Why our Top 100 Courses You Can Play list still is so meaningful

To scan our recently released Top 100 Courses in the U.S. ranking is to dream about playing these places. But let’s not be Pollyanna about a ranking like this. A majority of those courses — 82 of our Top 100 — are private and mostly out of reach for the average weekend warrior.

Of the list’s 11 tantalizing new entries, only The Lido (with limited tee times for resort guests) and Pinehurst No. 10 are open to the public. At the same time, four resort courses that enjoyed pride of place in our 2022 ranking — Pinehurst No. 4, Sand Valley, Sheep Ranch and Streamsong (Blue) — have slipped out of the Top 100.

But dreams and bucket lists aren’t a privilege of the few, and great course architecture thrives well beyond the stone gateways of private clubs. Across this country there are a stunning number of superb golf courses available to every golfer. So that’s why this year we updated GOLF’s Top 100 You Can Play in the U.S. list, which is derived from the same voting process as our main list.

Some of these courses — such as Belvedere (No. 40), Firestone (No. 53), Cape Arundel (No. 63) and Bay Hill (No. 71) — are, in fact, private, but they allow outside play under certain conditions. At GOLF, we love this model. After all, it has served UK clubs for more than a century. For those lucky enough to belong to clubs like these, the revenue from outside play helps keep membership costs in check. Most important, these open policies allow course lovers to sample more of the game’s sublime works of art.

We all win when the lines of private and public are blurred and the expense of the sport comes down.

In the meantime, we’re thrilled to celebrate a course like Lawsonia, which made both of our 2024 lists and was barely over $100 when I played there in September. In America, there aren’t enough examples of elite architecture wed to a greens fee in the $100 range.

Still, as you’ve seen in this year’s Top 100 lists, our country has an abundance of golf riches. With even more high-quality private and public courses slated to open between now and the arrival of our 2026 Top 100 U.S. list, the American golf scene has never been more exciting to think — and to dream — big about.

GOLF’s other course rankings: Top 100 Courses in the World | Top 100 Courses in the U.S. | Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | Top 100 in the U.K. and Ireland | Top 100 Short Courses in the World