Old to New: Sorting our Top 100 Courses list by year built

When it comes to celebrating the world’s best courses, it’s common to think that the oldest and most historically established courses are recognized more frequently, but a deep dive into GOLF’s latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World reveals that the list is actually pretty evenly split. There are an impressive 45 courses on the list that were built in the last quarter-century, including one, the Upper Course at Childress Hall in Texas, that made its debut this year.

The Old Course at St. Andrews is, of course, the oldest ranked course of them all, dating back 625 years. The next batch of oldest courses predictably comes from the UK and Ireland, with opening dates in the mid- to late-1800s. The oldest U.S. course on the list is venerable Chicago, which opened in 1895.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most prolific decades for courses on this year’s ranking are the 1920s and the 1930s — the game’s golden age of architecture, when Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, and A.W. Tillinghast delivered classic tracks like Seminole (Ross); Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne (MacKenzie) and Winged Foot and Baltusrol (Tillinghast). A grand total of 36 courses on the list hail from these two decades.

Take in the extensive history of our Top 100 World list below, by browsing the course names sorted from oldest to newest. To view the original Top 100 Courses in the World list in its entirety, click here.

GOLF’s Top 100 list by year built, oldest to newest

1. St. Andrews (Old Course) — St. Andrews, Scotland — 1400 (Rank 3)

2. Carnoustie (Championship) — Carnoustie, Scotland — 1842 (Rank 39)

3. Prestwick — Prestwick, Scotland — 1851 (Rank 58)

4. Royal Liverpool — Hoylake, England — 1869 (Rank 95)

5. Machrihanish (Championship) — Campbeltown, Scotland — 1879 (Rank 92)

6. Royal Dornoch — Dornoch, Scotland — 1886 (Rank 12)

7. Royal Troon (Old) — Troon, Scotland — 1887 (Rank 53)

8. Royal County Down — Newcastle, Northern Ireland — 1889 (Rank 4)

9. Muirfield — Gullane, Scotland — 1891 (Rank 11)

10. Chicago — Wheaton, IL — 1895 (Rank 17)

11. North Berwick (West) — North Berwick, Scotland — 1895 (Rank 25)

12. Rye (Old) — Rye, England — 1895 (Rank 90)

13. Portmarnock (Old) — Dublin, Ireland — 1896 (Rank 54)

14. Royal Lytham & St. Annes — Lytham St Annes, England — 1897 (Rank 68)

15. Myopia Hunt Club — South Hamilton, MA — 1898 (Rank 86)

16. The Country Club (Clyde/Squirrel) — Brookline, MA — 1899 (Rank 37)

17. Garden City — Garden City, NY — 1899 (Rank 52)

18. Oakmont — Oakmont, PA — 1903 (Rank 9)

19. Pinehurst No. 2 — Pinehurst, NC — 1907 (Rank 20)

20. Swinley Forest — South Ascot, England — 1910 (Rank 50)

21. National Golf Links of America — Southampton, NY — 1911 (Rank 6)

22. Merion (East) — Ardmore, PA — 1912 (Rank 13)

23. St. George’s Hill (A & B) — Weybridge, England — 1913 (Rank 57)

24. Sleepy Hollow — Briarcliff Manor, NY — 1913 (Rank 77)

25. Oakland Hills (South) — Bloomfield Hills, MI — 1917 (Rank 36)

26. Pine Valley — Pine Valley, NJ — 1918 (Rank 1)

27. San Francisco — San Francisco, CA — 1918 (Rank 40)

28. Somerset Hills — Bernardsville, NJ — 1918 (Rank 51)

29. Pebble Beach — Pebble Beach, CA — 1919 (Rank 15)

30. Inverness — Toledo, OH — 1919 (Rank 67)

31. Shoreacres — Lake Bluff, IL — 1921 (Rank 47)

32. Oak Hill (East) — Rochester, NY — 1921 (Rank 60)

33. Sunningdale (Old) — Sunningdale, England — 1922 (Rank 22)

34. Royal St. George’s — Sandwich, England — 1922 (Rank 30)

35. Maidstone — East Hampton, NY — 1922 (Rank 49)

36. Sunningdale (New) — Sunningdale, England — 1922 (Rank 55)

37. Baltusrol (Lower) — Springfield, NJ — 1922 (Rank 70)

38. Winged Foot (West) — Mamaroneck, NY — 1923 (Rank 33)

39. Winged Foot (East) — Mamaroneck, NY — 1923 (Rank 91)

40. Fishers Island — Fishers Island, NY — 1926 (Rank 16)

41. California Golf Club of San Francisco — South San Francisco, CA — 1926 (Rank 45)

42. Camargo — Cincinnati, OH — 1926 (Rank 59)

43. Cruden Bay — Cruden Bay, Scotland — 1926 (Rank 61)

44. Woodhall Spa (Hotchkin) — Woodhall Spa, England — 1926 (Rank 74)

45. Los Angeles (North) — Los Angeles, CA — 1927 (Rank 21)

46. Riviera — Pacific Palisades, CA — 1927 (Rank 26)

47. Lahinch (Old) — Lahinch, Ireland — 1927 (Rank 34)

48. Morfontaine — Morfontaine, France — 1927 (Rank 38)

49. Victoria — Cheltenham, Australia — 1927 (Rank 93)

50. Cypress Point — Pebble Beach, CA — 1928 (Rank 2)

51. Kingston Heath — Cheltenham, Australia — 1928 (Rank 24)

52. New South Wales — La Perouse, Australia — 1928 (Rank 46)

53. Royal Portrush (Dunluce) — Portrush, Northern Ireland — 1929 (Rank 14)

54. Seminole — Juno Beach, FL — 1929 (Rank 32)

55. Shinnecock Hills — Southampton, NY — 1931 (Rank 5)

56. Royal Melbourne (West) — Black Rock, Australia — 1931 (Rank 7)

57. Hirono — Miki-Chi, Japan — 1932 (Rank 28)

58. Crystal Downs — Frankfort, MI — 1932 (Rank 31)

59. Royal Birkdale — Southport, England — 1932 (Rank 42)

60. Royal Melbourne (East) — Black Rock, Australia — 1932 (Rank 82)

61. Utrecht de Pan — Bosch en Duin, Netherlands — 1932 (Rank 89)

62. Augusta National — Augusta, GA — 1933 (Rank 8)

63. Bethpage (Black) — Farmingdale, NY — 1935 (Rank 56)

64. Ballybunion (Old) — Ballybunion, Ireland — 1936 (Rank 29)

65. Southern Hills — Tulsa, OK — 1936 (Rank 43)

66. Kawana (Fuji) — Ito-shi, Japan — 1936 (Rank 62)

67. Prairie Dunes — Hutchinson, KS — 1937 (Rank 27)

68. Royal Hague — Wassenaar, Netherlands — 1938 (Rank 81)

69. Old Town — Winston-Salem, NC — 1939 (Rank 80)

70. Trump Turnberry (Ailsa) — Turnberry, Scotland — 1946 (Rank 18)

71. Peachtree — Atlanta, GA — 1947 (Rank 75)

72. Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog) — La Romana, DR — 1971 (Rank 83)

73. Kiawah Island (Ocean) — Kiawah Island, SC — 1991 (Rank 71)

74. Sand Hills — Mullen, NE — 1995 (Rank 10)

75. Bandon Dunes — Bandon, OR — 1999 (Rank 85)

76. Kingsbarns — Kingsbarns, Scotland — 1999 (Rank 94)

77. Pacific Dunes — Bandon, OR — 2001 (Rank 35)

78. Nine Bridges — Jeju-do, South Korea — 2001 (Rank 87)

79. Friar’s Head — Riverhead, NY — 2003 (Rank 23)

80. Barnbougle Dunes — Bridport, Australia — 2004 (Rank 41)

81. Cape Kidnappers — Te Awanga, New Zealand — 2004 (Rank 65)

82. Bandon Trails — Bandon, OR — 2005 (Rank 76)

83. Ballyneal — Holyoke, CO — 2006 (Rank 63)

84. Rock Creek Cattle Company — Deer Lodge, MT — 2008 (Rank 88)

85. Cabot Highlands (Castle Stuart) — Inverness, Scotland — 2009 (Rank 97)

86. Shanqin Bay — Hainan, China — 2012 (Rank 64)

87. Cabot Cape Breton (Cabot Links) — Inverness, Canada — 2012 (Rank 96)

88. Tara Iti — Te Arai, New Zealand — 2015 (Rank 19)

89. Lofoten Links — Gimsøysand, Norway — 2015 (Rank 66)

90. Cape Wickham — Wickham, Australia — 2015 (Rank 100)

91. Cabot Cape Breton (Cabot Cliffs) — Inverness, Canada — 2016 (Rank 78)

92. Ardfin — Isle of Jura, UK — 2017 (Rank 72)

93. Ohoopee Match Club — Cobbtown, GA — 2018 (Rank 99)

94. St. Patrick’s Links — Rosapenna, Ireland — 2021 (Rank 44)

95. CapRock Ranch — Valentine, NE — 2021 (Rank 84)

96. Te Arai (South) — Te Arai, New Zealand — 2022 (Rank 79)

97. Sand Valley (The Lido) — Rome, WI — 2023 (Rank 48)

98. Cabot Saint Lucia (Point Hardy Golf Club) — Gros Islet, St. Lucia — 2023 (Rank 69)

99. Te Arai (North) — Tomarata, New Zealand — 2023 (Rank 98)

100. Childress Hall (Upper) — Childress, TX — 2025 (Rank 73)

LINKS: Full methodology: How we rate courses | 2025-26 World list sorted by country | 2025-26 World list courses you can play

To hear our ratings experts break down our latest rankings, check out our travel podcast Destination GOLF. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: APPLE | SPOTIFY | IHEART | AMAZON