We can’t play two-handed touch football on the frozen tundra of Lambeau. We’re not allowed to hoop it up at the Boston Garden. We can’t have a catch on the infield at Yankee Stadium.
We can play golf at the same legendary venues on which the greats of the game made history. This is what makes golf unique amongst the major sports. Any amateur player with an adequate game and a thick enough wallet can swing in the footsteps of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods on the world’s best golf courses.
More: Best Golf Balls for Avid Golfers
What ranks a course amongst the world’s top options is a matter of taste. For some golfers, the aesthetics of a beautiful 18 holes are all that matter. Other players want to test their skills on the most challenging tracks. We took multiple factors into consideration to compile this very subjective list of the world’s 10 finest golf courses.
- Pebble Beach Golf Links – Carmel, California
- Whistling Straits – Sheboygan, Wisconsin
- Manele Golf Course – Lanai, Hawaii
- The Old Course – St. Andrews, Scotland
- Cabot Cliffs Cape Breton – Inverness, Nova Scotia
- The Oconee Course – Reynolds Lake, Georgia
- Royal Birkdale Golf Club – Southport, England
- Royal Melbourne Golf Club – Black Rock, Australia
- Royal County Down – Newcastle County Down, Northern Ireland
- Siam Country Club Pattaya Old Course – Pattaya, Thailand
- Honorable Mention: Stoke Park – Buckinghamshire, England
Below, we’ll take you to each of these destinations, with some personal photos from my time on the best golf courses in the world. And if that’s still not enough, I have 10 more golf clubs worth your time.
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1. Best Golf Course in the World: Pebble Beach – Carmel, California
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Image By: Hakan Ozturk/Shutterstock There’s a reason this course tops most lists of the world’s best golf courses. The perfect mix of aesthetics, history and challenging play, Pebble Beach hosted the U.S. Open for the seventh time last year, after also welcoming the PGA Championship in 1977 and the star-studded Pebble Peach Pro-Am every summer since 1947. Legend says Jack Neville and Douglas Grant created Pebble pro bono in 1919 as a sample of their course design work. The result is a challenging, ultimate bucket-list golf experience that uses its home turf along Stillwater Cove to magnificent effect. It’s simply the most beautiful golf course anyone can play.
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2. Whistling Straits – Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Image By: Steve Broer/Shutterstock They say there are 1,000 bunkers along this Pete Dye classic. Combine those with fescue up to the knees, and it’s clear why Whistling Straits often ranks amongst the most difficult public courses in the U.S. Host of the 2015 PGA Championship and the home of this year’s Ryder Cup clash between Team USA and Team Europe, the Straits run along gorgeous Lake Michigan where weather can swing from hot with ample sun to clouds with a two-club wind.
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Playing at Whistling Straights
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Whistling Straights
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Whistling Straights
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Whistling Straights
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
3. Manele Golf Course – Lanai, Hawaii
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Manele Golf Course A course blessed with an unfair location advantage, Manele is a Jack Nicklaus-designed masterpiece tucked in on the Hawaiian Island of Lanai near the Four Seasons. The Golden Bear placed these 18 holes back and forth across bluffs overlooking the blue waters of the Pacific, giving every hole some sort of an ocean view. The course’s signature is the 12th — a par three demanding that the player hit over an oceanside canyon into an undulating green. Nobody cares if the card takes a double bogey. It’s Hawaii.
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Playing at Manele Golf Course
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Manele Golf Course
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Manele Golf Course
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
4. The Old Course – St. Andrews, Scotland
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Image By: CStringer/Shutterstock St. Andrews has a historical advantage no other spot on Earth can match, as history tells us the game of golf was invented along its rolling hills skirting the sea. Known around the world as The Home of Golf, The Old Course is a straightforward affair of links play laid upon an unmade bed of berms and deep bunkers. The host of multiple Open Championships over the years, The Old Course is surrounded by six other St. Andrews tracks, each with its own personality. If you’re searching for the best golf courses in the world, then you have to visit St. Andrews eventually.
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Playing at The Old Course – St. Andrews
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at The Old Course – St. Andrews
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at The Old Course – St. Andrews
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
5. Cabot Cliffs Cape Breton – Inverness, Nova Scotia
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Cabot Cliffs When people think about the game of golf, it often seems best fitted to a serene, placed, sun-drenched venue where the only sounds are tweeting birds and the occasional click of a club addressing a ball. A hell’s toss away from that environment, there’s a wonderful, unique ruggedness about Cabot Cliffs as the stirring breakers of the North Atlantic clash against Canadian granite. The course is hardcore links style, presenting a playing challenge as burly as the views on every horizon.
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6. The Oconee Course – Reynolds Lake, Georgia
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Oconee Course Sitting on more than 12,000 acres in between Atlanta and Augusta, Reynolds Lake Oconee is an elite golf and residential resort community nestled into a collection of pristine waters. The property holds six courses overall and hosts one of only two official TaylorMade professional fitting centers in the U.S. The Oconee Course is its crown jewel. Designed by the great Rees Jones, Oconee takes full advantage of its lakeland setting to offer postcard views along every fairway while frequently demanding a refined brand of target golf.
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7. Royal Birkdale Golf Club – Southport, England
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Royal Birkdale Golf Course One could argue that, besides St. Andrews where the game was invented, the most famous and iconic golf course in the British Isles is Royal Birkdale. With its flag planted confidently in the northwest of England, Birkdale hosted The Open Championship 10 times (most recently in 2017). In fact, the club welcomed more Championships and international tournaments since World War II than any other golf course in the world. The club is private, but if a player knows the right people, he or she will be welcomed with a warmth you wouldn’t expect from an exclusive destination of such renown. If your goal is to play at all of the world’s best golf courses, then the Royal Birkdale must be on your bucket list.
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8. Royal Melbourne Golf Club – Black Rock, Australia
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Royal Melbourne Golf Club There are a lot of stunning golf courses in Australia, but Royal Melbourne is one of the oldest and most storied. Established in 1891, the club hosted the Australian Open 16 times along with three President’s Cups, in which U.S. players take on the world’s best golfers. The West Course is the star here with its lush, vibrant park-style terrain. Designed Alister MacKenzie laid out a classic 18-hole experience that retains its unique character after more than a century of play.
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Playing at Royal Melbourne Golf Club
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
9. Royal County Down – Newcastle County Down, Northern Ireland
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Royal County Down As though straight out of a fairytale, Royal County Down rolls through the spectacular Murlough Nature Reserve on the east coast of Northern Ireland. Every rolling, twisting and turning hole of this traditional links course enjoys a vista of the Mountains of Morne and the shimmering waters of Dundrum Bay. Try to play with a local so he or she can help read the angles and crazy rolls.
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Royal County Down Golf Club
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Royal County Down -
Royal County Down Golf Club
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Royal County Down Golf Club -
10. Siam Country Club Pattaya Old Course – Pattaya, Thailand
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Siam Country Club If a player can’t stand the heat, get out of Thailand. If a player doesn’t mind temperatures and humidity battling each other in the 90s-range, there’s beautiful golf to be played in the quiet wilds outside the ocean side tourist town of Pattaya. To paraphrase Chess, Siam Country Club serves as a luxury witness to Thailand’s ultimate test of golfing fitness. The caddies are all women, and they deserve a tip for faithfully guiding hackers through 18 holes in a long-sleeve, pants suit uniform.
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Playing at Siam Country Club – Old Course
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Siam Country Club – Old Course
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Siam Country Club – Old Course
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Honorable Mention – Stoke Park – Buckinghamshire, England
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Stoke Park While it didn’t quite make our list of the top 10 golf courses in the world, we can’t avoid mentioning Stoke Park. A pretty park-style course less than a half hour’s drive from Heathrow, Stoke is home to perhaps the most famous golf scene in movie history — the 18-hole duel between James Bond and the titular Auric Goldfinger. The 17th and 18th holes are known as “The Bond Holes” and held most of the on-screen action as 007 tricked his supervillain enemy and the deadly, Bowler hat-throwing caddie, Oddjob. The course includes a private club and a hotel, but it’s open to the public. If folks do get a chance to play, they better make sure to bring their Slazenger 1 and 7 golf balls. (Ask Mr. Bond.)
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Playing at Stoke Park
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
Playing at Stoke Park
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Author -
11. Teeth of the Dog – Casa de Campos, Dominican Republic
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Casa de Campo This canine-coined, bucket-list venue is unique in the golf world – a top 50 course and hallowed ground as the final resting place of one of the game’s greatest designers. The legendary Pete Dye – designer of Whistling Straits from this very list and the home for this year’s Ryder Cup – chose the eighth hole on his Teeth of the Dog creation at the Casa de Campos resort for that great final round all players must tee up eventually. He decreed, “Bury me in a pot bunker….” And, his ashes reside exactly where requested on #8.
Teeth of the Dog bites the player gently with Seven Heaven – seven holes on the front nine running along the wind-swept Atlantic. Kelly Sheehan, Director of Group Golf Sales and both a PGA and LPGA teaching pro, books folks’ trips to this Dominican Republic destination – and doesn’t need to push too hard to convince players to head island-ward.
“I book groups of eight up to 500,” Sheehan says. “If I can’t sell Casa de Campo, I can’t sell anything.”
Playing Teeth of the Dog, I wondered why the foursomes in front and behind me were in such a hurry to push through the round. The vistas deserve a long gaze, and Dye’s hole designs demand at least a little analysis before each swing.
“Even if you’re not playing well, you can’t be in a bad mood,” Sheehan adds. “Where else are you going to find seven holes on the ocean on a Pete Dye course?”
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12. Baltusrol Golf Club, Lower Course – Springfield, New Jersey
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Baltusrol Golf Club Home of four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships, Baltusrol invites the blessed golfer a chance to walk in the steps of the sports’ greatest legends. The minds behind Baltusrol South put the pandemic period to work, renovating the course under the direction of Gil Hanse. Reborn this summer, Baltusrol will host another PGA Championship in 2029.
While the course is reason though to visit New Jersey, I enjoyed the extra incentive of sponsorship from Rolls-Royce. They loaned me the divine Rolls-Royce Ghost to visit the legendary ghosts of Baltusrol. While the elite country club members at the Jersey course have no shortage of high-end cars, all had to kneel to true royalty in the parking lot with the Ghost in attendance.
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13. Mountain Ridge Country Club – West Caldwell, New Jersey
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Mountain Ridge Country Club This selection might surprise some, but this 1912 Donald Ross and Clifford C. Wendehack course often gets overlooked, with Baltusrol standing less than 30 minutes away. Home to frequent LPGA events and Champion Tour stops – and only 20 minutes from Manhattan – Mountain Ridge builds to a striking 18th hole powering uphill to the Mountain Ridge clubhouse.
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14. Sand Valley – Nekoosa, Wisconsin
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sand Valley You can take your pick from three courses tucked away in the wilds of north-central Wisconsin and still end up on award-winning courses named amongst the best in America over the last several years. Chris Keiser and Michael Keiser, Jr., the creative force behind tSand Valley tucked away in rural Wisconsin, came to the national stage with their titular course, Mammoth Dunes or The Sandbox. When not on the course, you can enjoy the expanding parkland Sand Valley’s owners are restoring from lumber use.
Their newest project amidst Sand Valley’s expanding confines will bring The Lido, a beloved lost golf course from the east coast, back to players by 2022.
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15. Twin Dolphin Golf Club – Los Cabos, Mexico
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Twin Dolphin Golf Club You either need to know a member to get on this private Fred Couples design, or you need to be staying at the adjacent five-star Montage Los Cabos Resort. One of the newer courses in the thriving Los Cabos golf community, the 18 holes are in immaculate condition set amidst an arid desert landscape. Featuring friendly fairway widths with challenging elevation changes, Twin Dolphin successfully struts the razor’s edge between challenging enough to play more than once and entertaining enough not to discourage that return round.
There are small ranches adjacent to the course, so keep an eye out for stray horses who might want to play through under the Mexican sun.
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16. Medinah Country Club, Course Number Three – Medinah, Illinois
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Medinah Country Club Another spot where membership has its privileges and arguably the jewel of Chicagoland golf, Medinah #3, came close to hosting a fifth Major as any course in America. A frequent home of the then-Western Open, there was talk of that tournament at Medinah joining The Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Open Championship among the sport’s crown jewels. As was originally designed by Tom Bendelow and renovated by Rees Jones, Medinah #3 hosted those Western Opens, three U.S Opens, two PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup.
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17. Torrey Pines South Course – San Diego, California
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Torrey Pines As the home of the 2008 and 2021 U.S. Open, the South Course at Torrey Pines is the more challenging, championship-level course on the beautiful San Diego coast. If you’ve got the distance in your bag to handle the longer reach of the South run, you can walk the course where Tiger sharpened his teeth.
Like other magical spots such as Pebble Beach and Whistling Straits, Torrey Pines is a public course where golfers with the scratch can test themselves against the the best in history.
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18. Bethpage Black – Long Island, New York
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bethpage Another public course, Bethpage Black, hides tucked away in a state park surrounded by other colorful tracks. Bethpage Black built its global reputation on being a royal pain the arse and often ranks amongst the most difficult 18 holes in the world. Champion golfer and international course designer Greg Norman once said, “There’s nothing easier than designing a hard golf course.” The Black’s designer, A.W. Tillinghast, indulged himself.
Black hosted the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009, as well as the PGA Championship in 2019. After Whistling Straits in 2021, Bethpage Black will be the next American course to host the Ryder Cup in 2024.
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19. The Prince at Princeville – Kauai, Hawaii
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Adobe Stock You could pick a lot of courses in Hawaii and drop them in a list like this. The islands’ mix of topography and ideal climate makes it difficult to design a bad course where folks say Mahalo. Still, the great Robert Trent Jones, Jr. excelled with the layout of the oceanside reaches of The Prince.
Jones never interferes with an environment’s natural layout and features, rather looking to enhance and embrace them with his design. Here, he laid his course around natural water features and vegetation to create a beautiful golf space.
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20. Pinehurst No. 2 – Pinehurst, North Carolina
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pinehurst Other than perhaps Augusta National, there is no more historically significant course in American golf than Pinehurst No. 2. Designed by Donald Ross, and renovated by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and the team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore at different times, No. 2 hosted more golf championships than any course in the U.S. – and it’s far from finished with the U.S. Open headed back to Pinehurst in 2024, 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.
Bring your bunker game because this course makes use of the sandy landscape, adding a litter of traps along the way.