From Hawaii to Florida, we offer the Golfweek’s Best ranking of top resort courses in the U.S.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2024 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.
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, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.
This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.
Pete Dye and Herb Kohler Jr. wanted to challenge the best players in the game.
Whistling Straits became so embedded in golf’s championship schedule so quickly, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that Pete Dye’s creation on the shores of Lake Michigan is only 25 years old. On Thursday, the Straits Course celebrates its silver anniversary of July 6.
Since its opening in July 1998, the Straits has hosted three PGA Championships (2004 won by Vijay Singh, 2010 won by Martin Kaymer and 2015 won by Jason Day). The Straits joins Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pinehurst No. 2, Bethpage Black and Southern Hills as the only layouts to have hosted three men’s major championships in that span.
Throw in the 2007 U.S. Senior Open (Brad Bryant) and the 2021 Ryder Cup (U.S. won 19-9 over Europe), and Whistling Straits has quickly established itself as a major player.
Herb Kohler Jr. – the longtime executive chairman of Kohler Co., the plumbling fixtures powerhouse based near Sheboygan, Wisconsin – branched into golf with the creation of Blackwolf Run in 1988. That resort club eventually became home to two 18-hole courses (River and Meadow Valleys) as well as the newer Baths of Blackwolf Run par-3 course. In addition to the American Club Resort Hotel, Blackwolf Run formed the initial backbone of what has become Destination Kohler. Blackwolf Run hosted the first big event for the resort, the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open (Se Ri Pak won), and the composite course there again hosted the Women’s Open in 2012 (Na Yeon Choi won).
But Kohler had no intent of stopping there. He wanted more major championships, including for the men.
“That was our ambition right from the outset,” Kohler told Golfweek in a 2019 interview. “We wanted tournaments, and we didn’t want the weekly tournaments, so the only possible thing was majors.”
As he had with the creation of Blackwolf Run, Kohler turned to architect Pete Dye. It was Dye’s sometimes quirkiness that initially drew Kohler’s attention.
“This one particular chap, he was an odd duck, but he had two courses in particular that were of interest,” Kohler said. “One that had just been open to the public, it was the TPC at Sawgrass, the home course for the PGA Tour. And at least 20 different pros who had a chance to play it were extraordinarily upset, and they were making their feelings known to the local press. … It sort of fascinated me. What I liked about it was, he had this desire to get into the psyche of a pro and really befuddle him.
“This fellow, Pete Dye, took them right to the edge of embarrassment, and they didn’t like being embarrassed, but I enjoyed it. … So here was this single person, a little strange as he might be – he always wore khaki pants and always wore tennis shoes – but here was this single person who could befuddle the pros but was considerate to the amateurs when he had to be. And I liked that combination.”
Vijay Singh hits out of a bunker on the 15th hole en route to winning the 2004 PGA Championship at the Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
That determination to challenge the pros on every shot was the impetus for creating the Straits Course. Kohler found 560 suitable acres on the shore of Lake Michigan, but the land was relatively flat, perched on a tabletop above the lake – the site included an abandoned military airfield. Dye, who passed away in 2020 at age 94, went to work converting the site into a rocking and rolling golf course reminiscent of something found in wild Irish dunes, moving 13,000 truckloads of sand in the process of creating 70 feet of elevation change. It became home to the Straits Course and the adjacent Irish Course.
“Pete and I had this general agreement that the Straits course would be something like Ballybunion (in Ireland), but that was the closest we got to any specifics in design. It was all Pete thereafter, and he did a wonderful, wonderful job,” Kohler, who passed away in 2022 at age 83, said of the course that features eight holes on the edge of the massive lake. “It was the sand that gave it the character and gave the fairways some speed.”
The Straits has been challenging the best players in the game ever since. And even in the absence of its two masterminds – Kohler and Dye – the resort will continue to challenge and thrill its guests for years to come. The Straits ranks No. 9 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in the U.S., and it’s the highest-ranked public-access course in Wisconsin.
Check out several photos of the 1998 grand opening of the Straits below, along with more shots of the course today. And for even more on Whistling Straits, check these hole-by-hole flyover videos of the course shot before the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Check out photos of the new Black Desert Resort course in Utah that is quickly earning rave reviews.
Black Desert Resort Golf Course in Ivins, Utah, opened in late May as the last course designed by Tom Weiskopf, who passed away in 2022. The Golfweek’s Best raters have a lot of great things to say about the new layout not far from St. George in the southwest corner of the state.
The resort’s 18-hole layout is open for daily-fee play among the region’s ancient basalt rock formations near Snow Canyon State Park. Partnering with architect Phil Smith, Weiskopf built an expansive layout with most fairways 70 to 100 yards wide. The course features two driveable par 4s, the fifth and 14th.
Upon buildout, Black Desert will feature a full hotel and conference center, more than a thousand residences, trails, a spa and plenty more. The property is managed by hospitality-management company Troon Golf, and Black Desert is already slated to host an LPGA event starting in 2025. The course also will offer an amphiteater-style 19th hole and a 36-hole lit putting course.
After a first tour of the course, the Golfweek’s Best raters had many positive comments.
“An amazing design and absolutely stunning contrast of the lava rocks with the greenery and surrounding red mountains,” wrote one rater. “Truly an oasis. Several holes can be played in multiple different ways depending on your confidence that day as risk/reward options abound. It’s a beautiful course, one you’ll remember for a lifetime.”
“Black Desert blew me away,” wrote another. “It has everything I would want in a modern course. The combination of setting, vistas and course itself is the total package. The black lava rock is so unique, I’ve never seen it anywhere else in the mainland. You also have the beautiful sweeping vistas of the red canyons visible from every hole.”
Check out several photos from Black Desert Resort below.
StrackaLine provides hole-by-hole maps of Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course for the 2023 Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour.
Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course – site of the 2023 Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour – was designed by Larry Packard and opened in 1970. The layout in Palm Harbor, Florida, has been the site of the Tour event since 2000.
The Copperhead will play to 7,340 yards with a par of 71 for the Valspar.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.
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StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for PGA National’s Champion Course, site of the 2023 Honda Classic on the PGA Tour.
The Champion Course at PGA National – site of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic this week – was designed by the team of Tom Fazio and George Fazio and opened in 1981, and has been renovated by Jack Nicklaus over the past two decades.
Located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and home to a stretch of holes dubbed the Bear Trap – Nos. 15, 16 and 17 – the Champion has major history. It was host to the 1983 Ryder Cup, in which the United States beat Europe 14.5-13.5, and it hosted the 1987 PGA Championship won by Larry Nelson in a playoff over Lanny Wadkins. Now PGA National is the first stop on the PGA Tour’s annual Florida Swing.
The PGA Tour reported that this year’s event will show off a recent bunker renovation, with bunkers having been removed on Nos. 13 and 16, plus a “bunker reduction” on the closing two holes.
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The course will play to 7,125 yards with a par of 70 for the Honda Classic.
PGA National Resort is home to six courses, including two nontraditional layouts, and has recently undergone a $100 million renovation. The lineup of courses includes the new Match Course by Andy Staples, which features holes that can be played from a multitude of lengths with no set par, and the new nine-hole, par-3 Staple Course.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at PGA National.
From Oregon to South Carolina, we offer the Golfweek’s Best ranking of top resort courses in the U.S.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.
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, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.
This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.
The Black Desert Resort will feature 150 hotel rooms, 1,050 residences, as well as retail and restaurant space.
ST. GEORGE, Utah — The Black Desert Resort Golf Course is scheduled to open this fall in the Southern Utah town of Ivins among the sprawling lava fields.
“In a lot of ways, it’s kind of part of the vision for that property and that area since before I got involved,” said Jared Lucero, Reef Capital CEO. “I think they always envisioned having a golf course as part of a resort-type property on that property. When we got involved in 2018 is when I think it really started to come more toward fruition.”
The course, designed by Tom Weiskopf, is a par-72 course with most fairways 70 to 100 yards wide. The course also features two drivable par fours at the 5th and 14th holes.
The added growth of the St. George area and Utah in general was an extra bonus for the group as they embarked on the project.
“Most of us are from Utah, so St. George has always been on our radar,” Lucero said. “So for us, we knew the opportunity was good for something like this anyway because I felt as though St. George always needed a destination resort.”
The course is currently being grassed, with 10 or 11 holes currently getting turf.
Construction of the golf course is projected to be completed by mid-May.
“I think that people will be blown away by the fact that all the holes are through lava and we have 12 holes where there will be no real estate,” Lucero said. “We really spent a lot of effort, time, and money to really preserve the lava so that there’s hundreds of acres of lava fields that will be preserved forever.”
The St. George area currently features 12 golf courses, with a 13th, the Conestoga Golf Club, located just 35 minutes away in Mesquite.
The city of St. George owns four of those courses; St. George Golf Club, Dixie Red Hills, Southgate Golf Club and Sunbrook Golf Club. BigShots driving range will also be making its way towards St. George in the near future.
In addition to the course, the Black Desert Resort will feature 150 hotel rooms, 1,050 residences, and 46,160 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
The property will also feature 32 single-family estate lots and approximately 214,000 square feet of commercial space.
The Black Desert Resort Golf Course is scheduled to open this fall in Ivins among the sprawling lava fields. Here’s a rendering of what the resort will look like. (Contributed photo)
Nearby walking trails and a wellness spa are additional features and benefits.
The course will also be the new home for Dixie State University golf.
“It sounded like they’re always moving around from course to course so I just threw out the idea of ‘what if we could figure out a way to make this your guys’ place?’ ” Lucero said.
The course will start taking tee times later this fall.
Lucero said a larger grand opening will take place in spring 2023.
Sean Ellertson is a sports reporter for the St. George Spectrum & Daily News. To continue to support his work, please subscribe to The Spectrum. Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanEllertson.
The top 200 resort courses in the U.S. stretch from Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes to Whistling Straits and Pinehurst.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.
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, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.
This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.
