Looking at traveling more for golf and wanted to see what would be the best courses available to public play and what it would cost. Made a spreadsheet and thought I should share if others would be interested in the information.
Data: looked up the biannual Top 100 Public Courses in the US list that Golf Digest produces dating back approximately 20 years. Was unable to find a reliable source for 2015 data – if anyone has it, would love for you to share!
Price: Went through each course's website and google searches as needed to find green fee rates for each course. Finding a definitive price was difficult at times, as some courses have other variables such as:
– Resort courses that are exclusively stay-and-play. I did not go through the hassle of finding room rates and greens fees and trying to be precise. Most of the courses I capped at $1,000 for the price when considering the room rates for 1 or 2 nights along with greens fees I could find and any required caddie payments if applicable
– Some courses have dynamic pricing that changes based on the season. Bandon courses, for example, are cheaper in winter and more expensive in summer for obvious reasons. I put down the price that would err towards the cheaper prices that are not peak season, since that is probably when I would aim to go – YMMV of course
– Some courses do not have rates information on their website and I had to rely on a Google search – these may not be entirely accurate.
Ranking: Built a formula that would take into account how often each course appears on the list and how frequent their appearance(s) on the list is. The more appearances the better and the more recent the better.
Errors & Omissions: Welcome to constructive feedback – if anyone notices some glaring errors politely let me know.
Built this for myself but hoping it adds value to someone else 🙂
edit: rows are color coded as green for public, yellow for resort/public (resort courses open to non-resort guests), red for resort/private (resort courses open to resort guests only) or semi-private (limited public access)
edit: certain inaccuracies noted by commentors, removed courses that used to be public but now operate as exclusively private course from list
by CJ29DJ
16 Comments
My apologies if there’s a key somewhere that I’m missing, but what do the row colors mean? I assumed the reds were private courses, but see now that these are ranking public courses.
Thanks for putting this together!
I was fortunate enough to work for a brief period of time on a top 100 Championship course in between Deer Lodge and Anaconda courses that you listed. Rock Creek Cattle Company Course. Designed by Tom Doak.
This place was heaven! Started the 45 minute drive into the Anaconda range. Security checkpoint to get onto the development. Helicopter pad right on the course. Herds of Elk roaming about. One of the most beautiful places on earth that most people don’t know about.
https://www.rockcreekcattlecompany.com
Heads up: McLemore isn’t in Columbus GA. I wish. Also I wonder if you meant Cuscowilla near Eatonton, GA (not FL). Also, the list (the post) is titled “Top 100 Public Courses” and has over 200 listed, some of which are designated as Private. Odd.
Weird as hell seeing the municipal course I used to pay 550 a year to play all I wanted on here.
Playing #8 in a week!
I just can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of some of these prices. There is no way in hell I’m paying $1k for a round of golf.
Am I missing something to allow me to save a copy and/or sort the data?
Surprised I played 20 of these
Pinehurst #10 is top 20
The top ones in Nebraska (with exception to Firethorn) are always amusing to me because they are not near any major populous in the state. There are a few public courses I would also consider better than Quarry and Firethorn but that’s probably personal preference.
Oregon is like In N Out. Unbeatable on the quality to price matrix.
Going to Bluffton in a few weeks…. Looks like May River is private?
So i just took a new job in new mexico for the company that owns black mesa…. i’ve already played that thing like 8 times, it’s amazing.
Happy to see 3 AZ course. Sad (but not surprised) to see at least $350 for each one.
So Quarry Oaks is better than Oak Quarry.
Old Waverly is private