The American golf resort, where you stay on property and play several great courses on foot over a few days, is the model the rest of the world now copies. From the Oregon dunes to the Carolina sandhills, here are the ten stay and play resorts we would build a golf trip around.
A stay and play resort lives or dies on depth: enough great golf to fill several days, lodging steps from the first tee, and a sense of place that makes the whole trip feel like an event. We rank the strength and number of the courses first, then the quality of the rooms and food, the setting, and how completely the resort delivers a multi day golf week. The verdicts are ours; the design credits and tournament histories we cite are a matter of record.
This is the golden age of the American golf resort. A generation of minimalist architects, Tom Doak, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, David McLay Kidd and Gil Hanse, has built a wave of walking, links inspired courses on sandy ground from Oregon to Wisconsin, while the classics at Pinehurst and Pebble Beach keep hosting US Opens. The result is the deepest collection of resort golf anywhere on earth.
Reviewed June 2026 by the GolfForKings editorial desk. Resort facts and fees verified at publication. How we research and review.
From the walking only links of Bandon Dunes to the reversible course at Forest Dunes, ranked with our verdicts and the reasons to plan a week at each one.
Mike Keiser's links shrine on the southern Oregon coast is the best stay and play resort in America. Five championship eighteens, Bandon Dunes by David McLay Kidd, Pacific Dunes by Tom Doak, Bandon Trails and Sheep Ranch by Coore and Crenshaw, and Old Macdonald, plus the par 3 Preserve, all walked with a caddie in the wind off the Pacific. Pure golf, nothing else, and unforgettable.
The cradle of American golf, with nine courses around a historic village. No. 2, Donald Ross's masterpiece and a repeat US Open venue, leads a lineup that now includes the restored No. 4 by Gil Hanse and his joyful short course, The Cradle. Add the new No. 10 and the Carolina Hotel, and Pinehurst is the most complete golf town in the country.
The most famous golf resort in the world, where Pebble Beach Golf Links runs along Carmel Bay and has crowned US Open champions for a century. Stay at the Lodge or the Inn at Spanish Bay and pair Pebble with Spyglass Hill and the Links at Spanish Bay. Expensive, iconic and a bucket list trip every golfer should take once.
Built on reclaimed phosphate mining land in central Florida, Streamsong's Red by Coore and Crenshaw, Blue by Tom Doak and Black by Gil Hanse are big, sandy and walkable, a links experience in an unlikely place. The lakeside lodge and a commitment to walking golf make it the South's most distinctive golf resort.
Pete Dye's wild, dune covered Straits on Lake Michigan has hosted three PGA Championships and the 2021 Ryder Cup, and the resort pairs it with the Irish Course and the two Blackwolf Run eighteens inland. Stay at the five star American Club and you have one of the great championship golf weekends in the country.
The Keiser family's inland answer to Bandon, set on 12,000 acres of prehistoric dunes. Sand Valley by Coore and Crenshaw and Mammoth Dunes by David McLay Kidd were joined in 2024 by Tom Doak's Sedge Valley and his faithful recreation of C.B. Macdonald's lost Lido. Firm, walkable and one of the most exciting resorts in America.
The most refined resort on the list. The Seaside Course, a Tom Fazio redesign of a 1929 Colt and Alison links, hosts the PGA Tour's RSM Classic, and the Plantation and Retreat courses complete 54 holes. Paired with the Forbes five star Cloister and Lodge, Sea Island is golf and Southern luxury at the highest level.
The Ocean Course, Pete and Alice Dye's 1991 Ryder Cup venue and host of the 2012 and 2021 PGA Championships, is one of the great public access rounds in America, and the resort surrounds it with four more eighteens by Nicklaus, Fazio and Player. Add Charleston's food and history nearby and it is a superb week.
David McLay Kidd's wide, joyful course high above the Columbia River in eastern Washington has become a cult favorite, and the addition of the Scarecrow course and the QuickSands short course turned it into a genuine multi day resort. Big fairways, huge views and some of the most fun golf in the country.
Home to The Loop, Tom Doak's reversible course that plays clockwise one day and counterclockwise the next as two genuinely different eighteens, alongside the original Tom Weiskopf design. A clever, low key northern Michigan resort that rounds out our American ten with something no other resort offers.
The northern resorts, Bandon, Sand Valley, Kohler and Forest Dunes, run their main seasons from May to October, while Streamsong, Sea Island, Kiawah and Pebble Beach are at their best from autumn through spring. Most of these resorts give priority tee times and better rates to guests who stay on property, and Pinehurst requires a resort stay to play most of its courses, so booking lodging and golf together is both easier and usually cheaper.
Green fees climb steeply at the marquee names, with Pebble Beach in a class of its own, while the inland sand resorts offer better value for comparable quality. The figures below are indicative high season resort guest rates; stay and play packages are usually lower.
| Resort | State | Indicative green fee |
|---|---|---|
| Pebble Beach Golf Links | California | $700 and up |
| Pinehurst No. 2 | North Carolina | $400 to $600 |
| Bandon Dunes | Oregon | $300 to $450 |
| Streamsong | Florida | $200 to $350 |
| Sand Valley | Wisconsin | $200 to $350 |
Compare live tee times through our partner: [TEE_TIME_AFFILIATE_LINK]. Resort lodging near the courses: [HOTEL_AFFILIATE_LINK].
The classic American golf trip is three or four nights at a single resort, playing a different course each day on foot, with a caddie and a quiet drink afterward. Bandon and Sand Valley suit a buddies group, Pinehurst and Pebble Beach reward a bucket list splurge, and Sea Island and Kiawah pair golf with serious comfort.
Tell us the time of year and the kind of golf you want, and we will build the itinerary around the resort that fits, secure the tee times and the rooms, arrange the caddies and transfers, and handle the detail so you simply turn up and play.
Bandon Dunes in Oregon is our number one, a walking only links resort with five championship eighteens plus the Preserve and Sheep Ranch on the dramatic southern Oregon coast. Pinehurst in North Carolina and Pebble Beach in California are the other two members of the American big three.
Pinehurst Resort offers nine courses, including the Donald Ross designed No. 2 and the Gil Hanse short course The Cradle. Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley each offer five full eighteens plus short courses, while Kohler and Streamsong have four and three respectively.
Indicative 2026 high season resort guest green fees run from around 200 to 350 dollars at Sand Valley, Streamsong and Forest Dunes, 300 to 450 dollars at Bandon Dunes and Pinehurst No. 2, and around 700 dollars and up at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Always confirm directly before booking.
Late spring and early autumn give the best balance of weather and value at most resorts. Bandon Dunes and Pebble Beach play year round but are wettest in winter, the Wisconsin resorts run May to October, and Streamsong, Sea Island and Kiawah are at their best from autumn through spring.
Mostly yes. Bandon Dunes, Pinehurst, Streamsong and Sand Valley give priority and the best rates to resort guests, and Pinehurst requires a resort stay to play most courses. Staying on site is the whole point of a stay and play trip and almost always the better value.
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