# The 20 Best Public Golf Courses in America

> Oceanside links, Midwest sand barrens and a muni that hosted majors, all open to anyone with a tee time. Cast your vote!

*By YPB Team · Published September 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-20-best-public-golf-courses-in-america*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Pebble Beach Golf Links**
   Clifftop Monterey Peninsula links that has hosted six U.S. Opens and is open to any golfer willing to pay the green fee.
2. **Bandon Dunes**
   The 1999 David McLay Kidd course that started the Oregon coast golf boom, played on foot over rolling dunes.
3. **Pacific Dunes**
   Tom Doak's Bandon Dunes resort course, routed along bluffs above the Pacific with a famous run of oceanside holes.
4. **Old Macdonald**
   A Bandon Dunes course by Tom Doak and Jim Urbina that pays homage to the template holes of C.B. Macdonald.
5. **Pinehurst No. 2**
   Donald Ross's North Carolina masterpiece with crowned greens, host to multiple U.S. Opens.
6. **Bethpage Black**
   The muscular Long Island municipal course that hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens and the 2019 PGA Championship.
7. **Whistling Straits**
   A Pete Dye links-style course on the Lake Michigan shore with nearly 1,000 bunkers and multiple Ryder Cup and PGA Championship hosts.
8. **Torrey Pines South Course**
   Municipal cliffside course above the Pacific in San Diego, site of Tiger Woods's 2008 U.S. Open win.
9. **Kiawah Island Ocean Course**
   Pete Dye's seaside layout on a South Carolina barrier island, host of the 1991 Ryder Cup and the 2021 PGA Championship.
10. **Streamsong Red**
   A Coore and Crenshaw design on reclaimed phosphate land in central Florida, with big dunes and wide fairways.
11. **Erin Hills**
   A walking-only Wisconsin course on glacial terrain that hosted the 2017 U.S. Open.
12. **Chambers Bay**
   A former gravel quarry on Puget Sound turned fescue links, host of the 2015 U.S. Open.
13. **Sweetens Cove**
   A nine-hole Tennessee course that became a cult favorite for its giant, wildly contoured greens.
14. **Spyglass Hill Golf Course**
   Robert Trent Jones Sr. course on the Monterey Peninsula that opens along the ocean and finishes through the forest.
15. **Harbour Town Golf Links**
   Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus's tight, tree-lined Hilton Head course famous for its lighthouse finish.
16. **TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course**
   Pete Dye's Florida home of The Players Championship, known for the island-green par-3 17th.
17. **Arcadia Bluffs**
   A links-style course on Lake Michigan bluffs in northern Michigan with big elevation change.
18. **Sand Valley**
   A Coore and Crenshaw course in the central Wisconsin sand barrens with wide, bouncy fairways.
19. **Spanish Bay**
   The Links at Spanish Bay, a Scottish-style dunes course on the Pebble Beach property by the sea.
20. **Pete Dye Golf Club**
   A West Virginia course by its namesake architect, routed through the West Virginia hills with dramatic elevation change.

Tags: usa, travel, golf, golf courses