When it comes to the list of top golf courses, two heavy hitters have conquered the competition for many years now. These are the Pacific Dunes and Pebble Beach. Now, in the history of 12 years, there is a new number one. Pacific Dunes is no longer top on the list. Pebble Beach has reclaimed its spot.

While these two might be the giants in the list, other golf courses are coming up and taking not only America but also the entire world by storm.

Could one of the new entrants give the big two a run for their money? Well, only time can tell.

The following are the top eight places to play golf in America. You’ll find a round of golf with your friends, some cold beverages and the good golf club sets on any of these courses to be magical

  1. Pebble Beach Golf Course

bble Beach Golf Course

Via sghgolf.com

Pebble Beach Golf Course has hosted 5 U.S opens and 70 PGA Tour events. The course has also been home to countless Pacific Ocean photos. Since its debut in 1919, Pebble has undergone several tweaks. While that might be the case, it has still managed to maintain its thrill. It features a spectacular stretch of holes (7-10).

Pebble Beach ($495-$565)

  1. Pacific Dunes

Pacific Dunes

Via bandondunesgolf.com

Tom Doak created this golf course in 2001. It features a remarkable, modern design. Pacific Dunes fits so majestically to its billowing terrain. By its look, you might think it has been in existence for over 100 years. Some of the headliners of this course include Pacific panoramas, smartly contoured greens, gigantic natural dunes and scattered blowout bunkers.

Pacific Dunes ($85-$310)

  1. Pinehurst Resort

Pinehurst Resort

Via pinehurst.com

This 108-year-old golf course rolls spaciously and gently through extremely tall Longleaf pines within the Carolina Sandhills. It contains holes culminating in the renowned ‘inverted saucer’ greens, which have confounded the sport’s very best since their inception in 1935. A Coore-Crenshaw restoration brought back native roughs and tawny-edged fairways last seen in 1940s for the 2014 United States Open.

Pinehurst, N.C. ($370-$480)

  1. Bethpage State Park

Bethpage State Park

Via parks.ny.gov

Lucas Glover and Tiger Woods won the 2009 and 2002 U.S. Opens here. This course is what has defined the prowess or otherwise of many golfers out there. In fact, many professionals are of the opinion that the course is one of the most challenging in the country. The 2002 ‘People’s Open’ edition was held here. It brutalized players big time. Some of the features that make the course challenging include wrist-fracturing rough, massive bunkers, and rugged uphill par-4s.

Bethpage State Park ($78-$150)

  1. Whistling Straits

Whistling Straits

Via americanclubresort.com

The Whistling Straits was the venue for the 2004 PGA Championships. It’s located around Lake Michigan. Initially, it once acted as a poker table-flat base for military training in the World War II. Afterwards, it changed to become a site for illegal dumping of harmful waste. The owners initiated a mind-boggling cleanup. During the cleanup process, they moved over three million cubic yards of waste/dirt. The dirt was trucked in 7,000 loads of sand in order to create the bunkers and hills. They then repositioned the bluffs farther back from shore.

Whistling Straits ($395-$460)

  1. TPC Sawgrass

TPC Sawgrass

Via golfersguide.com

Since 1982, this has been the venue for the PGA Tour’s Players Championship. A number of quality players such as Adam Scott, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have been crowned winners of different competitions here. Among the wildest finished happened in 2013 when a player, Sergio Garcia, tied with Tiger Woods. Sergio splashed two tee shots on the infamous island-green 17th. In addition to making a quadruple-bogey, he sunk to eighth place.

TPC Sawgrass ($350-$495)

  1. Bandon Dunes

Bandon Dunes

Via bandondunesgolf.com

David Mclay Kidd was the brains behind the original design of this golf course. It’s draped atop craggy headlines right above the Pacific. The ocean views normally stun the senses together with the bluff-top sand dunes that are sprinkled with gorse bushes and Scotch brooms, crashing surf, coastal pines, stacked sod bunkers and wind-whipped extremely tall native grasses. Some of the most memorable seaside tests include par-4 16th, par-312th and par-4th. All of them boast an eye-popping scenery as well as enjoyable rewards and risks.

Bandon Dunes ($85-$310)

  1. Harbour Town Golf

Harbour Town Golf

Via golfadvisor.com

The Harbour Town Golf course has been a darling of PGA Tour pros for over 40 years. It features the iconic and famous candy cane-striped lighthouse which backdrops the eighteenth hole and a lot more. There is no doubt that this is a place of subtle beauty. This is without a doubt a shortmaker’s paradise where power certainly takes a backseat to accuracy. The course mixes a remarkable closing stretch, tiny greens, lagoons and live oaks. It is without a doubt one of the must visit golf courses in the country.

Harbour Town Golf ($190-$380)

Conclusion

There you go, anytime you’re in America, either for business or pleasure, and are looking for the ideal place to play golf, look for none other than the above courses. You’ll find the magical experience memorable and mouthwatering. Try any of them today and discover their magic.

Welcome to the site of justgolfblog.com where we share the knowledge about golf with you and hope that we have good time together (Walter Segura)

If you would like to submit a guest post on food, wine or travel to Where and What in the World, I would be happy to feature your travel experience , drink, special wine tasting, or family or simply delicious recipe. If you go to submission tab, you will see how to submit, as well as have the opportunity of telling me if you would like to would like to be a regular contributor. When uploading a file for submission, you are also able to upload jpegs. Please feel free to put a last paragraph about you and a link to your profile. No html please. You can also include a head shot.

Nick Soros
Author: Nick Soros