Top 100 Golf Courses of the USA 2018
According to the R&A report Golf around the World 2017 there are around fifteen thousand golf facilities in the United States of America and Top 100 Golf Courses features around 11% of them (1,660 courses to be exact) across our US state ranking charts. From these fifty state listings, we focus on what we consider to be the best one hundred courses across the country – representing the nation’s golfing crème de la crème – before publishing our updated table every two years.
And so, we now introduce the latest edition of our Top 100 for the USA, where 39 courses move up, 35 drop down, 13 stay in the same place and 13 drop out to make way for new entries. Three states loom large in the standings – New York (with 15 courses), California (11) and Massachusetts (8) – and this powerful trio accounts for a third of the positions in our hundred. Half the overall number of places available are taken up by courses from fourteen other states and the remaining slots are filled by 15 courses from 15 different states.
So much for the statistical overview, what about the highlights? Well, if you consider that no course has broken the glass ceiling into the Top 10 since we began ranking the US in 2006, then you won’t be surprised to find little movement at the very apex of the new chart. Quite a number of 18-hole layouts – many of them having completed recent renovation or restoration projects – make steady progress in the right direction within the hundred and there’s a healthy intake of newcomers to freshen things up. As for those falling down the chart, we leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Two years ago, when we last refreshed our American hundred, Alister MacKenzie’s masterpiece at Cypress Point ousted George Crump’s fabled Pine Valley course from the top spot and it retains the #1 position in our new listings. Only last month, a reviewer summed up his playing experience at Cypress Point as follows: “the course lived up to every expectation that I had, knowing it was regarded as the best course in the world… it was in pristine shape and every single hole was unique and fantastic in its own way.”
A little further down the running order, another couple of Californian tracks make impressive upward moves in the rankings: the North course at Los Angeles Country Club (recently restored by Gil Hanse) rises three places to number 18 and the California Golf Club of San Francisco’s course – where Kyle Phillips has just completed another well-received restoration project – leaps a mighty twelve positions to number 35.
A couple of iconic neighbouring courses on Long Island, New York, make admirable advances within the upper echelons on the new table: Shinnecock Hills, venue for next year’s US Open, finally occupies the runner-up spot in the chart, moving up one place to number 2, and National Golf Links of America, Charles Blair Macdonald’s monument to golf in the United States, eases up two positions to number 4.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have recently been fine tuning the Shinnecock Hills layout in preparation for next year’s Major tournament, widening fairways, expanding greensites and touching up little things here and there. The club has previously hosted four US Opens, the first back in 1896, but it was the last one in 2004 that caused most controversy with the way it was set up by the organising USGA championship committee – don’t expect to see a repetition of the “scorched earth” conditions that prevailed thirteen years ago when June comes around next summer.
Reviews this year for the National Golf Links of America course have been profuse in their praise for this 109-year-old layout: “it was as spectacular as I had built up in my mind… the National is a classic masterpiece… the green complexes, variety, character and setting all contribute to one of the finest courses I have played… this layout deserves more respect than all of us combined can offer… fun golf lies at the heart of the course… it is this clear embrace in maximizing “fun holes” that makes NGLA so endearing”. For sure, this is an historic layout where you hope the “six degrees of separation” theory holds true if you have aspirations of ever playing it.
Just outside the Top 10, another pair of New York state layouts feature prominently. The old Seth Raynor-designed course (where Gil Hanse advises) at Fishers Island Club, which is set out on the small island of the same name in the Block Island Sound, stands firm at number 12, whilst Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s new millennium design at Friar’s Head on Long Island, situated half an hour’s drive northwest of Shinnecock Hills and NGLA, races five places up the chart to number 13.
The state of Pennsylvania might only have five courses listed in the hundred but, as with many things of a golfing nature in the Keystone State, it’s quality, not quantity that counts here as two of its courses reside close to the summit.
The course at Oakmont Country Club (no move at number 5), which is located just outside Pittsburgh, has the reputation of being a tough track, hosting nine US Opens, three PGA Championships and five US Amateur Championships down the years. Laid out by the father and son design partnership of Henry and William Fownes in 1903, the course has undergone an astonishing transformation in the last thirty years or so, with a reputed 15,000 trees removed from the property since the 1983 Open took place here.
Three hundred miles due east, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, sits another golfing centurion, Merion Golf Club (up one to number 7). Founded in 1896, the club’s East course was fashioned by club member Hugh Wilson in 1912 and it too has a long tradition of hosting important national events, including five US Opens and six US Amateurs. Laid out on a tight parcel of land, the course has been receiving attention from Gil Hanse since the last big tournament (the 2013 US Open) was hosted by the club.
Other notable climbers in the top half of the new chart include two old layouts where Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design has been carrying out restorations for some time now. The first of these is Seth Raynor’s jewel at The Camargo Club in Cincinnati, Ohio (up nine places two years ago, up another six to 23 now) and the second one is at Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville, New Jersey (up four places in 2016, up another six to 31 this time around), which is a Tillinghast track that celebrates its centenary next year.
In a total reverse of fortunes, the 18-hole layout at Old Sandwich Golf Club, near Plymouth in Massachusetts, which fell six positions when we last re-ranked, rebounds back to the number 34 slot. It’s a preferred golfing port of call for our much-travelled International Correspondent David Davis, who termed it “my favorite Coore & Crenshaw (course) ahead of Sand Hills, Bandon Trails, Friar’s Head and Colorado” and David likes it so much, he thinks “it’s most certainly worth a trip to the Boston area just to play it”.
Also worthy of mention are double digit improvements in position for three courses in the top half of the table: Coore & Crenshaw’s restoration of Perry Maxwell’s Old Town Club in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the highest new entry in our last chart revision) which is up thirteen to 36, Gil Hanse’s restoration of Tillinghast’s East course at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, which rises ten to 44, and Tom Doak’s ten-year-old design at Rock Creek Cattle Company, near Deer Lodge, Montana, where the course moves up twelve places to 49.
In the lower half of the standings, two courses which were new to the US hundred in 2014 head further up the listings and two courses which slipped down the rankings in 2016 make dramatic turnarounds.
The first two layouts are Coore & Crenshaw’s Red course at the burgeoning Streamsong Resort in Florida, which initially debuted at 77, made a modest rise to 70 two years ago, and now climbs a further fifteen places to number 55 and the old Donald Ross design at White Bear Yacht Club on White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where the course squeezed into the chart at 97 four years ago, rocketed up to 73 in 2016 and now advances a further ten spots up to 63.
The two courses to make pronounced changes in direction within the bottom half of the hundred are David McLay Kidd’s new millennium design at Nanea Golf Club in Hawaii and Seth Raynor’s 1920s layout at Yale University in Connecticut. The former plunged fourteen places to number 76 in the last revision but it’s now rocketed sixteen positions back up to number 60 and the latter, having fallen from 72 to 78 two years ago, has more than made up lost ground by soaring ten spots to number 68.
Eight of the thirteen courses to make way for new entries – Chambers Bay, Colonial, Congressional (Blue), Galloway National, Kinloch, Monterey Peninsula (Shore), Newport and Olympia Fields (North) – were long standing Top 100 occupants which had featured in at least five of the six previous chart editions so the decision to eliminate them was not taken lightly. However, we believe their replacements are well worth a place in the new listings, headed by two newcomers that make their debut slightly in front of the pack.
The highest new entry arrives at number 75 and it’s the course at Whippoorwill Club in Armonk, New York. A Charles Banks redesign of an original Donald Ross layout from the late 1920s, this course, which contains all the standard Macdonald/Raynor replica holes that you would expect to find, is one that our US Consultant Fergal O’Leary is really fond of, as this extract from his August 2017 review reveals: “Whippoorwill is one of the most underrated courses I’ve played in my life… one of America’s biggest hidden gems… stimulating, challenging and truly beautifully crafted holes are in abundance here… the course is an adventure, a test, a visual delight and incredibly exciting”.
Three positions behind, making its debut at number 78, the Coore & Crenshaw-designed Sand Valley course at the Sand Valley Golf Resort in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, is the first of several layouts destined to open at this Mike Keiser-owned golf facility. A recent reviewer commented: “the location is stunning, the use of sand is amazing and the conditioning top notch” while, earlier in the year, another person described the property in the following manner: “the site at Sand Valley is truly an eyeful. The land completely natural – free of all clutter and anything not native to the environment”.
There might be a raised eyebrow regarding one or two of the other eleven new entries. Nevertheless, we stand by what we’ve produced but, as ever, if you have a bone to pick with us about any of our selections then by all means let us know what you’re thinking. Have we missed an obvious contender or have we included a course that really shouldn’t be there? Maybe we’ve ranked a course too highly or allowed another to slip too far down the listings? Whatever your opinion might be, feel free to click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or bottom of this page to share it with us.
Rank/
To view the complete detailed list of the Top 100 Golf Courses of the USA click the link.
Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses
Top 100 Golf Courses has ranked every course that has hosted the Walker Cup since 1922. The rankings cover three categories and provide insight into the championship venues that have shaped amateur golf's most prestigious international competition. Three Complete Rankings The research has produced three specialised rankings: USA Walker Cup Venue Ranking - American courses that have hosted the biennial competition. Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup Venue Ranking - Historic links courses and venues across the British Isles. Combined Walker Cup Venue Rankings - All American and international venues ranked together. The Walker Cup Competition The Walker Cup is a biennial match-play competition between 10-man amateur teams from the United States and Great Britain & Ireland. Named after George Herbert Walker, USGA president in 1920, the competition began in 1922 at the National Golf Links of America. The tournament has maintained its status as amateur golf's premier international competition for over a century, showcasing the world's finest golf courses. Top Venues in Combined Rankings Cypress Point Club leads the combined rankings. Alister MacKenzie's Pacific coast course will host the 50th Walker Cup in September 2025. The US won 15-9 when it previously hosted in 1981. Pine Valley Golf Club ranks second. George Crump's design is considered the ultimate penal golf course. It will host the 2044 Walker Cup and previously staged matches in 1936 (US won 9-0) and 1985 (US won 13-11). Royal County Down Golf Club is the highest-ranked international venue at third. Located beneath the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, it's consistently rated among the world's most scenic courses. Leading American Venues Shinnecock Hills Golf Club was one of the USGA's five founding members. The New York course features original American design from 1891, when Scottish professional Willie Davis worked with the Shinnecock Reservation. National Golf Links of America is the Walker Cup birthplace. Charles Blair Macdonald's 1922 course established the competition and introduced the term "golf architect." Oakmont Country Club represents championship golf's toughest test. Originally set to host in 2033, then moved to 2032, this Pennsylvania course has hosted multiple major championships. Great Britain & Ireland Leaders St Andrews Old Course has hosted nine Walker Cup matches—more than any other venue. The Home of Golf has also staged 29 Open Championships. Muirfield is home to The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (founded 1744). This East Lothian course pioneered the two-ring, nine-hole layout design. Turnberry Ailsa Course offers Scotland's most scenic championship golf. The course overlooks the Firth of Clyde with views of the Mull of Kintyre and Isle of Arran. Architectural Excellence Golden Age architects dominate the rankings. Merion Golf Club (East Course) represents Hugh Wilson's success as an amateur architect. Winged Foot Golf Club (West Course) is A.W. Tillinghast's finest work. The demanding layout has tested both amateur and professional golfers for decades. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort represents modern design. The Oregon resort has a USGA partnership through 2045 and will host the Walker Cup in 2028. International Links Tradition Lahinch Golf Club sits beside Liscannor Bay in Ireland. Old Tom Morris created the original layout before Dr. Alister MacKenzie redesigned it in 1926-27. Royal St George's Golf Club is a natural links course in Sandwich, England. It maintains traditional character while hosting major championships. Sunningdale Golf Club represents England's best inland course. The Old Course is considered Britain's most beautiful championship venue away from the coast. Future Walker Cup Venues Prince's Golf Club will host the 53rd Walker Cup after recent investments in facilities and course improvements. Walker Cup matches move to even years from 2026 to avoid conflicts with World Amateur Team Championships. Walker Cup Venue Excellence Both American and international courses contribute to the Walker Cup's legacy. These rankings celebrate golf architecture's finest examples, from MacKenzie's coastal designs to Macdonald's pioneering American courses. View the complete rankings: USA Walker Cup Venue Rankings Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup Venue Rankings Combined Walker Cup Venue Rankings
USA Top 100 Golf Courses Update There has been a plethora of great golf open up in America in the past few years and the competition is so tough... You could probably do the Next Best USA Top 100 and still add more to the list. From 75 onwards, there are probably 75 more that could be included or swapped out. However, we've done the heavy lifting and produced what will be the first of a few updates in 2025. Additionally, there is a plethora of new courses opening in both traditional and non-traditional markets. Whatever the case, the rankings will be updated in 2025 when we get more eyes on new builds and freshly opened courses after renovations and restorations. The rankings will be updated in an 'always up to date format' which will be introduced during 2025. We will refine the rankings during 2025 when we look again at the World, and North America Rankings and wait for new course openings. One thing for certain is that there is a lot of new and high-end golf state-side at the moment. Listen to the Podcast Discussing the Top 100 USA Rankings Listen to it on Apple iTunes Top 100 USA Highlights New Entries include Ladera at 83, Sedge Valley at 98, and Medinah No. 3 at 99. Old Barnwell is the biggest riser - up 24 spots to 47th. Some big names fall down the ranking, including Tree Farm, Southern Hills, and The Country Club. Two of Tom Doak's designs at Streamsong Blue and Sebonack both fall from the Top 100. The other golf course which may well be just a small hiatus is Yale. We await the re-opening and probable re-entry to the USA Top 100 Ranking. The Top 25 is pretty steady with most well and truly staples not only in America but also in the World's Top 100.
Top 100 Golf Courses of the USA 2020 Welcome to the seventh revision of our biennial Top 100 for the USA, a chart which we first published at the end of 2005. A total of 163 courses have appeared in these listings down the years, some lasting for only one edition, others (like most of those that dropped out this time) enjoying long stretches in the national limelight before falling out of favour. Of course, bear in mind these standings represent the crème de la crème of golfing layouts in a vast country where it’s reckoned there are more than 16,500 courses coast to coast, almost 2,000 of which we promote across our US state ranking tables. We’ll also be updating those Best in State charts in the New Year, announcing the revised listings on a rolling basis over several months. In the latest edition of our Top 100 for the USA, 39 courses make upward moves, 16 remain in the same position and 45 slip down at least one position – with the 9 that have fallen away completely replaced by an equal number of new entries. So, without any further ado, here’s a brief overview of the main talking points in the new Top 100. Cypress Point in California, which replaced Pine Valley as the nation’s No. 1 in 2016, remains in the top spot. Set out next to the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains at the end of the Monterey Peninsula, this Alister MacKenzie design has been thrilling members and their invited guests since it first opened in 1928. It was also one of the courses used for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am event on the PGA Tour from 1947 until 1990 but those days are long gone, unfortunately, Cypress Point Club Our correspondent M. James Ward reviewed Cypress Point last year, calling it “the quintessential member’s course.” He went on to say: “The reputation of the layout embodies the central philosophy of Alister MacKenzie from start to finish. The intersection with Mother Nature is also central to the round of golf and the Good Doctor was wise enough to not attempt any heavy handed insertions.” In the runner-up spot at No.2, George Crump’s Pine Valley reverses a surprising fall of one position last time around. All three reviews this year have been of the 6-ball variety, attracting comments such as “a test of nerve and shot making,” keeps you concentrated from hole 1 to 18” and “hard to find anywhere better than Pine Valley”. Laid out within the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, it’s been the supreme golfing test for exactly a hundred years and it’s still as formidable to play today as it was when it first opened in 1919. Pine Valley Golf Club Until now, only ten courses have ever been listed within the top ten tier of the US chart but that has changed with Crystal Downs easing one place up to No. 10. Occupying a headland site that’s wedged between Lake Michigan and Crystal Lake in the state of Michigan, this early 1930s layout from Alister MacKenzie and Perry Maxwell has had Tom Doak (who’s a member) and his Renaissance Golf Design company quietly carrying out small but significant refinements in the last few years. Crystal Downs Country Club Four courses climb seven places in the top half of the table. A.W. Tillinghast’s Somerset Hills in New Jersey (at #24), the Macan/MacKenzie layout at the California Golf Club of San Francisco (at #28), Perry Maxwell’s Old Town Club in North Carolina (at #29) and the Seth Raynor-designed course at Shoreacres in Illinois (at #33) have all benefitted from recent architectural input from Brian Slawnik, Kyle Phillips, Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw and Tom Doak, respectively so it’s no real surprise to see each of them take such positives steps forward in the new rankings. Old Town Club Mention must also be made of the four courses that currently comprise the brilliant Bandon Dunes golf facility in Oregon. The 18-hole layouts at Pacific Dunes, Bandon Dunes and Old Macdonald have all resided comfortably inside our Top 50 since 2012 and they’ve just been joined by Coore & Crenshaw’s course Bandon Trails (up nine to No. 42) which has also now become a World Top 100 track, entering recently at No. 99. Bandon Trails Absolutely no pressure then on Bill and Ben to deliver another golfing showpiece when their new Sheep Ranch course opens at Bandon Dunes in June next year! Laid out along a mile of coastline, this exciting new layout will feature the only holes on the entire Bandon Dunes property to require a shot over the cliffs to the double green at the 3rd and 16th on the Fivemile Point promontory . Three courses make major double digit advances. Essex County Club in Massachusetts (up thirteen to No. 40) is a century-old Donald Ross layout that was extended to eighteen holes by the architect early in his career, during his time there as club professional. Historically important as one of the first clubs to affiliate to the USGA, Essex came under the spotlight when it hosted the 36th edition of the Curtis Cup matches in 2010 and it’s only now starting to attain the recognition it rightly deserves. Essex County Club Piping Rock Club in New York (up twelve to No. 52) is a Charles Blair Macdonald design from 1911, with Seth Raynor building the course for his partner. Situated at Locust Valley on Long Island, it’s long been a favourite track of our US Consultant Fergal O’Leary, even before the renovation work conducted initially by Tom Doak and then his former Renaissance Golf Design associate Bruce Hepner. Piping Rock Club 13th hole - image courtesy of Jon Cavalier @LinksGems Fergal had this to say about Piping Rock in a review last year: “the renovation work across 2015/2016 involved significant tree clearance, green expansion and increased width to the lined fairways. With the introduction of those fabulous cross-bunkers, the wide fairways have revived the emphasis on attacking the treacherous greens from the best angles… a day at Piping Rock is an incredible privilege and a lot of fun, but most importantly, it’s an opportunity to absorb many of the greatest holes ever built.” The West and East nines at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey (up eleven to No. 71) have hosted several new millennium editions of the Northern Trust event on the PGA Tour (formerly known as The Barclays) but the club’s tournament pedigree stretches as far back as 1935, when the USA team played Great Britain in the Ryder Cup. Designed by A. W. Tillinghast, the three nines at the country club have been under the watchful eye of Gil Hanse for the last twenty five years. Ridgewood Country Club Another Gil Hanse project, this time an original production, is the 22-hole course at Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia, and it’s the first of nine new chart entries, arriving at No. 53. Laid out inside a massive 3,500-acre property that was once used for onion production, the twenty-two holes at Ohoopee are “overly wide and extremely generous” according to avid Top 100 blogger Paul Rudovsky, who visited last year. He continued: “the ‘ebb and flow’ of the course is brilliant… the property has about five different ‘looks/feels’ and the transition from one to another is seamless.” Ohoopee Match Club - image courtesy of Gil Hanse Three of the other eight newcomers are from New York state and Hanse Golf Course Design has had a hand in recent restoration work at all of them. The first two, The Creek in Locust Valley (new at #88) and the Upper course at Sleepy Hollow in Scarborough (new at #92) are classic Macdonald/Raynor ensembles, while the other one, St George’s in East Setauket (new at #100) is a Devereux Emmet track dating back to 1917, when the course was built by the architect to compete against his friend C.B. Macdonald’s National Golf Links of America. Sleepy Hollow Country Club 9th hole - image courtesy of Gil Hanse Rank/ To view the complete detailed list of the Top 100 Golf Courses of the USA click the link. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses
