50 bucket-list golf courses that just missed our latest World Top 100 list

Exciting news, rankings lovers: We’re just days away from publishing GOLF’s 2025-26 list of the Top 100 Courses in the World.

To whet your appetite, we thought we’d do something different this time around: release, in advance, the 50 courses that just missed out on making the cut. That is, Nos. 101-150 in the world, according to our expert panel of raters.

Browse GOLF’s course rankings: Top 100 in the World | Top 100 in the U.S. | Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | America’s Best Courses for $100 or Less | Top 100 in the U.K. and Ireland | Top 100 in Asia-Pacific | Top 100 Short Courses in the World

Make no mistake: every one of the courses below still is world-class and deserving of a spot on your bucket list. But our World Top 100 is, by design, an exclusive club. There are countless contenders, but only so many spots. The ballot can be cruel; some courses miss out by the slimmest of margins, mere decimal points of difference that leave them just outside the gate. Because these designs are every bit as worthy of our (and your) attention, here’s a look at the Next 50: the courses that finished 101–150 in this year’s vote.

Listen to Destination Golf hosts Simon Holt and Josh Sens break down the “Next 50” courses here:

GOLF’s World Ranking 2026-27: Nos. 101-125

101. The Golf Club
New Albany, OH
Pete Dye, 1967

One of Pete Dye’s early masterworks, this rural retreat in suburban Columbus is where Jack Nicklaus first learned about design as an unpaid consultant. With bunkers and water hazards framed by railroad ties and tall native grasses scattered throughout, the thoroughly original design left no doubt that Dye was a generational talent in the works. Golf simply hadn’t seen holes like the 3rd and 13th. Golf architecture was about to head in a more exciting direction, one that prized variety as well as the use of grasses for texture and contrast. Even after all these years, many contend that The Golf Club remains Dye’s finest inland design. 

102. Royal Porthcawl
Rest Bay, Wales
Ramsay Hunter, 1897; Harry Colt, 1913

One of the game’s most rousing opening three-hole sequences is found here, with three par-4s that meander up the coastline of the Bristol Channel. By the time you reach the 4th tee, you are already smitten with the course but the quality of the golf never lets up even as you move away from the shoreline. The par-3s are all excellent and several of the other holes feature cross-hazards that put an emphasis on accurate driving. The final hole tumbles back to near where you started with a green flush against the shore. It is a worthy — and scenic — finish to a course that had the Royal title conferred in 1909. Porthcawl has become a regular host site for the Senior Open Championship and the wild weather on the final day of play in 2023 was must-watch television.

103. TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium)
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Pete Dye, 1981

Some sniff at the artificiality of a course being hewn from a swamp, yet that’s also what makes the Stadium Course stand out. Home of the Players Championship since 1982, the design has evolved into a handsome battleground (however you feel about the towering clubhouse), highlighting Pete Dye’s talent for envisioning something from nothing. The short par-4 4th, reachable par-5 11th and the long par-4 14th rank among Dye’s all-time best. For shotmaking options and memorable individual holes that require a blend of power and finesse, the Stadium Course has few peers.

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104. Royal Cinque Ports
Deal, England
Henry Hunter/James Braid, 1919; Guy Campbell/Henry Cotton, 1946

A former Open venue often referred to as Deal, Cinque Ports is on the English Channel, a few miles south of Royal St. George’s. But the properties couldn’t be more different. St. George’s is the bigger, more sprawling of the courses, while Cinque Ports was built on a thinner ribbon of land. While it doesn’t have the vastness of St. George’s, Cinque Ports has micro-contours galore that will delight links golf aficionados. The humpy-bumpy fairways are rivaled by the superlative collection of greens, from the punchbowl 3rd, to the 12th set between two ridges, to the plateau designs at 6 and 16. Bernard Darwin famously deemed the dip before the 16th green to be “the valley of inglorious security.” To his point, you might initially be happy to see your ball at the base of the green in two, but trying to stick the elevated green from a tight lie is no small task.

105. Whistling Straits (Straits)
Sheboygan, WI
Pete Dye, 1998

Home of the 2004, ’10 and ’15 PGA Championships, this 1998 Pete Dye design on Lake Michigan was once a poker-table-flat military training base in World War II. Eventually it became a site for illegal dumping of toxic waste. Dye and owner Herb Kohler engineered a mind-boggling cleanup, moving 3 million cubic yards of dirt, trucking in 7,000 loads of sand to create the hills and bunkers and relocating the bluffs back off the shore. Kohler told Dye “I want the course to look like it’s in Ireland.” Mission accomplished. The 2021 Ryder Cup played here highlighted what a great match-play course it is, too, with its plethora of ½-par holes. Its set of par-3s is virtually unmatched and is complemented by a slew of other standout holes that come in all shapes and sizes, including the long par-4 4th, the short par-4 10th with its central hazard, and the par-5 11th, which rivals any par-5 that Dye built over his six-decade career.

106. Eastward Ho!
Chatham, MA
Herbert Fowler, 1922

Herbert Fowler will always be associated with his beloved first design, Walton Heath, outside of London, where he had to lend the open heath its golfing qualities as the site featured modest topography. What Fowler was presented with here on Cape Cod was the exact opposite: a glacial moraine with tumbling landforms that converge in the most random manners. What a challenge to route but his figure-8 routing with the clubhouse in the middle seized on the opportunity to perfection. The design’s one-shotters are among the finest sets in the Northeast, and some of its perched greens, like the 6th, are exasperating in the best way, especially when the coastal breeze picks up.

107. Baltusrol (Upper)
Springfield, NJ
A.W. Tillinghast, 1922; Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, 2025

Despite occupying more memorable terrain than its famous sibling, the Lower, Baltusrol’s Upper Course has long been the quieter of the club’s two A.W. Tillinghast designs. Its profile, though, has risen following a thoughtful 2025 restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, who widened fairways, expanded greens to reclaim lost hole locations, and removed trees to let the land breathe. Less altered over time than the Lower (which Hanse and Wagner restored in 2021), the Upper presented a more faithful example of Tillinghast’s intent — a course whose tussled topography prioritized precision and lent itself to inventive shot-making. Hanse and Wagner have brought its subtleties to the fore, while sharpening such features as a Redan green and a principal’s nose bunker and reviving an original alternate green on the par-3 14th.

108. Muirfield Village
Dublin, Ohio
Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead, 1974

Conceived by Jack Nicklaus in 1966 to be his hometown equivalent of Bobby Jones’ Augusta National, this 1974 collaboration with Desmond Muirhead was an instant smash, both for its strategic design and flawless conditioning. Equally impressive was how Nicklaus seamlessly integrated spectator areas into the closing holes, using hillsides and amphitheater-style mounding to provide patrons with clear views of the action. Hard to imagine that the professionals now try to drive the sliver of green at 14, but that’s how much the game has changed — and yet the hole is still no easy par. That’s great architecture. Work over 2020 saw the unlikely happen: One of the best sets of par-5s on the list got even better.

109. Yeamans Hall
Hanahan, SC
Seth Raynor, 1925

Marrying classic Seth Raynor design with coastal South Carolina topography, Yeamans presents a charming tour of redan, biarritz and road holes woven through marshland and magnificent live oaks. A two decade-long renovation based on Raynor’s original property maps — discovered in the clubhouse attic — has returned this Golden Age masterpiece to its original brilliance. Jim Urbina oversaw much of the work that has seen the greens blown back out to their original size and every consequential bunker restored, even the most frustrating ones, like those found in the 4th fairway. The greenside bunkers aren’t so much deep as the green pads are tall, and they create nervy moments such as at the Cape 10th hole, where missing the green left or right leaves a taxing recovery shot, even though the hole is played over flat land. Though the overall vibe at Yeamans is tranquility, a green pad like the one built up at the Knoll 14th is as pugnacious as it gets. Hard to fathom tackling the course with hickory clubs as they did back in the day!

110. Pasatiempo
Santa Cruz, CA
Alister MacKenzie, 1929; Jim Urbina, 2024

Alister MacKenzie called Pasatiempo the finest course he ever built. Unlike Cypress Point, just an hour south, Pasatiempo sits slightly inland, but its high points offer views of the Pacific and the entire routing, with its giant paw-print bunkers and large, undulating greens, make plain the influence that this course had on MacKenzie’s later work at Augusta National. Charms and challenges abound, from the long, uphill par-3 3rd to the par-4 16th, a humpbacked dogleg with a second shot that plays over a chasm to a wild and winning three-tiered green. Some nitpickers grouse that the course is pinched by homes. But one of those houses belonged to MacKenzie himself, who chose to reside beside the par-5 6th. Jim Urbina oversaw a two-year restoration project that included restoring all 18 greens and bunkers and removing trees to return the course closer to its original look.

111. Toronto GC
Mississauga, Canada
Harry Colt, 1912

Harry Colt did not spend much time in North America; in fact, many courses that are labeled Colt & Alison are exclusively the work of Hugh Alison. Yet, when the Maestro was here, he made his time count, starting right at the top with Pine Valley. One pure Colt design that has gained our panel’s attention in recent years is Toronto Golf Club. It benefited from a restoration by Martin Hawtree in 2010, and the club and its greenkeeper, Paul Scenna, also have done a fabulous job of opening up sightlines and exposing the neat landforms and ravines that zig and zag through the site. Several panelists now feel this is in Colt’s top tier of work — and there is no higher praise than that.  

112. Barnbougle (Lost Farm)
Bridport, Australia
Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, 2010

Unlike its sister course Barnbougle Dunes where the holes run up and down the coast within a narrow band of dunes, the routing here defies description, with holes to-ing and fro-ing in every direction, culminating with the par-5 12th set 1,300 yards from the coastline. With the wind whipping off the Bass Strait, you need to make constant allowances for how the wind impacts each hole. The gorgeous, tiny par-3 4th kicks off the course’s finest four-hole stretch, but the pièce de résistance is Coore’s work in the flats, namely the 2nd and 12th greens and the outrageously clever par-4 16th. The course storms home from there with a long par-3 to a green benched high in the dunes and a long two-shotter that tumbles over land to an open green that is deeper than it is wide. 

113. Quaker Ridge
Scarsdale, NY
A.W. Tillinghast, 1926

This discrete club across the street from Winged Foot has long attracted admirers, including Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye. Its outstanding cluster of gently rolling par-4s, notably the 6th, 7th and 11th holes, provided a terrific canvas for the likes of Justin Rose and Jason Gore in the 1997 Walker Cup. Dating to 1916, the course was made over by A.W. Tillinghast in 1926, and Gil Hanse’s recent restoration has the course at its peak. Tillinghast was a big fan of central features that dictate play. That approach manifests itself at Quaker with a large mound in the middle of the 8th fairway and in the cross hazards at the long, uphill par-5 14th, both great holes. The par-3 9th is a sleeper. It is one of the hidden gem one-shotters in the Northeast, though it may take a few rounds to figure out why.

114. St. George’s G&CC
Etobicoke, Canada
Stanley Thompson, 1929

Few architects are as closely tied to one country as Stanley Thompson is to Canada. From Capilano in the west to Cape Breton Highlands in the east and Banff and Jasper Park in Alberta, Thompson redefined what constituted great golf in his homeland. Without doubt, St. George’s is his parkland masterpiece, featuring holes that he weaved through and over natural valleys and past streams. The design is a delightful members course while still being challenging enough to host multiple Canadian Opens. Tom Doak and Ian Andrew spearheaded a restoration that was completed in 2015 and revitalized Thompson’s unique bunker schemes and configurations.

115. Tokyo GC
Sayama City, Japan
Komyo Ohtani, 1940; Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner, 2018

The embodiment of elegance, the existing course is in the club’s third location, and even though C.H. Alison designed the second iteration, today’s layout offers even better golf. Koymo Ohtani, who closely studied and worked with Alison, deserves primary credit. He routed the current course — anchored by a world-class collection of par-5s — and later a second green was added to each hole, with the goal of having one green with a warm weather grass and another with a cool weather variety. That made sense in that era but improvements in agronomy have rendered that approach moot. Still, the two-green system flourishes thanks to work done several years ago by Gil Hanse and Neil Cameron. At the par-3 4th, you play from the upper-right tee to the lower-left green, or you play from the lower-left tee to the upper-right green. Elsewhere, at the 6th, you can bounce a ball onto the open lower-left green that is at grade with the fairway with a creek hugging the green’s left side. But the upper-right plateau green with deep guarding bunkers poses an entirely different ask. Tokyo GC occupies an expansive piece of property, which is precisely what is required to pull off such an elaborate two-green system. First-timer visitors to Tokyo GC will leave yearning for more two-green courses, though this design will always be in a class by itself. 

116. Valley Club of Montecito
Montecito, CA
Alister MacKenzie/Robert Hunter, 1929

Designed by Alister MacKenzie with Robert Hunter overlooking construction, The Valley Club oozes charm. The holes don’t bully players and length isn’t the issue, but approaching these greens from the optimal side of the fairway is paramount, given the firmness of the playing surfaces that the club routinely achieves. Look no further than the first two greens and how they are angled to reward play from the riskier, left side of the fairway. The only thing missing is yardage markers, but that’s only because the club doesn’t believe in them. Refreshing to find a place where the game is played by feel, not analytics. 

117. The Creek Club
Locust Valley, NY
C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor, 1923; Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner, 2017

An epic combination of parkland and seaside golf, this McDonald-Raynor classic serves up a greatest-hits compilation of the duo’s favorite design elements. After a solid but sedate tree-lined opening five holes, the visuals explode at the spectacular 6th, which plays into a famous reverse Redan green. From there, players hit down to the Long Island Sound. Holes 10 through 14 wind through sand and water, beginning at the 11th with its massive — and unforgettable — island Biarritz green. 

118. Pikewood National
Morgantown, WV
J. Robert Gwynne/John Raese, 2009

Built by two mining executives with no previous design experience, Pikewood National is pure golf for avid players. This walking-only course covers seven-plus miles with major elevation changes, and the hike is more than worth the effort to experience one of the game’s most scenic and best conditioned layouts. Located on top of a mesa, 30-mile views are routinely afforded across three different states. Pikewood’s collection of one-shot holes is second to none, including the 5th, which is backed by a natural waterfall, and the 12th, with its expertly contoured modified Redan green. The three-shot holes are notable, too, led by the horseshoe 8th, which plays around a gaping, rocky depression. The relative paucity of bunkers adds to the design’s distinctiveness. How these first-time architects built so many world-class greens is worthy of conversation. Best of the bunch might be the bunkerless 11th green complex with a wicked surface that slopes from front to back.

119. St. Enodoc (Church)
Wadebridge, England
James Braid, 1907

James Braid is famous for many reasons, including for both his skill as a golfer and course designer. Picking a favorite Baird design is tough duty — would you go with the Kings Course at Gleneagles; or Brora, just north of Dornoch; or hidden gem Fraserburgh, north of Cruden Bay or…here? Our panel says here, where Baird adroitly worked with some of the wildest terrain in his career. The course begins with a visually appealing, though gentle, par-5 before throwing haymakers with several long, brutish par-4s, like the 2nd, 3rd, the take-no-prisoners 10th and its demanding closer. For playing angles, few holes rival the short dogleg-left 4th with out-of-bounds hard down the right. But this course will always be best known for one of the game’s deepest and fiercest hazards, the Himalaya bunker 90 yards short of the 6th green. Though St. Enodoc measures less than 6,600 yards, its tight par of 69 still provides a stiff test.  

120. Ellerston
Hunter Valley, Australia
Greg Norman/Bob Harrison, 2001

Greg Norman has long professed his admiration for Alister MacKenzie. At ultra-exclusive Ellerston, he and design partner Bob Harrison adapted MacKenzie strategies and bunker stylings on a rugged landscape, resulting in one of the strongest, most option-laden tests in the Southern Hemisphere. Forced carries over ravines, greens set along ridge tops and the influence of Pages Creek add to the challenge. Few golfers can access the course, which is a shame given there is so much to admire architecturally. 

121. Medinah No. 3
Medinah, IL
Tom Bendelow, 1928; Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead, 2024

One of the most recognizable courses in American golf returns to our Top 100 rank after an 8-year absence. The driving force was a homerun restoration by the Australian design firm of Ogilvy Cocking and Mead. Originally completed in 1932, No. 3 was arguably Tom Bendelow’s boldest and finest design, but playing host to major events took a toll as the narrow, heavily treelined course strayed far from its Golden Age roots. OCM removed poorly positioned trees and reverted to Bendelow’s bold bunkering as a unifying theme. The rolling property is once again both striking and spacious, and it’s laced with great holes throughout. The use of a split rail fence (which demarks out of bounds) at holes 5-7 provides excellent strategic tension, and holes 15 and 16 (the Cape 16th is one of five new holes created by OCM) are a blockbuster one-two punch.

122. Ganton
North Yorkshire, England
Tom Chisholm/Harry Colt/Alister MacKenzie, 1891

The term “inland links” is an oxymoron, but it’s frequently—and understandably—applied to this gently lilting course, which lies just nine miles from the coast on a rippled site that was once a North Sea inlet. Harry Vardon became the head pro here in 1896, the same year he captured the Open Championship, bringing Ganton a measure of renown. Another headline moment came in 1949, when the club hosted the Ryder Cup. Among architecture buffs, though, Ganton is perhaps most famous for its sandy hazards—an elaborate scheme of 100-plus bunkers, many devilishly placed, some so deep and sheer-faced they have wooden stairs for golfers to clamber in and out.

123. Les Bordes (New)
Les Bordes, France
Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner, 2021

Gil Hanse and team cut formidable bunkers into the sandy environs and the art is having your tee balls and approach shots skirt past them. Central hazards abound and it takes multiple rounds to sort through the myriad strategic questions. Most of the greens are open in front and many are at grade with their surrounds, presenting countless run-up shot opportunities that dovetail with the bouncy playing conditions derived from the sandy soil. This design is one for the ages — literally — as it’s ideal for both youngsters and older golfers alike. Too few modern courses meet that criterium, but this one est parfait.

124. Olympic (Lake)
Daly City, CA
William Watson and Sam Whiting, 1924

Sometimes the timing of a ranking works in favor of a club, such as when a restoration opens four months before ballots are due; other times, timing works against it, such as when a restoration opens three days after the balloting process has closed, as was the case with Olympic this year. In 2022-23, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner augmented the charms of this historic course through tree removal to open up stunning vistas to Lake Merced, adding width and playing angles, expanding greens and returning some of William Watson’s flair to the course. The new 7th green, with its front left kick slope, has received high praise for providing one of the most fun approach shots in the Bay Area, which is saying something. Gone is thick rough around every green as Hanse and Wagner added much short grass to stimulate creativity. Kudos to William Watson, who might be the underappreciated important Golden Age architect. 

125. Monterey Peninsula (Shore)
Pebble Beach, CA
Bob E. Baldock, 1962; Mike Strantz, 2004

Once a ho-hum layout that languished in the shadow of its famous 17-Mile Drive neighbors, the Shore Course started drawing notice in 2004 after the iconoclastic architect Mike Strantz built 12 new holes and overhauled six others. Strantz said his goal was to make players “dance among the cypress.” But his routing, which opens and ends amid the pines, also takes advantage of a vast expanse of coastline, with fairways fringed by wispy native grasses, and dramatic rock outcrops framing several greens and tees. In 2010, five years after Strantz’s passing, his work gained even greater recognition when the Shore Course joined the rota of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

***

GOLF’s World Ranking 2026-27: Nos. 126-150

126. Naruo
Kawanishi, Hyogo, Japan
Joe E. Crane, Harry C. Crane, and Bertie E. Crane, 1920; C.H. Alison, 1931

127. Old Barnwell
Aiken, SC
Brian Schneider and Blake Conant, 2023

128. Kittansett
Marion, MA
William Flynn and Fredrick Hood, 1922; Gil Hanse, 1995-2020

129. Paraparaumu Beach
Paraparaumu, New Zealand
Alex Russell, 1949

130. Walton Heath (Old)
Tadworth, Surrey, England
Herbert Fowler, 1904; Donald Steel, 2014

131. Piping Rock
Locust Valley, NY
Charles Blair Macdonald, 1911

132. The Honors Course
Ooltewah, TN
Pete Dye, 1983; Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, 2022

133. Old Sandwich
Plymouth, MA
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, 2004

134. Royal Adelaide
Adelaide, South Australia
H.L. Rymill and Carnegie Clark, 1904; Alister MacKenzie, 1926

135. Bel-Air
Los Angeles, CA
George C. Thomas Jr. and William Bell, 1926; Tom Doak, 2019

136. Essex County
Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA
Donald Ross, 1917

137. Waterville
County Kerry, Ireland
Eddie Hackett, 1973; Tom Fazio, 1995

138. Scioto
Columbus, OH
Donald Ross, 1916; Andrew Green, 2021

139. Trump International Golf Links (Old)
Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Martin Hawtree, 2012

140. West Sussex
Pulborough, England
Sir Guy Campbell and C.K. Hutchison, 1931

141. Mid Ocean
Tucker’s Town, Bermuda
Charles Blair Macdonald, 1921

142. Congressional (Blue)
Bethesda, MD
Devereux Emmet, 1924; Tom Fazio, 2007-2009

143. Royal Aberdeen (Balgownie)
Aberdeen, Scotland
Robert Simpson and Archie Simpson, 1888

144. Wade Hampton
Cashiers, NC
Tom Fazio, 1987

145. Royal West Norfolk
Brancaster, England
Holcombe Ingleby and Horace Hutchinson, 1892

146. Interlachen
Edina, MN
William Watson, 1911; Donald Ross, 1919; Andrew Green; 2024

147. Valderrama
Sotogrande, Spain
Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1974

148. Nanea
Kailua Kona, HI
David McLay Kidd, 2003

149. Old Elm
Highland Park, IL
H.S. Colt/Donald Ross, 1913

150. Terras da Comporta (Dunas)
Carvalhal, Portugal
David McLay Kidd, 2023