Ranking our list of the top 100 courses by year built

When it comes to celebrating the best courses in the world, it’s common to think that the oldest and most historically established courses are recognized more often, but a deep dive into GOLF’s latest ranking of the 100 best courses in the world reveals that the list is actually evenly split. There are an impressive 45 courses on the list that were built in the last quarter century, including one, Upper Course at Childress Hall in Texaswhich made its debut this year.

The Old Course at St. Andrews it is, of course, the oldest listed course of all, dating back 625 years. The next group of predictably older courses comes from Great Britain and Ireland, with opening dates in the mid-to-late 1800s. The oldest US course on the list is Hon. Chicagowhich was opened in 1895.

Perhaps surprisingly, the most prolific decades for the courses in this year’s ranking are the 1920s and 1930s – the golden age of the game’s architecture, when Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie and AW Tillinghast produced classics such as Seminole (Ross); Cypress point AND Royal Melbourne (MacKenzie) and Foot with wings AND Baltusrol (Tillinghast). A total of 36 courses on the list come from these two decades.

Take in the extensive history of our World’s Top 100 list below by browsing the course names in order from oldest to newest. To see the original list of the top 100 courses in the world in its entirety, click here.

GOLF’s Top 100 list built by year, from oldest to newest

1. St. Andrews (Old Course) – St. Andrews, Scotland – 1400 (Rank 3)

2. Carnoustie (Championship) – Carnoustie, Scotland – 1842 (Rank 39)

3. Prestwick – Prestwick, Scotland – 1851 (Rank 58)

4. Royal Liverpool – Hoylake, England – 1869 (Rank 95)

5. Machrihanish (Championship) – Campbeltown, Scotland – 1879 (Rank 92)

6. Royal Dornoch – Dornoch, Scotland – 1886 (Rank 12)

7. Royal Troon (Old) – Troon, Scotland – 1887 (Rank 53)

8. Royal County Down – Newcastle, Northern Ireland – 1889 (Rank 4)

9. Muirfield – Gullane, Scotland – 1891 (Rank 11)

10. Chicago – Wheaton, IL – 1895 (Rank 17)

11. North Berwick (West) – North Berwick, Scotland – 1895 (Rank 25)

12. Rye (old) – Rye, England – 1895 (Rank 90)

13. Portmarnock (Old) – Dublin, Ireland – 1896 (Rank 54)

14. Royal Lytham & St. Annes – Lytham St Annes, England – 1897 (Rank 68)

15. Myopia Hunt Club — South Hamilton, MA — 1898 (Rank 86)

16. The Country Club (Clyde/Squirrel) – Brookline, MA – 1899 (Rank 37)

17. Garden City – Garden City, NY – 1899 (Rank 52)

18. Oakmont – Oakmont, PA – 1903 (Rank 9)

19. Pinehurst No. 2 – Pinehurst, NC – 1907 (Rank 20)

20. Swinley Forest – South Ascot, England – 1910 (Rank 50)

21. National Golf Links of America — Southampton, NY — 1911 (Rank 6)

22. Merion (East) – Ardmore, PA – 1912 (Rank 13)

23. St. George’s Hill (A & B) – Weybridge, England – 1913 (Rank 57)

24. Sleepy Hollow – Briarcliff Manor, NY – 1913 (Rank 77)

25. Oakland Hills (South) – Bloomfield Hills, MI – 1917 (Rank 36)

26. Pine Valley – Pine Valley, NJ – 1918 (Rank 1)

27. San Francisco — San Francisco, CA — 1918 (Rank 40)

28. Somerset Hills – Bernardsville, NJ – 1918 (Rank 51)

29. Pebble Beach — Pebble Beach, CA — 1919 (Rank 15)

30. Inverness – Toledo, OH – 1919 (Rank 67)

31. Shoreacres – Lake Bluff, IL – 1921 (Rank 47)

32. Oak Hill (East) – Rochester, NY – 1921 (Rank 60)

33. Sunningdale (Old) – Sunningdale, England – 1922 (Rank 22)

34. Royal St. George’s – Sandwich, England – 1922 (Rank 30)

35. Maidstone – East Hampton, NY – 1922 (Rank 49)

36. Sunningdale (young) – Sunningdale, England – 1922 (Rank 55)

37. Baltusrol (Below) – Springfield, NJ – 1922 (Rank 70)

38. Winged Foot (West) – Mamaroneck, NY – 1923 (Rank 33)

39. Winged Foot (East) – Mamaroneck, NY – 1923 (Rank 91)

40. Fishers Island – Fishers Island, NY – 1926 (Rank 16)

41. California Golf Club of San Francisco – South San Francisco, CA – 1926 (Rank 45)

42. Camargo — Cincinnati, OH — 1926 (Rank 59)

43. Cruden Bay – Cruden Bay, Scotland – 1926 (Rank 61)

44. Woodhall Spa (Hotchkin) – Woodhall Spa, England – 1926 (Rank 74)

45. Los Angeles (North) – Los Angeles, CA – 1927 (Rank 21)

46. ​​Riviera – Pacific Palisades, CA – 1927 (Rank 26)

47. Lahinch (Old) – Lahinch, Ireland – 1927 (Rank 34)

48. Morfontaine – Morfontaine, France – 1927 (Rank 38)

49. Victoria – Cheltenham, Australia – 1927 (Rank 93)

50. Cypress Point – Pebble Beach, CA – 1928 (Rank 2)

51. Kingston Heath – Cheltenham, Australia – 1928 (Rank 24)

52. New South Wales – La Perouse, Australia – 1928 (Rank 46)

53. Royal Portrush (Dunluce) – Portrush, Northern Ireland – 1929 (Rank 14)

54. Seminole — Juno Beach, FL — 1929 (Rank 32)

55. Shinnecock Hills – Southampton, NY – 1931 (Rank 5)

56. Royal Melbourne (West) – Black Rock, Australia – 1931 (Rank 7)

57. Hirono – Miki-Chi, Japan – 1932 (Rank 28)

58. Crystal Downs – Frankfort, MI – 1932 (Rank 31)

59. Royal Birkdale – Southport, England – 1932 (Rank 42)

60. Royal Melbourne (East) – Black Rock, Australia – 1932 (Rank 82)

61. Utrecht de Pan – Bosch en Duin, Netherlands – 1932 (Rank 89)

62. Augusta National — Augusta, GA — 1933 (Rank 8)

63. Bethpage (Black) – Farmingdale, NY – 1935 (Rank 56)

64. Ballybunion (Old) – Ballybunion, Ireland – 1936 (Rank 29)

65. Southern Hills – Tulsa, OK – 1936 (Rank 43)

66. Kawana (Fuji) – Ito-shi, Japan – 1936 (Rank 62)

67. Prairie Dunes – Hutchinson, KS – 1937 (Rank 27)

68. Royal Hague – Wassenaar, Netherlands – 1938 (Rank 81)

69. Old Town – Winston-Salem, NC – 1939 (Rank 80)

70. Trump Turnberry (Ailsa) – Turnberry, Scotland – 1946 (Rank 18)

71. Peachtree – Atlanta, GA – 1947 (Rank 75)

72. Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog) – La Romana, DR – 1971 (Rank 83)

73. Kiawah Island (Ocean) – Kiawah Island, SC – 1991 (Rank 71)

74. Sand Hills – Mullen, NE – 1995 (Rank 10)

75. Bandon Dunes — Bandon, OR — 1999 (Rank 85)

76. Kingsbarns – Kingsbarns, Scotland – 1999 (Rank 94)

77. Pacific Dunes – Bandon, OR – 2001 (Rank 35)

78. Nine Bridges – Jeju-do, South Korea – 2001 (Rank 87)

79. Friar’s Head – Riverhead, NY – 2003 (Rank 23)

80. Barnbougle Dunes – Bridport, Australia – 2004 (Rank 41)

81. Cape Kidnappers – Te Awanga, New Zealand – 2004 (Rank 65)

82. Bandon Trails — Bandon, OR — 2005 (Rank 76)

83. Ballyneal – Holyoke, CO – 2006 (Rank 63)

84. Rock Creek Cattle Company — Deer Lodge, MT — 2008 (Rank 88)

85. Cabot Highlands (Castle Stuart) – Inverness, Scotland – 2009 (Rank 97)

86. Shanqin Bay – Hainan, China – 2012 (Rank 64)

87. Cabot Cape Breton (Cabot Links) – Inverness, Canada – 2012 (Rank 96)

88. Tara Iti — Te Arai, New Zealand — 2015 (Rank 19)

89. Lofoten Links — Gimsøysand, Norway — 2015 (Rank 66)

90. Cape Wickham — Wickham, Australia — 2015 (Ranked 100)

91. Cabot Cape Breton (Cabot Cliffs) – Inverness, Canada – 2016 (Rank 78)

92. Ardfin — Isle of Jura, UK — 2017 (Rank 72)

93. Ohoopee Match Club — Cobbtown, GA — 2018 (Rank 99)

94. St. Patrick’s Links — Rosapenna, Ireland — 2021 (Rank 44)

95. CapRock Ranch — Valentine, NE — 2021 (Rank 84)

96. Te Arai (South) – Te Arai, New Zealand – 2022 (Rank 79)

97. Sand Valley (The Lido) – Rome, WI – 2023 (Rank 48)

98. Cabot Saint Lucia (Point Hardy Golf Club) – Gros Islet, St. Lucia Lucia – 2023 (Rank 69)

99. Te Arai (North) – Tomarata, New Zealand – 2023 (Rank 98)

100. Childress Hall (Upper) — Childress, TX — 2025 (Rank 73)

LINK: Complete methodology: How we evaluate courses | World list 2025-26 ranked by country | 2025-26 List of world courses you can play

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