The time has arrived to count down the 2025 Top 59 Public Golf Courses in Canada, our biennial ranking of the best courses in the country that anyone can play.
And if you’re asking — or forgotten — why we rank 59, it’s because 59 is considered a magical number in golf, a score carded on the PGA Tour 13 times — the latest being Jake Knapp at this year’s Cognizant Classic — and on the LPGA Tour one time, that being Annika Sorenstam in 2001.
Yes, Jim Furyk shot 58 at the 2016 Travelers Championship and Cristobal Del Solar went one shot lower than that on the Korn Ferry Tour last year. But we’re not shrinking this list any farther. Who knows how much lower these pros are going to go?
We’re kicking things off with courses 59 to 51. After that, make your way to Instagram, where Golf Town is helping us give away rounds at these top tracks.
Hello and welcome to the countdown of the 2025 top 59 public golf courses in Canada. My name is Jason Logan. I’m the editor of Score Golf and I am standing on the first tea of the Algangquin Golf Club in St. Andrews, New Brunswick with the Himaquati Bay behind me and boats bobbing on the water. This is a great golf course with a rich history. Once upon a time, it was a six-hole pitching putt around the iconic Algangquin Hotel. Then it became a Donald Ross 18hole course, which was overhauled by Thomas Mc Broom, and in recent years renovated by Rod Whitman, who came along, built some new greens, created some new bunkers, and took down hundreds upon hundreds of trees to open up those water views. You are going to learn where the Algangquin falls on our top 59. It’s not going to be in this first batch, but we are going to get to the list right now. Here are courses 59 to 51. Segwin Valley makes the cutoff as this year’s top 59 bubble course. Its secluded holes cut through forest, rocky outcroppings, lakes, and streams. They are highlighted by the par 37th, a hole that spans McCrae Lake and sees golfers cross a 180 yard bridge. Connecting the T- deck and green Nicholas North is a gorgeous course that cuts through a valley floor around the glacierfed green lake at the base of Snowcapped Mountains. This Whistler BC layout is one of few that architect Jack Nicholas put his name on. The signature 17th along pari along Green Lake is indeed a bear. Broad fairways, elevation changes, and holes that run through forested terrain in the foothills of the Coupney Rockies define the point course at Copper Point, a Gary Browning Wade Horex collaboration. The strong 18th hole caps a solid routing at this 57th ranked public course in Canada. Rod Whitman’s first solo design was certainly a glimpse of what was to come. As the old course at Wolf Creek is peppered with native fescue areas, nasty pot bunkers, and spacious undulating greens, Witman loves to make the ground game a part of golf, and that is the case here. Gallagher’s Canyon is known for the wonderful vistas of Colona it yields as you play along a canyon’s edge. The popular Bill Robinson design has a great variety of holes, especially when it comes to the collection of par 3s, and its fairways are framed by ponderosa pines and offer distant mountain views. Deerhurst Highlands remains an enjoyable layout with some very intriguing holes, including the tumbling first frame that overlooks Fairy Lake, the 10th that plays alongside a dramatic rock face, and a lynxy three-hole stretch on the front nine. Fox Harbor has undergone a significant redo by Doug Carrick and Tom McBroom with a new Ocean 9 that’s now open and more reworking to come. Its ranking of 53rd here is largely based on the original Graham Cook Holes along the North umberland straight. Originally designed by Ron Garl and refreshed by Alan Chud and the club’s turf team, Taboo Mscoa remains a great play in Ontario’s Mscoa region. New white sand bunkers added more beauty to the resort course that was always pretty on the eye with granite rock outcroppings throughout. High up in the Cney Rockies, Trickle Creek is a thrilling less ferber design that navigates the slopes of Northstar Mountain by white sand bunkers and of course several dramatic T-shots. The signature hole here is the par 311th that drops to a green tucked into tall pines.
