Golf can be seriously private, but GOLF’s list of Top 100 Courses You Can Play is not. This year, our expert group of course raters sat down with a simple goal: to build a list of the greatest courses you (yes, you) can tee it up at in a moment’s notice. The end result is list as varied as the courses it encompasses, from Bandon Dunes to Bethpage Black.
But why keep the memories to just one of our 100 greatest tracks? Whether it’s by way of a classic point-A-to-B-to-C road trip, a stay at an iconic resort (with or without side trips) or a stopover in the concrete jungle, knocking three or more Top 100 Courses You Can Play off your wish list is doable in one fell swing. Start packing.
CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE 2021-22 TOP 100 COURSES YOU CAN PLAY RANKING
Road Trip The Canadian Rockies
Courses in GOLF’s Top 100: Banff Springs (#17; Banff, Alberta), Jasper Park Lodge (#24; Jasper, Alberta), Blackhawk (#94; Spruce Grove, Alberta)
Drive: Blackhawk, just south of Edmonton, is about four hours from Banff Springs, west of Calgary; Jasper Park is another 3.5 hours northwest of Banff Springs.
Dine: Enjoy a beer and schnitzel on the patio of the Bavarian lodge that houses Waldhaus Restaurant, right next to Banff ’s 15th tee box. You can watch golfers hit drives across the Spray River to the fairway 100 feet below.
Diversion: With all manner of hiking trails from right outside the Fairmont hotel, Banff National Park is incomparable—as is the journey between Banff and Jasper on the Columbia Ice Fields Highway, one of the world’s most spectacular drives thanks to its many glacier lakes and plentiful wildlife. Aquatic types should raft the Bow River in Banff and kayak or canoe around Beauvert Lake in Jasper.
Detour: Great views, great people, great food and darn good golf at a very reasonable price can be found at Canmore Golf & Country Club, in the eponymous town adjacent to Banff.
Road Trip to Cabot Resort
Courses in GOLF’s Top 100: Cabot Cliffs (#4), Cabot Links (#12), Cape Breton Highland Links (#28; Ingonish Beach, Nova Scotia)
Drive: The lodging at Cabot will be your home base, but the trek to Highland Links is a doable 2:15, much of it on the Cabot Trail, perhaps Canada’s closest thing to driving along Big Sur.
Dine: The food is as good as the traditional folk music at The Red Shoe Pub in Mabou, a half hour from Cabot.
Diversion: Nova Scotia translates to “New Scotland,” making the Glenora Distillery, 15 minutes from Cabot, quite apropos. The fascinating Louisbourg, two hours east of Cabot, is Canada’s Colonial Williamsburg.
Detour: It’s about an hour out of the way to or from the Halifax airport, but nine-hole Parrsboro Golf Club isn’t just adorable (with an apple tree situated on the final green), it overlooks the amazing Bay of Fundy, with its famously enormous tidal range.
