

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Waialae Country Club
Honolulu, HI
4.4
4 Panelists
Now with The Greenbrier’s Old White course out of the rotation, Waialae Country Club is the only Seth Raynor design on the PGA Tour schedule. In the 1960s, much of the front nine had to be rerouted due to the construction of a nearby hotel, but many Raynor elements can still be found, particularly after Tom Doak and his Renaissance Design team’s work over the past decade-plus. Though the now iconic ‘W’s in the trees on the 16th hole (the club’s seventh) are the most recognizable feature of the course, true architectural buffs will appreciate the par-3 17th hole and its Redan green, plus the Biarritz on the fourth.
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19. TPC San Antonio (Oaks) (Valero Texas Open)

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TPC San Antonio: Oaks
San Antonio, TX
3.8
5 Panelists
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. --Derek Duncan, architecture editor
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18. Trump National Doral (Cadillac Championship)

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Trump National Doral: Blue Monster
Miami, FL
4.1
17 Panelists
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.
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17. Dunes Golf and Beach Club (Myrtle Beach Classic)

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The Dunes Golf & Beach Club
Myrtle Beach, SC
4.4
11 Panelists
Its oceanside dunes are mostly covered with turfgrass and mature trees now, but when Robert Trent Jones built The Dunes back in the late 1940s, the property was primarily windswept sand dotted with lagoons. Those lakes come in prominently on many holes, particularly on the 11th through 13th, dubbed Alligator Alley. (The boomerang-shaped par-5 13th is called Waterloo.) The home hole, with a pond in front of the green, started as a gambling par 5 but today is a daunting par 4. The course has hosted three USGA championships, including the 1962 U.S. Women's Open and, most recently, the 2017 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball. The Dunes Golf and Beach Club has hosted the PGA Tour's Myrtle Beach Classic for the past two years.
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16. PGA West (Stadium) (The American Express)

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PGA West: Stadium Course
La Quinta, CA
4
33 Panelists
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.
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15. Sea Island Resort (Seaside) (RSM Classic)

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Sea Island: Seaside
Saint Simons Island, GA
4.2
27 Panelists
The Sea Island resort continues to credit famed British golf architect H.S. Colt for its Seaside design, but in truth, it was never purely Colt's design. It was the work of Colt's partner, Charles Alison, who traveled to the U.S. and beyond in the 1920s and 30s while Colt remained in England. But the Seaside Course isn't even Alison's anymore—it is purely Tom Fazio, who incorporated Alison's original Seaside nine (today's 10-18) along with a nine (the Marshland Nine) designed in 1974 by Joe Lee, to create a totally new 18-hole course. But in keeping with the resort’s heritage, Fazio styled his new course in the design fashion of Alison, with big clamshell bunkers, smallish putting surfaces and exposed sand dunes off most of the windswept fairways. The Seaside Course has hosted numerous USGA championships and has been a mainstay on the PGA Tour schedule.
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14. Torrey Pines (South) (Farmers Insurance Open)

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Torrey Pines Golf Course: South
La Jolla, CA
3.9
25 Panelists
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.
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13. Black Desert Classic (Bank of Utah Championship)

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Black Desert Resort
Ivins, UT
4.5
22 Panelists
Black Desert Resort in the arid desert of southern Utah, surrounded by horizons of red rock mountains, was the last golf course Tom Weiskopf was involved in building (he was diagnosed with cancer as construction was beginning). Opened in 2023, the public course is a stunning juxtaposition of wavy fairways chiseled out of fields of black lava rock that had to be blasted into golf formations. Phil Smith, Weiskopf’s longtime design partner, completed the visually arresting design that hosted the PGA Tour’s new Black Desert Championship in the fall of 2024—the first tour event in Utah in more than 60 years—and an LPGA event in 2025. Black Desert Resort is located outside the golf-rich area of St. George, Utah.
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12. Colonial Country Club (Charles Schwab Challenge)

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Colonial Country Club
Fort Worth, TX
3.8
10 Panelists
We give credit to Texas golf historian Frances G. Trimble for establishing the fact that Perry Maxwell, not John Bredemus, originally designed Colonial Country Club for Fort Worth businessman Marvin Leonard. Both architects submitted routings. Maxwell’s was used, while Bredemus supervised construction. Colonial sported the first bentgrass greens in Texas when it opened in 1936. In 1939, the USGA awarded Colonial its 1941 U.S. Open, the first ever in Texas, so Leonard brought Maxwell back to toughen the course. He added 56 bunkers and created the present par-3 fourth and par-4 fifth (two of the famed Horrible Horseshoe trio of holes) and a par-3 13th (since replaced following a 1968 rechanneling of the Trinity River). Keith Foster’s 2008 restoration wasn’t to everyone’s satisfaction. In 2023, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner initiated a warp-speed, total renovation of the design using Maxwell's 1941 modifications as a roadmap, a similar treatment they implemented when remodeling Maxwell's Southern Hills in 2018, on display at the 2022 PGA Championship. This ranking does not reflect the Hanse/Wagner work: Their changes will be revealed in the 2027-'28 results.
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11. Harbour Town Golf Links (RBC Heritage)

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Harbour Town Golf Links
Hilton Head Island, SC
4.3
44 Panelists
In the late 1960s, Jack Nicklaus landed the design contract for Harbour Town, then turned it over to his new partner, Pete Dye, who was determined to distinguish his work from that of rival Robert Trent Jones. Soon after Harbour Town opened in late November 1969 (with a victory by Arnold Palmer in the Heritage Classic), the course debuted on America’s 100 Greatest as one of the Top 10. It was a total departure for golf at the time. No mounds, no elevated tees, no elevated greens—just low-profile and abrupt change. Tiny greens hung atop railroad ties directly over water hazards. Trees blocked direct shots. Harbour Town gave Pete Dye national attention and put Jack Nicklaus, who made more than 100 inspection trips collaborating with Dye, in the design business. Pete’s wife, Alice, also contributed, instructing workers on the size and shape of the unique 13th green, a sinister one edged by cypress planks. Following the 2025 RBC Heritage, Harbour Town underwent an extensive restoration overseen by Davis Love III and his design company, working to restore and preserve Dye's original strategic intent. The project is completed, and the course reopened in November 2025.
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10. Bellerive Country Club (BMW Championship)

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Bellerive Country Club
Saint Louis, MO
4.5
11 Panelists
Once the darling of the USGA, which awarded this Robert Trent Jones design the 1965 U.S. Open, making it the second youngest course to host an Open in the 20th century (after Northwood in Dallas), Bellerive is now favored by the PGA of America, which successfully concluded the 2018 PGA Championship on it. The polished course that hosted the PGA is a far cry from the immature one of 1965. Hardwoods along holes now have 60 years' worth of growth, fairways are now Zoysia and architect Rees Jones has replaced his father’s bunkering with that of his own style, positioned farther off the tees to challenge big hitters. Rees also filled in a pond in front of the 17th green and added chipping areas next to several putting surfaces.
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9. Quail Hollow Club (Truist Championship)

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Quail Hollow Club
Charlotte, NC
4.2
18 Panelists
Few golf course projects had more national attention in recent years than Quail Hollow, mainly because its front nine was redesigned just a year before it hosted the 2017 PGA Championship. The par-4 first and par-3 second holes were completely torn up, replaced by a new long dogleg-right par-4 opening hole. Several acres of pines to the left of the fifth tee were removed to make room for a new par-3 fourth. (With its knobby green fronted by three traps, it proved to be the most frustrating hole for pros in the 2017 PGA.) More pines were removed to the left of the par-4 11th, replaced by bunkers, and even more trees chopped down on a hill left of the par-4 18th to make room for money-making hospitality boxes. There’s no question that this latest remodeling, rushed though it was, improved the course. Quail Hollow hosted the 2022 Presidents Cup (the order of the holes were rearranged to ensure the majority of matches would reach the vaunted Green Mile, 16-18) and the 2025 PGA Championship.
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8. East Lake Golf Club (Tour Championship)

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East Lake Golf Club
Atlanta, GA
4.3
37 Panelists
Tom Bendelow actually laid out the original course at East Lake, back when it was known as Atlanta Athletic Club, and that was the layout upon which Stewart Maiden taught the game to the now-legendary Bobby Jones. Donald Ross basically built a new course on the same spot in 1915, which remained untouched until changes were made before the 1963 Ryder Cup. When Atlanta Athletic moved to the suburbs in the late 1960s, the intown East Lake location (many of the members stayed behind) fell on hard financial times until being rescued in the 1990s by businessman Tom Cousins, who made it a sterling fusion of corporate and inner-city involvement. Rees Jones redesigned most holes beginning in the mid-90s, making the course more reflective of his views of championship golf. After the PGA Tour reversed the nines for the 2016 Tour Championship (flipping the unpopular par-3 finish into the ninth hole), the club made the new routing permanent for regular play. East Lake underwent another major restoration following the 2023 Tour Championship, this time by Andrew Green, that focuses on bringing back the course's Donald Ross heritage. Green used a 1949 aerial to inform the replacement of bunkers and the shape of greens, which are much larger and possess a wider variety of hole locations and slopes than before. Almost every hole was dramatically revamped, creating a course that poses driving options and requires the careful calibration of each shot rather than a mere test of straight hitting. The result is a massive jump in our rankings.
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7. Aronimink Country Club (PGA Championship)

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Aronimink Golf Club
Newtown Square, PA
4.5
35 Panelists
Aronimink is an object lesson in architectural evolution. After Donald Ross completed his design in 1928, he proclaimed, “I intended to make this my masterpiece.” That didn’t keep club members from bringing in William Gordon in the 1950s to eliminate out-of-play fairway bunkers and move other bunkers closer to greens. The course was later revamped by Dick Wilson, George Fazio and Robert Trent Jones. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Ron Prichard, one of the profession’s original restoration specialists, began returning Aronimink back to Ross’ conception based on the architect’s drawings and field diagrams. But there was always a discrepancy between what Ross drew in plans and what was actually built in 1928. A more recent renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, who live nearby, has put the course’s architecture more in line with what aerial photographs depict of the early design, particularly the bunkering that might have been imagined as larger in scale but built in smaller, more scatter-shot formations.
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6. TPC Sawgrass (Stadium) (Players Championship)

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TPC Sawgrass: Stadium
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
4.6
25 Panelists

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.

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5. Muirfield Village Golf Club (Memorial Tournament)

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Muirfield Village Golf Club
Dublin, OH
4.8
23 Panelists
This is the course that Jack built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again and again. Since its opening in 1974, Jack Nicklaus has remodeled every hole at Muirfield Village, some more than once, using play at the PGA Tour’s annual Memorial Tournament for some guidance. The renovation in 2020 was one of the most extensive and included the rebuilding of every hole, the shifting of greens and tees, strategic changes to the iconic par 5s and a new, more player-friendly par-3 16th, though that hole, too, has been tweaked since. That’s how a championship course remains competitive. But with every change, Nicklaus always made sure the general membership could still play and enjoy the course.
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4. The Riviera Country Club (Genesis Invitational)

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The Riviera Country Club
Pacific Palisades, CA
4.8
28 Panelists
A compact and shrewd design by George C. Thomas Jr. and associate William P. Bell, Riviera features everything from a long Redan par-3 to a bunker in the middle of a green to an alternate-fairway par-4. With its 18th green at the base of a natural amphitheater, and its primary rough consisting of club-grabbing Kikuyu, Riviera seems tailor-made as a tournament venue. It hosted a PGA Championship in 1995, a U.S. Senior Open in 1998 and a U.S. Amateur in 2017, but no U.S. Open since 1948. Riviera was recently awarded the 2031 U.S. Open, and it will also host the 2028 Olympics. But it’s the site of an annual PGA Tour event, which is even better exposure to the golf world.
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3. Pebble Beach Golf Links (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am)

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Pebble Beach Golf Links
Pebble Beach, CA
4.7
46 Panelists
Not just the greatest meeting of land and sea in American golf, but the most extensive one, too, with nine holes perched immediately above the crashing Pacific surf—the fourth through 10th plus the 17th and 18th. Pebble’s sixth through eighth are golf’s real Amen Corner, with a few Hail Marys thrown in over an ocean cove on the eighth from atop a 75-foot-high bluff. Pebble hosted a successful U.S. Amateur in 2018 and a sixth U.S. Open in 2019. Recent improvements include the redesign of the once-treacherous 14th green and reshaping the par-3 17th green, both planned by Arnold Palmer’s Design Company a few years back, and modifications to the green at the famous eighth hole, which we deemed the second Greatest Hole in America. Green modifications have continued, and Pebble re-enters our top 10 after a brief time out the last two years.
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Editor's Note: Courses such as Spyglass Hill, which are not the main host courses of tour, were not included in this list. Read our experts' reviews of Spyglass Hill here.

2. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (U.S. Open)

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Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
Southampton, NY
5
12 Panelists
Generally considered to be the earliest links in America, heavily remodeled by C.B. Macdonald, then replaced (except for three holes) by William S. Flynn in the early 1930s, it’s so sublime that its architecture hasn’t really been altered for nearly 60 years. Stands of trees that once framed many holes have been removed, and in 2012, the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw did make a few changes, mostly greens and fairways expansions and new mowing patterns, though those were modified in preparation for the 2018 U.S. Open, won by Brooks Koepka. Shinnecock will again host the U.S. Open in 2026.
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1. Augusta National Golf Club (Masters Tournament)

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Augusta National Golf Club
Augusta, GA
5
12 Panelists

There will be no surprise with the No. 1 course on this list. Augusta National has been ranked first, second or third on our biennial America's 100 Greatest Courses ranking in each edition.

The club made a significant change in the fall of 2022, lengthening the par-5 13th hole by about 30 yards. No club has tinkered with its golf course as often or as effectively over the decades as has Augusta National Golf Club, mainly to keep it competitive for the annual Masters Tournament, an event it has conducted since 1934, with time off during WWII. All that tinkering has resulted in an amalgamation of design ideas, with a routing by Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones, some Perry Maxwell greens, some Trent Jones water hazards, some Jack Nicklaus mounds and swales and, most recently, extensive rebunkering and tree planting by Tom Fazio. The tinkering continued in the summer of 2018 as the club lengthened the par-4 fifth by extending its back tee on newly acquired land. Soon to come, the lengthening of the famed par-5 13th.

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RELATED: A Comprehensive History Of Every Change Made To Augusta National Golf Club

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