Comprehensive profiles of the world's greatest golf courses
California, United States
A 1987 attempt to build Scotland on the California coast, now closed for a Gil Hanse renovation that promises to finish the job. Bagpiper still included.
Washington, United States
A former gravel mine in Washington State became America's most controversial—and most ambitious—public links course. The U.S. Open proved it. Sort of.
Arizona, United States
129 bunkers. Twelve acres of sand. Zero saguaros. Someone dropped the Melbourne Sandbelt into the Sonoran Desert and nobody stopped them.
Arizona, United States
Jay Morrish built a desert Pine Valley around twelve-million-year-old granite spheres in Carefree, Arizona. The boulders were here first. They aren't moving.
Arizona, United States
Jay Morrish threaded 18 holes through 12-million-year-old granite and invented desert target golf. The rocks were there first. They remain unimpressed.
Arizona, United States
Tom Fazio built wide fairways in the Sonoran Desert and hid the teeth in the green complexes. Three years of NCAA champions confirm: the wolf still bites.
Arizona, United States
Scottsdale's box-canyon thriller hosted a million-dollar purse in 1995. The desert has been collecting golf balls (and green fees) ever since.
Arizona, United States
The PGA Tour's loudest venue is a daily-fee course on a flood plain. 20,000 screaming fans one week. The other 51? Just desert and concrete footings.
Arizona, United States
Built in 2008. Opened in 2015. Two amateur architects and a seven-year economic coma produced Arizona's most improbable championship course.
New York, United States
Robert Trent Jones Sr. built a championship layout on Long Island's windswept tip, then New York handed it to the public for under $100. The catch? Getting there.
California, United States
RTJ Jr. gutted his own creation, killed every blade of rough, and rebuilt Poppy Hills from the mud up. The Monterey Peninsula's sharpest public sleeper.
Oregon, United States
Coore and Crenshaw put 13 par-3s on Bandon's wildest dunes, saved a threatened plant, and built the afternoon round that outshines most people's morning.
Ayrshire, Scotland
A 12-hole links on Scotland's Isle of Arran where blind shots, a rope-and-pulley system, and a ferry ride conspire to ruin eighteen-hole golf forever.
New York, United States
Tillinghast built five courses at Bethpage. The Black gets the majors. The Red gets the golfers who actually want to enjoy themselves.
California, United States
A left-handed general designed Bayonet to fit his slice, and seventy years later it still punishes golfers at municipal prices on the Monterey Peninsula.
California, United States
Jack Neville designed Pebble Beach for $695, then Pacific Grove's back nine for $66. Same coastline, same architect, very different credit card statement.
California, United States
While Pebble Beach shivers in fog, Quail Lodge sits in Carmel Valley sunshine, serving ground-game geometry on a flat, walkable dairy farm turned sanctuary.
Oregon, United States
Dan Hixson burned stumps for 200 days on a cattle ranch to build it. The resort caddies up the road have been thanking him on their days off ever since.