The clubhouse at Valhalla, which hosted the 2024 PGA Championship.
Getty Photographs
As a part of GOLF’s rigorous rankings course of for our newly launched High 100 Programs within the U.S. and High 100 Programs You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus professional panelists recognized the very best 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 right down to see the very best programs in Kentucky. And when you’re trying 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 possibly can toggle all of our lists — High 100 public, greatest munis, greatest brief programs, greatest par-3s and extra — or filter by worth to create the proper itinerary on your subsequent journey.
GOLF’s different course rankings: High 100 Programs within the World | High 100 Programs within the U.S. | High 100 Programs You Can Play | High 100 Worth Programs within the U.S. | America’s Finest Municipal Programs | The 100 Finest Brief Programs within the World
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The most effective golf programs in Kentucky (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = High 100 Course within the U.S.
Y = High 100 You Can Play within the U.S.
V = High 100 Worth Course within the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. word: Some programs had been omitted from our rankings as a result of they didn’t obtain sufficient votes.
1. Valhalla (Louisville)
Jack Nicklaus contains the double-fairway par-5 seventh as one in all his favourite gap designs. He offers the participant selections, with the left shorter fairway having a tougher method with a compelled carry over water to the inexperienced. The inexperienced complexes are difficult, however not as devious as another Nicklaus designs. Valhalla strikes the proper stability: able to internet hosting the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup whereas nonetheless being enjoyable for the common golfer to take pleasure in as nicely.
2. Idlehour (Lexington)
3. Hustbourne (Hurstbourne)
4. The Membership at Olde Stone (Bowling Inexperienced)
5. Park Mammoth Golf Membership (Park Metropolis) [P]
How we rank our programs
For our newly launched High 100 U.S. and High 100 You Can Play lists — a course of that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — every panelist was offered a poll that consisted of 609 programs. Beside the checklist of programs had been 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists thought of a course to be among the many high three within the U.S., they ticked that first column. In the event that they believed the course to be amongst Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, adopted by 11-25, 26-50, and so forth out to 250+ and even a column for “take away.” Panelists had been additionally free to jot down in programs that they felt ought to have been included on the poll.
Factors had been assigned to every bucket; to reach at a median rating for every course, we divide its combination rating by the variety of votes. From these level tallies, the programs are then ranked accordingly. It’s an deliberately easy and simple course of. Why? As a result of it traditionally has produced outcomes which can be broadly lauded. Like the sport itself, there’s no must unnecessarily complicate issues or attempt to repair one thing that already works so nicely.
