Gamble Sands is situated in Brewster, Washington.
Brian Oar
As a part of GOLF’s rigorous scores 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 knowledgeable panelists recognized the perfect golf programs in each state.
You possibly can try the hyperlinks under to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll all the way down to see the perfect programs in Washington. And in case you’re trying to create your individual journey sooner or later, you’d be smart to let GOLF’s new Course Finder software help you. Right here, you possibly can toggle all of our lists — High 100 public, finest munis, finest brief programs, finest par-3s and extra — or filter by worth to create the right itinerary to 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 Greatest Municipal Programs | The 100 Greatest Quick Programs within the World
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The very best golf programs in Washington (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. notice: Some programs have been omitted from our rankings as a result of they didn’t obtain sufficient votes.
1. Gamble Sands (Brewster) [#,Y,P]
After stamping his title on some penal, polarizing programs, Bandon Dunes designer McLay Kidd had what he describes as a come-to-the-mountain second. It was time to return to his Scottish roots and the basics that had labored so properly at Bandon. In different phrases, time to place a renewed emphasis on enjoyable. In apple-orchard nation in Japanese Washington, Kidd formed fairways as broad as touchdown strips whereas including contours that steer borderline photographs away from bother. Greens are sizable however tame, with tightly mown runoffs the place putter is usually the wiser play. Whereas the course has hosted top-flight novice occasions, it’s the poster-child of design for everybody. Enjoyable, it seems, isn’t shedding your ball. It’s discovering it with ease, after which sorting by means of the choices for how one can play it subsequent.
2. Chambers Bay (College Place) [Y,P]
“Linksy” may be essentially the most overused phrase in golf, however Chambers Bay is the actual deal. Carved out of a former gravel mine laborious by Puget Sound, the Robert Trent Jones Jr. format gives magnificent water views from virtually each gap. Practice tracks and a design that welcomes bump-and-run photographs add to the British Open vibe, however the sweeping Olympic Mountain vistas are pure Americana. On the 2015 U.S. Open, the dry, bumpy greens confounded the professionals — Henrik Stenson griped that it was “like placing on broccoli.” However these tremendous fescue surfaces have since transitioned to native poa annua, so gamers now take pleasure in a a lot smoother placing expertise…after they’re not distracted by these beautiful water views.
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3. Aldarra (Sammamish)
4. Sahalee – S/N (Sammamish)
5. Seattle GC (Seattle)
6. Wine Valley CC (Walla Walla) [Y,P]
Golfers are accustomed to seeing fescue blowing within the breeze by the ocean, however what about 200 miles inland between alfalfa fields and Syrah vines? Dan Hixson, the brains behind Silvies Valley Ranch and Bandon Crossings, approached his work at Wine Valley as if he have been shaping linksland moderately than the sphere of untamed grass that was his canvas. Monstrous bunkers and rifts of waste areas require considerate play, however the fairways are broad sufficient and greens expansive sufficient to supply a lot variance setup from spherical to spherical. The par-5s, together with the punchbowl seventh, additionally will make you suppose: hit the laborious shot now … or later.
7. Tumble Creek (Cle Elum)
8. Gold Mountain – Olympic (Bremerton) [V,P]
Not a lot has modified since 2011 when then-17-year-old Jordan Spieth gained the U.S. Junior Beginner right here — as a result of why mess with a very good factor? Elevation modifications produce difficult lies on broad fairways lined by 100-foot fir and cedar bushes. The greens have loads of refined breaks, and adjoining assortment areas will check your brief recreation. The course drains properly (a helpful trait within the Pacific Northwest), however there may be everlasting water on six holes. Just one gap — the signature par-3 sixteenth — is all carry over the hazard. The reachable par-4 nearer gives an enormous danger/reward alternative, with water up the fitting aspect to the inexperienced. The Seattle ferry docks solely quarter-hour from the course. Charges: differ with on-demand tee-time pricing.
9. Fircrest (Fircrest)
10. Canterwood (Gig Harbor)
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 supplied a poll that consisted of 609 programs. Beside the record of programs have 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 have been additionally free to put in writing in programs that they felt ought to have been included on the poll.
Factors have been assigned to every bucket; to reach at a mean rating for every course, we divide its mixture 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 might be extensively lauded. Like the sport itself, there’s no must unnecessarily complicate issues or attempt to repair one thing that already works so properly.
The important thing to the method is the expertise and experience of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all of the worldwide golf meccas, every of our 127 handpicked panelists has a eager eye for structure, each regionally and globally. A lot of our panelists have performed greater than 1,000 programs in 20-plus international locations, some over 2,000. Their handicaps vary from +5 to fifteen.
