Gamble Sands is located in Brewster, Washington.
Brian Oar
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 Washington. 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 publics, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s, and more—or filter by price to create your own 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
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Best Golf Courses in Washington (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. Gamble Sands (Brewster) (#,Y,P)
After stamping his name on some punishing, polarizing courses, Bandon Dunes designer McLay Kidd had what he describes as a coming-of-age moment on the mountain. It was time to return to his Scottish roots and the basics that had worked so well at Bandon. In other words, it’s time to put a new emphasis on entertainment. In the apple orchard country of Eastern Washington, Kidd shaped fairways as wide as landing strips while adding contours that steer boundary hitters out of trouble. The greens are large but tame, with heavily mowed fairways where bogey is often the wisest play. While the course has hosted high-level amateur events, it is the poster child of design for all. Fun, it turns out, isn’t losing the ball. It’s finding it easily and then sorting through the options of how to play it next.
2. Chambers Bay (University Place) (Y,P)
“Linksy” may be the most overused word in golf, but Chambers Bay is the real deal. Carved out of a former hard gravel mine from the Puget Sound, Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s layout. offers great views of the water from almost every hole. Train tracks and a design that welcomes bump-and-run shots add to the British Open atmosphere, but the sweeping views of the Olympic mountains are pure Americana. At the 2015 US Open, dry, bumpy greens confounded the pros – Henrik Stenson realized it was “like dressing broccoli”. But those beautiful fescue surfaces have since transitioned to native poa annua, so players now enjoy a much smoother putting experience…when not distracted by those stunning water views.
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3. Aldarra (Sammamish)
4. Sahalee – S/N (All)
5. Seattle GC (Seattle)
6. Wine Valley CC (Walla Walla) (Y,P)
Golfers are used to seeing fescue blowing by the ocean, but what about 200 miles inland among fields of alfalfa and Syrah vines? Dan Hixson, the mastermind behind Silvies Valley Ranch and Bandon Crossings, approached his work in Wine Valley as if he were shaping connections rather than the wild grass field that was his canvas. Monstrous bunkers and wasteland cracks require thoughtful play, but the fairways are wide enough and the greens wide enough to offer plenty of variation from round to round. The par-5s, including the bowled 7th, will also have you thinking: hit the tee shot now … or later.
7. Tumble Creek (Cle Elum)
8. Golden Mountain – Olympic (Bremerton) (V,P)
Not much has changed since 2011 when then-17-year-old Jordan Spieth won the US Junior Amateur here – because why mess with a good thing? Elevation changes produce challenging fairways on wide fairways lined by 100-foot firs and cedars. The greens have many subtle breaks and the adjacent teeing areas will test your short game. The course drains well (a useful feature in the Pacific Northwest), but there is permanent water on six holes. Only one hole – the signature par-3 16th – is all about risk. The approachable par-4 closer offers a great risk/reward opportunity, with water on the right side of the green. The Seattle Ferry docks just 15 minutes from the course. Fees: vary with prices upon request.
9. Fircrest (Fircrest)
10. Canterwood (Gig Harbor)
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 total 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.
