Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits and more.
Want to play the great modern golf courses in the U.S.? From Hawaii to Boston, we have you covered. So welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 200 Modern Courses built in or after 1960 in the United States.
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.
There’s one course of particular note this year. Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska, debuts the highest of the courses new to this list, climbing into a tie for 26th. Designed by Tad King and Rob Collins, Landmand opened in 2022. It and the Sheep Ranch at Bandon Dunes are the only courses to have opened since 2020 to rank among the top 200.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, then the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2022.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
Check out the photos and renderings of Rodeo Dunes, which will begin with two 18-hole layouts.
Sure, it might have involved a bit of trespassing, but Michael Keiser has proved that not all who wander are lost.
That classic J.R.R. Tolkien line is apt, as Keiser’s head apparently is always on a swivel as he searches for sand and hills and available land suitable for great golf courses. Developer and co-owner of Sand Valley Golf Resort along with his brother, Chris Keiser – and the son of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort founder and owner Mike Keiser – Michael brims with energy in his hunt for a next interesting golf opportunity.
Now on the slate is the public-access Rodeo Dunes in Colorado. The developers officially announced Tuesday that construction soon will start in earnest on 36 holes across 2,000 acres of idyllic sand dunes less than an hour northeast of Denver. Preview play might be available on one of the courses by the end of the 2024 with that course fully opening in 2025, Michael Keiser said, adding that the timeline is still loose but the second course likely will follow a year later. The order of which course opens first is still to be decided.
The site for Rodeo Dunes in Colorado includes natural blowouts and sandy expanses. (Courtesy of Rodeo Dunes/Brandon Carter)
Both course routings have been completed, or at least as complete as they can be before construction progresses with possible changes. And they likely won’t be the only two courses there for long – there’s room to build as many as six full courses at the site. A short course and Himalayas-style putting green are expected to be added soon, and Michael Keiser said eventually there might be accommodations but that nothing is set in stone. The property will operate as part of Dream Golf, a collaboration with Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley and Cabot.
The Keiser brothers will lean on the famed design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to design one of the 18-hole layouts, a running relationship that has proved extremely successful for the Keiser family and partners with previous tracks such as Bandon Trails and the Sheep Ranch in Oregon, the eponymous Sand Valley course in Wisconsin and Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia.
The other 18 goes to a new signature designer but a familiar face: Jim Craig. A longtime course shaper for Coore and Crenshaw, Craig gets his first crack at a routing of his own in Colorado. Michael Keiser established a bond with Craig during construction of Sand Valley, and Keiser said he couldn’t be more excited to give the Texan a breakthrough opportunity at Rodeo Dunes.
“He’s a bit of a savant,” Michael Keiser said of Craig, who in his 25 years working as an associate for Coore and Crenshaw has contributed to layouts such as East Hampton and Friar’s Head in New York, Old Sandwich in Massachusetts and the aforementioned Sheep Ranch. “He sees things other people don’t see. And I’ve learned to trust that. … He has a very special mind. You’re not always going to say, this hole reminds of ‘blank.’ You’re going to say, I’ve never seen a hole quite like that before.”
When the Keisers first became interested in the ranch land that will become Rodeo Dunes, Craig would drive up from Texas to walk the site and offer his opinions at Michael’s request. His enthusiasm was a major part in landing his first solo design, Michael Keiser said.
Craig is a soft-spoken man of long labor and relatively few words, but his sharp wit shines through in conversation. He said that after landing the job at Rodeo Dunes, he feels like Forrest Gump during the movie character’s first meeting with Lieutenant Dan at a U.S. Army camp in Vietnam. Craig quotes the line, “I sure hope I don’t let him down.”
The Rocky Mountains are in view from the site of Rodeo Dunes. (Courtesy of Rodeo Dunes/Brandon Carter)
It will be a big job, for sure, as Michael Keiser has a goal of greatness. He said he’s taking inspiration from Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska, also designed by Coore and Crenshaw and ranked No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the United States.
“We will strip everything out but the bare essentials to have the purest form of golf that I think we’ve ever done,” Michael Keiser said. “Our goal is to present golf in its purest form the way I think Sand Hills has done as well as anyone in this country. Bandon Dunes is that in so many ways, but if I was to come down to it, Sand Hills is even more of the model because I think it’s even more raw and pure. So our goal is to build Sand Hills for the public, with multiple courses.
“I say all this humbly. We always start with who we aspire to be. … There’s never going to be another Sand Hills. Ever. Period. Full stop. But everything they’ve done well there is what we’re trying to be.”
The land certainly appears to lend itself to such aspirations. Michael Keiser said the natural site will require minimal shaping, making construction relatively easy now that the two routings have been roughly determined. The site is full of sandy blowouts and dunes that reach 80 feet in height, which takes us back to that trespassing interlude mentioned above.
Michael and Chris were stuck in an airport years ago, discussing what would make ideal sites for more golf. They mentioned the private Ballyneal Golf Club, a Tom Doak layout in Colorado that ranks No. 4 among all modern U.S. courses. Could there be much more land like that available in Colorado, they wondered. Michael Keiser studied Google Earth and topographic maps for clues, and curiosity eventually led him onto an airplane then onto Interstate 76 northeast of Denver. He found a site that had caught his eye, and he couldn’t believe the dunes.
Michael said exuberance got the best of him and he took off jogging through the golden hour as the sun set, trying to see what was beyond each of the ensuing hills. The place stretched for miles, full of potential golf holes. But as vast at that sky might have been, Keiser wasn’t alone.
“I was trespassing on the site, which is probably a dangerous mistake in hindsight, in cowboy country,” Keiser said. “I did get caught by a rancher, who turned out to be a very pleasant fellow. But he wasn’t thrilled that I was trespassing. He was 200 yards away, and I’m walking toward him and we’re both thinking, ‘How’s this going to go? This might not be good.’
“I just walked right up to him and asked, ‘Are you a golfer?’ And he was sort of startled, and he said ‘Yeah, I do play sometimes.’ So I said these dunes are fabulous for golf, and he looked at me cross-eyed. But we had a nice chat. He was a really friendly guy, and he kindly escorted me off the property. That’s how it all started.”
Turns out the land was owned by the Cervi family, owners and hands-on operators of a major rodeo production company – real cowboys. Michael said it took years for him, a Chicago developer, to fully earn their trust. But after they “realized I wasn’t crazy, or too crazy,” the Cervis agreed to sell a portion of ranch land for golf development, and the family will continue as partners in Rodeo Dunes, Michael said.
Colorado has proved to be a lucrative state with plenty of sand sites, perfect for firm and bouncy golf courses. (Courtesy of Rodeo Dunes/Brian Krehbiel)
It’s a busy time for the Keiser brothers, who soon will open the much-anticipated Lido course constructed by Doak, the third traditional 18-hole layout at Sand Valley, with member play beginning in May and opportunities for resort guests to play it at the end June. They also are opening Doak’s Sedge Valley course at Sand Valley, with limited preview play possibly beginning this year and the full opening coming sometime in the spring of 2024. And no doubt there are other potential projects around the country – speculation swirls constantly about where the Keiser family might build next.
Michael Keiser, with a fair dose of boyish enthusiasm, said it’s all about finding even more fun places to hit a golf ball, even if it happens to be found in a rancher’s field.
“The site feels like you’re in Ireland,” he said of Rodeo Dunes. “We’ve had a drought for two years so it isn’t green now, but when I first stepped on the property it was emerald green. The contours and the topography are very Irish. I mean, it feels like you’re at Lahinch. That’s the size and topography and scale and amplitude of those sand dunes. …
“My dad started with the idea of elite private golf, stripping it down to the pure golf, and bringing it to the public. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Chain by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw will feature holes ranging in length from 90 to 275 yards when it opens this year.
Streamsong Resort in Florida – already home to three highly regarded courses – will begin construction on its short course, The Chain, in early March this year, with a few recent tweaks and a new routing that has been extended to 19 holes.
Plans for The Chain were announced in 2022, with the architecture team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designing what was going to be 18 holes that could be divided into a six-hole loop, a 12-hole loop or the full 18. Streamsong officials expect to open The Chain this fall.
Environmental considerations led Coore to tweak the original routing, slightly moving a few sites of tees and greens. The new routing also provided room for another hole, with the six-hole loop the same and the changes coming to the freshly altered 13-hole loop. The Chain also will feature a two-acre putting green and its own clubhouse, plus food and drink options.
The Bucket putting course for The Chain short course at Streamsong in Florida was named for the dragline buckets used in former mining operations at the site. A 22,000-pound namesake bucket was recently installed at the site and will be a feature of the 2-acre putting course. (Courtesy of Streamsong)
Holes on The Chain will range from 90 to more than 275 yards. The entire layout will be about 3,000 yards.
The Chain will sit on roughly 100 acres directly across from Streamsong’s Lodge, allowing players to stroll over for more golf either before or after a round on one of the resort’s full-size courses. Streamsong’s Red Course ranks No. 2 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses, with the Black No. 3 on that list and the Blue in the No. 4 spot. Each of those courses also rank inside the top 60 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in the U.S.
Streamsong Resort was founded just over a decade ago by mining company Mosaic, and the resort was purchased earlier this month by KemperSports, a nationwide owner and operator of 140 courses.
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There are some really beautiful courses featured on this list of the top golf travel stories.
As you’re relaxing during the holiday break, taking stock of your year in golf and thinking about where you might play in 2022, we figured this would be a good time to run through the numbers and tally up which travel stories drew your attention.
For the final days of 2021, we’re offering up a snapshot of the top 10 stories from each of Golfweek’s most popular sections, including travel, the PGA and LPGA tours, instruction and amateur golf. Here’s what we’ve already counted down.
Here’s a look at the top 10 golf travel stories, as clicked on by you (we should note, this doesn’t include lists, which will be featured on Friday):
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 experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straights, Kiawah, Shadow Creek and more.
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2021 list of the top 200 Modern Courses, built in or after 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Modern Courses and the accompanying Top 200 Classic Courses lists being the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
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. Each course is then ranked against other courses to produce the final rankings.
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 top 100 courses also note in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2020. 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.
(Pictured atop this story is the Sheep Ranch at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.)
