Now, with the data from our latest America\u2019s 100 Greatest Public ranking, we\u2019re applying the same method to determine which state has the greatest public golf. What is so interesting when you compare the leading states in these two lists is that they are quite different. California, New York and Florida, for example, are The Big 3 in our ranking of the best overall golf states, but only California cracks the top five in our public ranking.<\/p>\n
Other states, like Wisconsin\u2014named here as the best state for public golf\u2014prioritize excellent public-access courses but lack as many elite private clubs of many other states. In taking these two rankings together, California comes out as the state with the best combination of private and public golf, ranking near the top on both lists.<\/p>\n
Scroll on for the complete ranking of the best states for public golf, and be sure to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography and reviews from our course panelists. We also encourage you to leave your own ratings on the courses you\u2019ve played \u2026 so you can make your case for why a course should be higher or lower on our rankings.<\/p>\n
1. Wisconsin (11)<\/p>\n
17. Blackwolf Run (River)
21. Sand Valley (Sand Valley)
25. Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley
49. SentryWorld
51. Sedge Valley at Sand Valley
65. Whistling Straits (Irish)
66. The G. Courses at Lawsonia (Links)
92. Blackwolf Run (Meadow Valleys)<\/p>\n
T-2. Michigan (8)<\/p>\n
T-2. Oregon (8)<\/p>\n
T-4. California (7)<\/p>\n
T-4. North Carolina (7)<\/p>\n
T-4. Florida (7)<\/p>\n
33. Streamsong Resort (Black)
50. Cabot Citrus Farms (Karoo)
86. Trump National Doral Miami (Blue Monster)
89. The Park at West Palm<\/p>\n
7. Nevada (5)<\/p>\n
Explore Golf Digest’s new Course Reviews section where you can submit a star rating and evaluation on all the courses you\u2019ve 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now, with the data from our latest America\u2019s 100 Greatest Public ranking, we\u2019re applying the same method to…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4787,3016,4786,959,310,311,4040],"class_list":["post-7140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-100-greatest-public-golf","tag-best-golf-trips","tag-best-public-golf-courses","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-golf","tag-plus","tag-public-golf-courses","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117337412367186268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}