Popular PGA Tour pro picks courses he loves and loathes, and there are some surprises

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[Photo: Raj Mehta]

It feels like an unwritten code that PGA Tour players don’t openly criticise tournament courses because it looks bad for the facilities and sponsors. Other than in majors – where consternation seems to reach its outspoken peak – there has to be some really goofy pin positions or horribly inconsistent grass to hear many complaints.

RELATED: Golf Twitter darling Michael Kim poses funny question after impressive feat

So it leaves us to wonder: what are the courses they like and those they loath?

Leave it to the ever-revealing Michael Kim to give us some insight.

On Friday, with his playing schedule nearing its end this weekend, Kim reflected in an X post on his favourite – and, more revealingly – his least favourite courses from the 2025 campaign. The 32-year-old is as qualified as most to make these calls, since he played 27 times on the PGA Tour and five times on the DP World Tour this year and enjoyed one of his finest seasons. The Californian notched four top-10 finishes and a runner-up en route to ranking 31st in the FedEx Cup, and he won his first title in seven years at the FedEx Open de France in September.

With the qualifier of, “NOT a reflection of how I feel about about the tournament,” Kim identified 32 courses he’d played and ranked them in five categories that ranged from “Goat status” to “What’s the purse again?”

FROM THE VAULT: We rank every tournament on the PGA Tour

You can peruse the list below, but there are a few choices of note.

Not surprisingly, Augusta National Golf Club ranked No.1 after Kim played only his second Masters in 2025 and tied for 27th. His only other goat course was Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, which hosted this year’s Open Championship (Kim missed the cut there). As for the other major courses, Kim put Oakmont Country Club (US Open) 11th and Quail Hollow (PGA Championship) 23rd.

Those that Kim is excited to play: TPC Sawgrass, Colonial, Philadelphia Cricket Club, TPC Scottsdale, Renaissance and Hilton Head. (There’s a bit of a pattern here for a shorter hitter like Kim; most of these aren’t a bomber’s paradise.)

As for the bottom, that’s what we’re all most interested in, right?

In those that he joked would need a nice purse to catch his interest, Kim picked two Florida layouts – Bay Hill, site of the $US20 million signature Arnold Palmer Invitational (in which he ran fourth this season) and PGA National, home of the Cognizant Classic (he tied for sixth). And coming in last was VidantaWorld, where Kim notched a T-13 in the Mexico Open.

There’s an obvious reaction to the courses at the bottom, and Kim provided it himself, concluding with, “Looking at my own list… I apparently play much better on courses I dislike lol.”