The 50 best golf courses in the Northeast: Ranking the region’s best designs

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. To introduce each region, we called upon a star architect to help.

The Appeal of Golf in the Northeast | By Gil Hanse

The Northeast is where golf took root in this country and where so many of its historic moments took place: Bobby Jones’ grand slam, Francis Ouimet’s heroics in Brookline, Hogan’s 1-iron at Merion, the Massacre at Winged Foot. Are we Northeast golfers a touch stuffy, maybe a bit arrogant? Perhaps! But only because we have the greatest collection of courses in the country.

It started with the glaciers, which left behind heaving, golf-ready ground, rock outcroppings and sand — beautiful sand. The result, all these centuries later, is a rich and diverse collection of the finest examples of golf course architecture anywhere, from the parkland courses around New York, to the scruffy windblown coastal courses of Long Island, to the New England coast, to the pine barrens of New Jersey, to the farm fields of Pennsylvania 

When I close my eyes and think of golf in the Northeast, it is a crisp fall day, the leaves are changing and native grasses blowing in the wind. It is the idyllic American golfing landscape. 

The top 50 golf courses in the Northeast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Garden City — Garden City, N.Y. (Devereaux Emmet, 1899/Walter Travis, 1906)

12. Maidstone — East Hampton, N.Y. (John Park/Willie Park Jr., 1922)

13. Bethpage Park (Black) — Farmingdale, N.Y. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1935)

14. Sleepy Hollow — Scarborough, N.Y. (C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor, 1913/A.W. Tillinghast, 1929/Gil Hanse, 2017)

15. Quaker Ridge — Scarsdale, N.Y. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1926)

16. Oak Hill (East) — Pittsford, N.Y. (Donald Ross, 1921/Andrew Green, 2020)

17. Myopia Hunt — So. Hamilton, Mass. (H.C. Leeds, 1898)

18. Winged Foot (East) — Mamaroneck, N.Y. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1923)

19. Old Sandwich — Plymouth, Mass. (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, 2004)

20. Eastward Ho! — Chatham, Mass. (Herbert Fowler, 1922)

21. Piping Rock — Locust Valley, N.Y. (C.B. Macdonald, 1911)

22. Plainfield — Plainfield, N.J. (Donald Ross, 1916)

23. Kittansett — Marion, Mass. (William Flynn/Fred Hood, 1922)

24. Pikewood National — Morgantown, W. Va. (J. Robert Gwynne/John Raese, 2009)

25. The Creek — Locust Valley, N.Y. (C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor, 1923)

26. Essex — Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. (Donald Ross, 1917)

27. Baltusrol (Lower) — Springfield, N.J. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1922)

28. Ridgewood (W/E) — Paramus, N.J. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1929)

29. Baltimore (Five Farms East) — Baltimore, Md. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1926)

30. Hollywood — Deal, N.J. (Walter Travis, 1915)

31. Newport — Newport, R.I. (William F. Davis, 1899/A.W. Tillinghast, 1924)

32. Glens Falls — Queensbury, N.Y. (Donald Ross, 1920)

33. Aronimink — Newton Square, Penn. (Donald Ross, 1928)

34. Mountain Ridge — West Caldwell, N.J. (Donald Ross, 1929)

35. Sebonack — Southampton, N.Y. (Jack Nicklaus/Tom Doak, 2006)

36. Baltusrol (Upper) — Springfield, N.J. (A.W. Tillinghast, 1922)

37. Philadelphia Cricket (Wissahickon) — Flourtown, Pa.

38. Fox Chapel — Pittsburgh, Pa.

39. Lancaster — Lancaster, Pa.

40. Whippoorwill — Armonk, N.Y.

41. Boston — Hingham, Mass.

42. St. George’s — East Setauket, N.Y.

43. Wannamoisett — Rumford, R.I.

44. Atlantic — Bridgehampton, N.Y.

45. Wykagyl — New Rochelle, N.Y.

46. Sankaty Head — Nantucket, Mass.

47. Pete Dye — Bridgeport, W. Va.

48. Congressional (Blue) — Bethesda, Md.

49. CC of Fairfield — Fairfield, Conn.

50. Huntingdon Valley — Huntingdon Valley, Pa.