Here are the hardest courses in table form:
Rank | Course | Tournament | Average Score | Average over/under par |
6 | TPC Harding Park | PGA Championship | 70.755 | 0.755 |
7 | Torrey Pines GC (South) | Farmers Insurance Open | 72.533 | 0.534 |
8 | Pebble Beach Golf Links | AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am | 72.516 | 0.516 |
9 | Waialae CC | Sony Open | 70.513 | 0.513 |
Full Answer
– Top 10 Ultimate Golf Course Guide
Top Ten Golf Courses in the US
World's 10 toughest golf coursesCarnoustie Golf Links, Dundee, Scotland. ... Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin, United States. ... Palm Course, Saujana Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ... Bethpage Black, New York, United States. ... Cape Kidnappers, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. ... Le Touessrok Golf Course, Ile aux Cerfs, Mauritius.More items...•
Oakmont is one of the oldest golf clubs in the country since its inception in 1903. The club is located in Allegheny River Valley and has no water and few trees. With over two hundred bunkers, it is known as one of the most difficult in the United States. Memberships are by invitation only and start at $75,000.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is the oldest and most prestigious golf club in the world. It is based in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, and is regarded as the worldwide "Home of Golf" founded in 1754.
Yak Golf CourseThe golf course sitting at the highest elevation in the world is La Paz Golf Club in Bolivia, which is at 10,965 feet, according to World Golf. However, Guinness World Records has a different view, saying Yak Golf Course in Kupup, East Sikkim, is the highest at 13,025 feet.
On average the easiest golf club to hit is the 7-iron. 6-irons and 8-irons come close because these mid-iron clubs deliver high launch angles for all standards and their appearance gives confidence when players look down at them.
155 Slope RatingWhen played from the back tees, The International is ranked as the hardest golf layout in the U.S. according to all three ratings. It has an unrivaled 81.7 Course Rating, a 155 Slope Rating and a Bogey Rating of 112.2.
1 [1] ROYAL COUNTY DOWN G.C. (CHAMPIONSHIP) On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf.
More golf courses than anywhere in the world! More Golf Courses in One Place than Anywhere in the World!
You're going to plunk down a pretty penny to compete alongside the PGA Tour's best at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Back in 2011, Forbes reported it costs $25,000 to play in the pro-am. In the years since, that price has increased, closer to $40,000.
The Furnace Creek Golf Course at Death Valley offers great California desert resort golf, a unique golf vacation and an ideal winter getaway. At 214 feet below sea level, this 18-hole, par 70 course is also the world's lowest elevation golf course.
The Gulmarg Golf Club is a public golf course in a meadow at Gulmarg in Kashmir, India. The golf course, at an elevation of 2,650 metres (8,690 ft) above sea level, is the highest green golf course in the world.
Colorado is home to Mount Massive Golf Club, which, at 9,640 feet above sea level, is the highest-elevation golf course in the U.S. Elevation is a big part of the golf experience in Colorado, as many of Colorado's golf courses sit at 7,000 feet above sea level and higher.
This USGA 76.4-rated course features tight fairways, dense roughs and greens that may prompt you to schedule an eye exam after you inevitably misread them. It shouldn’t surprise you that the West Course was rated as the toughest course on the entire PGA Tour schedule for the 2020-21 season.
As the birthplace of golf, the United Kingdom has some of the most iconic courses in the world, but not all of them are considered as challenging as modern venues. Northern Ireland’s Royal County Down is home to one of the most diabolical courses in the world, however, on its Championship Links. The USGA has given the par-71 course a rating of 74.8 and a slope rating of 142 from the blue tees, which is just shy of the maximum difficulty grade of 155.
The par-72 course holds a USGA rating of 77.2 from the farthest tees and a bogey rating of 104.6, which would be considered a solid score from those tees by an average player. The whole round at Quail Hollow is challenging, but the nightmare really begins at hole No. 16, where the three-hole closing stretch is dubbed “The Green Mile.” All three holes beg players to lose a ball in the water, as the greens are surrounded by a lake and a creek.
Open rotation are challenging, the South Course at Torrey Pines is among the most demanding. The length alone, which spans more than 7,800 yards from the black tees, makes it a test of physical endurance unlike many other courses used by the PGA Tour. The par-72 venue boasts a USGA rating of 78.8 and challenges players to stop their approach shots on greens that sit right against the edge of cliffs over the Pacific Ocean. Tight fairways and deep bunkers that seem unavoidable await anyone that plays at Torrey Pines South.
Another of his notorious courses, this one part of the six PGA West venues in La Quinta, has a USGA slope rating of 148 from the black tees (remember, the maximum grade is 155).
Long Island’s Bethpage State Park is home to five 18- hole courses, with some genuine challenges among them. The Bethpage Red Course has a brutal USGA rating of 74.4 from the back tees, but the Black Course’s rating of 77.5 beckons confident players from all over. Bethpage Black plays mind games with its challengers before the first tee shot is taken, thanks to an infamous sign that reads, “Warning: The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.”
This nearly 7,600-yard monster boasts a rating of 76.5 from the U.S. Open tees, which means scratch golfers can expect to shoot at least four strokes over the par of 72. From the farthest tees used by regular players, its rating of 73.7 is a bit more manageable.
Cherry Hill, N.J. Yardage: 6,528 | Slope/rating: 138/71.9 Architect: William S. Flynn, Rees Jones, Ron Forse What they're saying: "Long rough, narrow fairways and well bunkered greens. The course favors right handed golfer hitting a draw." - bambiklr
Kiawah Island, S.C. Yardage: 7,356 | Slope/Rating: 144/77.3 Architect: Pete Dye What they're saying: "You'd better bring your a game when you play this challenging course." - DukeSams
Hilton Head Island, S.C. Yardage: 7,110 | Slope/rating: 148/75.6 Architect: Jack Nicklaus, Pete/Alice Dye What they're saying: "Excellent design tight varied and hard! This is as challenging as it gets don’t let the lack of overall distance fool you. Lots of bunkers and trees. Top notch Dye design." - ThomasGram
French Lick, Ind. Yardage: 8,102 | Slope/rating: 148/80.0 Architect: Pete Dye What they're saying: "My score was a good 10-15 shots higher than my hcp. Fun weekend in the land of Larry Legend." - Bigbluenation
Santa Cruz, Calif. Yardage: 6,521 | Slope/rating: 143/72.4 Architect: Alister MacKenzie What they're saying: "This is a great and very challenging golf course. It makes you think about every shot and placement of shots is key." - ngaudreau
Pinehurst, N.C. Yardage: 7,588 | Slope/rating: 138/76.5 Architect: Donald Ross What they're saying: " This isn't a course for novices. You don't have to be single digit, but you do need to be able to stop the ball on these upside-down saucer-like Donald Ross greens." - MikeBaileyGA, Golf Advisor Staff
San Ramon, Calif. Yardage: 6,861 | Slope/rating: 144/74.3 Architect: Johnny Miller, Robert Muir Graves What they're saying: "The Bridges is a very challenging course with forced carries and many ravines off the fairways. Some par 4s in the wind were very difficult for me to reach in two." - 55madman
The Ocean has the highest combination of Slope Rating (155) and Course Rating (79.6) in America, according to the U.S. Golf Association.
Kansas State alum Jim Colbert co-designed it to be the toughest college course in the country. It's constantly blasted by a fierce south wind that can blow the hairpiece right off your head.
At one time, the Black was what public golf courses were like when we were kids, with hardpan fairways, crabgrass greens and pockmarked tees. After being revamped by Rees Jones for the 2002 U.S. Open, it's in much better shape, but still big and brawny--a 6 1/2-mile hike over hill and dale where no carts are allowed--with massive bunkers and tiny greens, several of them hidden from view, even from the center of some fairways. The Black's magic is that it makes us all feel like kids again, inadequate to the task. It's New York tough.
Pete Dye, 81, has been torturing golfers for half his life, and the Ocean Course , strung along the Atlantic coastline with fairways and greens perched above sand, sea oats and sweetgrass, is perhaps his most Dye-abolical design. (Eight of our top 50 were created by the man they call the "Marquis de Sod.") The Ocean has the highest combination of Slope Rating (155) and Course Rating (79.6) in America, according to the U.S. Golf Association. With forced carries over marshes, endless waste bunkers and roll-resistant Bermuda grasses, the Ocean is a rare course that can bring tears and fears even to tour pros--it was dubbed Looney Dunes after multiple mishaps in the 1991 Ryder Cup. For the rest of us, it kicks sand in our face--literally when howling winds turn club covers into windsocks. Play it in the mornings when it's walking only. You can't cross the Rubicon in a golf cart.
Length isn't its only overindulgence: The fifth green is 91 yards long and takes more than an hour to mow, and the 11th, a modest 590-yard par 5, has 24 bunkers. If you plan to play it from the tips, be sure you have a three-day weekend.
The names of the nines say it all. There's also a third nine, called the Mindbreaker. When we played here, we thought of some other names for these courses, too.
5. OAKMONT COUNTRY CLUB.
National Golf Links of America, Southampton, N.Y. (World Ranking: 5) Home to the first collection of “all-star” holes in the United States, courtesy of pioneering architect and club founder C.B. Macdonald, this museum piece in the ritzy Hamptons is renowned for serving the best lunch in American golf. Just not to outsiders.
Ellerston, Australia (World Ranking: T-77) When it opened, in 2001, this Greg Norman-Bob Harrison design had a membership of one: the Australian media mogul Kerry Packer, who had the course built on his private estate in a remote swatch of New South Wales.
Muirfield Golf Club, Gullane, Scotland (World Ranking: 12) The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers lays claim to what some call, “The rudest club in golf,” but they did write the first rules of golf, back in 1744. Apparently, one of the unwritten rules is that they can keep company with whom they wish.
Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton, Ill. (World Ranking: 19) One of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association in 1894, Chicago was also the site of the nation’s first 18-hole course and the first to host the U.S. Open outside of the Northeast. With a little more than 100 members and a steeplechase worth of hurdles to clear in order ...
Ben Hogan used to practice here for 30 straight days every spring to prepare for the Masters. He once said, “If I were a young man going on the pro tour, I’d try to make arrangements to get on Seminole. If you can play Seminole, you can play any course in the world.”. Easier said than done.
A links beast as well as a beauty, ‘Carnasty’ – as it is affectionately known – is widely regarded as the most difficult course on the Open Championship rota and is fraught with danger virtually around every twist and turn with the 18th providing one of the iconic closing holes in golf.
The Donald Steel-designed Arden course has a wonderful pedigree after hosting the British Masters three times. It’s parkland golf at its best and most demanding, finishing with a breathtaking par-3 over a valley.
Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Regularly features in most Top 100 Courses listings and is chiefly a two-ball course which promotes foursomes (alternate shot play). Plotted on classic heathland with gorse-lined fairways, it’s close to the coast and its fast-draining sandy soil means it’s in great year-round condition.