The very best 18 holes from our all-new High 100 Programs You Can Play rating

All of us have programs that we dream of enjoying. That is one thing totally different.

This can be a course we fantasize about.

It exists solely in our creativeness, composed of 18 holes from 18 of the best public-access programs in the US: GOLF’s High 100 You Can Play for 2024-25. Whereas conceiving of this format was a whimsical pursuit, we imposed parameters: the course must play to a par 72, and every gap in its routing must fall in the identical sequence because it does within the unique course. We thought lengthy and arduous, and we leaned on our course ranking panelists for insights. The alternatives weren’t simple, however the outcome was value all of the deliberating and debate. Right here’s our final 18, a course we’d like to play, if we solely might.

1. Sheep Ranch, par-5, 549 yards

Bandon, Ore.

Some programs begin with a pleasant handshake. That is extra like an excited fist-bump, a reachable par-5 that mixes a scoring alternative with strategic choices and arresting views. From a excessive level on the property, it performs over a forehead and round a delicate bend towards a inexperienced with the Pacific spreading out behind it. The ocean reveal if you flip the nook is as exhilarating as nearly any vista within the sport, and the prospect of a daring second shot giving strategy to birdie — or higher — will get your blood pumping, too.

2. Pinehurst No. 2, par-4, 439 yards

Pinehurst, N.C.

No dream 18 could be full and not using a contribution from the cradle of American golf. This doglegged bruiser tempts you to try to lower it down measurement by enjoying up the fitting facet off the tee, however the slightest push brings a sandy waste and wire grass into the image. The safer route is up the left, flirting with a pair of fairway bunkers, which leaves an extended strategy to a inexperienced with a hump in its center that shrugs off photographs in all instructions.

3. Karoo Course, Cabot Citrus Farms, par-3, 290 yards

Brooksville, Fla.

Dimension issues, however solely a lot, and the gaudy yardage right here will not be the ultimate measure of a gap that appears a lot tougher than it performs. In the event you maintain your wits about you on the tee, you possibly can make the most of a kick-slope on the fitting, which caroms balls towards a big, undulating inexperienced that has a wealth of entertaining gap places. Given the size, par is immensely gratifying, and it occurs extra typically than you would possibly assume.

4. Bethpage Black, par-5, 517 yards

Farmingdale, N.Y. 

An indication by the first tee advises golfers that the Black Course is supposed “for extremely expert” gamers solely. Think about it truthful warning. By the point you arrive at this risk-reward par-5, which zigs round a cluster of bunkers on the left then up a 50-foot rise to a blind inexperienced, you’ll most likely really feel the necessity to get a shot again. However get too aggressive, and also you’ll wind up giving a number of extra away.

5. Gamble Sands, par-4, 517 yards

Brewster, Wash.

Brawny however beguiling, this stout par-4 invitations you to blast it up the fitting to shorten your strategy. However that leaves a blind shot to a inexperienced with a world of sandy hassle behind it. The much less apparent play is the savvier determination, up the left facet of the green. From there, it’s an extended second however a greater angle, with an opportunity to get inventive by bounding the ball in. 

6. Pacific Dunes, par-4, 316 yards

Bandon, Ore.

To be aggressive, or to not be aggressive. Hamlet would have scratched his chin ceaselessly if he’d ever confronted the choices on this bedeviling magnificence. Onerous accountable him, given the calls for of a slender, dune-top inexperienced with steep drop-off behind it and a fronting bunker that some consult with because the “satan’s a-hole.” Besides that it’s far greater than that.

7. Lawsonia Hyperlinks, par-3, 159 yards

Inexperienced Lake, Wisc.

Story goes {that a} boxcar is buried beneath the inexperienced of this chic par-3. We are able to’t verify that. However we are able to assure that should you miss brief or proper, you’ll put your self in peril, confronted with a pitch up a steep embankment — and the prospect of your spherical going off the rails.

8. Pinehurst No. 10, par-4, 385 yards

Pinehurst, N.C.

“Double-blind” is a poker time period. But it surely applies properly to this wild par-4, which performs by the spoils an early Twentieth-century mining operation, over a Matterhorn-like hillock that conceals a lot of the green, then to a punchbowl inexperienced partly shrouded by a dune.

9. Harbour City Golf Hyperlinks, par-4, 332 yards

Hilton Head, S.C. 

Not like many common stops on the PGA Tour, Harbour City doesn’t lend itself to bomb-and-gouge assaults. Its calls for are extra delicate, as evidenced by this sly par-4, which is reachable for the sport’s greatest hitters however dangerous irrespective of how you’re taking it on, thanks largely to a heart-shaped inexperienced with an enormous lure in a entrance and heart-breaking pot bunker in again.

10. Pasatiempo, par-4, 437 yards

Santa Cruz, Calif.

Lots of the options at Pasatiempo, Alister Mackenzie’s public-access masterpiece, foreshadow the architect’s later work at Augusta. You see it plainly within the sweep and tumble of this grand par-4, which might look proper at residence on the far finish of Magnolia Lane.

11. Karsten Creek, par-3, 209 yards

Stillwater, Okla.

Fairly and punishing. If these phrases remind you of somebody you dated in highschool, snap out of it! We’re speaking a couple of stout par-3 on the house course of the Oklahoma State males’s and ladies’s golf groups. It performs by a chute of bushes to an elongated inexperienced with water back and front, and bogie or worse ready nearly anyplace you miss.

12. Prairie Membership, Dunes, par-5, 548 yards

Valentine, Neb.

With acres of fairway to purpose for off the tee, discovering the brief grass will not be the difficulty. The better intrigue comes in your second shot to a inexperienced set in a hole between deep sandy wastes. Go searching. The prairie views are infinite. So are the probabilities.

13. Ocean Course at Kiawah, par-4, 404 yards

Kiawah Island, S.C.

Pete Dye was generally known as the Marquis de Sod however he might have been dubbed the Duke of Deception. One glimpse of the canal that runs alongside the fitting, and your intuition is to bail out left, the place a cluster of fairway bunkers will do you no favors. The wiser alternative is to decide on how a lot of the water you need to carry, after which swing with full dedication. The visuals are scary. However isn’t that a part of approach you play? Testing your potential to face down concern.

14. Chambers Bay Golf Course, par-4, 450 yards

College Place, Wash.

From an elevated tee, you get a gawker of a view of Puget Sound. However don’t let that distract you. This big-boy of a Cape gap, with its elbow bent round a sea of bunkers, requires an urge for food for danger and sharp execution to a fairway with a velocity slot that you just’ll need to catch to have a lot hope in your second shot.

15. The Lido, par-4, 438 yards

Nekoosa, Wisc.

What’s in a reputation? This par-4 known as “Technique,” which is smart, because the angled cross bunkers on its ample fairway current you with a puzzler in your drive. However “Methods” ought to most likely be the moniker as an alternative. Shortly after he completed constructing it, Tom Doak was requested how he thought the opening must be performed. “I’ll let you recognize after I determine that out myself,” he stated.

16. Outdated Macdonald, par-4, 433 yards

Bandon, Ore.

Outdated MacDonald is an homage to C.B. Macdonald, and its holes pay tribute to his well-known templates. This rousing par-4 is a cap-tip to Macdonald’s Alps gap at Nationwide Golf Hyperlinks, which itself is a riff on the Alps at Prestwick — the important thing distinction being that its giant, defining dunes don’t blind each strategy shot. You will get a transparent look in should you drive it boldly up the fitting.

17. TPC Sawgrass, par-3, 139 yards

Ponte Vedra Seashore, Fla.

Good design or gawd-awful gimmick? This island-green par-3 is a polarizing gap, and also you’re entitled to your opinion. However right here’s the factor: You’ve bought to play it first.

18. Pebble Seashore, par-5, 541 yards

Pebble Bach, Calif.

You’ve most likely seen the photograph of Jack Nicklaus leaning towards the picket fence that flanks the tee of this fabled par-5. Many individuals who play Pebble pose in the identical place, and never simply because they need to replicate a picture. Irrespective of who you might be, the setting does it to you: It begs you to pause and drink all of it in.