Back in 1855, the Bordeaux wine region of France created a ranking system of its chateaus. Regional merchants and wine cognoscenti developed a novel classification of 58 chateaus based primarily on reputation and trading prices. The estates were separated into five tiers, or “growths,” with four wines—Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Haut-Brion—designated as the most prestigious First Growths and the rest arranged from Second to Fifth Growths.
Though there have been periodic alterations to the classification system, the hierarchy has remained relatively constant. The system isn’t perfect—wine quality fluctuates vintage to vintage, ownerships change, and only “Left Bank” wines (blends composed most heavily of Cabernet Sauvignon) were included, leaving out entire Bordeaux regions like St. Emilion and Pauillac that produce equally exquisite, Merlot-based bottles. But even today the classification tiers convey a unified standard of quality and history, with the coveted First Growths regularly commanding the largest prices and audience of collectors (a fifth, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, was elevated to First Growth status in 1973).
More from Golf Digest
Golf Digest Logo America’s 100 Greatest Golf Holes
A similar kind of sorting plays out in our biennial ranking of America’s 100 Greatest courses. Golf Digest’s first ranking, America’s 200 Toughest Courses, came out in 1966 and evolved over the subsequent years into a vastly more detailed and category-based set of scores that quantify architecture beyond mere difficulty. In that time, amid the hundreds of courses that have ascended and fallen, only 21 have appeared in all 31 editions of Golf Digest’s top-100 rankings.
Taken together, these 21 courses represent the most enduring examples of U.S. architectural excellence as expressed by our 100 Greatest lists, the First through Fifth Growths of American golf.
Do these courses stand clearly above all others in the country? Not necessarily. Just as the classification of 1855 could not anticipate future Bordeaux chateaus and did not grant access to Right Bank wines, there are golf courses omitted because their pedigrees were only recognized at a later date: National Golf Links of America, currently ranked seventh, was not an established presence in our rankings until 1985; and Crystal Downs, No. 15, was off the grid until 1989. Similarly, dozens of outstanding courses built since 1966 have claimed spots high in the ranking, and other landmark designs have had otherwise continuous runs broken by just one or two off cycles.
That said, the timelessness and consistency of these 21 courses makes them stand apart as exceptional. Here is our own classification of golf’s finest architecture based on each club’s historic placement in the America’s 100 Greatest Courses ranking.
RELATED: The 10 best showers in golf, ranked by our experts
FIRST GROWTHS AUGUSTA NATIONAL GOLF CLUB
Augusta has only fallen out of the top 10 in our rankings once, in 1981, for no explicable reason other than internal debate amongst our ranking committee. [Note: Prior to 1985, the courses were organized into groups of 10, organized (and occasionally brokered) in closed door meetings by a group of national selectors that included luminaries like Sam Snead, Tom Watson, Joe Dey, Frank Hannigan and others]. Since 1985, and despite all the alterations it’s received, Augusta National has never been outside the top three, claiming the top spot on three occasions, most recently in 2015-2016.
1 / 13
Augusta National GC
Dom Furore
2 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2020/11/augusta-national-18th-green-pano-sunset-ben-walton.jpg
BEN WALTON
3 / 13
Augusta National GC
Dom Furore
4 / 13
Augusta National GC
Dom Furore
5 / 13
Augusta National GC
Dom Furore
6 / 13
2017-02-Augusta-National-GC-hole-4.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
7 / 13
Augusta National GC
Dom Furore
8 / 13
Augusta National GC
Dom Furore
9 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/augusta-national-course-shot-jd-cuban.jpg
JD Cuban
10 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/JD2_9506.jpg
J.D. Cuban
11 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/JD2_9532.jpg
J.D. Cuban
12 / 13
Masters 2025
JD Cuban
13 / 13
Masters 2025
Stephen Denton
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Augusta National Golf Club Augusta, GA 5 12 Panelists
No club has tinkered with its golf course as often or as effectively over the decades as has Augusta National Golf Club, mainly to keep it competitive for the annual Masters Tournament, an event it has conducted since 1934, with time off during WWII. All that tinkering has resulted in an amalgamation of design ideas, with a routing by Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones, some Perry Maxwell greens, some Trent Jones water hazards, some Jack Nicklaus mounds and swales and, most recently, extensive rebunkering and tree planting by Tom Fazio. The tinkering continues, including the lengthening of the par-4 fifth in the summer of 2018, the lengthening of the 11th and 15th holes in 2022, and the addition of 35 yards to the famed par-5 13th in 2023. View Course CYPRESS POINT CLUB
The wider golf world got its first up-close view of this Alister MacKenzie masterpiece in 35 years during the 2025 Walker Cup. Its charms and brilliant orchestration of sand, bunkers, cypress trees, dazzling greens and ocean make it easy to understand why it’s never been lower than fourth in the ranking, though it’s also never been first, likely due to a perceived shortage of length. The late Sandy Tatum described the famous 16th hole as the “Sistine Chapel of golf,” but the whole course falls within that metaphor.
1 / 7
Cypress Point 15th hole.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
2 / 7
2017-03-cypress-point-club-wide-aerial.jpg
J.D. Cuban
3 / 7
Cypress Point No16_17.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
4 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/cypress point no 9 aerial.jpg
5 / 7
2017-03-cypress-point-club-hole-7.jpg
J.D. Cuban
6 / 7
Cypress Point No 13.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
7 / 7
](https://www.fogolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/71b53a0218286d7f5e0c3ded53868304.jpeg)
3. [Cypress Point Club](http://courses.golfdigest.com/l/18653/Cypress-Point-Club-Cypress-Point )
Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Cypress Point Club Pebble Beach, CA 5 27 Panelists
From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:
Cypress Point, the sublime Monterey Peninsula work of sandbox sculpture, whittled Cypress and chiseled coastline, has become Exhibit A in the argument that classic architecture has been rendered ineffectual by modern technology.
I’m not buying that argument. Those who think teeny old Cypress Point is defenseless miss the point of Alister MacKenzie’s marvelous design.
MacKenzie relished the idea that Cypress Point would offer all sorts of ways to play every hole. That philosophy still thrives, particularly in the past decade, after the faithful restoration of MacKenzie’s original bunkers by veteran course superintendent Jeff Markow. Explore our complete review here—including bonus photography and ratings from our expert panelists.
View Course MERION GOLF CLUB (East)
Merion, opened in 1912, is one of the finest expressions of classical American architecture, a course beloved for how it manages to be both quaintly quirky (it’s somehow shoehorned into one of the smallest parcels of land of any great course) and immensely formidable (as host of five U.S. Opens, with another one coming in 2030). It’s been a fixture inside the top 10 since 1971, peaking at No. 5 twice.
1 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/The-Merion-Golf-Club-East-Green-9780.jpg
Matt Hahn
2 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/The-Merion-Golf-Club-East-Aerial-9780.jpg
Matt Hahn
3 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/The-Merion-Golf-Club-East-FrwyGreen-9780.jpg
Matt Hahn
4 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/The-Merion-Golf-Club-East-Sands-9780.jpg
Matt Hahn
5 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/The-Merion-Golf-Club-East-9780.jpg
Matt Hahn
6 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/The-Merion-Golf-Club-East-ClubhouseGreen-9780.jpg
Matt Hahn
7 / 11
Hole 4 | 628 yards | Par 5
8 / 11
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/merion east 16 hero.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
9 / 11
merion.jpg
10 / 11
Merion-East-course-hole-17.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
11 / 11
Merion-East-GC-Staff.jpg
Previous Next Pause PlaySave for later Private Merion Golf Club: East Ardmore, PA 4.9 28Panelists
Merion East has long been considered the best course on the tightest acreage in America, and when it hosted the U.S. Open in 2013, its first since 1981, the present generation of big hitters couldn’t conquer this clever little course. They couldn’t consistently hit its twisting fairways, which are edged by creeks, hodge-podge rough and OB stakes. Additionally, players couldn’t consistently hold its canted greens, edged by bunkers that stare back. Justin Rose won with a 72-hole total of one-over-par, two ahead of Jason Day and Phil Mickelson. With Gil Hanse’s extensive two-year renovation after that tournament, making even more improvements at Merion’s East Course, the design should be even more polished and pristine when the U.S. Amateur returns in 2026 and the U.S. Open returns again in 2030. View Course OAKMONT COUNTRY CLUB
Like Merion, Oakmont (1904) is one of the two or three most architecturally significant courses of the early 20th century (1900 to 1915) and remains the game’s most confounding designs for every level of golfer, amateurs to professionals. It does it in its own way with big sloping fairways, frightening rough and mirror-like greens that were as diabolical during the 2025 U.S. Open as they were during the first Open in 1927 when the winning score was 301. Currently ranked fifth, Oakmont is golf royalty and has never been outside the top 10.
1 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-aerial.jpg
Jeff Marsh
2 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-third-fourth-holes-jeff-marsh.jpg
Jeff Marsh
3 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania.jpg
Jeff Marsh
4 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmontcountryclub-pennsylvania.jpg
Jeff Marsh
5 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-jeff-marsh.jpg
Jeff Marsh
6 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-over-turnpike.jpg
Jeff Marsh
7 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-second-hole.jpg
Jeff Marsh
8 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-behind-green.jpg
Jeff Marsh
9 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-countryclub-pennsylvania.jpg
Jeff Marsh
10 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-countryclub-jeff-marsh.jpg
Jeff Marsh
11 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-jeff-marsh.jpg
Jeff Marsh
12 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-seventeenth-hole.jpg
Jeff Marsh
13 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakmont-country-club-pennsylvania-thirteenth-hole.jpg
Jeff Marsh
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Oakmont Country Club Oakmont, PA 4.9 24 Panelists
Once tens of thousands of trees were removed between the early 1990s and 2015 (most planted in the 1960s), Oakmont’s original penal design was re-established, with the game’s nastiest, most notorious bunkers (founder-architect H.C. Fownes staked out bunkers whenever and where ever he saw a player hit an offline shot), deep drainage ditches and ankle-deep rough. Oakmont also has the game’s swiftest putting surfaces, which were showcased during the U.S. Open in 2016, despite early rains that slowed them down a bit. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner made bunker modifications and expanded the greens throughout the course in 2023 in preparation for the 2025 U.S. Open. The USGA has already awarded Oakmont three additional Opens between 2033 and 2049, reinforcing its title as the Host of the Most U.S. Opens ever. View Course PINE VALLEY GOLF CLUB
Royalty is one thing, but if you’re looking for the actual king of American golf courses, we present Pine Valley, a design that’s held the No. 1 spot in our rankings more than any other course by a factor of seven. Set in the wild pine barrens of southern New Jersey, it is a monumental achievement in architecture with 18 holes that are original, distinct, complex and breathtaking, the totality of it created by a consortium of the era’s greatest design minds working with founder George Crump (and continuing after his death).
1 / 8
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/pine-valley-golf-club-new-jersey-eighteen-7601.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
2 / 8
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/pine-valley-golf-club-new-jersey-ten-7601.jpg
Dom Furore
3 / 8
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/pine-valley-golf-club-new-jersey-eleven-7601.jpg
Dom Furore
4 / 8
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/pine valley 5th hole.jpg
Courtesy of the club/Charley Raudenbush
5 / 8
pine-valley-gc-18.jpg
Photo by Dom Furore
6 / 8
2017-01-Pine-Valley-GC-hole-15.jpg
Dom Furore
7 / 8
2017-01-pine-valley-golf-club-hole-9.jpg
Golf Digest/Photo by Dom Furore
8 / 8
Pine-Valley-GC-strategy-dogleg.jpg
Photo by Dom Furore
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Pine Valley Golf Club Pine Valley, NJ 4.7 19 Panelists
A genuine original, its unique character is forged from the sandy pine barrens of southwest Jersey. Founder George Crump had help from now-legendary architects H.S. Colt, A.W. Tillinghast, George C. Thomas Jr. and Walter Travis. Hugh Wilson (of Merion fame) and his brother Alan finished the job, while William Flynn and Perry Maxwell made revisions. Throughout the course, Pine Valley blends all three schools of golf design—penal, heroic and strategic—often times on a single hole. Recent tree removal at selected spots has revealed some gorgeous views of the sandy landscape upon which the course is routed, and Tom Fazio has put his own touch on the design with bunker remodels that have given the barrens a more intricate and ornate look. View Course More from Golf Digest
Golf Digest Logo America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses
SECOND GROWTHSPEBBLE BEACH GOLF LINKS
A strong case can be made that Pebble Beach belongs with the First Growths: It’s a cornerstone American course in one of golf’s best settings that’s second to none in tournament pedigree. It has thrived inside the top 10 and even assumed the No. 1 position once, in 2001, making it one of only three courses since 1985 to hold the top spot. But the scores slipped incrementally since that year and Pebble briefly fell to No. 12 in 2023-2024, a hiccup than none of the others in the top tier have suffered (it climbed back to No. 9 in 2025-2026).
1 / 10
pebble-beach-golf-links.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
2 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Pebble-Beach-Golf-Links-TaylorMade-20978.png
Sherman Chu
3 / 10
Pebble-Beach-8th.png
4 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Pebble Beach4_DJI_0076 _EvanSchiller.jpg
Evan Schiller
5 / 10
Pebble Beach Golf Links_Hole7 – Pebble Beach Company.JPG
6 / 10
Pebble-Beach-18th-hole.jpg
Getty Images
7 / 10
3. Pebble Beach Golf Links
8 / 10
Pebble-Beach-Golf-Links-No-6-8-Joann-Dost.jpg
Photo by Joann Dost
9 / 10
1149611993
Keyur Khamar
10 / 10
2017-07-pebble-beach-hole-18.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Public Pebble Beach Golf Links Pebble Beach, CA 4.7 46 Panelists
Not just the greatest meeting of land and sea in American golf, but the most extensive one, too, with nine holes perched immediately above the crashing Pacific surf—the fourth through 10th plus the 17th and 18th. Pebble’s sixth through eighth are golf’s real Amen Corner, with a few Hail Marys thrown in over an ocean cove on the eighth from atop a 75-foot-high bluff. Pebble hosted a successful U.S. Amateur in 2018 and a sixth U.S. Open in 2019. Recent improvements include the redesign of the once-treacherous 14th green and reshaping the par-3 17th green, both planned by Arnold Palmer’s Design Company a few years back, and modifications to the green at the famous eighth hole, which we deemed the second Greatest Hole in America. Green modifications have continued, and Pebble re-enters our top 10 after a brief time out the last two years. View Course SEMINOLE GOLF CLUB
Seminole has cracked the top 10 five times since 1985 but has spent most of the last six decades on the outside looking in, though never further away than 19th place (in 1993-1994). This is a testament to its fundamentals, particularly its location along the Atlantic dune ridges of Juno Beach, Fla., and a routing that architects consider among Donald Ross’ best. But like Augusta National, the club has continuously evolved the course’s bunkers, aesthetics and other design features under the guidance of architects like Dick Wilson, Brian Silva and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Now Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner are orchestrating what may be the biggest architectural remodel to date. We’ll see how it impacts Seminole’s already lofty status.
1 / 7
Seminole Carlos Amoedo.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
2 / 7
Seminole 3 Carlos Amoedo.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
3 / 7
Seminole 2 Carlos Amoedo.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
4 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/seminole 17.jpg
The par-3 17th at Seminole Golf Club.
Carlos Amoedo
5 / 7
Seminole 3 Carlos Amoedo.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
6 / 7
Seminole clubhouse (1).jpeg
Jon Cavalier
7 / 7
2017-13-seminole-gc-hole-2.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Seminole Golf Club Juno Beach, FL 4.8 23 Panelists
A majestic Donald Ross design with a clever routing on a rectangular site, each hole at Seminole encounters a new wind direction. The routing is perhaps the only thing that remains of Ross’ vision. The greens are no longer his, replaced 60 years ago in a regrassing effort that showed little appreciation for the original rolling contours. The bunkers aren’t Ross either. Dick Wilson replaced them in 1947, his own version meant to imitate crests of waves on the adjacent Atlantic. A few years back, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw redesigned the bunkers again, set lower, closer to the way Ross had them, along with exposing sandy expanses in the rough. The club is about to embark on another major remodel by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner intended to finally recreate Ross’ internal green movements based on his blueprints and elevate sections of the course to remediate drainage concerns. Seminole has long been one of America’s most exclusive clubs, which is why it was thrilling to see it on TV for a first time during the TaylorMade Driving Relief match, and then again for the 2021 Walker Cup. View Course WINGED FOOT GOLF CLUB (WEST)
Like Seminole, Winged Foot has danced in and out of the top 10 since the beginning, one foot in and one foot out. It peaked at No. 5 from 1985-1988 but has fluctuated between 11 and 13 the last four cycles. Winged Foot West proves how difficult it is to maintain top 10 status since one could reasonably argue the course has never been better—visually, functionally, intellectually—following a significant Hanse and Wagner renovation in 2017 that thinned trees, rebuilt the bunkers and enlarged and polished A.W. Tillinghast’s remarkable set of greens, masterpieces of slope and movement. As is sometimes said, there are at least 20 top 10 courses in the U.S., and Winged Foot West is one of them.
1 / 6
Winged Foot GC West
Dom Furore
2 / 6
Winged Foot GC West 14th hole
Dom Furore
3 / 6
Winged Foot GC West
The 18th green at Winged Foot (West).
Dom Furore
4 / 6
Winged Foot GC West
No. 17
Dom Furore
5 / 6
2017-10-Winged-Foot-West-hole-12.jpg
LC Lambrecht
6 / 6
Winged Foot GC West
The ninth hole with the iconic Clifford Wendehack clubhouse in the background.
Dom Furore
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Winged Foot Golf Club: West Mamaroneck, NY 4.8 28 Panelists
Gone are all the Norway Spruce that once squeezed every fairway of Winged Foot West. It’s now gloriously open and playable, at least until one reaches the putting surfaces, perhaps the finest set of green contours the versatile architect A.W. Tillinghast ever did, now restored to original parameters by architect Gil Hanse. The greens look like giant mushrooms, curled and slumped around the edges, proving that as a course architect, Tillinghast was not a fun guy. Winged Foot West was tamed, somewhat, by Bryson DeChambeau in winning the 2020 U.S. Open that was played in September, but he was the only competitor to finish under par in his six-shot victory. View Course THIRD GROWTHS LOS ANGELES COUNTRY CLUB (NORTH)
Talk to people who know golf in Los Angeles, and you’ll get a roughly 50/50 split as to which course they like better, LACC North or Riviera. Our rankings have been just as divided as the two Hollywood stars have essentially circled each other for 60 years, each taking a star turn only to be upstaged later by the other. LACC has the slightly higher achievement, reaching No. 15 in 1989-1990, and has taken a little more of the spotlight of late following a stunning 2010 resurrection of the George Thomas architecture by Hanse and Wagner. It’s held the 16th spot in the ranking the past two cycles.
1 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/los-angeles-country-club-north-1157.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
2 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/lacc-north-1157.jpg
3 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/los-angeles-countryclub-north-1157.jpg
4 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/losangeles-countryclub-north-1157.jpg
5 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/Los-Angeles-CC-North-Course-hole-4 hero.jpg
6 / 10
2017-23-Los-Angeles-CC-North-Course-hole-1.jpg
Courtesy of Los Angeles CC
7 / 10
2017-23-Los-Angeles-CC-North-Course-hole-9.jpg
Courtesy of Los Angeles CC
8 / 10
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2015/07/20/55ad7a0fb01eefe207f6f0a4_blogs-the-loop-assets_c-2014-08-lacc-north-518-thumb-518×346-137890.jpg
9 / 10
2017-23-Los-Angeles-CC-North-Course-hole-15.jpg
Courtesy of Los Angeles CC
10 / 10
The Los Angeles Golf Club
Copyright USGA/John Mummert
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Los Angeles Country Club: North Los Angeles, CA 4.8 21 Panelists
It’s on the edge of Tinsel Town, but the architecture of the North Course at Los Angeles Country Club has been solid gold ever since its 2010 restoration by architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner. It matters not that Hanse’s team didn’t replicate the bunkering style of original architect George C. Thomas, but rather the more visually exciting style of Thomas’ associate, William P. Bell. The first nine plays rustically up and down a shallow canyon with holes switching back and forth across a dry barranca, and the second nine loops across a more spacious upland section with one par 3 (the 11th) that can stretch to nearly 300 yards and another (the 15th) that often plays just 90 yards. The hole strategies reinstituted by Hanse provided an intriguing examination when LACC’s North course hosted the 2023 U.S. Open as Wyndham Clark beat Rory McIlroy by a stroke. View Course OAKLAND HILLS COUNTRY CLUB (SOUTH)
When our panel began considering Oakland Hills’ South Course, they were reviewing a hybrid Donald Ross/Robert Trent Jones (who made major modifications for the 1951 Open) design that was later reworked by Arthur Hills and Rees Jones. They liked it and never scored it worse than 24th in the country, occasionally placing in the top 10. After a major 2021 Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner remodel flipped the architecture almost entirely back to Ross’ design, panelists continued to love it, though the love manifested in a move of just one place forward to its current position of No. 20 even while the experience of playing it is very different. Rankings can be a funny thing, but there’s nothing funny about one of the game’s greatest sets of greens or how lasting an impression the South course makes, no matter the iteration.
1 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
2 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-eleventh-hole-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
3 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-tenth-and-eleventh-holes-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
4 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-eighteenth-hole-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
5 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-tenth-hole-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
6 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-eighteenth-hole-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
7 / 8
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/11/best-new/OaklandHills_South_10_Q.jpg
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
8 / 8
oakland-hills-country-club-south-eighteenth-hole-5628
L.C. Lambrecht/Oakland Hills
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Oakland Hills Country Club: South Bloomfield Hills, MI 4.8 34 Panelists
Donald Ross felt his 1918 design was out of date for the 1951 U.S. Open and was prepared to remodel it. Sadly, he died in 1948, so Robert Trent Jones got the job. His rebunkering was overshadowed by ankle-deep rough, and after Ben Hogan closed with a 67, one of only two rounds under par-70 all week, to win his second consecutive Open, he complained that Jones had created a Frankenstein. Seventy-plus years later, Oakland Hills is even longer, but its bite wasn’t severe when it hosted the 2016 U.S. Amateur. In 2019, the South course closed as Gil Hanse and his team significantly renovated the course with the intention of removing the Jones-era influences and restoring its Ross feel. They did that by expanding greens to recapture what are some of Ross’s best contours, removing trees to show off the rolling landscape and shifting bunkers back to where Ross, not RTJ (or RTJ’s son Rees, during previous remodels), placed them. The course re-opened in Spring 2021, and though a crippling fire destroyed the club’s iconic clubhouse, the USGA delivered some kind news to the club, bringing the 2034 and 2051 U.S. Opens to Oakland Hills—as well as a number of upcoming USGA championships. View Course OLYMPIC CLUB (LAKE)
Olympic Club’s Lake course in San Francisco lived inside the top 10 for the first 23 years of the ranking before sliding down to No. 17 in the 1989-1990 edition. Since then, it’s relocated to the teens, then the 20s, and has settled in the mid-30s for the last decade. Some of the retreat could be attributed to some renovation work that was not always well received, but another prominent retouching by Hanse and Wagner in 2023 also did not produce any movement in the 2025-2026 ranking—it stood pat at No. 35, showing how difficult it can be to generate forward momentum when you’re already one of the three dozen best courses in the country. But the work was much needed and indeed improved the design as it cleared away too many overgrown cypress, addressed drainage and concerning bunker issues, expanded hole locations on the greens and created a new drivable par-4 seventh, instantly one of the most interesting holes on the course. And through it all, the Lake Course remains what it has always been: one of golf’s most challenging tournament courses for great players.
1 / 6
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Olympic-Lake18_DSC05143-.jpg
Evan Schiller
2 / 6
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/OC_Lake3_Kirk_Rice.jpg
Kirk Rice
3 / 6
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/OC_Lake1_Frank_Morse.jpg
Frank Morse
4 / 6
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Olympic Club 10 15.jpg
Derek Duncan
5 / 6
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/olympic-club-lake-seventheighth-1160.jpg
6 / 6
Olympic-Club-Lake-course-hole-7.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private The Olympic Club: Lake San Francisco, CA 4.7 33 Panelists
It seems fitting that, in a town where every house is a cliffhanger, every U.S. Open played at Olympic has been one, too. For decades, the Lake was a severe test of golf. Once, it was a heavily forested course with canted fairways hampered by just a single fairway bunker. By 2009, the forest had been considerably cleared away, leaving only the occasional bowlegged cypress with knobby knees. The seventh and 18th greens were redesigned, and a new par-3 eighth added. Despite those changes, the 2012 U.S. Open stuck to the usual script: a ball got stuck in a tree, slow-play warnings were given, a leader snap-hooked a drive on 16 in the final round and a guy named Simpson won. If the past was predictable, the future of the Lake Course might be more mysterious after Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner completed a remodeling in 2023 in preparation for the 2028 PGA Championship. The holes are even more breathable than before, with additional tree decluttering, the greens have been expanded for more hole locations and the bunkers don’t seem so deep and disconnected with the greens as they did. That old seventh hole was also scrapped in favor of a new drivable par-4 playing to a new greensite closer to the eighth tee. What hasn’t changed is the Lake Course’s secret ingredient, the mysterious hillside atmosphere that makes balls fall out of the air and the holes play much longer than their yardage. View Course RIVIERA COUNTRY CLUB
Los Angeles Country Club’s recent ascendence has not come at the expense of “Riv”—during the last two cycles the course has enjoyed its highest ranking, 18th, since 1985. That’s not to say the ship is always steady. Riviera has had some wild swings the last two decades after Tom Fazio’s substantial renovation in 2000, falling to 47th in 2005-2006 and to 61st the following cycle. But rankings are always a case of trajectory and where you are now, and the beloved George Thomas design has been clawing back ever since. It will host the U.S. Women’s Open next year, the Olympics in 2028 and the U.S. Open in 2031 for the first time since 1948.
1 / 12
Riviera Country Club 5th hole
Bill Hornstein
2 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/riviera-country-club-california-bill-hornstein.jpg
3 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2020/12/riviera country club drone 21.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
4 / 12
2017-24-Riviera-CC-Hole-9.jpg
Taku Miyamoto/Courtesy of Riviera Golf and Tennis, Inc.
5 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/riviera-country-club-california-seventh-hole-bill-hornstein.jpg
Bill Hornstein
6 / 12
riviera-country-club-eighteenth-1032
Carlos Amoedo
7 / 12
riviera-country-club-sixteengreen-1032
Carlos Amoedo
8 / 12
2017-24-Riviera-CC-Hole-18.jpg
Taku Miyamoto/Courtesy of Riviera Golf and Tennis, Inc.
9 / 12
riviera-country-club-tenth-1032
Carlos Amoedo
10 / 12
2017-24-Riviera-CC-Hole-10.jpg
Taku Miyamoto/Courtesy of Riviera Golf and Tennis, Inc.
11 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/riviera-country-club-california-fourth-hole-redan-bill-hornstein.jpg
Bill Hornstein
12 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/riviera-country-club-california-seventh-green-bill-hornstein.jpg
Bill Hornstein
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Riviera Country Club Pacific Palisades, CA 4.8 27 Panelists
A compact and shrewd design by George C. Thomas Jr. and associate William P. Bell, Riviera features everything from a long Redan par-3 to a bunker in the middle of a green to an alternate-fairway par-4. With its 18th green at the base of a natural amphitheater, and its primary rough consisting of club-grabbing Kikuyu, Riviera seems tailor-made as a tournament venue. It hosted a PGA Championship in 1995, a U.S. Senior Open in 1998 and a U.S. Amateur in 2017, but no U.S. Open since 1948. Riviera was recently awarded the 2031 U.S. Open, and it will also host the 2028 Olympics. But it’s the site of an annual PGA Tour event, which is even better exposure to the golf world. View Course SOUTHERN HILLS COUNTRY CLUB
Tulsa’s Southern Hills has been the archetype of the sweltering Southern tournament brute since it hosted its first U.S. Open in 1958, won by Tommy Bolt. Though hardly the longest course and lacking one of the biggest USGA course ratings in 1966 (just 72—the highest at the time was 75), it’s exactly the kind of design our panelists of the era would idolize for its ever-tightening dogleg fairways (the trees were still growing) and menacing Perry Maxwell greens. It debuted in the top 10 and later settled, for the most part, in the 25 to 35 range. A 2017 Hanse and Wagner reclamation of the Maxwell character (mostly the green edges and bunkers, along with significant tree clearing) has pushed its ranking back inside the top 30.
1 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2022/4/southern-hills-changes/SHhero.jpeg
Brian Oar
2 / 7
southern-hills-country-club-eighteenth-9301
Gary Kellner/PGA of America/Getty Images
3 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2022/4/southern-hills-changes/SH1.jpeg
Brian Oar
4 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2022/4/southern-hills-changes/SH2.jpeg
Brian Oar
5 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/1/Southern Hills 18 close Andy Johnson.jpg
Andy Johnson/Courtesy of Southern Hills
6 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2022/4/southern-hills-changes/SH3.jpeg
Southern Hills marks a new era of more dynamic major-championship setups (the par-4 fourth).
Brian Oar
7 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2022/4/southern-hills-changes/SH5.jpeg
Players will have to decide how far to press their luck with drives on the par-4 third.
Brian Oar
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Southern Hills Country Club Tulsa, OK 4.8 19 Panelists
A product of the Great Depression and constructed by hundreds of workers who stood at the gate each morning hoping for a 25-cents-per-hour job that day, Southern Hills is architect Perry Maxwell’s great achievement. Nearly every hole bends left or right, posing critical tee shots that must risk something. The putting surfaces have the classic “Maxwell Rolls,” and most are guarded by simple yet effective bunkers. During the summer of 2018, architect Gil Hanse and crew rebuilt much of the course, in the process re-establishing Maxwell’s distinctive, gnarly-edged bunkering and reconstructing the green shoulders that had been built up over the years. Hanse’s changes were on display at the 2022 PGA Championship, and the club will host the event for a sixth time in 2032. View Course More from Golf Digest
Golf Digest Logo The Next 100: America’s Second 100 Greatest Golf Courses
FOURTH GROWTHSBALTUSROL GOLF CLUB (LOWER)
The parallels between Baltusrol and Third Growth Oakland Hills are significant. The primary tournament courses, the Lower and the South, respectively, came into their own as major championship venues after extensive mid-century Robert Trent Jones remodels, and each were at the height of their fame during the first decades of the Golf Digest rankings, fixtures in the top 20. Later, the architecture of each club was revamped by Jones’ son, Rees. While the status of Oakland Hills stayed relatively consistent, Baltusrol slowly lost ground and over the last decade has resided in the 40 to 45 range. Recently, both clubs have hit the reset button, hiring Hanse and Wagner to reestablish the essence of their original 1920s designs by Tillinghast and Ross. The results at Baltusrol are impressive, and the design recently gained five spots.
1 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Baltusrol_Lower15_DJI_0063–.jpg
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
2 / 12
baltusrol-golf-club-lower-fifth-hole-7450
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
3 / 12
baltusrol-golf-club-lower-eleventh-hole-7450
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
4 / 12
baltusrol-golf-club-lower-twelfth-hole-7450
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
5 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Baltusrol_Lower13_DJI_0202-.jpg
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
6 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Baltusrol_Lower14_DJI_0245-.jpg
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
7 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Baltusrol_Lower15_16_DJI_0266-.jpg
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
8 / 12
baltusrol-golf-club-lower-sixteenth-hole-7450
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
9 / 12
baltusrol-golf-club-lower-seventeenth-hole-7450
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
10 / 12
baltusrol-golf-club-lower-eighteenth-hole-7450
Evan Schiller/Courtesy of the club
11 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Baltusrol_July25_Lower4A.jpg
12 / 12
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Baltusrol_July25_Lower17.jpg
Previous Next Pause PlaySave for later Private Baltusrol Golf Club: Lower Springfield, NJ 4.7 31Panelists
Jack Nicklaus won two U.S. Opens on Baltusrol’s Lower Course, setting a tournament record each time. Phil Mickelson and Jimmy Walker won PGAs on it. But the Lower’s most historic event was the ace by architect Robert Trent Jones in 1954 on the par-3 fourth, instantly squelching complaints of critical club members who felt Trent’s redesign made it too hard. Trent’s younger son, Rees, an avowed A.W. Tillinghast fan, lightly retouched the Lower’s design for the 2016 PGA Championship. But there has been another changing of the guard at Baltusrol, as architect Gil Hanse and his team took over as the club’s new consulting architects, and re-opened the restored Lower course—after carefully examining Tilly’s old plans and reclaiming green sizes and rebuilding bunkers—in May 2021. Hanse’s team performed a similar restoration on Baltusrol’s Upper course, which reopened in May 2025. View Course OAK HILL COUNTRY CLUB (EAST)
Oak Hill could be viewed in the same frame as Baltusrol and Oakland Hills, just substitute Tom Fazio for Rees Jones as the post-RTJ remodeler, and Andrew Green, who conducted a return to the East Course’s Ross architecture in 2019, for Hanse and Wagner. Statistically the East Course has walked almost step for step with Oakland Hills as a perennial fixture in the 15 to 20 range, though it’s had fewer spins inside the top 10, just one appearance to the South Course’s eight. Today, they are neighbors residing side by side at Nos. 21 and 20.
1 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/Oak Hill 6_DJI_0366 .jpg
Evan Schiller
2 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/Oak Hill13_DJI_0238 .jpg
The approach to No. 13.
Evan Schiller
3 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/Oak Hill 4_5_DJI_0301 .jpg
The fourth and fifth holes at the renovated East course at Oak Hill Country Club.
Evan Schiller
4 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakhill-countryclub-pga-rochester-8207.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
5 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oak-hill-country-club-pga-champ-8207.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
6 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oak-hill-country-club-pga-drone-8207.jpg
Carlos Amoedo
7 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/Oak Hill 13_DJI_0278 .jpg
A closer look at the 13th hole.
Evan Schiller
8 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/Oak Hill 6_DJI_0066 .jpg
The renovated East course will host the 2023 PGA Championship, the fourth PGA in the club’s history.
Evan Schiller
9 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/oakhill-countryclub-pga-8207.jpg
10 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-18-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
11 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-15-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
12 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-13-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
13 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-11-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
14 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-10-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
15 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-9-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
16 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-8-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
17 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-6-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
18 / 18
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/Oak-Hill-Country-Club-1-East -8207.jpg
Evan Schiller Photography
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Oak Hill Country Club: East Rochester, NY 4.9 24 Panelists
Back in 1979, George Fazio and nephew Tom were roundly criticized by Donald Ross fans for removing a classic Ross par-4 on Oak Hill East and replacing it with two new holes, including the bowl-shaped par-3 sixth, which would later become the scene of four aces in two hours during the second round of the 1989 U.S. Open. They also built a pond on another par-3 and relocated the green on the par-4 18th. The club hired golf architect Andrew Green to remodel those holes to bring them more in line with Donald Ross’ original style. In addition to putting the final touches (at least for now) on a significant tree removal program, Green re-established Ross’ original par-4 hole, then the fifth and now playing as the sixth (pictured here). Reconstruction occurred after the 2019 Senior PGA Championship on the East Course and was completed in May 2020. Oak Hill’s East Course hosted the 2023 PGA Championship, won by Brooks Koepka. View Course PEACHTREE GOLF CLUB
If there’s a sleeper in our classification it’s Atlanta’s Peachtree Golf Club, one of only two courses built after World War II. Like Cypress Point, Pine Valley and Seminole, it’s never hosted a major championship, but in contrast to those venerated clubs Peachtree has existed quietly despite being developed by Bobby Jones in the late 1940s. Its closest analogue is Augusta National, genetically (see Jones, the founder, and Robert Trent Jones, the architect), in aesthetics (massive rolling greens, fairways draped over hills through tall Georgia pines with dazzling springtime botany) and some of the country’s finest playing surfaces. It once fell from a high of 16th (1991-1992) to a low of 87th (2007-2008), but since then, as if discovered anew, the course has steadily maneuvered all the way back to No. 22.
1 / 7
Peachtree Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
Dave Sansom
2 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/peachtree-golf-club-first-2619.jpg
Dave Sansom
3 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/peachtree-golf-club-ninth-2619.jpg
Dave Sansom
4 / 7
Peachtree Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
Dave Sansom
5 / 7
Peachtree Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
Dave Sansom
6 / 7
2017-33-Peachtree-GC-hole-2-green.jpg
Courtesy of Peachtree GC
7 / 7
2017-33-Peachtree-GC-hole-12.jpg
Courtesy of Peachtree GC
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Peachtree Golf Club Atlanta, GA 4.9 33 Panelists
The design collaboration by amateur star Bobby Jones and golf architect Robert Trent Jones (no relation) was meant to recapture the magic that the Grand Slam winner had experienced when he teamed with Alister Mackenzie in the design of Augusta National. But Trent was an even more forceful personality than the flamboyant MacKenzie, so Peachtree reflects far more of Trent’s notions of golf than Bobby’s, particularly in designing for future equipment advances. When it opened, Peachtree measured in excess of 7,200 yards, extremely long for that era. It boasted the longest set of tees in America (to provide flexibility on holes) and the country’s most enormous greens (to spread out wear and tear). As it turns out, Trent was a visionary, and decades later, other designers followed his lead to address advances in club and ball technology. View Course PINEHURST RESORT (No. 2)
One might think a course as distinctive, influential and historically prominent as Pinehurst No. 2 might be a First or Second Growth. Through the first seven editions of the rankings it was, but the juggernaut also jumped between the first and fourth 10s. Most of this sling-shotting occurred while No. 2 was living an alternate life as a green, parkland-style course with mesmerizing greens but thick, carpeted Bermuda roughs. After Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw restored the original sand and wiregrass borders to the holes in 2010, reviving the unique, indigenous Pinehurst character, a surge in the poll was expected. Stubbornly, the course remains confined to a purgatory hovering around No. 30. To this architecture editor, No. 2’s persistent position outside the top 20 is the most confounding aspect of our rankings.
1 / 8
2017-30-Pinehurst-Resort-No-2-course-hole-17.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
2 / 8
family-destinations-pinehurst-2-hole-17.jpg
3 / 8
Pinehurst #2
Dom Furore
4 / 8
2017-30-Pinehurst-Resort-No-2-course-hole-4.jpg
Stephen Szurlej
5 / 8
Pinehurst #2
Dom Furore
6 / 8
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/4/0511-GD-FEA01.21.100.greatest pinehurst no 2.jpg
The 13th hole at Pinehurst No. 2.
Courtesy of the resort
7 / 8
Pinehurst #2
Dom Furore
8 / 8
Pinehurst #2
Dom Furore
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Public Pinehurst #2 Pinehurst, NC 4.7 51 Panelists
In 2010, a team led by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw killed and ripped out all the Bermudagrass rough on Pinehurst #2 that had been foolishly planted in the 1970s. Between fairways and tree lines, they established vast bands of native hardpan sand dotted with clumps of wiregrass and scattered pine needles. They reduced the irrigation to mere single rows in fairways to prevent grass from ever returning to the new sandy wastelands. Playing firm and fast, it was wildly successful as the site of the 2014 Men’s and Women’s U.S. Opens, played on consecutive weeks, and produced an even more exciting Open in 2024 when Bryson DeChambeau beat Rory McIlroy on the final hole. It’s the rare course that a wide variety of resort players can enjoy and play quickly one day, and be a test for tour pros the next by essentially just quickening the greens. A new favorite of the USGA with a headquarters in town, Pinehurst #2 will host Opens again in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047. View Course FIFTH GROWTHS CONGRESSIONAL COUNTRY CLUB (BLUE)
The first holes at Congressional Country Club, outside Washington D.C., were built in the 1920s by architect Devereux Emmet, but the Blue Course as we know it didn’t come into being until 1957 when Robert Trent Jones combined them with nine new holes. The Blue was fresh on the minds of the new Golf Digest regional selectors after Ken Venturi won the 1964 Open there, and they inaugurated it inside the top 40. Since 1985, Congressional has been as high as No. 50 but fell as low as No. 91 in 2021-2022. That decline, along with turf and maintenance challenges (and a 16 under finish by Rory McIlroy in the 2011 U.S. Open), spurred the powers that be to consider drastic measures. The course as we know it now is the creation of Andrew Green, who revamped every hole in the spirit of Emmet rather than Jones, clear-cutting the site of its forest of trees and leaving nothing as was. The work worked, and Congressional has elevated 14 places, to No. 67.
1 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovated photos.jpg
James Lewis
2 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovated course.jpg
James Lewis
3 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovated photos. .jpg
James Lewis
4 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovated second green.jpg
James Lewis
5 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovated.jpg
James Lewis
6 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovated photos .jpg
James Lewis
7 / 7
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/10/congressional renovation.jpg
James Lewis
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Congressional Country Club: Blue Bethesda, MD 4.6 29 Panelists
Congressional’s Blue Course has been an icon of traditional American parkland golf since the 1964 U.S. Open. Prior to that event, Robert Trent Jones combined nine remodeled Devereux Emmet holes with nine new ones of his own to create the modern Blue, and those holes were remodeled and reshaped several times by his son Rees for the 1997 and 2011 Opens. All the while, the trees around them matured, creating dense, shadowy corridors of wood. Drainage issues and declining course conditions motivated the membership to considier a major overhaul in 2020, and that’s what they received when architect Andrew Green reimagined the course as something that Emmet might have originally designed. This denudes the property of its forests and creates broad, rollicking fairways that tumble through meadows of long fescue punctuated by fearsome bunkers and bold, segmented greens. Parkland Golf Congressional is no more, and the remodel, which included a new, drop-shot par-3 10th hole, earned the course our Best Transformation award for 2021 and a jump of 18 spots in that year’s ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Courses. Congressional’s Blue course then climbed another five spots in this year’s ranking, emphatically reversing a trend of the course nearly slipping out of our 100 Greatest. View Course INVERNESS CLUB
Inverness is another course that’s gone through several iterations—at least eight different architects have worked on the course in some fashion. Two U.S. Opens were played on the original Donald Ross version (he remodeled it in 1918), another on the course renovated by Dick Wilson in 1957, and a fourth on the Tom and George Fazio 1977 remodel that introduced several new holes built on adjacent pastureland. Inverness rose and fell through the years, reaching No. 17 in 2003-2004 then sagging to No. 89 in 2017-2018, before Andrew Green’s 2018 redesign steadied the ship. The remodel, including Green’s own new holes that replaced the Fazio holes, helped the club get back to its current place at No. 62 after reaching No. 58 in 2023-2024.
1 / 1
1263221494
Patrick Smith
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Inverness Club Toledo, OH 4.7 32 Panelists
Inverness is considered a classic Donald Ross design. In truth, it’s one of his best remodeling jobs. Some Ross fans were outraged when the course was radically altered by George and Tom Fazio in preparation for the 1979 U.S. Open. The uncle-nephew duo eliminated four holes (including the famous dogleg par-4 seventh), combined two holes to make the par-5 eighth and created three modern holes on newly acquired land. In 2018, golf architect Andrew Green replaced the Fazio holes with new ones more in the Ross style, relocated greens on two other holes and added new back tees everywhere. View Course MEDINAH COUNTRY CLUB (No. 3)
The narrative for Fifth Growths is clear: historic courses with major championship pedigree watch their star fall down the 100 Greatest ranking, then opt for a radical re-do by basically pulling up stakes on the old design and starting over. Medinah, long considered one of the country’s sternest driving and approach-shot tests, host of three U.S. Opens, two PGAs and a Ryder Cup, lived in the top 20 until 2010 when it began a freefall to No. 93 two years ago. Like going to the bullpen to stop an offensive onslaught, the club signaled to the Australian firm of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead to reimaging the classic Chicagoland tree-lined design. They conjured a more open concept that recalled No. 3’s early years that meanders through meadows, dips into less dense woods and crosses the property’s famous lake in more inventive, strategic ways. Early results suggest the changeup worked—after teetering on the brink, Medinah jumped 19 places back to the safety of No. 74.
1 / 5
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Medinah 3 17th 2024.jpg
Medinah Country Club/Seth Jenkins
2 / 5
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Medinah 3 6th 2024.jpg
Matt Rouches/Fried Egg Golf
3 / 5
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Medinah 3 18 2024.jpg
Matt Rouches/Fried Egg Golf
4 / 5
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Medinah 3 13th 2024.jpg
Matt Rouches/Fried Egg Golf
5 / 5
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Medinah 3 4 2024.jpg
Matt Rouches/Fried Egg Golf
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Medinah Country Club: No. 3 Medinah, IL 4.6 27 Panelists
The evolution of golf course architecture—and how courses change to suit the demands of the times—can be mapped directly on top of Medinah’s No. 3 course. It was built in the 1920s within the fields west of Chicago on land that was part farmland and partly wooded. It became a major championship site when it hosted the 1949 U.S. Open, putting it on a track of perpetual improvements to toughen it up to keep pace with tournament demands. To whit, the old 17th hole, a par-3 over water, shifted and morphed several times between 1986 and 2005, and the greens and bunkers have undergone remodels ahead of each event, from Opens, to PGA Championships to Ryder Cups. But when No. 3 was blistered to the tune of 25-under during the 2019 BMW Championship, which coincided with a plunge in our rankings from 53rd to 93rd, the club knew it was time to adapt again. They took a swing and hired the Australian firm of Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead to overhaul the design with the notion of making the course look and play like it might have in the 1920s. That meant removing much of the dense forest surrounding the holes, revamping the bunkers in more naturalistic forms, enlarging the greens and adding internal contour, eliminating two of the three redundant par 3s that played over Lake Kadijah and building several new holes, including the drivable 16th over the lake. The radical shift has put the fun, firmness and variety back into a design that had become one-dimensional, predictable and soft, and the result is a jump of 19 spots in the ranking. View Course SCIOTO COUNTRY CLUB
You can copy/paste the scenario of the previous three Fifth Growths onto Scioto. Theirs is the story of a former U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup host that underwent a major mid-century modernization, struggled with its identity as the years went on, and finally decided to turn back the clock. In this scenario, Scioto most closely resembles Inverness, with Andrew Green bringing back the Donald Ross architecture that had been papered over. Interestingly, the Scioto reviews that have locked it into the 100 Greatest list since 1966 were based on the 1957 Dick Wilson revision, even if its ranking slumped to positions in the 50s and 60s. We’re curious why Scioto hasn’t received the same jolt that others have after Green’s excellent Ross-inspired work—at last publication it sits at No. 82, its lowest placement in the rankings, ever.
1 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-first-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
2 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-third-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
3 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-fourth-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
4 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-fourth-upview-8994.jpg
5 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-fifth-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
6 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-sixth-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
7 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-eighth-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
8 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-ninth-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
9 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-tenth-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
10 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-thirteen-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
11 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-fourteen-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
12 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-seventeen-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
13 / 13
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/scioto-country-club-ohio-eighteen-8994.jpg
Evan Schiller
Previous Next Pause Play Save for later Private Scioto Country Club Columbus, OH 4.7 30 Panelists
The Donald Ross design at Scioto was the site of three prominent tournaments—the 1926 U.S. Open, won by Bobby Jones, the 1931 Ryder Cup and the 1950 PGA Championship. That course was gone by the time the ’68 U.S. Amateur came to Scioto, replaced in 1963 by a modern design from Dick Wilson, who delegated one nine to associate Joe Lee and the other to associate Robert von Hagge. Several other renovations by Michael Hurdzan and Jack Nicklaus, who grew up playing the course, followed in the 2000s, creating yet a third iteration of the course. Enough, the club said. They hired Andrew Green in 2021 to restore the course to the full Donald Ross version based on drawings, photos and an old aerial illustration from the ’26 Open. Green lowered green complexes, emboldened contours, recreated Ross’ sharp-faced bunkering and returned the small green at the par-3 17th to the near side of a creek where it originally was. View Course More from Golf Digest
Golf Digest Logo America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses
Explore Golf Digest’s new Course Reviews section where you can submit a star rating and evaluation on all the courses you’ve played. We’ve collected tens of thousands of reviews from our course-ranking panelists to deliver a premium experience, which includes course rankings, experts’ opinions, bonus course photography, videos and much more. Check it out here!
