The debate over which state in the United States has the best golf is tricky, not only because there are so many worthy contenders, but also because it’s tough to agree on a simple definition of what defines “the best.” In our latest ranking of America’s 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest Golf Courses, 40 states are represented—providing a number of opportunities to study the results and answer the question.
In terms of which state boasts the most courses at the very top of our rankings—courses inside our top 10 and our top 100—New York stands alone. The Empire State has three gems inside the top 10 (#4 Shinnecock Hills, #7 National Golf Links of America and #10 Fishers Island) and 15 inside our top 100—the most of any state.
You’ll notice all three of New York’s best courses are private clubs (as are 14 of the state’s 15 in the top 200). So what about the states with the best public golf? Wisconsin is the best state for the common man with six public courses in our top 200 (if you count The Lido, which operates like the clubs in the British Isles, allowing select access to resort guests on select days). Oregon, with the five courses at Bandon Dunes, follows closely, with Florida, California and North Carolina right behind.
The Lido made the highest debut out of new courses on our most recent ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Courses, bolstering the great golf in Wisconsin.
Brandon Carter
For our purposes, though, we’re determined which states have the best golf by tallying all the courses inside our top 200. California, with 23 courses, takes the top spot, edging out New York. Though the Golden State has 14 courses inside the top 100, trailing its East Coast rival, the impressive depth in our Second 100 Greatest puts California over the edge. Florida, with 12 courses inside the top 200, rounds out the Big Three.
To help you argue your case during your next grillroom debate, here are the top 10 states with the most courses ranked inside our 2025-2026 America’s 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest lists.
1. California (23) 1 / 7 
Carlos Amoedo
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Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 3. Cypress Point Club Pebble Beach, CA 5 28 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:
Cypress Point, the sublime Monterey Peninsula work of sandbox sculpture, whittled Cypress and chiseled coastline, has become Exhibit A in the argument that classic architecture has been rendered ineffectual by modern technology.
I’m not buying that argument. Those who think teeny old Cypress Point is defenseless miss the point of Alister MacKenzie’s marvelous design.
MacKenzie relished the idea that Cypress Point would offer all sorts of ways to play every hole. That philosophy still thrives, particularly in the past decade, after the faithful restoration of MacKenzie’s original bunkers by veteran course superintendent Jeff Markow. Explore our complete review here—including bonus photography and ratings from our expert panelists.
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Stephen Szurlej
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Sherman Chu
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Evan Schiller
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Getty Images
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Photo by Joann Dost
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Keyur Khamar
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Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play false Public 9. Pebble Beach Golf Links Pebble Beach, CA 4.8 47 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
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. View Course 1 / 10 
Carlos Amoedo
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Courtesy of Los Angeles CC
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Copyright USGA/John Mummert
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 16. Los Angeles Country Club: North Los Angeles, CA 4.8 27 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
It’s on the edge of Tinsel Town, but the architecture of the North Course at Los Angeles Country Club has been solid gold ever since its 2010 restoration by architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner. It matters not that Hanse’s team didn’t replicate the bunkering style of original architect George C. Thomas, but rather the more visually exciting style of Thomas’ associate, William P. Bell. The first nine plays rustically up and down a shallow canyon with holes switching back and forth across a dry barranca, and the second nine loops across a more spacious upland section with one par 3 (the 11th) that can stretch to nearly 300 yards and another (the 15th) that often plays just 90 yards. The hole strategies reinstituted by Hanse provided an intriguing examination when LACC’s North course hosted the 2023 U.S. Open as Wyndham Clark beat Rory McIlroy by a stroke. View Course
18. Riviera C.C. 33. San Francisco G.C. 35. The Olympic Club (Lake) 55. Monterey Peninsula C.C. (Shore) 57. Cal Club 71. The Valley Club of Montecito 76. Spyglass Hill G. Cse. 77. Monterey Peninsula C.C. (Dunes)83. Ladera G.C. 85. The Quarry at La Quinta 93. Pasatiempo G.C. 115. Saint Lucia Preserve117. Stone Eagle G.C. 123. The Madison Club125. Bel-Air C.C. 151. Martis Camp 147. Mayacama G.C. 186. Sherwood C.C.197. Meadow Club200. The Vintage Club (Mountain)
Dom Furore
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Dom Furore
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Carlos Amoedo
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Copyright USGA/John Mummert
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Joe Raynor/Courtesy of Shinnecock Hills GC
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Carlos Amoedo
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 4. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club Southampton, NY 5 12 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
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 Hills is hosting its sixth U.S. Open in 2026, and the club will host again in 2036. View Course 1 / 10 
Carlos Amoedo
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Photo by Stephen Szurlej
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 7. National Golf Links of America Southampton, NY 4.9 23 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
This is where golf architect Seth Raynor got his start. A civil engineer by training, he surveyed holes for architect C.B. Macdonald, who scientifically designed National Golf Links as a fusion of his favorite features from grand old British golf holes. National Golf Links is a true links containing a marvelous collection of holes. As the 2013 Walker Cup reminded us, Macdonald’s versions are actually superior in strategy to the originals, which is why National’s design is still studied by golf architects today, its holes now replicated elsewhere. Hard to fathom that National Golf Links of America was not ranked among America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses from 1969 until 1985. Theories involve possible hazy, rough around the edges conditions during the 1970s that dulled the architcture (something that didn’t impact over-the-fence Shinnecock Hills), the course’s relatively short length that didn’t meet the era’s “championship course” standards, or simply that the unique Macdonald shapes and concepts were too quirky for the prevailing tastes of the era. No matter now. National is rightly positioned as one of America’s most original and influential expressions of golf course architecture. View Course 1 / 7 
Stephen Szurlej
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LC Lambrecht
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LC Lambrecht
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 10. Fishers Island Club Fishers Island, NY 4.9 27 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Undoubtedly, Fishers Island Club is the most dazzling design by architect Seth Raynor, who died in early 1926 before the course had officially opened. His steeply banked bunkers and geometric greens harmonize perfectly with the linear panoramas of the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound. The quality of the holes is also superb, with all Raynor’s usual suspects, including not one but two Redan greens, one on a par-4. The setting on a private island accessible only by ferry adds to the mystique, and three holes (four, five and nine) appear on our ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Holes. View Course
13. Winged Foot G.C. (West) 14. Friar’s Head G.C. 21. Oak Hill C.C. (East) 38. Bethpage State Park (Black) 45. Winged Foot G.C. (East) 51. Sebonack G.C. 52. Sleepy Hollow C.C. 53. Maidstone Club 58. Garden City G.C. 75. Quaker Ridge G.C. 88. Hudson National G.C. 98. Piping Rock Club 110. The Creek 175. Atlantic G.C.
Carlos Amoedo
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Carlos Amoedo
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The par-3 17th at Seminole Golf Club.
Carlos Amoedo
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Carlos Amoedo
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Jon Cavalier
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 12. Seminole Golf Club Juno Beach, FL 4.8 23 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
A majestic Donald Ross design with a clever routing on a rectangular site, each hole at Seminole encounters a new wind direction. The routing is perhaps the only thing that remains of Ross’ vision. The greens are no longer his, replaced 60 years ago in a regrassing effort that showed little appreciation for the original rolling contours. The bunkers aren’t Ross either. Dick Wilson replaced them in 1947, his own version meant to imitate crests of waves on the adjacent Atlantic. A few years back, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw redesigned the bunkers again, set lower, closer to the way Ross had them, along with exposing sandy expanses in the rough. The club is about to embark on another major remodel by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner intended to finally recreate Ross’ internal green movements based on his blueprints and elevate sections of the course to remediate drainage concerns. Seminole has long been one of America’s most exclusive clubs, which is why it was thrilling to see it on TV for a first time during the TaylorMade Driving Relief match, and then again for the 2021 Walker Cup. View Course 1 / 8 
Dom Furore / Golf Digest
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Previous Next Pause Play false Public 41. TPC Sawgrass: Stadium Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 4.6 26 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
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. View Course 1 / 10 
LC Lambrecht/Courtesy of Calusa Pines GC
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Laurence Casey Lambrecht
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Laurence Casey Lambrecht
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Laurence Casey Lambrecht
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 68. Calusa Pines Golf Club Naples, FL 4.6 51 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Calusa’s developer, Gary Chensoff, a Chicago venture capitalist, survived a rare form of cancer despite long odds, and his recovery strongly influenced how Calusa Pines was designed and built. Chensoff decided to gamble, instructing Hurdzan-Fry to design the most unique course in South Florida despite a dead flat site. They responded by piling up fill from ponds to form ridgelines up to 58 feet, then planted them with mature oaks, pines and sabal palms. Calusa Pines sports perhaps the firmest, fastest Bermuda fairways and greens in Florida, currently rivaled only by the turf at Streamsong. Recent removal of overgrown vegetation between holes has returned beautiful long-range views to the course and made it more playable. Calusa Pines continues to creep forward in the ranking, moving up one more place this year. View Course
122. Jupiter Hills Club (Hills) 127. The Concession G.C. 133. Streamsong Resort (Red) 143. The Dye Course at White Oak 157. McArthur G.C. (Front Yard) 166. Streamsong Resort (Blue) 188. Medalist G.C. 191. Streamsong Resort (Black) 195. Panther National
Carlos Amoedo
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Courtesy of the club/Charley Raudenbush
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 1. Pine Valley Golf Club Pine Valley, NJ 4.7 19 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
A genuine original, its unique character is forged from the sandy pine barrens of southwest Jersey. Founder George Crump had help from now-legendary architects H.S. Colt, A.W. Tillinghast, George C. Thomas Jr. and Walter Travis. Hugh Wilson (of Merion fame) and his brother Alan finished the job, while William Flynn and Perry Maxwell made revisions. Throughout the course, Pine Valley blends all three schools of golf design—penal, heroic and strategic—often times on a single hole. Recent tree removal at selected spots has revealed some gorgeous views of the sandy landscape upon which the course is routed, and Tom Fazio has put his own touch on the design with bunker remodels that have given the barrens a more intricate and ornate look. View Course 1 / 12 
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 42. Baltusrol Golf Club: Lower Springfield, NJ 4.7 34 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Jack Nicklaus won two U.S. Opens on Baltusrol’s Lower Course, setting a tournament record each time. Phil Mickelson and Jimmy Walker won PGAs on it. But the Lower’s most historic event was the ace by architect Robert Trent Jones in 1954 on the par-3 fourth, instantly squelching complaints of critical club members who felt Trent’s redesign made it too hard. Trent’s younger son, Rees, an avowed A.W. Tillinghast fan, lightly retouched the Lower’s design for the 2016 PGA Championship. But there has been another changing of the guard at Baltusrol, as architect Gil Hanse and his team took over as the club’s new consulting architects, and re-opened the restored Lower course—after carefully examining Tilly’s old plans and reclaiming green sizes and rebuilding bunkers—in May 2021. Hanse’s team performed a similar restoration on Baltusrol’s Upper course, which reopened in May 2025. View Course 1 / 9 
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David Wilson/Courtesy of the club
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Jon Cavalier, @LinksGems/Courtesy of the club
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Courtesy of Somerset Hills CC
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Robert Walker
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Robert Walker
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 56. Somerset Hills Country Club Bernardsville, NJ 4.8 13 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Somerset Hills is another marvelous A.W. Tillinghast design, one of the few that has remained virtually unchanged since it opened in 1918. So, it may be the most authentic Tillinghast course on the 100 Greatest. It’s a charming, laid-back design that works through seemingly undisturbed rolling terrain, past rock outcroppings and around small-but-distinctive water hazards. Tilly designed this with a spoonful of whimsy, with “dolomite” mounds edging one green and startling knobs within another putting surface. Like Baltusrol Upper, Somerset Hills has a Tillinghast version of a Redan par 3, the second hole, which Golf Digest panelists ranked higher than any of the many splendid versions created by C.B. Macdonald or Seth Raynor, the pioneers of the template in the United States. View Course
84. Baltusrol G.C. (Upper) 90. Plainfield C.C. 139. Ridgewood C.C. (East/West) 163. Hollywood G.C. 164. Bayonne G.C. 168. Galloway National G.C.
T-4. North Carolina (9)
RELATED: Our 10 favorite Pinehurst courses, ranked
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 27. Wade Hampton Golf Club Cashiers, NC 4.8 22 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Built during the period when Tom Fazio was still working with the existing landscape rather than bulldozing it, Wade Hampton is an exercise in restraint. The fairways flow through a natural valley between flanking mountain peaks. Some holes are guarded by gurgling brooks, but Fazio piped several streams underground to make the course more playable and walkable. Selected as Golf Digest’s Best New Private Course of 1987, it has never been out of the top 40 since it joined America’s 100 Greatest. View Course 1 / 8 
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The 13th hole at Pinehurst No. 2.
Courtesy of the resort
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Dom Furore
Previous Next Pause Play false Public 32. Pinehurst #2 Pinehurst, NC 4.7 54 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
In 2010, a team led by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw killed and ripped out all the Bermudagrass rough on Pinehurst #2 that had been foolishly planted in the 1970s. Between fairways and tree lines, they established vast bands of native hardpan sand dotted with clumps of wiregrass and scattered pine needles. They reduced the irrigation to mere single rows in fairways to prevent grass from ever returning to the new sandy wastelands. Playing firm and fast, it was wildly successful as the site of the 2014 Men’s and Women’s U.S. Opens, played on consecutive weeks, and produced an even more exciting Open in 2024 when Bryson DeChambeau beat Rory McIlroy on the final hole. It’s the rare course that a wide variety of resort players can enjoy and play quickly one day, and be a test for tour pros the next by essentially just quickening the greens. A new favorite of the USGA with a headquarters in town, Pinehurst #2 will host Opens again in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047. View Course 1 / 9 
SPRINGBOARD Old Town Club in Winston-Salem, N.C., makes the biggest move in the ranking, surging from No. 92 to No. 54.
Jon Cavalier
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Laurence Lambrecht
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Eric Kiel
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Laurence Lambrecht
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Laurence Lambrecht
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Wayne Freedman
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 39. Old Town Club Winston Salem, NC 4.8 29 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Created by architect Perry Maxwell on the heels of his work at Prairie Dunes and Southern Hills, Old Town Club was surprisingly unique, and included perhaps Maxwell’s only surviving double green. When Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were hired to address the bunkering at Old Town, they opted not to reproduce the original bunkers (some of which were enormous) but rather emulate their gnarly shapes, edges and vegetation in places where bunkers naturally fit. Lots of trees had already been removed, but the architects convinced the club to get rid of even more. Now, a single swath of fairway connects the seventh, eighth, ninth, 17th and 18th holes. Very unique. The course has jumped a remarkable 59 places in the rankings since it debuted in 2019. View Course
95. Diamond Creek 116. Mountaintop Golf & Lake Club 119. Eagle Point Golf Club 126. Quail Hollow Club 154. Grandfather Golf & C.C. 173. Pinehurst #10 190. Pinehurst #4
David Cannon
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 11. Chicago Golf Club Wheaton, IL 4.9 22 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Chicago Golf Club opened the country’s first 18-hole course in 1893, built by C.B. Macdonald, the preeminent golf expert in the U.S. at the time. Two years later, Macdonald built the club a different course after the membership moved to a new location in Wheaton, Ill.: “a really first-class 18-hole course of 6,200 yards,” he wrote. Members played that course until 1923 when Seth Raynor, who began his architectural career as Macdonald’s surveyor and engineer, redesigned it using the “ideal hole” concepts his old boss had developed 15 years earlier (he kept Macdonald’s routing, which placed all the O.B. on the left—C.B. sliced the ball). For reasons of history and practicality, no major remodels have occurred since then, allowing the club to merely burnish the architecture by occasionally upgrading worn parts, adjusting grassing lines, and recently, reestablishing a number of lost bunkers that had been filled in over time. View Course 1 / 10 
Brian Palmer/Courtesy of Shoreacres
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 47. Shoreacres Golf Club Lake Bluff, IL 4.6 46 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Shoreacres possesses perhaps the most fascinating topography upon which Seth Raynor ever created a golf course, a remarkable assertion given that most of the playing surfaces are dead flat, though the in-between spaces are cut through by winding depressions and several deep ravines. Raynor infused the design with his usual collection of suspects, including No. 3 (Leven), No. 6 (Biarritz), No. 7 (Double Plateau), No. 8 (Eden), No. 10 (one of the best Road Hole interpretations in the U.S.) and No. 14 (Redan) all playing along the plateaus that edge the gulleys and ravines that feed into Lake Michigan. The stretch of 11, 12 and 13, playing across a ravine, down into it, and back out of it with a blind tee shot, are as unique a stretch of holes as can be found anywhere on a 100 Greatest course. The tight turf, rivaling the firmest conditions of any parkland course, add to the challenge, and when playing as fiery as usual, shots played into the sensuously bubbled greens often have to be landed 10 or 15 yards short to be played onto the putting surfaces. View Course 1 / 5 
Medinah Country Club/Seth Jenkins
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Matt Rouches/Fried Egg Golf
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 74. Medinah Country Club: #3 Medinah, IL 4.6 29 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
The evolution of golf course architecture—and how courses change to suit the demands of the times—can be mapped directly on top of Medinah’s No. 3 course. It was built in the 1920s within the fields west of Chicago on land that was part farmland and partly wooded. It became a major championship site when it hosted the 1949 U.S. Open, putting it on a track of perpetual improvements to toughen it up to keep pace with tournament demands. To whit, the old 17th hole, a par-3 over water, shifted and morphed several times between 1986 and 2005, and the greens and bunkers have undergone remodels ahead of each event, from Opens, to PGA Championships to Ryder Cups. But when No. 3 was blistered to the tune of 25-under during the 2019 BMW Championship, which coincided with a plunge in our rankings from 53rd to 93rd, the club knew it was time to adapt again. They took a swing and hired the Australian firm of Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead to overhaul the design with the notion of making the course look and play like it might have in the 1920s. That meant removing much of the dense forest surrounding the holes, revamping the bunkers in more naturalistic forms, enlarging the greens and adding internal contour, eliminating two of the three redundant par 3s that played over Lake Kadijah and building several new holes, including the drivable 16th over the lake. The radical shift has put the fun, firmness and variety back into a design that had become one-dimensional, predictable and soft, and the result is a jump of 19 spots in the ranking. View Course
86. Canyata G.C. 93. Butler National G.C. 108. Olympia Fields C.C. (North) 113. Rich Harvest Farms 149. Old Elm Club
T-6. South Carolina (8) 1 / 7 
Carlos Amoedo
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Stephen Szurlej
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Behind the third green at the Ocean Course.
Uzzell Lambert
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Photo by Stephen Szurlej
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Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play false Public 30. Kiawah Island Golf Resort: The Ocean Course Kiawah Island, SC 4.8 53 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
The Ocean Course was designed on short notice for a specific event, the 1991 Ryder Cup, when the PGA of America decided to move the event from California to the more attractive Eastern time zone television time slot. This manufactured linksland-meets-lagoons layout might well be Pete Dye’s most diabolical creation. Every hole is edged by sawgrass, every green has tricky slopes and every bunker merges into bordering sand dunes. Strung along nearly three miles of ocean coast, Dye took his wife Alice’s advice and perched fairways and greens so golfers can actually view the Atlantic surf over a ridge of beach dunes. That also exposes shots and putts to ever-present and sometimes fierce coastal winds. The Ocean Course will forever be linked with Phil Mickelson and his improbable victory at the 2021 PGA Championship, as well as Rory McIlroy’s romp in 2012. View Course 1 / 4 
James Haefner Photography, Inc.
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The view from behind the 3rd green at Congaree.
James Haefner Photography, Inc
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Edward C Robinson III
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Edward C Robinson III
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 40. Congaree Golf Club Ridgeland, SC 4.8 22 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Tom Fazio has designed countless compelling golf courses on sites that weren’t. But at Congaree, 30 minutes inland from Beaufort, S.C., he at least had great material: sand, in the form of two deep sections of it separated by a lowcountry wetland area. The sand made it easy to scoop and shape long ridgelines, creating significant movement across an otherwise level property—and dozens of stately live oaks, carefully transplanted for effect—further outline the design. Finely edged Melbourne-style bunkers sweep up to the edges of fairways and into greens, catching shots that drift too far and leading to challenging hi-lo recovery situations. Congaree hosted the 2022 CJ Cup after making its debut as a tour venue for the previous year’s Palmetto Championship, which replaced that year’s Canadian Open. View Course 1 / 4 
LC Lambrecht
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LC Lambrecht
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 114. Yeamans Hall Club Charleston, SC 4.5 17 Panelists
- Second 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Though it contained a classic collection of Raynor favorites, including a Road Hole, a Biarritz, a Redan and even a Prize Dogleg (based on an entry from a 1914 magazine design contest), Yeamans Hall suffered from benign neglect for 50 years, with bunkers overgrown and greens both shrunk by mowing habits and mushroomed by topdressing. But in the late 1980s, the course superintendent discovered Raynor’s original plans in the clubhouse attic. Architect Tom Doak and his then-associate Jim Urbina used the plans to faithfully restore Raynor features. Urbina continues to implement restoration touches, and Yeamans Hall today is one of the country’s most polished and evocative examples of Raynor’s architecture on a relatively flat piece of lowcountry land. View Course
130. The Tree Farm 131. Old Barnwell 170. Harbour Town Golf Links 174. Secession G.C. 198. Kiawah Island Club (Cassique)
RELATED: Why South Carolina became the hottest spot in golf design
T-6. Ohio (8) 1 / 4 
Courtesy of the club/Jim Mandeville
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Courtesy of Jim Mandeville
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Courtesy of Jim Mandeville
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Courtesy of Jim Mandeville
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 19. Muirfield Village Golf Club Dublin, OH 4.8 25 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
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. View Course 1 / 3 
Courtesy of the club
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Courtesy of The Golf Club
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Courtesy of The Golf Club
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 46. The Golf Club New Albany, OH 4.6 21 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
The Golf Club, built in 1966, may be the most authentic of Pete Dye’s transition period of design, when he first chose to buck convention and start building lay-of-the-land layouts like those he’d seen during a 1963 tour of Scotland. In doing so, Dye reintroduced deception, misdirection and railroad ties into American golf architecture. Its construction attracted the attention of local boy Jack Nicklaus, who visited several times and made some astute suggestions. That led to a five-year Dye-Nicklaus design partnership. The Golf Club remained untouched for nearly 45 years, until Pete Dye returned in 2014 to rebuild holes, modestly adjusting some of his original green contours to better match present-day green speeds. He also relocated the fifth green, adding a contorted putting surface more reminiscent of his later designs, an inconspicuous reminder of how much his design predilections evolved throughout his career. View Course 1 / 4 
The Henebrys
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John and Jeannine Henebry
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The Henebrys
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Previous Next Pause Play false Private 48. Camargo Club Cincinnati, OH 4.8 22 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
One of Seth Raynor’s last designs, Camargo Club wasn’t completed until nearly a year after his 1926 death. William Jackson, who later became the club’s pro and superintendent, handled the construction and was faithful to Raynor’s diagrams with two exceptions: He turned the 16th into a par 4 and the 17th into a par 5. Robert von Hagge added flashy but incongruous bunkering in the early 1960s. They lasted over 20 years, until Tom Doak undertook a restoration in the Raynor style of geometric-shaped bunkers and greens. Curiously, the Biarritz green at the par-3 eighth has never been mowed, as the 60-yard-long putting surface found on other Biarritz holes built by Raynor or his mentor C.B. Macdonald. Club officials insisted early aerial photos confirm the front half of the green was always mown at fairway height, so they continue that tradition today. Don Placek of Renaissance Golf has recently completed further renovation enhancements, including adding six acres of restored fairway to better help define the scale of the property and extending the back left section of the Road green at 17 (as well as reintroducing a second “Road” bunker beyond the first) to reclaim its original prodigious 15,000 square feet. View Course
62. Inverness Club 82. Scioto C.C. 136. Double Eagle Club 152. Moraine C.C. 180. Canterbury G.C.
T-6. Massachusetts (8) 1 / 8 
Brian Oar
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Brian Oar
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Brian Oar
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Brian Oar
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Brian Oar
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James Sylvia: West Tenth Media/MembersFirst
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James Sylvia: West Tenth Media/MembersFirst
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 17. The Country Club: The Main Course Brookline, MA 4.3 2 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
The Country Club’s 18-hole course, which was the scene of the 1963 and 1988 U.S. Opens, is not the 18-hole course ranked by Golf Digest. Those events were played on a composite course that utilizes several holes from the club’s third nine, Primrose, designed by William Flynn. We rank the combination of the Main Course (the Clyde and Squirrel nines), clearly good enough to be one of the top courses in the world. Gil Hanse performed some course restoration prior to the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club and again before the 2022 U.S. Open, won by Matthew Fitzpatrick. The USGA used a new configuration of 18 holes for that championship, eliminating the par-4 fourth and adding the tiny, downhill par-3 11th to the mix, the first time the hole was used since the 1913 Open won by Francis Ouimet. View Course 1 / 6 
Jon Cavalier
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Jon Cavalier
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Jon Cavalier
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Jon Cavalier
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Jon Cavalier
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Jon Cavalier
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 54. Myopia Hunt Club South Hamilton, MA 4.7 23 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Few realize Myopia Hunt Club, a funky, quirky lark where greens look like bathmats and bunkers look like bathtubs, hosted four U.S. Opens by 1908 (two of them when the club had only nine holes). Although the Open hasn’t been back in over 110 years, Myopia has always retained a reputation of being a tough little rascal with tiny greens, treacherous hazards and several cross-bunkers. Thanks to a Gil Hanse restoration, Myopia looks like it did in its U.S. Open heyday, but with much better turf conditions. View Course 1 / 4 
The Henebrys/Courtesy of Old Sandwich GC
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Courtesy of Old Sandwich GC
Previous Next Pause Play false Private 73. Old Sandwich Golf Club Plymouth, MA 4.6 17 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- Best In State
Old Sandwich Golf Club may be the craftiest Coore-Crenshaw design yet built. Amidst its pines, scrub oaks, gnarly bunkers, chocolate drop mounds, wavy fescue and briar bushes are hints of Baltusrol, National Golf Links, Pine Valley, Pinehurst #2 and Chicago Golf Club in its cross-bunkering, hazard placement and sandy waste areas. The greens are some of the most rolling of any Coore & Crenshaw design, seeded with a half-dozen bent varieties to give them an old-fashioned mottled appearance. Nobody does old-fashioned better than Coore & Crenshaw. View Course
78. Essex County Club 89. The Kittansett Club 91. Boston G.C. 101. Eastward Ho! 183. Sankaty Head G.C.
Carlos Amoedo
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Stephen Szurlej
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Carlos Amoedo
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Stephen Szurlej
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Stephen Szurlej
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Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play false Public 26. Whistling Straits: Straits Course Sheboygan, WI 4.7 60 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
Pete Dye transformed a dead flat abandoned army air base along a two-mile stretch of Lake Michigan into an imitation Ballybunion at Whistling Straits, peppering his rugged fairways and windswept greens with 1,012 (at last count) bunkers. There are no rakes at Whistling Straits, in keeping with the notion that this is a transplanted Irish links. It has too much rub of the green for the comfort levels of many tour pros, which is what makes it a stern test for top events, such as three PGA Championships, the 2007 U.S. Senior Open and the 2021 Ryder Cup. View Course 1 / 10 
Paul Hundley
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Dom Furore
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Dom Furore
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Dom Furore
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Dom Furore
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Dom Furore
Previous Next Pause Play false Public 49. Erin Hills Golf Course Hartford, WI 4.6 46 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
Despite the rumor, Erin Hills wasn’t designed specifically to host a U.S. Open. Its original concept was to be a simple, affordable, lay-of-the-land layout to prove Mother Nature is indeed the best golf architect. The concept changed—some greens moved, one blind par 3 eliminated—as the quest for a U.S. Open grew. That dream came true: after trial runs hosting the 2008 U.S. Women’s Public Links and the 2011 U.S. Amateur, Erin Hills hosted the U.S. Open in 2017, the first time the event had ever been in Wisconsin. Brooks Koepka won with a 72-hole score of 16-under, leading some to conclude Erin Hills was too wide and defenseless. In truth, what it lacked that week was the usual gusty winds that would have effectively narrowed the slanted, canted fairways. Had the par been adjusted to 70 instead of 72 as is usual for most Opens, the score would likely have been closer to 8-under. View Course 1 / 8 
Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
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Brandon Carter
Previous Next Pause Play false Public 69. Sand Valley: The Lido Nekoosa, WI 4.6 53 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
The Lido at Sand Valley in central Wisconsin opened in May 2023 and is a down-to-the-inch recreation of The Lido that C.B. Macdonald built on Long Island from 1914 to 1917. Heralded as one of the country’s greatest courses, it went extinct in the 1940s when the U.S. government converted the land to a naval base. The Lido is alive again as a private club associated with Sand Valley Resort. The club operates in the same vein as the clubs of the British Isles, allowing select play from resort guests on Mondays through Thursdays.Rebuilding The Lido has been the fantasy of many historians, but doing so accurately became possible when Peter Flory, a financial consultant and architecture enthusiast, developed a detailed computer simulation of the course based on scrupulous study of old photographs and other material. Sand Valley proprietors Michael and Chris Keiser discovered Flory’s computer model, then asked architect Tom Doak if he could use it to rebuild the course.First, the animated contours had to be translated into a physical GPS topographical blueprint, a technological hack accomplished by digital mapping specialist Brian Zager. The GPS map enabled Doak and his associates to reconstruct Lido holes like Plateau, Alps, Cape and Long in exquisite detail, along with originals like the Dog’s Leg sixth and the Home 18th, making only minor adjustments for drainage and adding longer tees for modern play. Though there’s no Atlantic Ocean crashing near the Biarritz eighth green or stiff coastal winds swatting around balls, the ”new” Lido is a stunning representation of Macdonald’s groundbreaking accomplishment and a vivid throwback to a more daring era of architecture. Using the spacious hole corridors to explore different routes into the giant greens is half the fun. Contemplating players navigating holes like the Channel fourth, with an alternative island fairway for daring hitters and a green perched behind a high rampart bunker, using hickory shafts and Haskell balls, is the other half. View Course
97. Milwaukee C.C. 128. Blackwolf Run (River) 134. Sand Valley 165. Mammoth Dunes
Forty states in all placed at least one course in the top 200. Beyond the top 10, here’s how the remaining states stack up:
Texas (6), Georgia (6), Pennsylvania (6), Nebraska (5), Michigan (5), Oregon (5), Colorado (4), Virginia (4), Arizona (4), Washington (4), Indiana (4), Minnesota (3), Montana (3), Idaho (3), Hawaii (3), Rhode Island (3), Maryland (3), Missouri (2), Nevada (2), Kansas (2), Oklahoma (2), Tennessee (2), West Virginia (2), Arkansas (2), Kentucky (1), Wyoming (1), Alabama (1), Iowa (1), Connecticut (1), Utah (1).
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
