Golfweek’s raters have ranked the top 200 courses built in the United States before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses before 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Classic Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Modern Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino
* Indicates new to or returning to this list.
Editor’s note:The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for the top 200 layouts built after 1960 in the U.S. was published Monday, May 23. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.
Donald Ross and Tom Fazio stand out for the number of their courses to appear on Golfweek’s Best most elite lists of rankings.
Whose likenesses would be shaped from rock if there existed a Mount Rushmore for golf course designers? It’s a hard call to decide who fills out that most illustrious foursome, but two designers would be locks.
First, some background. It’s impossible, of course, to judge a designer’s portfolio based solely on number of courses built. Likewise, it would be impossible to add some less-prolific designers to any such shrine because the influence of their work lacks scale – their courses might be incredible, but there simply weren’t enough holes built for some designers to reach the highest peaks.
Better to use Golfweek’s Best 2021 top-200 lists of Classic and Modern Courses in the United States, with 1960 as the demarcation point between the two. These two lists represent the elite of the elite. And while there are dozens of architects who have earned at least partial credit with their names listed on these top courses, the top 20 designers on the two lists have combined credits on more than 300 of the 400 courses listed.
Golden-era course designer Donald Ross designed Seminole Golf Club in Florida, which is pictured atop this story. (AP files; Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images for the top photo)
At the apex are clear leaders – as judged by volume of top courses in the U.S. – for both the Classic and Modern lists: Donald Ross earned design credit for 65 of the top 200 Classic Courses, and Tom Fazio earned credit on 46 Modern Courses as well as two Classics that he redesigned or renovated.
Any count of this type can be complicated by complete redesigns, renovations, restorations and a thousand shades of gray between the three. Particularly for the older Classic Courses, multiple designers are credited with contributions as some layouts have evolved. Singular design credit is more rare on these Classics than on the Modern tracks.
Work has continued on many of the Classics since 1960, so even Modern architects might appear in the credits for several of the Classics. A great example is the Country Club of Detroit, for which Charles H. Alison, Harry S. Colt, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Tom Doak all appear in the design credits, with Doak working in 2011 to restore the course more closely to Alison and Colt’s original intent.
Pinehurst No. 2 was designed by Donald Ross. (Courtesy of Pinehurst Resort)
There are dozens of similar examples throughout the Classic list, and the presence of more than one designer in the credits of any course is in no way intended to diminish the contributions of other listed designers, even though a particular designer’s influence may have been reduced.
Other courses have only one designer listed, even as those layouts have been tweaked since they opened. Pinehurst No. 2 in South Carolina is a prime example. Originally created by Ross, the course was altered multiple times before the talented design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2010 completed a restoration to more closely match Ross’s original design.
Next door to Pinehurst No. 2, Ross’s No. 4 course also saw decades of change before Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in 2018 completely renovated the track, with Ross still in the credits. Hanse and Wagner installed new hazards and greens – and even several new corridors – making what Hanse has called “an entirely new course” on the same property. Hence, the course was placed on the Modern list even though golf began on that ground more than a century ago.
Clearly, there are many gray areas when it comes to who built what and who deserves how much of the credit. Instead of diving too deep into those weeds, this story focuses on any designer credited with significant alterations to top courses – the same as the Golfweek’s Best rankings do.
These rankings also focus on the best successes for each designer, as is the inherent nature of rankings. Some designers build fewer courses, earning a higher percentage of representation on the lists than do other designers. Golfweek’s Best lists are not intended to compare designers’ efforts as a percentage of their total work, only to recognize great courses regardless of who designed them.
What is not in doubt is Ross’s influence on American golf. Born in 1872 in Dornoch, Scotland, Ross is credited with the design or renovation of more than 400 courses around the world. His lay-of-the-land style – before the advent of heavy, mechanical earth-moving equipment – has shaped the ethos for many of the best modern designers.
And it wasn’t just volume for Ross. His top courses include No. 2 at Pinehurst (where he served as the golf professional and where he died at age 75), Seminole and Oakland Hills’ South, and he designed almost a third of all the top 200 courses on Golfweek’s Best Classic list for the U.S., including 30 of the top 100 Classics.
Tom Fazio pictured in 2001 (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Fazio, who has built more than 200 courses around the world, has a similar grip on much of the Modern list for courses built in or after 1960 in the U.S. Born in 1945, Fazio started his career in the family design firm before striking out on his own in 1972. He has earned credit on 46 of the top 200 Modern Courses, including 21 in the top 100 on that list, as well as done significant work on two Classic Courses on that list’s top 100.
An interesting way to think about it: That’s almost 200 miles worth of great golf holes, just counting Fazio’s courses on the top 200 lists.
“For me, when we get hired, I know the expectation of the person that’s hiring us. They expect it to be the best it can be,” Fazio told Golfweek in March. “That sounds so trite, so automatic, but it’s not. It’s true. … It has to be as good, better than anything you’ve ever seen. …
“It’s motivation, the expectation for how you’re going to live your whole life. From the time I started in the ’60s, it’s always been that whatever you do, it’s going to be the best it can be. And it just keeps going that way. … Call it luck, God, whatever. Somehow you get the job done. That’s why we get paid very well … And that’s what the expectation is. And I’m always looking at, what’s next?”
Estancia in Arizona was designed by Tom Fazio (Courtesy of Estancia)
Fazio is just as interested in his courses that don’t make the top-200 lists as those at the top, believing many of them to be worthy of higher ranking.
“I’ll also say one other thing, not a facetious thing but on the other side of that list that has many of those top golf courses,” he said. “I have many golf courses not on that list still, or down on the bottom of it, and they’re just as good as the top ones. So it’s just a matter of opinion sometimes, because there’s a lot of good golf courses out there.”
He’s right. Ranking courses is a game of opinions. But Golfweek’s Best incorporates the opinions of more than 850 raters who scour the nation to sample courses, and the cumulative opinions show clear affinity for his – and Ross’s – work.
Golfweek’s Best looks at the elite clubs in each state to determine which states have the greatest public access or private courses in U.S.
So, where’s the best golf in the United States? Turns out, it’s almost everywhere, as evidenced by this year’s Golfweek’s Best rankings of great courses. From Hawaii to New York, South Florida to northern Michigan, fantastic layouts – new and old – are sprinkled across a diverse landscape.
But an analysis of the new Golfweek’s Best rankings does of course show that some states are sprinkled a little more densely with top tracks. And to answer that question about the location of best golf, we must follow with another question: What type of golf do you prefer?
The Golfweek’s Best rankings are categorized in many ways, from public-access layouts on the Best Courses You Can Play lists for each state, to the top 100 private clubs. Want to play a great modern course? The states that show up most on that list are very different than the states with the most top classic courses, with 1960 serving as the demarcation between those categories.
(Fair warning, this story has enough ranking talk to make a golfer’s head spin like a balata ball struck by square grooves. Don’t worry, each of the lists discussed is displayed on these pages.)
Various states score highly on some of the lists, not so much in others. And for some golfers who haven’t closely followed the evolving golf scene over the past 20 years, there certainly might be some surprises.
For a fun comparison, we averaged the ratings of the top five public-access courses in each state to compile a list of states where a traveling golfer has the best chance to play a great track. We also compared states’ representation on a separate but similar list, the top 100 Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S.
While sunny stalwarts such as California and Florida rank highly on the list that compares each state’s top five public-access courses, it’s Oregon that steals the show with an average rating of 8.00 for the top five tracks. And largely on the strength of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (pictured atop this story is Bandon Dunes’ Old Macdonald) and the newer Silvies Valley Ranch, the Beaver State places eight layouts among the top 100 Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S.
Erin Hills in Wisconsin (Courtesy of Erin Hills/Paul Hundley)
Then what might be another surprise for some: Wisconsin is second on the list that compares the top five public-access courses in each state. The Badger State has become a must-see golf destination over the past 20 years despite a shorter-than-normal golf season. Whistling Straits, Sand Valley, Erin Hills and a handful of others have powered the climb in the rankings, and Wisconsin has eight courses among Golfweek’s Best top 100 courses you can play.
California ranks third in our data that compares each state’s top five public-access courses, no surprise there, thank you very much Pebble Beach and other coastal stars. And California tops the list of 100 Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S., showing incredible depth with 10 courses.
What’s not a surprise is New York’s domination of the list of Golfweek’s Best Private Courses, with Long Island the jewel in the crown. Again averaging the top five courses as ranked on the state-by-state list for top private tracks, New York beats out California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia for the top spot for elite private clubs.
Shinnecock Hills in New York (David Cannon/Getty Images)
The disparity in New York’s private and public-access golf is certainly interesting. When comparing the ratings of the top five courses in each state, public versus private, the Empire State’s private courses are leaps and bounds ahead of its public-access courses – certainly no surprise to most golfers in the state. The top five private courses in the state average an astonishingly high 8.82 rating on Golfweek’s 10-point scale, while the top five public-access courses average 6.76.
The gulf between private and public is greater only in neighboring New Jersey. The top five private courses in the Garden State average an 8.11 rating, while its top five public-access tracks average a 6.03 rating.
Another interesting comparison is a state’s placing on the Golfweek’s Best classic and modern lists. Not surprising is that New York leads the country with 32 of the top 200 classic courses in the U.S., followed by Pennsylvania and California. But New York doesn’t fare so well on the modern list, with only four courses ranked among the top 200. Clearly the best available sites in the bustling state were taken before 1960, which is in line with the fact that early golf in the U.S. was developed mostly in the Northeast.
Florida tops the list of top 200 modern courses with 19 while placing only five tracks on the top 200 classic list. California is second on the modern list, followed by South Carolina, Arizona and Texas. Golf apparently expanded into warm states at a similar rate as did the availability of air conditioning in and after the 1960s.
Which still leaves the initial question: Where to go for great golf?
One state pops up in the top five of each of the lists discussed here: California. The Golden State is No. 1 on the list of top 100 Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S with 11 courses on that list. It also ranks No. 2 when comparing the top five private courses in each state (8.43 average rating), No. 2 on the top-200 modern list (16 courses), No. 3 when comparing the top five public-access courses in each state (7.55 average rating) and No. 3 on the top-200 classic list (18 courses).
So, for sure, California has it all: public, private, classic and modern. But there’s one more combination of rankings worth checking out: each state’s combined representation on the top 200 modern and classic lists. Based on the strength of its private clubs, New York has a combined 36 courses on those lists. California ranks second (34), followed by Florida (24), Pennsylvania (22), New Jersey (21), Massachusetts (20) and North Carolina (20). In all, 44 states have at least one course on either the top 200 classic or modern lists.
One other thing is also for sure: There’s great golf to be found at all points on the compass, as evidenced on the many lists in this issue. All you have to do is look, and to know what type of golf you are looking for.
The original Bandon Dunes course at the Oregon resort (Courtesy of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort)
States ranked by elite public-access courses
This list was compiled by averaging the ratings, on a scale of one to 10, of the top five public-access layouts in each state on the Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list:
1. Oregon, 8.00
2. Wisconsin, 7.56
3. California, 7.55
4. Florida, 7.34
5. North Carolina, 7.17
6. South Carolina, 7.11
7. Michigan, 6.94
8. Hawaii, 6.92
9. Washington, 6.92
10. Virginia, 6.77
11. New York, 6.76
12. Nevada, 6.70
13. Mississippi, 6.65
14. Nebraska, 6.65
15. Arizona, 6.55
16. Minnesota, 6.47
17. Texas, 6.46
18. Utah, 6.43
19. Georgia, 6.40
20. Colorado, 6.39
21. Missouri, 6.38
22. Arkansas, 6.30
23. Indiana, 6.29
24. Alabama, 6.29
25. North Dakota, 6.28
26. Massachusetts, 6.27
27. Tennessee, 6.22
28. Illinois, 6.21
29. New Mexico, 6.20
30. Pennsylvania, 6.16
31. West Virginia, 6.12
32. Maine, 6.09
33. New Jersey, 6.03
34. Idaho, 6.03
35. Ohio, 6.02
36. Connecticut, 6.01
37. Vermont, 5.97
38. Oklahoma, 5.94
39. Montana, 5.92
40. Maryland 5.91
41. Louisiana, 5.90
42. Iowa, 5.85
43. Kansas, 5.77
44. South Dakota, 5.75
45. New Hampshire, 5.69
46. Wyoming, 5.69
47. Rhode Island, 5.49
48. Kentucky, 5.47
49. Delaware, 5.15
50. Alaska, 5.06
Pebble Beach in California (Courtesy of Pebble Beach)
Each state’s share of the Top 100
Best Courses You Can Play
This list shows how many courses each state has on the Top 100 list for public-access courses in the United States. Only 32 states are represented on the list, with 18 states having no courses on the list.
1. California, 10
2(t). Florida, 8
2(t). Oregon, 8
2(t). Wisconsin, 8
5. North Carolina, 7
6. South Carolina, 6
7(t). Hawaii, 4
7(t). Michigan, 4
7(t). Virginia, 4
7(t). Washington, 4
11(t). Arizona, 3
11(t). Mississippi, 3
11(t). New York, 3
11(t). Nevada, 3
15(t). Colorado, 2
15(t). Georgia, 2
15(t). Minnesota, 2
15(t). Missouri, 2
15(t). North Dakota, 2
15(t). Nebraska, 2
15(t). Texas, 2
22(t). Alabama, 1
22(t). Illinois, 1
22(t). Indiana, 1
22(t). Massachusetts, 1
22(t). Maryland, 1
22(t). New Jersey, 1
22(t). New Mexico, 1
22(t). Oklahoma, 1
22(t). Tennessee, 1
22(t). Utah, 1
22(t). West Virginia, 1
Bethpage Black in New York (Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports)
States ranked by the Classic list
These 31 states have courses among Golfweek’s Best list for top 200 Classic courses built before 1960, and they are ranked below by number of courses on that list:
1. New York, 32
2. Pennsylvania, 19
3. California, 18
4. Massachusetts, 17
5. New Jersey, 13
6(t). Illinois, 11
6(t). North Carolina, 11
8. Ohio, 10
9. Michigan, 9
10. Connecticut, 8
11. Georgia, 6
12. Florida, 5
13(t). Maryland, 4
13(t). Minnesota, 4
13(t). Rhode Island, 4
13(t). South Carolina, 4
13(t). Texas, 4
18. Wisconsin, 3
19(t). Colorado, 2
19(t). Iowa, 2
19(t). Kansas, 2
19(t). Missouri, 2
19(t). Tennessee, 2
24 (t). Alabama, 1
24(t). Kentucky, 1
24(t). Nebraska, 1
24(t). Oklahoma, 1
24(t). Oregon, 1
24(t). Virginia, 1
24(t). Vermont, 1
24(t). West Virginia, 1
The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Florida (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
States ranked by the Modern list
These 42 states have courses among Golfweek’s Best list for top 200 modern courses built in or after 1960, and they are ranked below by number of courses on that list:
1. Florida, 19
2. California, 16
3. South Carolina, 15
4(t). Arizona, 10
4(t). Texas, 10
6(t). Georgia, 9
6(t). North Carolina, 9
6(t). Oregon, 9
9. New Jersey, 8
10. Michigan, 7
11(t). Hawaii, 6
11(t). Virginia, 6
11(t). Wisconsin, 6
14(t). Minnesota, 5
14(t). Washington, 5
16(t). Colorado, 4
16(t). New York, 4
16(t). Nebraska, 4
16(t). Ohio, 4
20(t). Idaho, 3
20(t). Illinois, 3
20(t). Indiana, 3
20(t). Massachusetts, 3
20(t). Mississippi, 3
20(t). Nevada, 3
20(t). Oklahoma, 3
20(t). Pennsylvania, 3
20(t). Tennessee, 3
29(t). Alabama, 2
29(t). Utah, 2
29(t). West Virginia, 2
32(t). Arkansas, 1
32(t). Connecticut, 1
32(t). Kansas, 1
32(t). Kentucky, 1
32(t). Maryland, 1
32(t). Missouri, 1
32(t). Montana, 1
32(t). New Mexico, 1
32(t). Rhode Island, 1
32(t). South Dakota, 1
32(t). Wyoming, 1
Winged Foot’s West course during the 2006 U.S. Open in New York (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
States ranked by elite private clubs
This list was compiled by averaging the ratings, on a scale of one to 10, of the top five private layouts in each state as ranked by Golfweek’s Best (Alaska has no courses on that list):
