You’re nodding and smiling at a holiday party, pretending to be interested in the conversation. You’re looking off in the distance, watching the snow collect on backyard trees while Christmas music fills the air. But deep down, you’re thinking about something far more important — the itinerary for your next big golf trip, complete with some of the world’s best courses.
For the final days of 2023, we’ve been offering up a snapshot of the top 10 stories from each of Golfweek’s most popular sections, including travel, the PGA and LPGA tours, instruction and fitness.
Today, we’re focusing on one of our most important areas — golf course lists and other golf architecture. The tracks featured in these posts are from all around the globe.
Here’s a look at the top 10 golf course lists, as clicked on by you:
The Quicksands Course at Gamble Sands in Washington (Courtesy of Gamble Sands)
What makes a great short course? We posed that question to our huge network of course raters to establish the first Golfweek’s Best ranking of non-traditional courses in the United States.
We included par-3 courses as well as short courses that might have a few par 4s and even par 5s. Some are crazy, over-the-top fun meant to be played barefoot with a cold drink in hand. Others are more traditional in their design. They might be at an elite private club, or they might be a muni down the street. There might be 18 holes, or there might be only six — who cares when you’re having a blast?
Streamsong Red in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Evan Schiller)
What do you really want in a golf trip? If your answer is golf, golf, then more golf in one spot, sometimes followed by a wee bit of extra golf, we have you covered.
Any of the layouts on the list would make for a great getaway. More than three dozen resorts have two courses on the list, always begging for a comparison between layouts over a nice cold drink and dinner after a full day of golf.
The Straits Course at Whistling Straits at Destination Kohler (Courtesy of Destination Kohler)
Want to play the best public-access golf courses in each state?
The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required. (There are a handful of courses on this list that some players might consider to be private, but they do allow non-hosted, non-member guest play in some limited form, normally through a local hotel or similar arrangement.)
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish