GOLF released its latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World (2025-26), and while Pine Valley again took the top spot, there were three newcomers and two returnees to the ranking. Here, we’ll introduce you to them.
The playbook of “find sand, hire great architect, build great course” has been run ad nauseam in the golf industry. Many top courses of the last 25 years have come from it, but a sameness has crept into much of today’s new product. That said, some places still rise above, where all those familiar inputs produce something unmistakably itself, with a powerful sense of place. I’ve seen no better recent example than Tom Doak’s Childress Hall in the Texas Panhandle.
Doak is often at his best when a course’s brilliance isn’t obvious at first, and Childress fits that mold. Pacific Dunes is another Doak that takes a few rounds to fully grasp — its routing, angles, and constant decision-making reveal themselves over time. Childress Hall gives me similar feelings. Several tee shots don’t present the full landing zone, and the preferred lines on the short par-4s and par-5s won’t be obvious after one loop. But that’s the point: the course’s persistent demand for choices is what makes it so compelling. Combined with its striking presentation, that strategic variety elevates Childress from “strong” to World Top 100.
The course sits in a sandy dunescape few would associate with Texas. Its scale and contours recall Ireland or Tasmania more than the Lone Star State. The sandy soil yields firm conditions that let the routing sing and suit the club’s ethos of a single daily setup that still plays wildly differently from hole to hole. On the 325-yard opener alone, in four rounds I’ve hit everything from a 3-iron over the green to a driver-wedge that came up short. In this windy region, the course changes day to day as much as the best links, making multi-day visits a treat.
Doak’s architecture typically honors the land without forcing it into something it’s not. Childress is zany, cunning, and an absolute dream site, and Doak matched it perfectly. It isn’t brutally hard, but it asks every player to hit shots and rewards or punishes accordingly. The greens follow suit: interesting and varied, with plenty of hole locations that demand respect without ever feeling contrived. Given the dramatic land, creating anything other than a player’s course enjoyable for all would have been a disservice.
I’m not always in favor of brand-new builds jumping straight into top-100 lists. But if you can’t honestly say many established courses offer a better playing experience, age shouldn’t matter. Anyone who visits Childress Hall will leave with sand in their shoes, a healthy fear of missing fairways, a greater appreciation for Doak, and agreement with its ranking. A top-100 course needs a true sense of place from the moment you arrive — and by that measure, Childress Hall is as good as anything I’ve seen in a long time.
Henry Shimp is a course rater for GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com.
