No membership needed: these are the top 10 courses on Golf Digest America's 100 Greatest Public Courses 2025-26. Some take a resort or hotel stay, and most cost more than a round at home. Here’s what each one takes.
Eighteen holes along the cliffs of Carmel Bay, with the most famous closing stretch on the Pacific.
A walking-only links on the Oregon bluffs where nearly every hole plays toward the Pacific.
A lush, pine-lined oasis built from flat desert, with a limo ride to the first tee.
Pete Dye's rugged, bunker-strewn links on the Lake Michigan bluffs, home of the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Ten holes right on the Atlantic and wind on every shot; it hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup and two PGA Championships.
Donald Ross's turtleback greens and sandy wiregrass in the town that calls itself the home of American golf.
A brutal, major-championship public course for a fraction of resort prices, with its famous warning sign on the first tee.
Your shot at the island-green 17th that PGA Tour players face every March.
The course that started it all at Bandon: true links golf on the cliffs above the Pacific.
A huge, walking-only links-style course on rolling glacial land, host of the 2017 U.S. Open.