The best golf courses in all 50 states for 2024-25, ranked!

In the weeks since we released our latest US Top 100 and Playable Top 100 rankings, our audience has been asking for more. After all, whether it’s new construction, remodeling or restoration, high-quality courses keep coming online until many of the scores golfers want to play aren’t in our Top 100 rankings. One hundred fairways – or 200 holes – are not enough to do justice to the breadth of America’s golf course.

To highlight and announce a few hundred more courses, we’re now publishing our top rankings by region, and — coming soon! – best courses by region (Northeast, Southeast, Heartland and West). No other country in the world has such a deep bench of exceptional subjects.

Quality of GOLF courses: World’s Top 100 | Top 100 in US | Top 100 To Play | Top 100 Value Courses in the US | America’s Best Municipal Studies | America’s Best Courses for $100 or Less | Top 100 in UK and Ireland | Top 100 in Asia-Pacific | Top 100 Short Courses in the World

Think of the abundance of golf treasures from coast to coast: links, clifftop, prairie, parkland, wilderness, coast. You name it, you can find it in the US Just look at a state like Wisconsin as a microcosm of the rest of the country and how far it has come in the last few decades. In 1985, the Badger State may not have been ranked among the nation’s top half of golf states. Now, it is undoubtedly at its peak 5. Who knew the country’s abundance of land beyond the fact that it borders Lake Michigan? Today, its glacial moraines and sand dunes have golfers flocking there in droves.

Wondering what the next scenario might be? Florida and Texas have several state-of-the-art projects that are about to open or are well under construction. Engineers and architects take advantage of the sand vein that starts in Pinehurst and runs through South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Great golf is no longer limited to major metro areas. Look for a great job in Dornick Hills in Ardmore, Okla. (population: 25,000), or a new course in bloom in Aiken, SC (population: 33,000).

For a deeper dive into the latest trends in education, check out our new travel podcast GOLF area. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: APPLE | SEND | HEART | AMAZON

Finally, one of the great qualities of golf is that it allows you to spend time outdoors – and for diversity and splendor, few countries can compete with the U.S. We should all count ourselves lucky to be in the midst of a second Golden Age of Architecture.

You can browse our list of states below. Enjoy!

The best golf courses in all 50 states for 2024-25

(sorted alphabetically)

To browse our list of courses in map form, visit our new Course Finder tool.

Best Golf Courses in Alabama (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Alaska (2024-25)

The best golf courses in arizona (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Arkansas (2024-25)

The best golf courses in california (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Colorado (2024-25)

The best Connecticut golf courses (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Delaware (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Florida (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Georgia (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Hawaii (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Idaho (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Illinois (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Indiana (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Iowa (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Kansas (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Kentucky (2024-25)

Best Golf Courses in Louisiana (2024-25)

The best golf in Maine (2024-25)

The best golf in maryland (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Massachusetts (2024-25)

The best golf courses in michigan (2024-25)

The best golf in Minnesota (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Mississippi (2024-25)

The best golf in missouri (2024-25)

The best golf in Montana (2024-25)

The best golf in Nebraska (2024-25)

The best golf in Nevada (2024-25)

The best golf courses in new hampshire (2024-25)

The best golf courses in new jersey (2024-25)

The best golf in new mexico (2024-25)

The best golf courses in New York (2024-25)

The best golf courses in North Carolina (2024-25)

The best golf courses in North Dakota (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Ohio (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Oklahoma (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Oregon (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Pennsylvania (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Rhode Island (2024-25)

The best golf courses in South Carolina (2024-25)

The best golf courses in South Dakota (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Tennessee (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Texas (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Utah (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Vermont (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Virginia (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Washington (2024-25)

The best golf courses in West Virginia (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Wisconsin (2024-25)

The best golf courses in Wyoming (2024-25)

How do we measure the lessons

There is only one exception to the voting process in GOLF’s Top 100 Course rankings: the vote, which is constantly changing with new construction, reinstatement and removal if the course’s quality deteriorates.

In our newly released Top 100 US and Top 100 To Play programs, each panel list was voted on by 609 subjects. Next to the list of subjects were 11 “buckets” or clusters. If our panelists consider a course to be among the top three in the US, they check that first column. If they believe the course is between No.

Nominees were also free to write in subjects they felt should have been included in the ballot.

Points are awarded for each bucket; to arrive at the average score for each subject, we divide the cumulative score by the number of votes. From those points, lessons are then calculated accordingly. It is a deliberately simple and straightforward process. Why? Because historically it has produced highly commendable results. Like the game itself, there’s no need to make things unnecessarily complicated or try to fix something that already works perfectly.

The key to the methodology is the experience and expertise of our panel. Certainly, our process is as good as the panel itself. Hailing from 15 nations (and that counts Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales as one, the United Kingdom), each of our 127 hand-picked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, regionally and globally.

Typing our panel would not be possible, unless they all share the golf swing. More than 55 years separate our youngest artist from the oldest. Playing abilities vary from handicap to low double digits. If 30 panels have seen the course, you are almost guaranteed that each set of tees was used. Many of our panelists have played over 1,000 courses in 20+ countries. In the world of standards, knowledge is important. Communication between panels is improved by keeping a small, tight group.

Because we don’t impose a set method of evaluating courses like other standards do, there is no set opinion — our standard is democratic. Some panelists believe that fun is the ultimate goal, and thus prioritize design features such as width and playing angles, while looking at the need to constantly hunt for tight balls. Other panelists appreciate the challenge and demands of hitting every club in the bag. Still others consider the environment of the course and the general environment of the area as very important, thus emphasizing the preparation and naturalness of the course. Ultimately, allowing raters to freely express their preferences is what produces the eclecticism you want in our Top 100 list.

The integrity of the panel is important. Voters with any ties or associations to relevant subjects should flag such conflicts. Any vote outside the statistical norm is investigated. The panelists know that they shouldn’t let the quality of their playing influence their voting – the same for a premium or clubhouse experience. While the opulence may make for a more memorable trip, that’s not what the range of GOLF courses is about. Our focus is on design and architecture. We study the subject, not the things around us.

Our promise to you with each position is that we put forward our best, most honest effort. Ultimately, you are the judge and arbiter of our success.