Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play

Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2023: Top 100 U.S. public-access courses ranked

Check out Golfweek’s top 100 U.S. public-access golf courses in 2023.

Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S. Each year, we publish many lists, with this selection of public-access layouts among the premium offerings.

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 8 range.

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.

Each course is listed with its 2022 ranking in parenthesis in the title line, its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers.

KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern or classic courses in the U.S.

* Indicates new to or returning to this list.

More Golfweek’s Best

Check the yardage book: Torrey Pines South Course for the U.S. Open

Take a detailed look at each hole for this year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines South, courtesy of Puttview.

The South Course at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, is the site of this week’s U.S. Open, bringing back memories of Tiger Woods’ dramatic 2008 major victory over Rocco Mediate. The course is also the annual home of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open.

The South originally was designed by the father/son duo of William P. Bell and William F. Bell, and the layout opened in 1957. Previously, the site near San Diego had been a World War II U.S. Army installation named Camp Callan, and it also served as an auto racetrack after that war before being converted into a golf course.

With one of the best cliffside settings imaginable for golf, the South has been renovated several times. The teams of Billy Casper-David Rainville and Stephen Halsey-Jack Daray Jr. worked on it, and in recent decades Rees Jones made many changes – most lately in 2019 to several holes. The layout can be stretched to 7,802 yards off the back tees.

The South ranks No. 7 in California on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It also is tied for No. 40 on the Top 100 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for the whole U.S., and it ranks No. 107 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts opened before 1960 in the U.S.

Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players will face this week. Check out each hole below.

Golfweek’s Best 2021: Top 100 public golf courses across the US

The top 100 public golf courses across the U.S. that allow you to play via standard green fees, or staying at a resort or affiliated hotel.

If you’re looking for only the best in public-access golf, we’ve got you covered with this list of the top 100 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in the United States, as judged by our nationwide network of raters.

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.

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.

KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. (For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.) * Indicates new or returning to the rankings.

(Pictured atop this story is Streamsong Red, courtesy of Streamsong/Larry Lambrecht.)

Golfweek’s Best 2021: Best private golf courses in every state