As part of GOLF’s rigorous ratings process for our newly released Top 100 Courses in the U.S. and Top 100 Courses You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the best golf courses in every state.
You can check out the links below to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in Oregon. And if you’re looking to create your own trip in the future, you’d be wise to let GOLF’s new Course Finder tool assist you. Here, you can toggle all of our lists — Top 100 public, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s and more — or filter by price to create the perfect itinerary for your next trip.
GOLF’s other course rankings: Top 100 Courses in the World | Top 100 Courses in the U.S. | Top 100 Courses You Can Play | Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 Best Short Courses in the World
Check out our all-new travel podcast Destination GOLF. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: APPLE | SPOTIFY | IHEART | AMAZON
Explore our all-new Course Finder
Golf courses near you? Search here!
Begin Browsing
The best golf courses in Oregon (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Top 100 Course in the U.S.
Y = Top 100 You Can Play in the U.S.
V = Top 100 Value Course in the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.
1. Pacific Dunes (Bandon) [#, Y, P]
This unconventional Tom Doak treasure catapulted him into the spotlight at the turn of the century. A slew of par-4s on the first nine gives way to a 3-3-5-4-3-5 start to the second nine. Only Mike Keiser would have approved of such an unusual par sequence, and this course helped modern architecture break free from certain design shackles that had constrained designers over the past five decades. Scattered blow-out bunkers, gigantic natural dunes, smartly contoured greens and Pacific panoramas complete Doak’s first masterpiece.
2. Bandon Trails (Bandon) [#, Y, P]
Several of Coore & Crenshaw’s finest designs are located at hard-to-access private clubs, but many of their works thankfully are available to the public, often courtesy of developer Mike Keiser. Trails is one of their best — public or private. The routing works its way over and across heaving dunes and through an enchanting coastal forest, and the fact that you don’t miss the sight of the nearby water for most of the round speaks volumes to its design quality. The 3rd through the 5th is a particularly inspired stretch of inland golf, featuring an exemplary par-5, par-4 and par-3.
3. Bandon Dunes (Bandon) [#, Y, P]
Bandon’s original course is a David McLay Kidd design draped atop craggy headlands above the Pacific. Ocean views stun the senses, along with bluff-top sand dunes sprinkled with Scotch broom and gorse bushes, coastal pines, crashing surf, wind-whipped tall native grasses and stacked sod bunkers. The most memorable seaside tests are the par-4 4th and 5th, the par-3 12th and the drivable par-4 16th, each with eye-popping scenery and enjoyable risk/rewards. The 2020 U.S. Amateur telecast from here was captivating.
4. Old Macdonald (Bandon) [#, Y, P]
The fourth 18-hole course built at Bandon Dunes, this Tom Doak-Jim Urbina collaboration pays tribute to the Golden Age giant Charles Blair Macdonald, who himself was famed for paying tribute through his portfolio of template holes. The Redan, the Short, the Long, the Eden — nods to all of these are on display, along with cap-tips to the Road Hole at St. Andrews and the Double Plateau green that Macdonald first employed at National Golf Links on Long Island. For all its emulation, Old Macdonald leaves a unique impression, with deep, riveted bunkers and firm, fescue turf that make for as faithful an Old World experience as any public-access course in the United States.
5. Sheep Ranch (Bandon) [Y, P]
At a destination known for its minimalist designs, Sheep Ranch is in some ways the most stripped-bare of courses, with just a smattering of trees and without a single sand bunker, on the smallest plot of any of Bandon Dunes’ five 18-hole layouts. In other ways, though, it’s a maxed-out design, claiming more than a mile of coastline, at the windiest point at Bandon, with nine greens on the bluffs and water views from every hole. By any measure, the course represents a masterclass in routing, making the most of modest acreage, moving through all points on the compass, but never going dully back and forth.
6. Waverley (Portland)
7. Silvies Valley Ranch – Craddock/Hankins Reversible (Seneca) [Y, P]
Golfers won’t trek all the way to eastern Oregon for just any old course, which is why Silvies Valley Ranch ownership agreed to architect Dan Hixson’s novel idea for a reversible layout. One day, it’s the Craddock course; the next day it’s the Hankins. Here’s the math: 36 holes, 27 greens and 16 spacious fairways. Serious elevation changes will have you frequently reaching for your rangefinder; you’ll also need to allow for the altitude — the high desert landscape is almost 5,000 feet above sea level. The 18th on the Hankins drops 100 feet from tee to fairway, with mounding that helps provide a bit more roll.
8. Eugene (Eugene)
9. Pronghorn – Fazio (Bend) [Y, P]
Tom Fazio had long since put his stamp on the architecture world when he built the second course at Pronghorn, but this job was a turning point for him and his team’s aesthetic. Whereas Fazio was known for designs that required much earth-moving (see the Alotian Club and Shadow Creek), his work at Pronghorn represented a shift toward a more natural approach, which he would extend into designs such as Gozzer Ranch and Shooting Star. At Pronghorn, waste bunkers blend seamlessly into native areas of manzanita and sagebrush, the bunker edges resemblant of the Cascade Mountains looming in the distance. The par-3 8th was just like any other one-shotter before a dynamite blast during construction unearthed a centuries-old lava tube, a spectacle striking enough for Fazio to design around it. This course should be in conversation with the best desert offerings in the nation.
10. Pumpkin Ridge – Witch Hollow (North Plains)
11. Portland (Portland)
12. Pronghorn – Nicklaus (Bend) [Y, P]
The first of the two courses at Pronghorn Golf Club opened in 2004 and introduced ‘high desert’ to the Oregon golf lexicon, a style that has since grown in popularity with designs like Tetherow and Brasada Canyon. Rock outcroppings dot the course and are used as both risk-reward carries and centerline hazards that need creativity and gusto to successfully navigate, perhaps most memorably at the striking par-5 15th. In such a highly concentrated area for excellent golf, the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course has its own identity and is among the best inland tracks in the Pacific Northwest. The design also has helped bolster Bend’s reputation as one of the preeminent golf destinations on the West Coast.
13. Crosswater (Sunriver) [P]
14. Astoria (Warrenton)
15. Bar Run (Roseburg) [P]
How we rank our courses
For our newly released Top 100 U.S. and Top 100 You Can Play lists — a process that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — each panelist was provided a ballot that consisted of 609 courses. Beside the list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the U.S., they ticked that first column. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on out to 250+ and even a column for “remove.” Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot.
Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it historically has produced results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily complicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.
The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the worldwide golf meccas, each of our 127 handpicked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1,000 courses in 20-plus countries, some over 2,000. Their handicaps range from +5 to 15.
Because the nature of course rating is so intensely subjective, no one opinion carries the day. The only way, then, to build meaningful consensus is to incorporate this diversity of panelists and experiences into one ranking.Need help unriddling the greens at your home course? Pick up a custom Green Book from 8AM Golf affiliate GolfLogix.
