34 World’s best golf courses

This longtime host of Irish Championships was completely reworked by Tom Fazio, who transformed a very good course into an outstanding one.

It’s not just the sub air system, which removes moisture from the greens, or the 200,000 tonnes of additional sand, or even the run-offs – which are faster than most greens. From the beautifully designed locker rooms to the fine dining experiences, every aspect of Adare is about maximum wattage.

Generous off the tees, this is very much a second-shot course, with green complexes to rival the world’s top courses. The 18th, a par five that finishes in the shadow of the stunning manor house hotel, is an exceptional final hole.

Despite only hosting its first Open Championship in 1977 (the classic ‘Duel in the Sun’ between Nicklaus and Watson), the Ailsa course has become a classic, and not just because the 1977 championship was so good. Its location is perfect – on a headland overlooking Ailsa Crag and, on a good day, the Mull of Kintyre and the Isle of Arran.

The course itself – first laid out in the early 20th century and redesigned by Mackenzie Ross after WWII – is as good as any you’ll play in Scotland. The finish is as tough as it gets, starting with the deceptively short 15th and concluding with the 18th, backdropped by a hotel and renamed the ‘Duel in the Sun.’

The course was upgraded substantially after Donald Trump bought it in 2015; all it’s waiting for now is to host its fifth Open.

This modern masterpiece sits on the southern tip of Jura Island, its humps and bumps a feat of golfing imagination and creativity. There’s a run of holes that hug the cliff tops, but the whole course is a delight and well worth the inevitable sleeve (or two) of lost balls.

It’s not an easy course, but the stunning surroundings – as well as the ultra-fancy hotel, which was completely refurbed in 2020 – make this one of the very best golfing experiences in Europe.

Ballybunion might not rank at the top of the list of best golf courses in the world, but anyone who’s played it will invariably wonder why not.

From the opening tee shot – with a graveyard tight on your right – the course is a delight, even if it takes a few holes to really reveal itself. At the 6th you meet the ocean, which will stay with you for the rest of the round. The signature 11th is just breathtaking, working its way past cliffs and along deep sand dunes before finding the green at the edge of the crashing sea.

Its idiosyncrasies are legendary – besides the cemetery (you get a free drop if you land too close), you often tee off over the green you’ve just played, which has the effect of cementing the memory of it even further.

The original course at Bandon Dunes resort is still a wonder – the infinity-view greens that stretch out into the Pacific merge dramatically into the blue of the ocean; an extraordinary combination of man-made and natural beauty.

It is less dramatic than the newer Pacific Dunes, but everything about this course works – the undulating fairways; the devilish bunkers perfectly placed to make you second-guess your shot selection; those perfect greens.

And the Pacific is everywhere; beyond the wild dunes and the wind-blown marram grass, which all serve to create the impression of playing golf in the middle of a beautiful wilderness. Which, effectively, you are.

Australia doesn’t do seaside links in the classic British sense, but this Tom Doak beauty is the closest to the type of course you’d find by the shores of the North Sea in Scotland.

Because it’s the antipodes, the dunes are bigger – in some cases 100 feet high – making the warps and fold of the fairways that much more dramatic, and unforgettable to play.

Here Doak put in place the design that he later echoed at Pacific Dunes in Oregon: there are some memorable holes and the greens are all superb, but ultimately it’s about the views… and the breeze.

On a bluff overlooking the Gulf of St Lawrence, this Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw design is the second course at this Nova Scotia resort – and it’s a masterpiece, Canada’s answer to Cypress Point.

The traditional layout is a deliberate reference to the home of links golf in Scotland and Ireland: fairways twist their way down from a forested glade overlooking the sea, skirting past ravines and jagged cliffs. Its inland holes are every bit as satisfying to play as the oceanside ones, but the biggest challenge can be keeping your head down and avoiding becoming distracted by the glorious sea views.

Set on a rugged stretch of land wedged in a sheep station and a range of mighty cliffs, this golf course was designed to be New Zealand’s version of Pebble Beach.

It’s beautifully positioned and the back nine – laid out along several fingers of land separated by deep gullies that fall into the sea below – is easily one of the most dramatic stretches of holes you’ll ever play. Along the par-5 15th – the aptly named Pirate’s Plank – is the sign everyone should pay heed to: ‘Danger: Cliffs.’ Go left and long and the ball has a long fall before reaching the water.

And don’t let the simplicity of the place fool you: a huge amount of care and attention has gone into its design.

Despite only opening in 2015, this stunning links is already a world-class track, with spectacular views and the kind of design that sets great courses apart from merely good ones.

The first few holes wind their way around Cape Farewell before moving inland; you return to the ocean on the 14th, and make your way toward the 18th and the Cape Wickham lighthouse.

It’s wide enough off the tee not to scare the mid-handicappers, but you still have to pick a careful line to really get the most out of it.

It’s nicknamed ‘car-nasty’ and when the wind is up, it’s not difficult to understand why: the championship course at Carnoustie is fiendishly difficult at the best of times, but when nature gets involved it can break even the toughest golfing spirit.

It’s a proper test; of length, accuracy, strategy and a whole heap of patience. Out of bounds beckons on plenty of holes, while the devilishly placed bunkers just seem to attract a disproportionate number of shots.

Play well here and you can comfortably call yourself an experienced and talented golfer. A regular host of the Open Championship.

This stunning links, tucked away north-east of Inverness in northern Scotland, is a delight both to play and look at, with widescreen views as far as the Black Isle peninsula.

Unlike many links courses, the fairways aren’t overly tight, especially off the tees, but it puts all the onus on the quality of your approach, which needs to be accurate to find the perfectly protected greens. The opening holes on both nines make their way along the water before rising up to higher ground; this is where the views really start to open out.

It’s not an old course, but it’s a regular host of the Scottish Open – and it’s not hard to see why.

Chambers Bay is infamous as the controversial host of the 2015 US Open, when Gary Player called it the worst course he’d seen in 63 years as a pro and Henrik Stenson said it was like “putting on broccoli,” but this Trent Jones Jr design on Puget Sound is one of the purest – and most beautiful – links courses in the United States. Lee Westwood said about it: “It’s the kind of course I’d like to come and play with my mates, with a cart and some beers.”

The course brings the very best of Scottish and Irish links to the Pacific Northwest, and adds tawny fescue grasses, huge sand dunes, generous fairways and breathtaking views of the Puget Sound and snow-capped Olympic Mountains. Despite the experiences of 2015, the play is fair and challenging, calling for imagination and no small amount of artistry in shaping shots.

There are a handful of world-class municipal courses in the United States – Pebble Beach and Bethpage Black amongst them – but Chambers Bay, which only opened in 2007, is unquestionably to be ranked alongside them. And it’s way more affordable to play than the others. Just bring a cart and some beers.

The first course to host an official PGA Tour event outside of the United States or Canada, this tree-lined championship course was designed by Greg Norman and makes full use of its natural environment. Like the chameleon in the name, the course changes throughout its routing, weaving its way through dense jungle, mangrove forests and along beautiful stretches of white sand.

Its most distinctive hazards are the cenotes – natural sink holes – and water canals. It’s still the host of the annual Mayakoba Classic – it was here, in 2018, that Matt Kuchar caused a stir when he paid a local caddie a measly $5,000 out of his $1.3m for winning the event. The caddie, David Giral ‘El Toucan’ Ortiz, said he wasn’t too upset, but they did later agree on a better fee.

The venue for the 2003 Presidents Cup and the 2012 Volvo Golf Champions, this outstanding links designed by Gary Player is strongly reminscent of a classic Scottish or Irish course. Huge dunes rise up around the greens, with the Outeniqua Mountains forming a stunning backdrop to eighteen challenging holes, without a weak one amongst them.

While the links-style makes it a standout in a country with very few courses of the type, what makes this track exceptional is the condition that it’s kept in: it hosts a meagre 4,000 rounds a year, which means it’s always in pristine condition.

The favourite course of many a Japanese golfer, this Charles Alison-designed beauty sits on a rippled promontory on the Izu Peninsula, about 60 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Marvellous Pacific views are a distraction, as is the backdrop of Mount Fuji throughout the back nine, but what draws serious golfers is the quality of the course, made up of folded fairways and plateau greens that have been challenging the country’s best since it opened in 1936.

Old Tom Morris, Alistair Mackenzie and nature’s own genius combined to carve out this exceptional links in southwestern Clare, along Ireland’s picture-postcard west coast.

Beautifully trapped between the Inagh River and the Atlantic’s own roar, the old course at Lahinch is unquestionably a stern test of golf – it has its fair share of blind shots and requires power and guile in equal measure – but its standout feature is the beauty of the landscape.

Second only to St Andrew’s in golf lore, Muirfield is home to The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, the world’s oldest golf club. Old Tom Morris, Harry Colt and Tom Simpson designed the layout – two concentric rings of nine holes that go clockwise out and counterclockwise back.

Except for the tee shot on the 11th, the whole course is laid out in front of you, with no trickery save the bumpy fairways. Even the greens are perfectly sized for the approach shot required – the mark of a totally fair challenge.

It’s so good – and so famous – that when Jack Nicklaus designed the course of his dreams in his home state of Ohio, he named it after this Gullane beaut.

Part of the excellent Bandon Dunes collection of golf courses, Pacific Dunes takes first prize for the exquisite work of Tom Doak, who has created a modern masterpiece – very much in the style of a classic Scottish links.

It’s only been around since 2001, but the unorthodox routing (four par 3s on the back 9) is framed by jagged sand dunes and some outrageous bunkers that erupt out of the rumpled fairways as Doak’s tip o’ the hat to Alistair MacKenzie.

It’s not overly long, nor are the greens especially tough, but the course demands all kinds of shot making and, when the wind is up, every ounce of your concentration. More than anything, playing is just a lot of fun – the perfect balance of great golf and distracting Pacific views.

As oceanside courses go, Pebble Beach is unrivalled in the United States. Routed along the craggy headlands and cliff tops that tumble into Carmel Bay, the exterior holes are bedazzling – 5 through 11 might just be the best six holes in a row you’ll ever play (Nicklaus described the second shot at the 8th to be his favourite in golf).

The interior holes mightn’t have the same magic, but the finishing holes are a suitably wonderful to wrap up a round – 17 and 18 are even better than they appear on TV.

That’s right, TV – because the magic of Pebble is wrapped up in its history – Nicklaus’ 1-iron on 17 in 1972, Tiger dominating the course in 2000 to win the most spectacular US Open in history. And the best thing about it? It’s a public course, which means anyone can play it.

‘It’s all about the greens’ is a common refrain when talking about Pinehurst No 2. Sure, Donald Ross brought the idea for the small turtleback greens and their wicked fall offs from Royal Dornoch in Scotland, and there’s no doubt this is a course that penalises errant approach play.

But ever since Pinehurst opened for play in 1907, it’s been considered one of the greatest of all American courses. Every hole is exceptional, but the 5th, 9th and 16th are world-class.

The course has hosted three US Opens, most recently in 2014 when Martin Kaymer shot the second-lowest score in US Open history. Play it once and you’ll understand just how remarkable that feat was.

Valderrama is everything a world-class parkland should be: immaculately maintained, beautifully designed and devilishly tricky without being overlong.

It’s not enough to hit the fairways here – you have to hit the correct side of the fairway, otherwise you’ll meet the implacable cork trees that offer a most beautiful defense against an easy score.

Its signature hole is the marvellous 17th, a par five with a green protected by water, tempting you to go for it when a layup is probably the smarter play.

It hosted the memorable matches of the 1997 Ryder Cup, and is one of only two courses in Europe to be granted Audobon status for its preservation of its natural ecosystems.

The setting for Jordan Spieth’s remarkable 2017 Open Championship win is this stunning links course, a mile south of Southport. The eighteen holes wind their way through magnificent dunes – the four par 3s (4, 7, 12 and 14) – are as good as any you’ll find, and many of the tees are slightly elevated, making the holes easy to see. The 12th is particularly challenging, playing over a hollow and onto a narrow green protected by an amphitheatre of four pot bunkers.

The 18th, which thankfully plays as a par 5 for amateurs (the pros play it as a tough 4), finishes at the eye-catching art deco clubhouse (and site of a fine restaurant). All told, a superb golfing experience.

Royal County Down is no ordinary links. It’s arguably the world’s best golf course you can play without being a member.

It’s the kind of course that people play in their most ecstatic dreams, with an abundance of blind shots, long carries and nestling greens laid out like a velvet carpet.

It’s a golfing stage with few equals, a riot of gorse and heather skirting the Irish Sea and backdropped by the Mountains of Mourne – the inspiration for one of Ireland’s most famous folk ballads.

RCD’s beauty, however, comes with a bite: this is not a place to miss too many fairways, nor is it advised to venture out without some local knowledge – many a first-timer has lost their way in the penal rough or looking for a line that is invisible to all but the lucky, or the more experienced.

One thing is guaranteed; whether it’s your first or fortieth time, RCD is a place you’ll want to come back to, again and again.

A four-hour drive from Glasgow, Royal Dornoch is a pilgrimage – and worth every effort. Wild, isolated and spellbindingly beautiful, the course – the third-oldest links in the world – bears the authorial stamp of Old Tom Morris, and it’s here that Donald Ross learnt his craft: the turtleback greens at Pinehurst No. 2 were inspired by the devilish domes that make this links a proper challenge.

Everything else about it is straightforward, but perfectly maintained. The humble clubhouse and straight out, straight back layout are deceptive, for this is a truly special place. Forget your score, just soak up the atmosphere and remember that you’re playing in the shadow of golf’s very beginnings.

Since 1931, the West course has left golfers agog with the sheer quality of its design, from tee to hole.

Fairways are generous, and even the tight lies are such that the ball just sits up on them, inviting you to a clean strike. The firm-faced bunkers are often tight to the greens, which run as true as any you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Dr Alistair Mackenzie never saw his completed masterpiece, but legendary designer wrote about it, ‘if only Melbourne were not so far removed from America, the standard of American golf architecture might well be higher.’

There’s real history to this seaside course, first laid out by Old Tom Morris in the 1880s, and reworked by Harry Colt in the 1930s.

Routed between the natural dunes and grassy hummocks of the North Antrim coast, this is one of Irish golf’s greatest challenges, and its most famous holes are part of golfing lore. ‘White Rocks’ – a downhill left-to-right par 4 – is the most beautiful; the 14th, a climbing par 3 with a huge chasm to the right, is the most daunting. (It’s fittingly known as ‘Calamity’).

Royal Portrush has hosted the Open Championship twice – in 1951 and in 2019 – further cementing its reputation as one of the best courses in the British Isles.

On the Kent coast overlooking Sandwich Bay, Royal St George’s is England’s greatest links course. There are notable rivals, but this course beats them by virtue of its layout (broadly circular, like Muirfield), its natural landscaping and the sheer quality of its very best holes – the 4th (home to England’s deepest bunker), the steep, sandy 6th (aka Maiden) and the 15th, with its virtually symmetrical bunkers.

Host of 15 Open Championships – including the 2021 edition – this natural beauty is one of the world’s very best links courses. It’s a tough track for sure, with severely undulating fairways and a good score is well-earned, but its rewards are timeless.

Shadow Creek is a tribute to excess. Tom Fazio was given nearly $50m to sculpt this beauty out of the Nevada desert, and the result was a pristine track with carpet-like fairways, plenty of water features and a gorgeous mountain backdrop. It has all the qualities of Augusta, but you’re only 15 minutes away from the Vegas strip.

Build it and they will come; ‘they’ being the big-money players staying at the big hotels in Vegas. The locker room has all the names – Jordan, Gretzky, Clinton, Bush etc. In 2018 it hosted ‘The Match’ between Tiger and Mickelson.

Pick your superlative: the oldest, the most famous, the most storied. Or, simply, the Home of Golf. All there is to say about the Old Course, the world’ most famous and revered course, has most likely been said many times. Carved by Mother Nature, golf’s spiritual home is an experience without parallel. The Valley of Sin, the Road Hole, the bridge over the Swilcan burn… these are a golfer’s hallowed relics, to be revered as part of the golfing divine.

There are harder courses, and ones in a more spectacular setting, but the Old Course is special; its famous tee shots and infamous bunkers, its huge greens and crazy fairways, make up the greatest walk-in golf.

When you set foot on the Old Course, you’re walking in the footsteps of every great golfer to have graced the game for the last few centuries. And if that’s not enough of a reason, consider this: it’s a public course, open to everyone who joins the tee time lottery. All you have to do is put your name down.

Above all, Sunningdale is elegant. It is a terrific test of golf, and couldn’t be more beautifully situated, in the Berkshire/Surrey sand-belt, surrounded by glorious pines and sturdy oak trees. The surfaces here are carpet-like and fast.

But it all comes together in its remarkable elegance, which is perhaps best appreciated on the elevated 10th^. All around you is the history of the place: it was here that Bobby Jones shot his ‘incredible and indecent’ 66 in 1926 – before going on to win the Open Championship at Lytham by two shots.

Next to it is the ‘New Course’, which is almost as good; play them together and you’ve played the best 36 holes in England.

A serious contender for the best course in the Caribbean, CdC has 18 salivating holes of golf meticulously carved out of the rock and coral of the south-eastern shores of the Dominican coast. This Pete Dye masterpiece is no pushover.

When the trade winds blow it plays every inch of its 7,350 yards (from the tips), but its genius is in its tempting risk/reward layout: gamble off the tee and your reward is a much easier second shot, but get it wrong and the course will absolutely bite back. No wonder its motto is ‘All bite, No Bark.’

Everyone – and we mean everyone – is here to try their luck on the 17th and its treacherous island green, which has sunk the hopes of many among the greatest in the game.

But in their hurry to take on the world’s most notorious par 3, they risk missing out on the rest of the course, whose links-style bunkers and hundreds of oaks, pines and palms make for one of the most challenging courses in America.

Pete Dye designed it to be the home of the Players’ Championship, the unofficial fifth major – but the 17th was very much the creation of his wife, Alice.

Waterville may be the most Irish of golf courses, but it’s also a creature of American ingenuity. Irish-American Jack Mulcahy, Masters winner Claude Harmon (Butch’s dad) and Ireland’s pre-eminent golf architect Eddie Hackett created 18 magnificent holes along a promontory surrounded by the sea, overlooked by magnificent sand dunes.

It only opened for play in 1973, but within a few years it played as if it had been here for centuries. Tom Fazio – the only person allowed to touch Augusta – has since given the course a makeover that has made it even better.

Every course has one or two signature holes, but Waterville has six – three par 3s and three spellbinding par 5s. The view from the 17th – an elevated par 3 called Mulcahy’s Peak – is enough to make the angels weep.

Weaving its way up and down the coast of Yas Island, Kyle Phillips’ wonderful links design is the best in the UAE because it doesn’t try to be more than the sum of its parts. No fake waterfalls, no outrageous features, just 18 holes of classic golf that finish with three of the very best holes in the region.

Every hole is designed with strategy in mind, with plenty of well bunkered dog legs, multi-tiered greens and fescue (grass) rough that’s ready to grab any stray balls that come its way.

There’s a touch of the Kingsbarns in Scotland about it, until you look up and see the distinctive shape of Ferrari World in the distance. There’s even a nine-hole course with floodlights, for some nighttime golf!