Every golfer keeps a list: the courses that are worth crossing the world for, the rounds you measure a lifetime in the game against. Some you can simply book, some take patience and a plan, and a few you can only dream of. Here are the ten we rate most highly, ranked, with our verdict and how to get on.
Photograph: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort - Pacific Dunes, David Meillier, via Google
A bucket list course has to be more than highly ranked. It has to mean something: the home of the game, the cliffs that defined American golf, the links that good judges call the best on earth. We have favored courses that reward the pilgrimage with a round you will replay in your head for years, and we have been honest about which you can play and which remain, for most of us, aspirational.
We ranked these on greatness and on the experience of the round, and we noted access plainly, because it matters: some are public, some need a member or a careful plan, and a few are effectively closed to visitors. Every fact here, from designers and opening years to championship history, was checked at the time of writing. Green fees move with the season and are best treated as indicative. The verdicts are ours, and our concierge exists to turn the playable ones into a real trip.
The home of golf, played over the same common links in Fife for more than six centuries. The Swilcan Bridge, the Road Hole 17th and the walk up the 18th are golf's most sacred ground, and the public can play it, by daily ballot or advance booking. No round in the game carries more history. Public, ballot and tee times.
The most beautiful meeting of golf and ocean in America. Jack Neville and Douglas Grant routed the closing holes along the cliffs of Carmel Bay, and the par 3 7th, the cape hole 8th and the 18th have decided US Opens and a generation of dreams. Expensive and busy, but anyone can book it through the resort. Public, at a premium.
Often ranked the best course in the world, laid by Old Tom Morris beneath the Mountains of Mourne at Newcastle. Blind drives over heathery dunes, bearded bunkers and a front nine of almost unfair beauty make it the purest links examination there is. A members club that welcomes visitors on set days. Visitor tee times by arrangement.
Alister MacKenzie's Monterey masterpiece, where the course runs from dunes to forest to the Pacific and the par 3 16th carries 200 yards over open ocean. Widely held to be the most beautiful course on earth. It is also among the most private clubs in the game, so for most this one is aspirational. Strictly private.
For decades the number one ranked course in the world, George Crump's heroic vision in the New Jersey pines, completed with Harry Colt. Island fairways in a sea of sandy waste, no two holes alike, a relentless and thrilling examination. One of the most exclusive clubs in golf, played by guests of members only. Strictly private.
Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones built the home of the Masters on a former nursery, and Amen Corner and the back nine on Sunday are the most watched theater in golf. Members only and essentially impossible to arrange, it sits on this list as the ultimate dream rather than a trip we can book. Strictly private.
Donald Ross's lifelong work in the Carolina sandhills, restored by Coore and Crenshaw to its sandy, natural state and now an anchor site for the US Open. The turtleback greens repel anything less than a perfect approach, a masterclass in subtlety. A resort course you can book, at the cradle of American golf. Open to resort guests.
The course that confirmed Bandon Dunes as the great American links resort. Tom Doak laid Pacific Dunes along the cliffs of the southern Oregon coast, wild, walking only and routed with a freedom rare in modern design. With four more world class courses alongside, the trip is as good as golf travel gets. Open to resort guests.
The crown of the Melbourne Sandbelt, designed by Alister MacKenzie with Alex Russell, all firm fairways, bold sandy bunkering and the cleverest green complexes in the Southern Hemisphere. Host to Presidents Cups and the model of strategic golf down under. A private club, with visitor access by arrangement. Best reached through a planned trip.
Tom Doak's clifftop epic on Hawke's Bay, where fingers of fairway run out toward 450 foot drops to the Pacific. Remote, spectacular and unlike anywhere else, paired with the Robertson Lodges hotel for one of the great golf escapes on earth. A resort course you can book as part of a New Zealand trip. Open to lodge and visiting golfers.
Designers, opening years and championship history verified June 2026. Several courses here are public or resort layouts you can book, including St Andrews, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, Pacific Dunes and Cape Kidnappers. Others, including Cypress Point, Pine Valley and Augusta National, are strictly private and included as aspirational entries, not trips we can arrange. Green fees are seasonal and indicative only. Always confirm tee times and access directly before booking.
Tell us which of these you most want to play and roughly when. One concierge builds the trip around the ones you can book, arranges what it can and costs it to the head, with no obligation.
The Old Course at St Andrews is our pick for the single course every golfer should play, the home of the game and, unlike most courses on a bucket list, genuinely open to the public by ballot or booking. Pebble Beach and Royal County Down lead the rest, and both can also be played by visitors.
More than you might think. St Andrews Old, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes and Cape Kidnappers are all public or resort courses you can book, and Royal County Down and Royal Melbourne welcome visitors on set days or by arrangement. Cypress Point, Pine Valley and Augusta National are strictly private. Green fees are seasonal, so always confirm tee times and fees directly before booking.
Open ballot windows, bucket list tee time releases and the once in a lifetime trips our concierge is quietly building. Every other week.