The long-lasting par-3 seventh gap at Pebble Seaside Golf Hyperlinks.
Getty Photographs
As a part of GOLF’s rigorous rankings course of for our newly launched Prime 100 Programs within the U.S. and Prime 100 Programs You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus professional panelists recognized the most effective golf programs in each state.
You’ll be able to take a look at the hyperlinks beneath to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll all the way down to see the most effective programs in California. And in case you’re seeking to create your individual journey sooner or later, you’d be clever to let GOLF’s new Course Finder instrument help you. Right here, you’ll be able to toggle all of our lists — Prime 100 public, greatest munis, greatest brief programs, greatest par-3s and extra — or filter by value to create the right itinerary in your subsequent journey.
GOLF’s different course rankings: Prime 100 Programs within the World | Prime 100 Programs within the U.S. | Prime 100 Programs You Can Play | Prime 100 Worth Programs within the U.S. | America’s Finest Municipal Programs | The 100 Finest Quick Programs within the World
Try our all-new journey podcast Vacation spot GOLF. Hear and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: APPLE | SPOTIFY | IHEART | AMAZON
The perfect golf programs in California (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Prime 100 Course within the U.S.
Y = Prime 100 You Can Play within the U.S.
V = Prime 100 Worth Course within the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. notice: Some programs have been omitted from our rankings as a result of they didn’t obtain sufficient votes.
1. Cypress Level (Pebble Seaside) [#]
It’s nearly inconceivable that land this gorgeous was made obtainable for golf. For the fortunate few who get to play right here, they take pleasure in one of many recreation’s most inspiring walks as Alister MacKenzie’s design effortlessly transports the participant across the numerous property. The long-lasting par-3 sixteenth, which extends into the churning Pacific, is the sport’s most dramatic and photographed gap, however there are infinite different highlights, from the forested portion to heaving dunes to its famed jagged shoreline. MacKenzie extracted the most effective from the land partially by breaking the “guidelines” and having back-to-back par-5s on the entrance and back-to-back par-3s on the again. The drivable 1/2-par ninth is one other standout with its angled, sloped inexperienced invulnerable to rash techniques.
2. Pebble Seaside (Pebble Seaside) [#, Y, P]
The primary nice American public oceanside course, Pebble advantages from an ingenious routing that brings the participant to the ocean’s edge, then onto a lot larger floor, earlier than returning to the cliffs for the climactic remaining two holes. Even at present, with gobs of world class programs having been constructed up to now 100 years, no extra thrilling, spectacular stretch exists than holes 4 via 10. Moreover, does any stroll evaluate with that remaining stroll up the long-lasting par-5 18th because it curves left round Carmel Bay?! Laborious for a course this well-known to exceed first-time expectations — however it does.
3. Los Angeles – North (Los Angeles) [#]
Gil Hanse and staff restored George Thomas’s traditional to perfection in 2010. Bunkers have been reshaped and relocated, fairways widened and a pure barranca was introduced again into play as a strategic hazard. As Hanse says of what’s arguably America’s premier city design, “The course enjoys an ideal sense of place and stability.” LACC hosted the 2017 Walker Cup and the 2023 U.S. Open received by Wyndham Clark. Early in U.S. Open week, a false narrative emerged that the fairways have been too huge, however by the tip of the occasion, the details bore out that driving to specific sides and spots inside the fairways was crucial for fulfillment. LACC”s superlative assortment of one-shot holes proved fairly a check as nicely, even with ball in hand and an ideal lie/stance.
USGA
4. Riviera (Pacific Palisades) [#]
The worth that an architect gives is highlighted right here in technicolor. In-built a slender canyon, there was no motive to carry excessive hopes for this course. But what emerged, courtesy of George Thomas and Billy Bell, is likely one of the recreation’s strategic design marvels. Collectively, the designers took bunker configuration and angled greens to new heights within the Twenties. As proof of their magical abilities, look no additional than Riv’s 311-yard, par-4 tenth. Because of the impressed positioning of the bunkers and the angled inexperienced, choices abound on how you can card an enormous quantity on this tiny gap. Thomas’s well-known quote — “technique is the soul of the sport” — manifests itself at Riv.
5. San Francisco (San Francisco) [#]
A.W. Tillinghast constructed his most inventive assortment of bunkers at this low-key Bay Space hideaway that avoids publicity as steadfastly as its neighbor the Olympic Membership embraces it. Generally known as the Duel Gap, the drop-shot par-3 seventh would be the course’s most well-known gap, however its par-4s, together with the 2nd, third, tenth and twelfth, are the actual headliners.
6. California Golf Membership of San Francisco (South San Francisco) [#]
For many of its 80-year historical past, the Cal Membership, as locals name it, served up a good although well-regarded course, enhanced by its affiliation with Ken Venturi. Following a 2008 Kyle Phillips re-do that was half restoration and half redesign, many really feel this personal course is the same as any in California north of Cypress Level. Located on the facet of a hill, Cal Membership is assured to catch any wind that’s about. Add in fescue fairways and the location’s broad slopes and you’ve got a course whose asks change day by day. Pay attention to the stretch from Sep 11 and the way every of those two-shotters falls throughout the land in a special method: the ninth performs up and over a hill, the tenth fairway slopes proper to left off the tee after which left to proper nearer to the inexperienced and the twelfth fairway glides via its personal beautiful valley. General, the combination of brief grass, sprawling bunkers and cypress timber present fixed picture alternatives. While you uncover the design performs nearly as good because it seems, you will have one thing particular.
7. Valley Membership of Montecito (Montecito) [#]
Designed by Alister MacKenzie with Robert Hunter overlooking development, The Valley Membership oozes appeal. The holes don’t bully the participant and size isn’t the difficulty however approaching these greens from the optimum facet of the golf green is paramount, given the firmness of the enjoying surfaces that membership routinely achieves. Look no additional for proof than the primary two greens and the way they’re angled to reward play from the riskier, left facet of the golf green. The one factor lacking is yardage markers, however solely as a result of the membership doesn’t consider in them. Refreshing to discover a place the place the sport is performed by really feel, not analytics.
8. Olympic – Lake (Daly Metropolis) [#]
It’s at all times a delight to discover a course that rewards the misplaced artwork of shaping photographs. The 4th gap, as an illustration, includes a reverse-camber fairway: the outlet swings proper to left however the fairway tilts left to proper, mandating a draw from the tee. The subsequent gap, a dogleg proper, requires a fade. Current clearing has helped to focus on the gorgeous nature of the cypress timber that line this hillside overlooking Lake Merced. Its well-known 5-5-short 4 closing stretch produced one other climactic end on the 2021 U.S. Ladies’s Open. Kudos to William Watson, who may nicely be the least appreciated vital architect from the Golden Age.
9. Pasatiempo (Santa Cruz) [#, Y, P]
Some nitpickers wish to level out that elements of the course are pinched by properties. However a kind of homes, alongside the par-5 sixth, belonged to Alister Mackenzie, who selected to spend his remaining years on what he as soon as described as his most interesting course. Not like Cypress Level, about an hour down the coast, Pasatiempo sits simply inland, however its excessive factors supply views of the Pacific and all the property is a sight to behold, with big paw-print bunkers and rumpled fairways that give solution to ample, undulating greens. All through a spherical right here, it’s not laborious to see the affect that Pasatiempo had on Mackenzie’s later work at Augusta Nationwide — nowhere extra so than on the par-4 tenth, a brawny two-shotter with the identical dramatic sweep of what you see on TV each April. These and different positive Mackenzian options are actually sharper than ever because the course emerges from a restoration and reopens to the general public this fall.
Patrick Koenig
10. Bel-Air (Los Angeles) [#]
A George C. Thomas traditional that winds via the canyons overlooking Los Angeles. Nice architects had tinkered with Bel-Air over time, however Tom Doak’s latest restoration took out the fashionable gimmicks and greater than 30 bunkers, bringing Bel-Air again a lot nearer to its authentic design. What hasn’t modified: the clubby environment on the patio, that gorgeous stroll over golf’s most well-known suspension bridge and a again 9 showcasing what Ken Venturi known as a few of the greatest lengthy par-3s on the earth.
11. Monterey Peninsula – Shore (Pebble Seaside) [#]
As soon as a ho-hum format that languished within the shadow of its well-known 17-Mile Drive neighbors, the Shore Course began drawing discover in 2004 after the iconoclastic architect Mike Strantz constructed 12 new holes and overhauled six others. Strantz mentioned his objective was to make gamers “dance among the many cypress.” However his routing, which opens and ends amid the pines, additionally takes benefit of an enormous expanse of shoreline, with fairways fringed by wispy native grasses, and dramatic rock outcrops framing a number of greens and tees. In 2010, 5 years after Strantz’s passing, his work gained even better recognition when the Shore Course joined the rota of the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am.
12. Ladera (Thermal) [#]
Tucked away within the decrease Coachella Valley, this personal membership nestles up towards the Santa Rosa Mountains and gives one of many recreation’s most peaceable settings. Provided that Jim Wagner and Gil Hanse manipulated each inch of this desert web site, they have been free to configure the fairways as greatest they noticed match. A number of tee photographs now require interesting diagonal carries over the likes of barrancas, low-lying vegetation and well-placed bunkers on the within of doglegs. Standout holes embody the 210-yard par-3 twelfth that includes a Biarritz kind swale on the rear of the inexperienced, and the drivable par-4 fifteenth that performs to an elevated, angled inexperienced. The perfect of the bunch is perhaps the 18th, with its huge bunker on the left working in excellent unison with a sister bunker entrance proper. That is strategic golf at a excessive stage.
13. Monterey Peninsula – Dunes (Pebble Seaside) [#]
All the pieces outdated is new once more. Working with the unique Raynor routing, wunderkinds Tim Jackson and David Kahn delivered to fore the rugged options of a forest-meets-sea panorama on a reborn course that boasts majestic dunes, expansive sandy wastes and greens of wildly various measurement and contour. Previously straight fairways now sashay gracefully with the coastal terrain, and the par-3s, lengthy a energy, have grown remarkably nice. They embody the hard-along-the-water 14th, which performs over the waves and is such a placing sight, vacationers usually cease to spectate from an overlook on 17-Mile Drive.
14. Spyglass Hill (Pebble Seaside) [Y, P]
The hardest of the three websites in Pebble’s movie star pro-am rota, this imposing design performs like two programs in a single. After plunging towards the ocean on its opening par 5, the routing romps via coastal dunes, a captivating and difficult stretch highlighted by the artful par-4 4th, with its slender, angled hourglass-shaped inexperienced that runs away from the participant. Two holes later, it’s again into the timber, the place a special kind of check awaits in pine-framed tee photographs, dog-legged fairways and pond-guarded greens. Emblematic of the problem is the par-4 sixteenth, a 476-yard right-bending beast that, yr after yr, ranks among the many hardest holes on Tour.
15. Meadow Membership (Fairfax)
16. Lakeside (Burbank)
17. Stone Eagle (Palm Desert)
18. Wilshire (Los Angeles)
19. The Quarry at La Quinta (La Quinta)
20. Lake Merced (Daly Metropolis)
21. Hillcrest (Los Angeles)
22. Torrey Pines – South (La Jolla) [Y, P]
In search of an unrelenting check? Do that lovely beast. The 2-time U.S. Open venue (2008 and 2021) is polarizing for some structure aficionados who really feel the routing doesn’t take full benefit of the coastal setting. Nevertheless it actually does on the 4th gap, a protracted par-4 that hugs an oceanside bluff. Benefit from the stroll, keep out of the tough — which is particularly juicy proper earlier than and after the annual PGA Tour occasion every January — and play the suitable tees on a format that stretches to a meaty 7,802 yards. Oh, and good luck.
USGA
23. Rustic Canyon (Moorpark) [Y, V, P]
Tucked away in Moorpark, a northwest suburb of Los Angeles, Rustic Canyon retains an under-the-radar vibe. Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford infused a minimalist theme right here to the max, with an emphasis on angles and the bottom recreation — components extra generally discovered on the designers’ inspiration: the hyperlinks programs of Nice Britain and Eire. Acknowledged as among the finest values for public golf within the area (and presumably the nation), the aptly-named course kicks off with a vertical barranca dividing the primary fairway wanting the inexperienced, a powerful trace on the expertise to comply with.
24. Madison Membership (La Quinta)
25. PGA West – Dye Stadium (La Quinta) [Y, P]
Pete Dye put his singular imprint on desert golf at PGA West, and whereas it’s not fairly the Southwest’s model of TPC Sawgrass, it comes shut. Witness the island-green par-3 seventeenth, which Lee Trevino famously aced on the 1987 Skins recreation. Former Dye affiliate Tim Liddy returned in the summertime of 2024 to reclaim gap areas by restoring greens to their authentic sizes; he additionally rebuilt bunkers in his mentor’s inimitable fashion. This check will depart you each flummoxed and fascinated, simply as Dye would have needed it.
26. The Protect (Carmel-By-The-Sea)
27. Diablo (Diablo)
28. San Diego CC (Chula Vista)
29. Los Angeles – South (Los Angeles)
30. Rancho Santa Fe (Rancho Santa Fe)
31. TPC Harding Park (San Francisco) [Y, P]
Even in case you can’t drive the inexperienced on the par-4 sixteenth, like Collin Morikawa famously did in the course of the remaining spherical of the 2020 PGA Championship, Harding Park stays a must-play. The course, which rubs shoulders with some elite personal neighbors (The Olympic Membership, Lake Merced, San Francisco Golf Membership), was reborn within the early 2000s with an in depth renovation. Huge Cypress timber line the fairways, and also you’d be hard-pressed to discover a harder closing stretch within the Bay Space than 13 via 18 right here. Go too far left on the closing gap or your ball will disappear into Lake Merced. Charges: Diverse inexperienced charges, with on-demand tee-time pricing.
Getty Photographs
32. Sherwood (Lake Sherwood)
33. Mayacama (Santa Rosa)
34. Martis Camp Membership (Truckee)
35. PGA West – Mountain (La Quinta) [Y, P]
Elevated above the valley flooring, the Mountain course is likely one of the extra scenic locations to play in La Quinta. Seven holes run parallel to the Santa Rosa Mountains. Amongst them are the brief par-4 14th that performs over a riverbed on the method, the par-5 fifteenth tucked round a jutting slice of the mountain and the par-3 sixteenth, certainly one of Pete Dye’s forgotten island greens. As with most programs that bear the Dye identify, there are beneficiant purposes of railroad ties and water hazards, with lengthy angular bunkers paying homage to TPC Sawgrass’ dictating technique into the greens. Attempt to play early within the morning or late within the afternoon to see the prismatic colours replicate off the valley and surrounding vistas.
36. CordeValle (San Martin) [Y, P]
Situated within the sleepy city of San Martin only a brief drive from Silicon Valley, CordeValle is certainly one of Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s greatest designs. The 260-acre property is likely one of the solely within the space with out actual property, protecting the tucked-away valley within the shadow of the Santa Cruz Mountains a pure expression of Northern California golf. A latest bunker renovation has given the course higher distinction with the pure creeks that act as hazards. A spotlight of the spherical is the textbook instance of a Redan gap on the par-3 twelfth, the place the tightly mown inexperienced surrounds feed strategically positioned photographs onto the placing floor. A former PGA Tour web site, CordeValle additionally performed host to the 2016 U.S. Ladies’s Open.
