Fields Ranch East in Frisco.
Patrick Koenig
As part of GOLF’s rigorous assessment process for our newcomers Top 100 courses in the USA AND The best 100 courses you can play ranking, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the best golf courses in each state.
You can check out the links below to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in Texas. And if you’re looking to create your future ride, you’d be wise to let the new GOLF Course finder the tool helps you. Here, you can edit all of our lists – top 100 public, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s and more – or filter by price to create the itinerary perfect for your next trip.
Ranking of other GOLF courses: Top 100 courses in the world | Top 100 courses in the USA | The best 100 courses you can play | The 100 most valuable courses in the USA | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 best short courses in the world
Check out our new travel podcast Destination GOLF. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: APPLE | SPOTIFY | HEART | AMAZON
Best Golf Courses in Texas (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Top 100 courses in the USA
Y = Top 100 you can play in USA
V = The 100 most valuable courses in the USA
P = Public/Resort
Ed. Note: Some subjects were removed from our ranking because they did not receive enough votes.
1. Trinity Forest (Dallas) (#)
Evan Schiller
2. Colonial (Fort Worth)
3. Whispering Pines (Trinity)
4. Brook Hollow (Dallas)
5. Austin Golf Club (Spicewood)
6. Big Easy Ranch, The Covey (Columbus)
7. TX0 (Formerly Wolf Point) (Port Lavaca)
8. Dallas National (Dallas)
9. Omni PGA Frisco (Fields Ranch East) (Frisco) (Y, P)
Adam Christensen
The PGA of America’s 2022 move from Florida was also a move to extravagant new headquarters in Frisco, Tex., that cost more than half a billion dollars to build. Part of a sprawling complex boasting two 18-holes, a luxurious putting course and a floodlit par-3 layout, the East Course is the big boy of the bunch, a solid, standing-only design that rewards putts good, but punishing misses on small greens surrounded by strong, fast flows and tight lies. Scheduled to host a number of PGA of America events in the coming years, including the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the 2027 PGA Championship, the course may stretch to more than 7,800 yards, but makes a compelling test from any distance on a short time. -The current Texas wind.
10. Shady Oaks (Westworth Village)
11. Austin Country Club (Austin)
12. Champions – Cypress Creek (Houston)
13. Bluejack National (Montgomery)
Kindly
14. Preston Trail (Dallas)
15. Vaquero (Westlake)
16. Memorial Park (Y, V, P)
Tom Doak, along with consultant Brooks Koepka, were chosen to take one of the most popular public golf courses in the Houston metropolitan area and turn it into a place suitable for testing the best players in the world, accommodated over 60,000 fans. A successful combination of more short grass, fewer bunkers and better transitions from green to tip led not only to a successful tournament environment, but also to a design in which the people of Houston can take great pride.
17. Shoe Farm (Fredericksburg)
18. Rawls Course at Texas Tech (Lubbock) (V, P)
Zephyr Melton
Tom Doak’s general preference is to follow nature’s lead, but when given a flat spot like the one here, plan B was called for. Instead, the job became a massive exercise in moving dirt in two directions: First, mounds were built around the perimeter so that the golfer’s attention was drawn inward, opening up long, beautiful views across the course. . Second, Doak made sure the holes themselves were blessed with lots of random, micro-contours. Combine the strong playing conditions that are fostered in this part of Texas with the area’s pervasive wind, and the course plays—shockingly—like a links. Downwind, golfers may need to pick a spot about 45 yards short of the reachable par-5 2nd green to hit their second shots and then watch in delight as the balls they connect to the opening of the placement surface. No golf courses are close to Lubbock, so the Rawls course is a bit of an outpost, but make sure it stays on your radar.
19. Spanish Oaks (Austin)
20. Barton Creek – Canyons (Austin) (P)
How we rank our courses
For our newly released US Top 100 and Top 100 Playable lists—a process that helped us create the top 50 rankings in the country—each panelist was given a ballot consisting of 609 courses. . Alongside the list of courses were 11 “buckets” or groupings. If our panelists deemed a course to be among the top three in the US, they marked the first column. If they believed the rate was between numbers 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50 and so on up to 250+ and even a column for “remove”. Panelists were also free to write in courses they felt should have been included on the ballot.
Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its overall score by the number of votes. From these point totals, courses are then ranked accordingly. It’s an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it has historically produced results that are widely praised. Like the game itself, there’s no need to overcomplicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.
The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the golfing meccas around the world, each of our 127 hand-picked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1000 courses in over 20 countries, some over 2000. Their handicaps range from +5 to +15.
Because the nature of course evaluation is so intensely subjective, no opinion counts. The only way, then, to build meaningful consensus is to incorporate this diversity of panelists and experiences into a ranking.
Need help taming the greens on your home course? Get an order The Green Book to 8 a.m. Golf affiliate GolfLogix.
