More than three-fourths of this list of the best golf course in each state are exclusive, available to only members and invited guests
Most golfers salivate over the thought of teeing it up and challenging the best golf course in each of America’s 50 states, but that quest is likely a pipe dream. Most of the courses on our list, compiled after consulting the nation’s most noted golf course reviewers, are exclusive, available to only members and invited guests. In fact, 38 of the tracks are private.
These tracks were fashioned out of what Mother Nature provided by a who’s who of golf course architects – C.B. MacDonald, Alistair Mackenzie, Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, and Perry Maxwell from golf’s Golden Age, and modern-day artists such as Tom Fazio (who designed seven courses on this list, the most by far), Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Tom Doak, et al.
The list of the best course in each state represents virtually every era in American golf, with 16 of the tracks opening during the Golden Age (1800s-1930), 15 debuting from 1981-2000, and 13 on the list built since 2001. Surprisingly, none of the courses on this list were established from 1941-1960.
This is the first of a two-part series.
List by State (alphabetically):
Alabama: Shoal Creek
Location: Birmingham; Established: 1977
Bottom Line: Jack Nicklaus was given an ideal canvas – 1,550 densely wooded acres located between Oak and Double Oak Mountains in the southern foothills of the Appalachians – to build this gem. The course has been the site of numerous major championships, most recently the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open.
Alaska: Anchorage Golf Course
Location: Anchorage; Established: 1987
A Bill Newcomb design open from May-October, the course twists and turns across heaving ground and is set on the lower hillside of the City of Lights and Flowers. The Chugach Mountains loom over the routing, and holes sport views of the Anchorage city skyline, Cook Inlet, and Denali (the tallest mountain in North America), making for a spectacular backdrop.
Arizona: The Estancia Club
Location: Scottsdale; Established: 1985; Renovated: 2012
Routed in the shadow the north slopes of Pinnacle Peak and positioned to give golfers a variety of uphill and downhill shots and a change of direction on almost every hole, Estancia was Tom Fazio’s initial entry into the Scottsdale scene. It features high-desert design, with wide turf corridors and few desert carries.
Arkansas: The Alotian Club
Location: Roland; Established: 2004
Designed by Tom Fazio, the course plays alongside Lake Maumelle. The track was designed to mimic the playing conditions and opulence of the famed Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, the home of the Masters, but it’s even hillier. It’s the only course in Arkansas ever to make the America’s 100 Greatest List.
California: Cypress Point Club
Location: Pebble Beach; Established: 1924; Restored: 2004.
Bottom Line: Alister Mackenzie’s masterpiece weaves through stands of cypress trees, across sand dunes and along jagged coastline. Cypress Point’s back nine is all along the Pacific Ocean, with its signature offerings, the back-to-back par 3s 16th and 17th, considered two of the most picturesque holes in the world.
Colorado: Castle Pines Golf Club
Location: Castle Rock
Established: 1981: Renovated: 1993, 2000.
Bottom Line: Club founder Jack Vickers, a Midwest oilman, hired urged Jack Nicklaus to design a mountain-venue design worthy of a major championship, and he did. The course hosted The International, which for many years was the only PGA Tour event played under a unique Stableford format. The track sits at 6,630 feet, from where golfers can take in sweeping views of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.
Connecticut: The Course at Yale
Location: New Haven; Established: 1926
Bottom Line: Designed by Golden Age architects C.B. MacDonald and Seth Reynor, Yale is one of the world’s most challenging golf courses. Considered far and away the best college course in the nation, its many cavernous bunkers, narrow, off-camber fairways and huge and undulating greens demand the best in a player’s game.
Delaware: Wilmington Country Club (South Course)
Location: Wilmington; Established: 1960; Renovated: 2009.
Bottom Line: Designed by the legendary architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr., the course has been a bastion of great amateur golf. It hosted the 2013 Palmer Cup, the annual Ryder Cup-style competition between the best collegiate golfers from the United States and Europe as well as the 1965 U.S. Junior Amateur, 1971 U.S. Amateur, 1978 U.S. Junior and the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Florida: Seminole Golf Club
Location: Juno Beach; Established: 1929; Renovated: 1947, 1979, 2017.
Bottom Line: A majestic Donald Ross design with a clever routing on a rectangular site, with each hole playing with a different wind direction. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw redesigned the bunkers again, along with exposing some sandy expanses in the rough. The site for the course was chosen for its sand dunes, and they come into constant play. Seminole has long been one of America’s most exclusive clubs.
Georgia: Augusta National Golf Club
Location: Augusta; Established: 1933; Renovated: 2018, et al.
Bottom Line: Star amateur golfer Bobby Jones had a vision for his dream course on the rolling site of a tree nursery and enlisted Alister Mackenzie to design it for him; together they created perhaps the world’s most famous course. The site of the Masters Tournament each April, Augusta National is home to Amen Corner and Rae’s Creek, and has welcomed the best players since 1934.
Hawai’i: Nanea Golf Club
Location: Kailua-Kona; Established: 2003
Bottom Line: Designed by David McLay Kidd, this course is the most exclusive in the 50th State and perhaps the entire nation and stuns publicity. This challenging track set on the slopes of Mount Hualalai was fashioned in the style of owners Charles Schwab and George Roberts’ favorite courses in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Big Island masterpiece has views of the Pacific from every hole.
Idaho: Gozzer Ranch Golf & Lake Club
Location: Harrison; Established: 2007
Bottom Line: Designed by Tom Fazio, this course is ballyhooed for its attention to detail and a combination of challenge and playability. Set on an elevated, forested peninsula of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the course’s routing sports gorgeous views of the lake to the north and west and the panoramic farm valley to the east and is considered one of Fazio’s best creations.
Illinois: Chicago Golf Club
Location: Wheaton; Established: 1894; Renovated: 1922, 2002.
Bottom Line: The course is home to the oldest 18-hole golf facility in North America The club is one of the five founding member clubs of the USGA and has hosted national championships across three centuries. The historic track was designed by C. B. Macdonald. It is one of America’s most exclusive clubs. It was the first club outside the Northeast to host the U.S. Open (1897) and the first to employ Bentgrass greens.
Indiana: Victoria National Golf Club
Location: Newburgh; Established: 1998
Bottom Line: Fashioned by Tom Fazio atop a coal company’s long-abandoned strip mine in southern Indiana, who followed the corridors that existed between mining spoil mounds, which have long since overgrown with trees and foliage, and more than 40 acres of spindly lagoons formed by steam shovels carving out coal deposits. This course is both exacting and spectacular, and is one of the most visually stunning tracks in the nation.
Iowa: The Harvester Golf Club
Location: Rhodes; Established: 2000; Renovated: 2018.
Bottom Line: Designed by Keith Foster and opened as one of the nation’s finest daily-fee tracks, this course and its owners are feeling their oats, transitioning to a private, members-only facility when it opens for the 2019 season. It’s an absolute gem nestled in the middle of nowhere, with rolling hills, incredible scenery and a phenomenally fun layout that’s always in pristine, country-club condition.
Kansas: Prairie Dunes Country Club
Location: Hutchinson; Established: 1937; Renovated: 1957, 2014.
Bottom Line: This course, designed by the peerless Perry Maxwell, was the top nine-hole track in America for 20 years. When it was expanded 20 years later, Maxwell’s son, Press, added nine holes seamlessly and replicated his father’s putting surfaces, which break in three different directions. This course illustrates the best of golf in rural Kansas: with prairie grasses, sand dunes, yucca plants, cottonwoods and constant wind.
Kentucky: Valhalla Golf Club
Location: Louisville; Established: 1986; Renovated 2000, 2014:
Bottom Line: This course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is the first ever owned solely by the PGA of America and has played host to two PGA Championships as well as the 2008 Ryder Cup. The 500-acre parcel given Nicklaus features varied terrain, water and plenty of space, with a links-like front nine and a more forested challenge after turning for home.
Louisiana: Squire Creek Country Club
Location: Choudrant; Established: 2002
Bottom Line: A Tom Fazio-designed beauty, this course’s 18 championship holes are hand cut into the Northern Louisiana landscape. The routing offers a fair but challenging test and is characterized by a gentle rolling plain, with natural views and picturesque scenery surrounding the 1,100-acre property to provide a perfect escape.
Maine: Belgrade Lakes Golf Club
Location: Belgrade Lakes
Established: 1998; Bottom Line: This course, the brainstorm of former Dexter shoe magnate Harold Alfond, is built on pristine, yet rugged land. Routed by Clive Clark, the course design that naturally fits the landscape, astride a majestic mountaintop course, with rolling fairways lined with brilliantly colored stands of timber, alongside white granite outcroppings.
Maryland: Congressional Country Club (Blue Course)
Location: Bethesda; Established: 1962; Renovated: 2010.
Bottom Line: The Blue course, designed originally by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and renovated by his son, Rees, was founded by members of Congress to create a club where prominent government officials and businessmen could meet socially. It has been the site of major championship tournaments including the U.S. Open, the PGA National Championship, and the AT&T National.
Massachusetts: The Country Club (Clyde/Squirrel)
Location: Brookline
Established: 1895; Renovated: 1902, 2012.
Bottom Line: The course, originally designed by Willie Campbell, is one of the founding clubs of the United States Golf Association. The club has hosted 16 USGA competitions; of these, six were U.S. Amateurs (the most recent in 2013) and three U.S. Opens (1913, 1963, 1988). The Country Club was also host to the 1999 Ryder Cup Matches, which were competed on the Clyde and Squirrel nines.
Michigan: Crystal Downs Country Club
Location: Frankfort; Established: 1931; Renovated: 2018.
Bottom Line: Overlooking Lake Michigan and Crystal Lake, this course is consistently ranked along of the top in the nation. Designed by Alister Mackenzie and Perry Maxwell, the track’s fairways zigzag and rumble back and forth over a glacial landscape to severe and often steep putting surfaces, some that have doglegs in them.
Minnesota: Interlachen Country Club
Location: Edina; Established: 1911; Renovated: 1919, 1960, 2006.
Bottom Line: Golf legendary Bobby Jones won the 1930 U.S. Open at this course, completing the second leg of what would become the game’s first Grand Slam. Originally fashioned by Willie Watson, the hilly, tree-lined track with small greens and plenty of bunkers has most recently been the showcase of women’s professional golf, hosting the 2002 Solheim Cup and the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open.
Mississippi: Mossy Oak Golf Club
Location: West Point; Established: 2016.
Bottom Line: The Magnolia State’s newest course grants players aims a full-sensory, immersive outdoors experience. Designer Gil Hanse stuck to his minimalist approach fashioning a links-style course that winds through the natural landscape, preserving and accentuating the Mississippi Black Prairie’s native plant species. From the sixth tee players can see all 18 holes of the property as there are just 19 trees on the entire site.
Missouri: Bellerive Country Club
Location: St.Louis; Established: 1960; Renovated: 2006.
Bottom Line: The site of the 100th PGA Championship in 2018 is a brawny Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design built around a winding creek that comes into play on half the holes. A Rees Jones renovation prepared the course for the likes of the BMW Championship in 2008.
