Here are the 10 best golf courses in each region of the United States

national golf links of america region

Is there any track more fitting to serve among the best golf courses in the United States than the one named "National Golf Links of America"?

William Tyler Smith

GOLF Magazine recently unveiled its 2020/2021 Top 100 Courses in the United States, and to showcase the country’s geographic diversity, GOLF has, for the first time, broken the country into four regions and ranked the top 50 in each. Each region is shockingly diverse — and overflowing with exquisite golf.

American golf courses — much like the land they preside over — are a geographic melting pot. In order to better understand the qualities of our land mass, it’s helpful to to create a further subset of it. In other words, it’s helpful to condense further down into regions.

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For our ranking of GOLF’s Top 100 Courses in the U.S., we found that to be a useful endeavor as well. The essence of course design is that there is no one “proper” way to create a course, it is largely about using the land to the best of its abilities. On the west coast, the best abilities of the land might incorporate a seaside routing over jagged cliffs and bluffs. Such a design would never work in the midwest, where the rolling prairies and blustering winds are overflowing with links-style routings. In other words, what works at Shinnecock might not at Cypress Point, and so on.

Below, you’ll find GOLF’s rankings of the top 10 courses in each region. To check out the remainder of the top 50 courses in the Northeast, Southeast, Heartland and West, click the associated links.

The Top 10 Courses in the U.S. by region

West

1. Cypress Point — Pebble Beach, Calif. (Alister MacKenzie, 1928)

cypress point
Gary Lisbon

2. Pebble Beach — Pebble Beach, Calif. (Jack Neville/Douglas Grant, 1919)

Evan Schiller

3. Los Angeles Country Club (North Course) — Los Angeles, Calif. (George C. Thomas Jr., 1921)

Larry Lambrecht

4. Riviera Country Club — Pacific Palisades, Calif. (George C. Thomas Jr./Billy Bell Sr., 1926)

5. Pacific Dunes — Bandon, Ore. (Tom Doak, 2001)

Getty Images

6. San Francisco Golf Club — San Francisco, Calif. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1918)

7. California Club of San Francisco — South San Francisco, Calif. (A.V. Macan, 1926/Alister MacKenzie, 1928/Kyle Phillips, 2007)

8. Ballyneal — Holyoke, Colo. (Tom Doak, 2006)

Ballyneal in Holyoke, Colorado.
Christian Hafer

9. Bandon Trails — Bandon, Ore. (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, 2005)

10. Bandon Dunes — Bandon, Ore. (David McLay Kidd, 1999)

Bandon Dunes in all its splendor
Christian Hafer

Heartland

1. Sand Hills — Mullen, Neb. (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, 1994)

Larry Lambrecht

2. Chicago — Wheaton, Ill. (C.B. Macdonald, 1895/Seth Raynor, 1923)

3. Crystal Downs — Frankfort, Mich (Alister Mackenzie/Perry Maxwell, 1932)

Larry Lambrecht

4. Prairie Dunes — Hutchinson, Kan. (Perry Maxwell, 1937/Press Maxwell, 1957)

prairie club dunes course
Brian Oar

5. Shoreacres — Lake Bluff, Ill. (Seth Raynor, 1921)

6. Camargo — Cincinnati, Ohio (Seth Raynor, 1926)

Camargo Club
Patrick Koenig

7. Southern Hills — Tulsa, Okla. (Perry Maxwell, 1936)

8. Inverness — Toledo, Ohio (Donald Ross, 1919/Andrew Green, 2017)

Inverness
Courtesy Inverness Club

9. Oakland Hills (South) — Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (Donald Ross, 1917/Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1950)

10. The Golf Club — New Albany, Ohio (Pete Dye, 1967)

The Golf Club, New Albany, Ohio
Patrick Koenig

Southeast

1. Augusta National — Augusta, Ga. (Bobby Jones/Alister Mackenzie, 1933)

Augusta National in the fall
Getty Images

2. Pinehurst (No. 2) — Pinehurst, N.C. (Donald Ross, 1907)

pinehurst no. 2
Joann Dost

3. Seminole — Juno Beach, Fla. (Donald Ross, 1929)

4. Kiawah Island (Ocean Course) — Kiawah Island, S.C. (Pete Dye, 1991)

Getty Images

5. Ohoopee Match Club — Cobbtown, Ga. (Gil Hanse, 2018)

6 Peachtree — Atlanta, Ga. (Robert Trent Jones Sr./Bobby Jones, 1947)

Dave Samson

7. Old Town — Winston-Salem, N.C. (Perry Maxwell, 1939)

8. TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium) ­— Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Pete Dye, 1981)

Getty Images

9. Yeamans Hall — Hanahan, S.C. (Seth Raynor, 1925)

10. Wade Hampton — Cashiers, N.C. (Tom Fazio, 1987)

Wade Hampton
Patrick Koenig

Northeast

1. Pine Valley — Pine Valley, N.J. (George Crump/H.S. Colt, 1918)

The par-4 18th hole at Pine Valley.
Courtesy Pine Valley

2. Shinnecock Hills — Southampton, N.Y. (Howard Toomey/William Flynn, 1931)

shinnecock hills
Joann Dost

3. National Golf Links of America — Southampton, N.Y. (C.B. Madonald, 1911)

national-golf-links-LC-Lambrecht
Larry Lambrecht

4. Oakmont — Oakmont, Pa. (Henry Fownes, 1903)

green at oakmont cc
Getty Images

5. Merion — Ardmore, Pa. (Hugh Wilson, 1912)

merion golf club
Larry Lambrecht

6. Fishers Island — Fishers Island, N.Y. (Seth Raynor, 1926)

fishers-island-lc-lambrecht
Larry Lambrecht

7. Friar’s Head — Baiting Hollow, N.Y. (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, 2003)

friar's head
Channing Benjamin

8. Winged Foot (West) — Mamaroneck, N.Y. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1923)

winged foot west
Christian Hafer

9. The Country Club (Clyde/Squirrel) — Brookline, Mass. (TCC Members/Willie Campbell, 1899)

10. Somerset Hills — Bernardsville, N.J. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1918)

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