For every great course that made GOLF’s 2020-21 ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S., dozens of more must-plays were left on the outside looking in — including at least a handful in your home state. Some of these designs just missed out on a Top 100 nomination, others finished deeper down the ranking, but all are worthy of your time. To shed light on the best courses in every state, we broke out the full results of our Top 100 Courses polling into state-by-state lists. Here’s a closer look at Nevada.
Nevada golf by the numbers:
Number of courses and U.S. rank: 109 (40)*
Number of golfers per capita rank: 45*
Average public-course greens fees: $$$ out of $$$*
Average daily temp and rank: 49.9 (28)
Annual precipitation and rank: 9.5 (50)
*Source: National Golf Foundation
Best Nevada golf courses (2020/2021)
1. Shadow Creek CC (North Las Vegas) [P]
This high-rollers’ redoubt, 20 minutes from the Strip, is both a work of architecture and a feat of engineering. Bankrolled by the casino magnate Steve Wynn, Tom Fazio busted out the bulldozers and backhoes to dig a giant footprint in the flat Nevada desert, moving a small planet’s worth of dirt and planting more than 20,000 mature pines, so that each hole stands in seclusion from the others. Gurgling streams and waterfalls enhance the sense of opulence, and the risk-rewards make for great match-play entertainment. Nowhere is this truer than on the par-5, par-3, par-5 finish, a rousing stage for settling bets. When the PGA Tour visited in 2020, players compared the course’s pristine conditioning to that of Augusta National’s.
Book a tee time at Shadow Creek.
2. Clear Creek Tahoe (Carson City)
3. Southern Highlands GC (Las Vegas)
4. The Summit Club (Las Vegas)
5. Cascata GC (Boulder City) [P]
SYMBOL GUIDE
1 = GOLF Top 100 Course in the U.S.
2 = GOLF Top 100 Course in the World
3 = GOLF Top 100 Resort
P = Resort/public golf course
Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.
Course spotlight: Southern Highlands GC (Las Vegas, Nev.), ranked 3rd in Nevada. It’s easy to see why touring professionals like Southern Highlands. The course is straightforward and right in front of the player. The drivable 6th and the heroic 9th are quite good but the finishing three are outstanding with the split fairways at 16 and 18 being strategic architecture at its finest. — GOLF Top 100 Course Rater
How we rank America’s best golf courses
For the newly released 2020-21 U.S. list, each panelist was provided a list of 489 courses. Beside that list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the country, they ticked that box. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10 in the U.S., they checked that box, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on.
Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot (we had fewer than a handful of such additions in the U.S. vote).
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 invariably produces results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate things.
For much more on how we rate courses, click or tap here.
Meet our course raters
We empower and hold accountable a group of 97 well-traveled — and well-connected — golfers/aficionados, each capable of expressing their own sense of design excellence at the highest level. The group is seasoned and experienced — we look for raters who know what’s out there, what’s changing and what’s coming down the pike. And from judging posts across four continents, our panelists are positioned to place courses from different regions around the globe into proper context, one of the main reasons GOLF’s Top 100 Courses rankings are the most esteemed in the game.
Other ranking outlets employ thousands of raters. Our less-is-more approach creates a more meaningful and thoughtful list. Think about it: When you plan a golf trip, do you call every golfer you know for their take? No. You contact a handful of people whose opinions you value most.
Meet our full crew of panelists here.
