No architect shaped postwar golf like Robert Trent Jones Senior. From Spain to Hawaii he built the template for the modern championship course: long tees, bold bunkering, water in play and par 3s that frighten the best players alive. These are the seven courses we rate most highly from his vast catalog, ranked, with notes on how to get on each.
Photograph: Real Club Valderrama, Sotogrande, via Google
This list celebrates the work of Robert Trent Jones Senior, the dominant golf architect of the twentieth century, who died in 2000 having designed or remodeled hundreds of courses across more than forty countries. He is not to be confused with his sons, Robert Trent Jones Jr and Rees Jones, both accomplished architects with their own firms. Where a course was a redesign or a collaboration, we say so, and we have leaned on layouts that best show his championship instinct and have stood the test of tournament golf.
We weighed design quality, setting, condition and the role each course has played in the game, from Ryder Cups and US Opens to the resort courses that opened up Hawaii and the Mediterranean to traveling golfers. Designers, opening years and tournament history were checked at the time of writing against course and tournament sources. The order and the verdicts are ours. Tell us which one you want to play and we will build the trip around it.
Jones's European masterpiece and, for many, the finest course on the continent. Carved through cork oaks above Sotogrande and reshaped to host the 1997 Ryder Cup, Valderrama is a precision examination where position trumps power, the greens are slick and small, and the par 5 seventeenth has broken more hearts than any hole in Spain. Long the home of the Volvo Masters, it remains the benchmark for inland European golf and the clear number one in the Jones canon.
One of the great public courses in the United States and a Jones tour de force. The opening five holes tumble through the dunes toward the Pacific in the spirit of the British links, then the course turns into the Del Monte forest for a stern, tree lined finish. A regular host of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Spyglass is often called tougher than Pebble itself, and the pairing of seaside drama and woodland test makes it essential on any Monterey trip.
The course that put Hawaiian resort golf on the map, laid over old lava flows on the Big Island's Kohala Coast. Its signature third plays right across a Pacific inlet to a green on the far cliff, one of the most photographed par 3s in the world, and the whole layout is a study in how Jones used dramatic land and ocean. Still beautifully kept and open to resort guests, it is the bucket list Jones round in the islands.
A championship machine and one of the few clubs to have hosted the US Open, the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup. Jones built Hazeltine on rolling Minnesota farmland in 1962, and after early criticism it was toughened into a true major venue, scene of US Open wins for Tony Jacklin and Payne Stewart and the boisterous 2016 Ryder Cup. A long, demanding, big shouldered test that shows Jones at his most muscular. A private club.
Jones's first course in continental Europe and the seed of the whole Sotogrande story. Opened in 1964 among umbrella pines and cork oaks near the Mediterranean, it is a graceful, strategic layout that helped launch a golf coast and remains a members' favorite for its balance and shade. Quieter than its neighbor Valderrama, it is arguably the purer Jones design and a wonderful round to pair with the Costa del Sol's heavier hitters.
A jewel of the Costa Smeralda, threaded by Jones between two bays of granite, maquis and cobalt sea above Porto Cervo. Cut from rock and scented scrub, with the Mediterranean glinting at almost every turn, Pevero is as much an experience as a test, a holiday round of rare beauty that has anchored Sardinia's luxury golf since 1972. The setting alone earns its place among his best.
An early landmark and a personal one, designed by Jones in partnership with the great Bobby Jones, who wanted a long, modern members' course to complement nearby Augusta National. Peachtree introduced the huge tees and bold greens that would define the Jones style, and it remains one of Atlanta's most exclusive private clubs. A historically important round that helped set the direction of postwar architecture.
Designers, opening years and tournament history verified June 2026 from course and tournament sources. Access and any green fees vary by season; several of these clubs are private, so always confirm directly before booking. Profiles are linked where we have one.
Valderrama and Sotogrande on the Costa del Sol, Spyglass Hill on the Monterey Peninsula, Mauna Kea in Hawaii or Pevero in Sardinia. Tell us which and one concierge builds the courses, the access and the stay into one trip, costed to the head, with no obligation.
Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, southern Spain, is our pick for the finest Robert Trent Jones Sr design. Built in 1974 and refined for the 1997 Ryder Cup, it is consistently rated the best course in continental Europe. Spyglass Hill on the Monterey Peninsula and Mauna Kea in Hawaii are the next two, both among the most celebrated resort and public courses Jones ever built.
No. Robert Trent Jones Sr, who died in 2000, was the dominant architect of postwar golf and designed Valderrama, Spyglass Hill, Mauna Kea and Hazeltine. His sons Robert Trent Jones Jr and Rees Jones are both successful architects in their own right, with separate firms and their own portfolios. This list covers the courses of Robert Trent Jones Senior.
Several of the best are open to visitors. Spyglass Hill on the Monterey Peninsula and Mauna Kea in Hawaii are resort and public access courses, and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail across Alabama is entirely public. Valderrama, Sotogrande and Pevero in Europe take visitors at set times, while Hazeltine and Peachtree are private clubs. We can arrange access and tee times as part of a planned trip.
Robert Trent Jones Sr is credited with shaping the modern championship course, with long tees, large bunkers, water in play and demanding par 3s built to test the world's best while still playing fair for members. He designed or remodeled hundreds of courses worldwide and prepared many for US Opens and other majors, earning the nickname the Open Doctor that later passed to his son Rees.
Great architects, bucket list courses and the booking windows that matter. Every other week.
Researched and written by the GolfForKings editorial desk. Course facts verified June 2026. Last reviewed June 2026.