Golfweek’s Best 2023: Top 50 casino golf courses in the U.S.

Up for a great mix of casino fun and golf?

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 Casino Courses in the United States. This list focuses on courses owned and/or operated by or in conjunction with casinos, with data pulled from Golfweek‘s massive database of course rankings.

The hundreds of members of Golfweek‘s course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each that is then used to compile the Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

Listed with each course below is its average rating, location, designer(s) and whether the course is modern (m, built in or after 1960) or classic (c, built before 1960).

* New or returning to the list

Fallen Oak at the Beau Rivage makes you feel like a member of a private club in Mississippi

From the gated entrance to the 18th green, Fallen Oak rolls out the welcome mat in Mississippi.

SAUCIER, Miss. – Golf architect Tom Fazio is a heavyweight in the private club world. His designs pepper the Golfweek’s Best list of top private courses across the U.S., with dozens of such facilities among the top modern courses in the country.

Wade Hampton Club in North Carolina, Congaree in South Carolina, Estancia in Arizona — those and more than 50 others rank highly, and they’re all private. His courses tend to be part of clubs that excel in catering to their memberships’ every whim.

Fazio also has excelled in building courses for another segment of golf: casinos. Fazio either designed or collaborated on seven of the top 50 casino courses in the U.S. Best of all, these highly ranked layouts are open to the public, albeit sometimes only to guests staying at the affiliated casino resort.

Fazio’s Shadow Creek in Las Vegas has topped the Golfweek’s Best rankings of casino courses in the U.S. for years. The over-the-top desert layout in North Las Vegas is a testament to what might be accomplished when money is no issue, and the layout’s $1,000-plus green fee is aligned with that. The amount of play at Shadow Creek is also limited — stay at the MGM, take a limo to the course, be treated like a star.

But there’s another way to experience the best of Fazio casino golf that shouldn’t be missed, and it’s much more attainable.

Fallen Oak
No. 18 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

Fallen Oak near Biloxi, Mississippi, is a much more natural layout than Shadow Creek. And the course – operated in conjunction with MGM’s Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, a AAA Four Diamond award winner — might offer the best opportunity for public golfers to experience a top Fazio layout and all the first-rate trappings that generally come with it. Fallen Oak is No. 2 on the Golfweek’s Best list of top casino courses in the U.S.

From the gated entrance and long drive past live oaks and ponds to the stately clubhouse, all the way to the personalized lockers and frozen watermelon served at the turn on a hot day, Fallen Oak makes a public-access player feel like a member of an elite club. The service is second to none in the public-access golf world.

Director of golf Mark Powell makes sure of it.

“We want it to feel special, that, ‘Hey, I’m at a great golf course,’ ” said the longtime PGA of America pro who took the helm at Fallen Oak in 2021. “We want to be there every step of the way. We want everyone on staff to know your name.”

Fallen Oak Mississippi
No. 17 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

Guests of the Beau Rivage gain access to all this on a course that’s never crowded, hosting just 14,000 or so rounds a year. Counting the several weeks a year Fallen Oak is closed for maintenance – a luxury most public-access layouts can’t afford — it works out to about 40 players a day.

Go ahead, stretch out. Enjoy the quiet. It’s rare these days.

Fazio’s layout at Fallen Oak opened in 2006, and for a decade it hosted the PGA Tour Champions event in Mississippi. And unlike the heavily manufactured Shadow Creek, Fallen Oak sits on a tremendous Southern site that seems entirely natural for golf. Aside from its high ranking among casino courses, Fallen Oak is the top-rated public-access course in Mississippi. The green fee tops out at $275 — you could play four rounds at Fallen Oak for not much more than one round at Shadow Creek — and the resort runs stay-and-play specials.

Fallen Oak also is No. 24 on Golfweek’s Best list of all resort courses in the United States, and it comes in at No. 74 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses built since 1960 in the U.S.

Fallen Oak’s rolling terrain is dotted with wetlands and specimen trees, some of which were relocated during construction. Conditioning is top notch, equal to elite private clubs even in the heat of a Mississippi summer. The greens have plenty of motion without ever crossing a line into too-difficult territory.

Best of all: the bunkering.

Many resort courses slash bunkers across their countrysides, threatening players of all levels and distance. Fallen Oak, by contrast, offers restrained bunkering, one well-placed trap often serving the job. Fallen Oak underwent a major bunker renovation in 2014 in which numerous traps were removed, and the remaining bunkers were given a face-lift again in 2022.

Fallen Oak Mississippi
No. 3 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

Many holes feature only one fairway bunker. No. 2 is a long par 4, and there is just one fairway bunker on the left side – the hole doesn’t need any more protection. It’s similar at Nos. 4 and 9 on the front side. No. 11 has no fairway traps, and the rest of the back nine is similarly restrained. The ground moves enough through the wide corridors to provide challenge without every stray shot splashing into sand.

Same goes around most of the greens. Play a round at Fallen Oak and you’ll face more chips and pitches than bunker splash-outs. The entire layout, since the bunker renovations, shows a lovely level of understatement married to an extremely comfortable Gulf Coast motif. The terrain and the trees, the ponds and the greens are free to shine without too much sand in your face. You can always head to the beach if you want more sand.

“The first re-do they did, I tell ya, I was really impressed,” said Powell, who was working at another Mississippi club at the time. “I had played here before, back in the early days, and that was always kind of a knock on the course, too many bunkers. After the re-do, when I saw the course, I said this is even better. It’s awesome.”

The par-72 layout can be stretched beyond 7,500 yards, but from the proper tees it’s a treat of attempted shotmaking into smooth putting surfaces. Good shots are rewarded, and the roll-offs around several greens require strategic approaches to the proper sides of the hole. There’s not a thoughtless approach on the 510-acre property, and at the same time there’s not one that’s unattainable.

The Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi (Courtesy of The Beau Rivage)

It’s a perfect attribute to the Beau Rivage, which is packed with highly rated dining and other curated experiences besides the golf. A word of advice: Plan your visit during baseball season, and take in a Biloxi Shuckers minor-league game at MGM Park across the street from the casino resort. It’s an intimate ballpark that provides a great break from the gaming tables.

The golf club is open to any guests of the Beau Rivage, with Powell and his staff hosting frequent special events for VIPs of the casino. Put in enough time at the tables and you might be invited to play in a sponsored tournament for casino credit that can run into the thousands of dollars. The club also has a small membership of invited casino regulars, and Powell hosts all kinds of interesting events for them, too.

“We just want to make it fun for everybody,” Powell said. “We’ve got member tournaments, a great club championship, all kinds of games during the week.

“We’re constantly looking to do every little thing we can to improve the guest experience. Sometimes a little thing goes a long way.”

Sound like a public-access private club? That’s the idea, executed perfectly.

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Nevada

Shadow Creek, the top public-access golf course in Nevada, requires a hefty green fee, but there are other options.

Shadow Creek, the top-rated public-access golf course in Nevada, is famed for being unlike just about any other daily-fee or casino-operated layout anywhere. It’s a Tom Fazio-created oasis hidden out of reach for most golfers.

In general, players must stay at an MGM Resorts International property to obtain access, and a round at Shadow Creek includes a limousine ride to the course. The layout, recently made even more famous with several made-for-tv and PGA Tour competitions, isn’t really looking to boost rounds played and boasts a green fee that can reach as high as a reported $1,000. Golfweek’s Best raters have ranked it as the No. 10 course built in the U.S. since 1960.

But there are plenty of other public-access options around Las Vegas and across Nevada. Keep scrolling to see the best of them.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Nevada’s private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses. 

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Mississippi

Courses owned or operated by casinos make up a healthy percentage of the top public-access courses in Mississippi.

Golf by day, then casino gaming by night? If that’s your kind of sure bet, then Mississippi offers an incredible lineup. Seven of the top 10 public-access golf courses in the state appear on Golfweek’s Best ranking of casino courses in the U.S.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Mississippi’s private offerings is likewise included below.

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses. Rankings for courses that appear on Golfweek’s Best list of top casino courses also are listed when applicable.

* New to or returning to list

Wynn Golf Club: How much does it cost, how to book a tee time

Wynn has one of the highest costs of a daily-fee course in the United States.

Wynn Golf Club, right behind the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino, fits perfectly into its brash surroundings on the Strip. It’s as Vegas as Vegas can be when it comes to golf course architecture.

Much of the course is brand new, despite golf having been played on the site since 1952 when it became the Desert Inn Golf Club. 

Steve Wynn purchased the resort in 2000, and the Tom Fazio-designed Wynn Golf Club opened in 2005. But that layout was shuttered in 2017 as the operators of the adjacent Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino considered other uses for the ridiculously valuable land on which the course sits, and the resort lost millions of dollars in revenue from green fees and other golf-attributable casino earnings. 

[vertical-gallery id=778180980]

After scrapping plans to build a lagoon on the site with new hotel rooms and restaurants, Fazio and his son, Logan, were called to breathe fresh life into the abandoned track. Wynn Golf Club reopened in October 2019 with eight new and 10 refurbished holes, playing to a par of 70 at 6,722 yards. 

As far as playing Wynn Golf Club, you don’t have to know someone who knows someone. You just have to have some disposable income.

Tee times can be made by resort guests 90 days in advance, and general public play is open with 30-day advanced bookings. But be ready to fork over the cash: green fees are $550.

Wynn has one of the highest costs of a daily-fee course in the U.S. and while that sounds prohibitively expensive for many players, there are plenty of guests at the Wynn hotel and casino who spin through a lot more on the slot machines in less time than it takes to play a round of golf.

Brian Hawthorne, the resort’s executive director of golf operations, said there’s a lot of value baked into that fee when considering the location on the Strip as well as an all-inclusive experience that includes forecaddie and rental clubs if needed.

“And if you keep somebody from gambling for four and a half hours, we might be saving people money,” he said with a laugh.

So while that kind of green fee is not for every golfer, Hawthorne is right. As he said, “There’s different price points for every type of customer,” and many of the luxury resort’s guests simply aren’t worried about price. This is, after all, a Forbes Five-Star property that uses Rolls-Royce limos to whisk preferred guests back and forth to the airport.

[listicle id=778119053]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020: Mississippi

Fallen Oak is No. 1 on the list of Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020: Mississippi.

[jwplayer TxsCK5Qs-9JtFt04J]

About the only thing more common than moss dripping from the trees on Mississippi’s golf courses is their strength on various Golfweek’s Best rankings lists. That kind of sure bet is especially valid when it comes to casino courses, as seven of the top 10 public-access courses in the state are also on Golfweek’s Best Top 50 Casino list for 2020.

Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses. That includes the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as courses accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.

Fallen Oak by architect Tom Fazio in Saucier is No. 1 in the Magnolia State on the 2020 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list, and it is No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best Casino list for all the United States. Fallen Oak is also No. 68 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses in the U.S. built in or after 1960.

Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi, before the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur there (Copyright USGA/Russell Kirk)

The Nos. 2 and 3 courses on the Mississippi public-access list are not casino courses but are part of one West Point resort: Mossy Oak by Gil Hanse and Old Waverly by Bob Cupp and Jerry Pate. Both courses also appear on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list, with Mossy Oak at No. 110 and Old Waverly at No. 187.

From there, almost all the rest of Mississippi’s Best Courses You Can Play are operated in conjunction with casinos.

The Preserve in Vancleave is No. 4 in the state for public-access, followed by No. 5 Dancing Rabbit’s Oaks course, No. 7 Shell Landing, No. 8 Dancing Rabbit’s Azaleas course, No. 9 The Bridges at Hollywood Casino and No. 10 Windance. Each of those is in the top 50 on the Casino list.

The Preserve in Mississippi (Courtesy of the Preserve)

The only other top-10 public-access course in the state is No. 6 Grand Bear in Saucier, which is not affiliated with a casino.

Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Mississippi

1. Fallen Oak

Saucier (No. 68 m)

2. Mossy Oak

West Point (No. 110 m)

3. Old Waverly

West Point (No. 187 m)

4. The Preserve

Vancleave (m)

5. Dancing Rabbit (Oaks)

Philadelphia (m)

6. Grand Bear

Saucier (m)

7. Shell Landing

Gautier (m)

8. Dancing Rabbit (Azaleas)

Philadelphia (m)

9. The Bridges at Hollywood Casino

Bay St. Louis (m)

10. Windance

Gulfport (m)

Golfweek’s Best Private Courses 2020 in Mississippi

1. Annandale

Madison (m)

2. CC of Jackson

Jackson (m)

3. Reunion

Madison (m)

4. *Laurel CC

Laurel (c)

5. Hattiesburg CC

Hattiesburg (c)

(m): modern; (c): classic

Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 50 Casino Courses

The rankings below reflect where these courses fall among the top 50 Casino Courses in the United States.

2. Fallen Oak, 7.24

Saucier, Miss.; Tom Fazio; 2006

10. The Preserve, 6.41

Vancleave, Miss.; Jerry Pate; 2005

32. Dancing Rabbit (Oaks), 5.75

Philadelphia, Miss.; Tom Fazio, Jerry Pate; 1999

37. Dancing Rabbit (Azaleas), 5.71

Philadelphia, Miss.; Tom Fazio, Jerry Pate; 1997

42. Shell Landing, 5.52

Gautier, Miss.; Davis Love III; 2002

T-50. Windance, 5.11

Gulfport, Miss.; Mark McCumber; 1986

T-50.* The Bridges GC at Hollywood Casino, 5.11

Bay St. Louis, Miss.; Arnold Palmer, Ed Seay; 2006

*New to or rejoins the list

Golfweek’s Best 2020

How we rate them

The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state, or nationally, to produce the final rankings.

Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 50 Casino Courses

Shadow Creek extends its run at No. 1, but there were changes this year to Golfweek’s list of best courses owned by casinos in the U.S.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best Casino Courses in the United States.

This list focuses on courses owned and/or operated by casinos, with data pulled from Golfweek‘s massive database of course rankings. (Pictured atop this story is No. 5 We-Ko-Pa’s Saguaro Course, with the photo courtesy of We-Ko-Pa/Lonna Tucker.)

There was only one change in the top 10 of this list from 2019, with The Preserve in Vancleave, Mississippi, moving to No. 10 on the list, replacing Spirit Hollow in Burlington, Iowa, which slid down a spot to No. 11. There were several shuffles in the next 40 courses, including several courses new or returning to the list.

The hundreds of members of Golfweek‘s course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each that is then used to compile the Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

Each course is listed with its 2019 ranking in parenthesis, an average ranking from all the Golfweek Raters who reviewed it, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.

For more of our rankings in different categories, click below:

Resurrection in Las Vegas: Wynn Golf Club is back with an in-your-face finisher

LAS VEGAS – Sin City is as subtle as a gold-sequin sport coat. Along the Las Vegas Strip on any given night, water cannons blast skyward to omnipresent musical accompaniment. Crowds of tourists gawk at skimpily dressed street performers. Headliners’ …

LAS VEGAS – Sin City is as subtle as a gold-sequin sport coat.

Along the Las Vegas Strip on any given night, water cannons blast skyward to omnipresent musical accompaniment. Crowds of tourists gawk at skimpily dressed street performers. Headliners’ faces are splashed 50 stories high on casino hotels designed to separate mostly sane people from a chunk of their retirement funds. 

Love it or leave it, it’s all right there in your face. If what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, that’s because no other place in the U.S. – short of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, maybe? – could handle it. Or just as likely, would want to.

Plopped into this slice of the Mojave Desert, not 500 yards from the Strip, sits the most Vegas of golf holes: a 249-yard par 3 over a pond and creek to a green situated at the base of a roaring man-made waterfall. No. 18 (pictured atop this story) at the newly renovated Wynn Golf Club is a do-or-die kind of challenge, one roll of the dice to win all the money or finish with empty pockets. 

If great golf holes fit seamlessly into their environment – think No. 18 at Pebble Beach or No. 12 at Augusta National– then consider adding this closing one-shotter to the list of must-sees. Like the rest of the Strip, there’s nothing natural about this oasis, meaning it fits perfectly into its brash surroundings. Make a great play on No. 18 and you might – might! – get lucky. Throw out a meek effort and forget about it. The hole is bold, loud, somewhat insane and possibly brilliant, depending on your success. At the least, it’s certainly memorable.

In other words, it’s as Vegas as Vegas can be when it comes to golf course architecture. The hole used to be a par 4 that played over water to the front of that waterfall, but a giant convention center now sits where the old tee box was located. The all-or-nothing par 3 better fits the Vegas vibe anyway.

No. 13 at Wynn Golf Club (Courtesy of Wynn Las Vegas/Brian Oar)

As with the enveloping and ever-changing skyline of the Strip, much of Wynn Golf Club is brand new, despite golf having been played on the site since 1952 when it became the Desert Inn Golf Club. 

Steve Wynn purchased the resort in 2000, and the Tom Fazio-designed Wynn Golf Club opened in 2005. But that layout was shuttered in 2017 as the operators of the adjacent Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino considered other uses for the ridiculously valuable land on which the course sits, and the resort lost millions of dollars in revenue from green fees and other golf-attributable casino earnings. 

After scrapping plans to build a lagoon on the site with new hotel rooms and restaurants, Fazio and his son, Logan, were called to breathe fresh life into the abandoned track. Wynn Golf Club reopened in October with eight new and 10 refurbished holes, playing to a par of 70 at 6,722 yards. 

 “I think the emotion for the Wynn Golf Club is, it is a very distinct, unique, one-of-a-kind place,” Tom Fazio said. The hotels and casinos and general Las Vegas buzz are ”part of the experience. So I think the Wynn Golf Club … is something that maybe can’t be reproduced.”

The layout ranked ninth in Golfweek’s Best list of casino courses in 2017 before its closure. The reopening date didn’t allow enough time for the renovated Wynn Golf Club to rejoin the Golfweek’s Best list for 2019, but expect to see it back near the top in years to come. 

And while the relatively secluded Shadow Creek north of the Strip long has held the No. 1 spot on the Golfweek’s Best casino list despite allowing few tee times, Wynn Golf Club is taking a different approach. Tee times can be made by resort guests 90 days in advance, and general public play is open with 30-day advanced bookings.

No. 5 at Wynn Golf Club (Courtesy of Wynn Las Vegas/Brian Oar)

With a green fee of $550, Wynn Golf Club clearly is not for everyone. But for deep-pocketed fans of the luxury hotel and its high-stakes gaming rooms, the return of the course offers a fantastic diversion and a chance to tee it up without ever leaving the hustle and bustle of the Strip.

Not that all 18 holes are so over the top as the closer. The first 17 are, for the most part, merely beautiful and unlikely, a respite from canned casino air where high-rollers can see the sun and play the game on surprisingly rolling terrain. 

The course sits on a relatively tight 129 acres, but through some sleight of hand that would make a Vegas magician proud, the holes never seem crowded. There are a few spots where a terribly wayward tee shot can find a neighboring fairway, but the streams and foliage – a very un-desert-like 100,000 shrubs and 7,000 trees – create a separation that feels somewhat natural even if it took a fleet of bulldozers to move all that earth.

“With the creation of the Wynn golf course, the idea was to incorporate not only the challenge from vegetation, but also relief and contour and framing and definition and also some excitement in the terrain,” Fazio said. “So we went from being a flat, narrow golf course (with the Desert Inn) to being a rolling, elevated, framed kind of a setting. So that was really the overall process, a totally different environment.”

Wynn Golf Club (Courtesy of Wynn Las Vegas/Brian Oar)

A shallow valley runs through the center of the property, allowing for several elevated tee shots to fairways that roll down before climbing back to the greens. The player can see it all from most tees – perfect for resort play where golfers aren’t familiar with the layout. There are few tricks, just solid challenges into multi-tiered putting surfaces. 

The newly installed Dominator Bentgrass greens were fully grown-in and in excellent condition for the reopening, as was the rest of the turf of Tifway II Bermuda and seasonal rye overseed. It’s hard to believe such turf could exist at the end of summer in the middle of the desert, and superintendent Jason Morgan deserves a tip of the cap for the superior conditioning.

“There’s so much detail that went into that golf course in a short space of time, and Jason was the guy in the field making it happen,” Fazio said. 

The course’s six par 3s stand out. It might be expected that so many short holes are in play, as land was surrendered to the construction of additional conference space at the resort. Despite the plethora of par 3s, though, this is no sideshow pitch-and-putt. The best of the bunch might not even be the “wow”-inducing 18th but the 209-yard 12th, which drops downhill to a green guarded front and left by a creek. 

“If you had to rank them best to least, it would be hard to do that because there is no least,” Fazio said of these par 3s. “We don’t deal in anything that’s least.”

No. 16 at Wynn Golf Club (Courtesy of Wynn Las Vegas/Brian Oar)

Best and least are opinions, of course, but the hole that might leave a few golf architecture fans scratching their heads is the 442-yard, par-4 14th.

The 14th green runs from high-right to low-left, and mature trees block the left half of the green. Tee shots must be placed well to the right near a bunker if the player is to have any shot at a far-left pin. If a player hits a tee shot down the center of the fairway, a dramatic hook would then be required to feed the ball across the green and reach any hole on the left. A player could try to roll an approach beneath the branches and across several mounds, but that would be the equivalent of splitting a pair of 5s at a blackjack table – just because you can doesn’t mean you should. A safer shot to the right can leave a 50-foot-plus putt. 

Basically, it’s a very hard hole where the strategic demands begin on the tee shot. It’s a big ask for many resort players. 

But, again, that’s Vegas. The odds are never stacked in the player’s favor. It’s best to just take a shot and enjoy a setting that you likely will never forget.

Now about that green fee . . .

Wynn Golf Club has one of the highest costs of a daily-fee course in the U.S., charging $550 in season, $50 higher even than before the course was shuttered in 2017. That sounds prohibitively expensive for many players, but there are plenty of guests in the adjacent Wynn hotel and casino who spin through a lot more on the slot machines in less time than it takes to play a round of golf.

Brian Hawthorne, the resort’s executive director of golf operations, said there’s a lot of value baked into that fee when considering the location on the Strip as well as an all-inclusive experience that includes forecaddie and rental clubs if needed.

“And if you keep somebody from gambling for four and a half hours, we might be saving people money,” he said with a laugh.

So while that kind of green fee is not for every golfer, Hawthorne is right. As he said, “There’s different price points for every type of customer,” and many of the luxury resort’s guests simply aren’t worried about price. This is, after all, a Forbes Five-Star property that uses Rolls-Royce limos to whisk preferred guests back and forth to the airport. 

More options in Vegas

There’s a lot more to Las Vegas than the Strip, and while it might not be a classic golf town, there are plenty of interesting options to keep players out of the casinos. Here’s a sampling from a recent trip:

TPC Las Vegas (Courtesy of TPC Las Vegas)

TPC Las Vegas | Par 71; 7,104 yards

Built in 1996, this Bobby Weed and Raymond Floyd design is about a 25-minute drive west of the Strip near the base of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

With plenty of elevation changes, several of the sculpted fairways curve out of sight but with enough room to make a few bad swings and keep playing the same ball. Overall, a fun romp through the desert on a solid design in excellent shape on a course (formerly named TPC at the Canyons) that hosted PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions events for more than a decade. TPC Las Vegas is No. 13 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Nevada. 

The Wolf at Paiute (Courtesy of Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort)

The Wolf at Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort | Par 72; 7,604 yards

The Wolf is the newest (2001) of three Pete Dye tracks at this complex owned and operated by the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, and this 18 is generally considered the most difficult of the three.

Fairways and playing corridors offer plenty of width, which is welcome as the wind frequently kicks up across the exposed course about 40 minutes north of the Strip. The desert views and isolation are worth the drive, offering a completely different setting devoid of houses and towering hotels.

The conditions are immaculate, but pick the proper set of tees on what the resort calls the longest course in Nevada. The Wolf is No. 9 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Nevada, just ahead of its sister courses (Paiute’s Sun Mountain is No. 10, and the Snow Mountain Course is No. 11).

Bali Hai Golf Club (Courtesy of Bali Hai)

Bali Hai Golf Club | Par 71; 7,002 yards

Located on the south end of the Strip, this fun course is perfectly situated to serve the various groups that frequent its fairways. The halfway house is the property’s nerve center, serving drinks to bachelor parties and corporate golf days.

The Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley layout, which opened in 2000, is near McCarran International Airport and features a fair amount of elevation changes and some 4,000 trees that help create separation in the often forgiving playing corridors.

With a green fee that can be less than a quarter of the price to play the newly reopened Wynn Golf Club, it’s a solid choice. Bali Hai is No. 47 on Golfweek’s Best list of casino courses. 

Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 50 Casino Golf Courses

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best Casino Courses in the United States, first published in the November/December print issue of Golfweek.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best Casino Courses in the United States, first published in the November/December print issue of Golfweek.

The top 10 on this list held steady since 2018, but there was plenty of movement in the rest of the rankings as 33 courses changed position, including three that moved onto the list.  

Kalispel Golf and Country Club in Spokane, Washington, formerly Spokane Country Club, jumped onto the list at No. 30. The Champions course at Thornberry Creek in Oneida, Wisconsin, also moved into the top 50 at No. 40, and Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Flintstone, Maryland, made it onto the list at No. 44.

Worth noting, the names of the courses at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Ariz., have changed. The North course is now the O’odham course (No. 34), and the South course was renamed Piipaash (No. 46). Also, Sevillano Links in Corning, Calif., was renamed The Links at Rolling Hills (No. 42). 

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.

We hope you enjoy poring over these rankings, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this list. Each course is listed with its 2020 ranking, its location, architect(s), the year it opened and an average ranking from all the Golfweek Raters who reviewed it.

French Lick’s Donal Ross Course (Courtesy of French Lick Resort)

Golfweek’s Best: Top 50 Casino Courses

Rank Course Location Designer(s) Year
Opened
Avg. 
Rating
1 Shadow Creek North Las Vegas, Nev. Tom Fazio 1990 8.09
2 Fallen Oak Saucier, Miss. Tom Fazio 2006 7.25
3 The Greenbrier
(Old White TPC)
White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Charles Blair Macdonald,
Seth Raynor, Lester George
1914 6.86
4 French Lick
(Pete Dye Course)
French Lick, Ind. Pete Dye 2009 6.75
5 We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro) Fort McDowell, Ariz. Bill Coore,
Ben Crenshaw
2006 6.67
6 Salish Cliffs Shelton, Wash. Gene Bates 2011 6.55
7 Wilderness at Fortune Bay Tower, Minn. Jeff Brauer 2004 6.54
8 Barona Creek Lakeside, Calif. Gary Roger Baird,
Todd Eckenrode
2001 6.50
9 Nemacolin Woodlands (Mystic Rock) Farmington, Pa. Pete Dye 1995 6.44
10 Spirit Hollow Burlington, Iowa Rick Jacobson 2000 6.41
11 The Preserve GC Vancleave, Miss. Jerry Pate 2006 6.34
12 Turning Stone Resort (Atunyote) Verona, N.Y. Tom Fazio 2004
6.21
13 French Lick (Donald Ross Course) French Lick, Ind. Donald Ross 1917 6.19
14 Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Maricopa, Ariz. Brian Curley,
Lee Schmidt
2002 6.17
15 Edgewood Tahoe GC Stateline, Nev. George Fazio 1968 6.17
16 We-Ko-Pa (Cholla) Fort McDowell, Ariz. Scott Miller 2001 6.15
17 Firekeeper Mayetta, Kan. Jeff Brauer, Notah Begay III 2011 6.13
18 Meadows at Mystic Lake Prior Lake, Minn. Garrett Gill,
Paul Miller 

2005
6.12
19 Yocha Dehe at Cache Creek Casino Brooks, Calif. Brad Bell 2008  6.10
20 Sweetgrass GC Harris, Mich. Paul Albanese 2008 6.07
21 Circling Raven Worley, Idaho Gene Bates 2003 6.05
22 Sandia Golf Club Albuquerque, N.M. Scott Miller 2005 5.95
23 Tatanka GC Niobrara, Neb. Paul Albanese 2015 5.94
24 Lake of Isles (North) North Stonington, Conn.  Rees Jones 2005  5.93
25 The Greenbrier (Greenbrier) White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.  Seth Raynor,
George O’Neil, Jack Nicklaus
1924 5.92
26 Sewailo GC Tucson, Ariz. Notah Begay III, Ty Butler  2013
5.89
27 Belterra GC Florence, Ind. Tom Fazio 2001 5.82
28 Journey
at Pechanga
Temecula, Calif. Steve Forrest, Arthur Hills  2008 5.81
29 Turning Stone (Shenendoah) Verona, N.Y. Rick Smith 2000 5.81
30 Kalispel G&CC Spokane, Wash. Jim Barnes 1910 5.79
31 Seneca Hickory Stick Golf Lewiston, N.Y. Robert Trent Jones Jr. 2010 5.78
32 Riverside
(Blue Top Ridge)
Riverside, Iowa Rees Jones 2007 5.78
33 Dancing Rabbit GC (Azaleas) Philadelphia, Miss. Tom Fazio,
Jerry Pate
1997 5.75
34 Talking Stick (O’odham, formerly North) Scottsdale, Ariz. Bill Coore,
Ben Crenshaw
1998 5.73
35 Dancing Rabbit GC (Oaks) Philadelphia, Miss. Tom Fazio,
Jerry Pate 
1999 5.72
36 Apache Stronghold San Carlos, Ariz. Tom Doak 1999 5.71
37 Eagle Falls Indio, Calif. Clive Clark 2008 5.70
38 Turning Stone (Kaluhyat) Verona, N.Y. Robert Trent Jones Jr. 2003  5.70
39 Sequoyah National GC Whittier, N.C. Robert Trent Jones Jr.,
Notah Begay III
2009 5.65
40 Thornberry Creek at Oneida (Champions) Oneida, Wis. Rick Jacobson 2004 5.63
41 Inn of the Mountain Gods Mescalero, N.M. Ted Robinson 1976 5.59
42 The Links at Rolling Hills Corning, Calif. Mike Stark 2007 5.53
43 Shell Landing GC Gautier, Miss. Davis Love III 2002  5.50
44 Rocky Gap Casino Resort Flintstone, Md. Jack Nicklaus 1998 5.50
45 Whirlwind GC (Cattail) Chandler, Ariz. Gary Panks 2002 5.48
46 Talking Stick (Piipaash, formerly South) Scottsdale, Ariz. Bill Coore,
Ben Crenshaw
1998 5.44
47 Whirlwind GC (Devil’s Claw) Chandler, Ariz. Gary Panks 2000 5.42
48 Mohegan Sun GC Baltic, Conn. Geoffrey Cornish,
Robert McNeil
1960 5.30
49 Cherokee Hills Tulsa, Okla. Tripp Davis, Perry Maxwell 1924 5.16
50 Windance CC Gulfport, Miss. Mark McCumber 1986 5.13