Ah yes, it’s Top 100 season yet again.
On Thursday, GOLF released its latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World — a yearslong effort at ranking the golf world’s greatest venues featuring insights from our panel of dozens of course rating experts. We believe our latest list is the best, deepest look yet into the world of course design, with each of the top 100 selections earning its spot by intrigue, strategy, enjoyability and, of course, beauty.
But if you’re like me, this list arrives with a pang of melancholy. While some of the world’s best courses are undoubtedly worth visiting, very many of them are so closed-off, so exclusive, so private, they remain a pipedream even for a lifelong golf-lover like myself.
It is for this reason that I spent most of my teenage years on Long Island “accidentally” driving onto the nicest private clubs near my home, craning my neck to peer past the clubhouse and out onto the golf courses inside the fence line. These efforts yielded a few notable success stories, but far more failures.
The truth — and the bad news — is that the Top 100 list features many courses you’d be lucky to ever see: Pine Valley, Shinnecock, National, Cypress. But the good news is that it features equally as many courses that anyone can go out to play, so long as you have the persistence to find a tee time.
By our count, you can play a full half of the courses on GOLF’s Top 100 World list, and can earn access to a handful more of the international courses on our list by reaching out with a recommendation from a club back home in the United States.
In short, the state of golf has never been more accessible nor more enjoyable than it is right now. Below is the list of all 50 courses in our Top 100 in the World list that you can play, and their rank on our list. Time to get moving!
GOLF Top 100 Courses in the World you can play
3. St. Andrews (Old)
6. Royal County Down
10. Royal Dornoch
14. Pebble Beach
16. Royal Portrush
18. Turnberry (Ailsa)
21. Pinehurst No. 2
22. Kingston Heath
24. Ballybunion (Old)
25. Sunningdale (Old)
30. North Berwick (West)
32. Pacific Dunes
33. Royal St. George’s
36. Barnbougle (Dunes)
37. Lahinch (Old)
40. Carnoustie (Championship)
42. Royal Birkdale
49. St. Patrick’s Links
52. Cabot Cliffs
53. Kawana (Fuji)
54. Sunningdale (New)
55. Cape Kidnappers
56. Cruden Bay
58. Woodhall Spa (Hotchkin)
59. Portmarnock
60. Bethpage (Black)
62. Kiawah Island (Ocean)
63. Prestwick
64. New South Wales
65. Ardfin
66. Royal Troon (Old)
68. The Lido
71. St. George’s Hill
74. Royal Lytham & St. Annes
75. Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog)
76. Cabot St. Lucia
78. Haagsche (Royal Hague)
79. Cabot Links
83. Les Bordes
85. Te Arai (South)
86. Kingsbarns
88. Lofoten Links
89. Castle Stuart
90. Bandon Trails
91. Whistling Straits (Straits)
94. Bandon Dunes
96. Victoria
97. Macrihanish
