Whistling Straits and Sand Valley top the list for courses in Wisconsin, which ranks among the best states in the country for public golf.
Despite a short golf season amid its northern climate, Wisconsin offers one of the best lineups of golf courses in the U.S. Players who haven’t sampled the game in Wisconsin might be surprised to learn the state ranks amid the top five of all states for its elite public-access courses.
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.
(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.
Here are all the events and corresponding venues the USGA will put on in 2022.
In 2022, the USGA is holding championships at some of the most historic venues in the world, highlighted by the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The U.S. Mid-Amateur is headed to the Midwest, where Erin Hills will pose an enormous challenge for the men who qualify.
On the women’s side, the USGA will welcome players to Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina, for the U.S. Women’s Open. And for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, qualifiers will head to Chambers Bay, University Place, Washington, home of Jordan Spieth’s 2015 U.S. Open victory.
Listed below are all the events the USGA will put on in 2022, accompanied by the corresponding venue.
The U.S. Golf Associated has announced its next five U.S. Women’s Open locations and the roster features courses steeped in history.
Those who can’t get enough of Pebble Beach Golf Links won’t have to wait long to see another major contested there. The iconic course will host the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time in 2023.
But before we get to the Monterey Peninsula, one of the premiere women’s golf tournaments will first head to San Francisco and South Carolina. After Pebble, it’s on to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The U.S. Golf Association has announced its next five U.S. Women’s Open locations and the roster features courses steeped in history.
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):
Wisconsin offers some of the best public-access golf in the U.S., with elite courses that match up well with more well-known destinations.
Wisconsin has cheese, beer, snow and the Packers – everyone knows those. Perhaps surprising to those who don’t follow the sport closely, it also has more than a handful of the greatest golf courses in the United States.
Most people think of year-round sunny spots for good golf. Florida. California. Arizona. But by one significant metric for judging elite public-access golf, as compiled by Golfweek’s Best national panel of raters, the Badger State tops all those solar-drenched hot spots.
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, including 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.
By averaging the scores of the top five public-access courses in each state, Golfweek has compiled a list of the top states for ultra-elite golf. Wisconsin ranks second in the U.S., behind what might be another surprise for some: Oregon. But while Oregon tops the list based mostly on the strength of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s four ranked courses, Wisconsin offers a much broader swath of great golf.
Wisconsin’s courses average a whopping 7.56 on the 2020 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list, behind Oregon’s 8.00. That puts Wisconsin ahead of California (7.55), Florida (7.34) and North Carolina (7.17). The median score among the 50 states is 6.28. For those with regional rivalries, Michigan is ranked No. 7 on the list with a 6.94 average for its top five courses, Minnesota is No. 16 at 6.47 and Illinois is No. 28 at 6.21. Take that, Bears fans.
Not surprising to golf aficionados is that Whistling Straits tops the state’s list of best public-access courses. The Straits course in Mosel, along the bluffs above Lake Michigan, has hosted three PGA Championships and will be the site of the 2021 Ryder Cup, the typically biennial matches between the top men tour pros from the U.S. and Europe that was pushed back from 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Pete Dye-designed supergiant founded by Herb Kohler has become the face of Wisconsin golf on television since it opened in 1997.
Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley in Wisconsin (Courtesy of Sand Valley/Evan Schiller)
But the Straits is hardly alone in excellence. In the past 15 years three other stalwarts have gained a large chunk of the national spotlight. Sand Valley, No. 2 in the state on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play, opened to great acclaim in 2016 with a Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore routing that focused on classical design among massive sand dunes. Sand Valley’s Mammoth Dunes by David McLay Kidd followed in 2018 and has moved to No. 3 in the state. Lawsonia Links, at No. 4 the only top-ranked public-access course in the state built before 1960, still draws a crowd, and No. 5 Erin Hills opened in 2006 and hosted the 2017 U.S. Open.
It’s been quite the public-golf boom for a state with a relatively short golf season.
Badger state, be proud.
Erin Hills in Wisconsin (Courtesy of Erin Hills/Paul Hundley and Travis Waibel)
Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020 in Wisconsin
1. Whistling Straits (Straits)
Mosel, (No. 7 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses in the U.S.)
2. Sand Valley (Mammoth Dunes)
Nekoosa (No. 30 Modern)
3. Sand Valley (Sand Valley)
Nekoosa (No. 32 Modern)
4. Lawsonia (Links)
Green Lake (No. 66 Classic)
5. Erin Hills
Hartford (No. 80 Modern)
6. Blackwolf Run (River)
Kohler (No. 93 Modern)
7. Whistling Straits (Irish)
Mosel (No. 167 Modern)
8. Sentry World
Stevens Point (m)
9. Troy Burne
Hudson (m)
10. Blackwolf Run (Meadow Valleys)
Kohler (m)
11. University Ridge
Madison (m)
12. Wild Rock
Wisconsin Dells (m)
13. Geneva National (Gary Player)
Lake Geneva (m)
14. Big Fish
Hayward (m)
15.* The Bog
Saukville (m)
* New or returning to the list; c: Classic, built before 1960. m: Modern, built in 1960 or after
Golfweek’s Best Private Courses 2020 in Wisconsin
1. Milwaukee CC
Milwaukee (No. 45 Classic)
2. Blue Mound
Wauwatosa (c)
3. Oneida
Green Bay (c)
4. *Minocqua CC
Minocqua (m)
5. West Bend CC
West Bend (c)
* New or returning to the list; c: Classic, built before 1960. m: Modern, built in 1960 or after
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.
