Our order, with the case for each. Every one is worth a long flight; the top of the list is where the architecture and the mountains meet at their absolute best.
01
Crans-sur-Sierre, Severiano Ballesteros Course
Crans-Montana, Switzerland · Seve Ballesteros redesign 1999 · public and resort access
Perched at roughly 1,500 metres on a sunny shelf above the Rhone Valley, with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc massif filling the horizon, this is the most spectacular championship setting in European golf. Seve's 1999 redesign sharpened a course that has hosted the Omega European Masters for decades. The thin Alpine air sends drives sailing, the greens are famously fast, and the views from the high holes are worth the green fee on their own. The most accessible great mountain course in the world.
02
Fairmont Banff Springs
Banff, Alberta, Canada · Stanley Thompson, 1928 · resort, public access
Stanley Thompson's 1928 routing through the Bow Valley is the benchmark every other mountain course is measured against. Mount Rundle towers over the property, the Bow River winds through it, and the par 3 fourth, the Devil's Cauldron, played across a glacial lake to a green cut into the mountainside, is one of the most photographed holes on earth. Elk on the fairways are a genuine hazard. For sheer Rocky Mountain theatre wrapped around first rate architecture, nothing tops it.
03
Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge
Jasper, Alberta, Canada · Stanley Thompson, 1925 · resort, public access
Thompson's other Rockies gem, three years older than Banff and to many eyes the better golf course. Routed through the wilderness of Jasper National Park beneath Pyramid Mountain, it is quieter, more natural and more strategic than its famous sibling, with bunkering shaped to mirror the peaks behind. It plays at altitude with the ball flying and the air clean. A round here is as much a walk through the national park as a game of golf.
04
The Broadmoor, East Course
Colorado Springs, USA · Donald Ross 1918, expanded by Robert Trent Jones Sr · resort guest or member
The grande dame of American mountain golf, opened by Donald Ross in 1918 at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain and later expanded by Robert Trent Jones Sr. At over 6,200 feet the ball flies, and the famously subtle greens break toward the city and away from the mountains in ways visitors never read correctly. It has hosted US Opens, US Amateurs and a Women's Open. Polished, historic and pure Front Range Colorado.
05
Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis Club
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA · Robert Trent Jones Jr · public · 7,426 yards, par 72
The valley's first course and still its best public golf, a Robert Trent Jones Jr layout set on the valley floor with the jagged wall of the Grand Teton range as a backdrop on almost every hole. Long at over 7,400 yards but eased by the altitude, it pairs genuinely good golf with arguably the finest mountain views of any course on this list. Open to the public, which on this list is rarer than it should be.
06
Spanish Peaks Mountain Club
Big Sky, Montana, USA · Tom Weiskopf · private, members and accompanied guests · 7,000 ft
Set 7,000 feet up in the Montana Rockies an hour from Yellowstone, this was among Tom Weiskopf's favourites of his own designs. The altitude makes a 7,170 yard par 72 play far shorter, freeing you to swing hard at fairways that tumble through pine and meadow under the Spanish Peaks. Private, so you need a member or the right resort connection, but for those who get on it is one of the great modern mountain rounds in the United States.
07
Greywolf Golf Course, Panorama
Panorama, British Columbia, Canada · Doug Carrick, 1999 · resort, public access
Doug Carrick's 1999 design is draped across the Purcell Mountains and built around one of the most famous one shot holes in Canada, the Cliffhanger sixth, played from a tee on a rock outcrop across a canyon to a green far below. The rest of the round is no letdown, with elevation change on nearly every hole and the Columbia Valley spread out beneath you. A genuine destination course attached to a friendly ski resort.
08
Kananaskis Country Golf Course, Mount Kidd
Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada · Robert Trent Jones Sr, 1983 · public, 36 holes
Robert Trent Jones Sr called this his finest mountain work, and the 36 holes he laid out in 1983 sit in a bowl of the Canadian Rockies with peaks topping 10,000 feet on every side. Rebuilt after the 2013 floods and back to full strength, the Mount Kidd course is the pick of the pair, a generous, beautifully conditioned public layout that lets ordinary golfers feel the thrill of mountain golf without a member or a resort booking.
09
The Highland Course at Primland
Meadows of Dan, Virginia, USA · Donald Steel, 2006 · resort guest
Donald Steel routed this 2006 course along a high plateau in the Blue Ridge Mountains, more than 2,900 feet up and overlooking the Pinnacles of the Dan River. Austere bunkering, firm fast turf and enormous drop shot tee shots give it a links character at altitude that nothing else in the eastern United States matches. Part of an Auberge resort, so a stay buys you the round and a star filled sky from the on site observatory afterwards.
