Greatest golf programs in California for 2024-25

As a part of GOLF’s rigorous rankings 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 professional panelists recognized one of the best golf programs in each state.

You’ll be able to try the hyperlinks beneath to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll all the way down to see one of the best programs in California. And for those who’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, greatest munis, greatest quick programs, greatest par-3s and extra — or filter by value to create the proper itinerary on 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 California (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. observe: Some programs had been omitted from our rankings as a result of they didn’t obtain sufficient votes.

1. Cypress Level (Pebble Seaside) [#]

It’s nearly inconceivable that land this gorgeous was made accessible for golf. For the fortunate few who get to play right here, they take pleasure in one of many sport’s most inspiring walks as Alister MacKenzie’s design effortlessly transports the participant across the numerous property. The long-lasting par-3 sixteenth, which extends into the churning Pacific, is the sport’s most dramatic and photographed gap, however there are infinite different highlights, from the forested portion to heaving dunes to its famed jagged shoreline. MacKenzie extracted one of the best from the land partly by breaking the “guidelines” and having back-to-back par-5s on the entrance and back-to-back par-3s on the again. The drivable 1/2-par ninth is one other standout with its angled, sloped inexperienced invulnerable to rash techniques.

2. Pebble Seaside (Pebble Seaside) [#, Y, P]

The primary nice American public oceanside course, Pebble advantages from an ingenious routing that brings the participant to the ocean’s edge, then onto a lot increased floor, earlier than returning to the cliffs for the climactic closing two holes. Even right this moment, with gobs of world class programs having been constructed previously 100 years, no extra thrilling, spectacular stretch exists than holes 4 by way of 10. Moreover, does any stroll evaluate with that closing stroll up the long-lasting par-5 18th because it curves left round Carmel Bay?! Exhausting for a course this well-known to exceed first-time expectations — but it surely does.

3. Los Angeles – North (Los Angeles) [#]

Gil Hanse and workforce restored George Thomas’s traditional to perfection in 2010. Bunkers had been reshaped and relocated, fairways widened and a pure barranca was introduced again into play as a strategic hazard. As Hanse says of what’s arguably America’s premier city design, “The course enjoys an ideal sense of place and stability.” LACC hosted the 2017 Walker Cup and the 2023 U.S. Open gained by Wyndham Clark. Early in U.S. Open week, a false narrative emerged that the fairways had been too huge, however by the top of the occasion, the information bore out that driving to explicit sides and spots throughout the fairways was crucial for fulfillment. LACC”s superlative assortment of one-shot holes proved fairly a take a look at as nicely, even with ball in hand and an ideal lie/stance.

4. Riviera (Pacific Palisades) [#]

The worth that an architect gives is highlighted right here in technicolor. In-built a slender canyon, there was no purpose to carry excessive hopes for this course. But what emerged, courtesy of George Thomas and Billy Bell, is without doubt one of the sport’s strategic design marvels. Collectively, the designers took bunker configuration and angled greens to new heights within the Nineteen Twenties. As proof of their magical expertise, look no additional than Riv’s 311-yard, par-4 tenth. Due to the impressed positioning of the bunkers and the angled inexperienced, choices abound on easy methods to card a giant quantity on this tiny gap. Thomas’s well-known quote — “technique is the soul of the sport” — manifests itself at Riv.

5. San Francisco (San Francisco) [#]

A.W. Tillinghast constructed his most inventive assortment of bunkers at this low-key Bay Space hideaway that avoids publicity as steadfastly as its neighbor the Olympic Membership embraces it. Often called the Duel Gap, the drop-shot par-3 seventh would be the course’s most well-known gap, however its par-4s, together with the 2nd, third, tenth and twelfth, are the true headliners.

6. California Golf Membership of San Francisco (South San Francisco) [#]

For many of its 80-year historical past, the Cal Membership, as locals name it, served up a decent although well-regarded course, enhanced by its affiliation with Ken Venturi. Following a 2008 Kyle Phillips re-do that was half restoration and half redesign, many really feel this personal course is the same as any in California north of Cypress Level. Located on the facet of a hill, Cal Membership is assured to catch any wind that’s about. Add in fescue fairways and the location’s broad slopes and you’ve got a course whose asks change each day. Pay attention to the stretch from September 11 and the way every of those two-shotters falls throughout the land in a special method: the ninth performs up and over a hill, the tenth fairway slopes proper to left off the tee after which left to proper nearer to the inexperienced and the twelfth fairway glides by way of its personal pretty valley. General, the combo of quick grass, sprawling bunkers and cypress timber present fixed picture alternatives. Once you uncover the design performs pretty much as good because it appears, you might have one thing particular.

7. Valley Membership of Montecito (Montecito) [#]

Designed by Alister MacKenzie with Robert Hunter overlooking development, The Valley Membership oozes appeal. The holes don’t bully the participant and size isn’t the problem however approaching these greens from the optimum facet of the golf green is paramount, given the firmness of the taking part in surfaces that membership routinely achieves. Look no additional for proof than the primary two greens and the way they’re angled to reward play from the riskier, left facet of the golf green. The one factor lacking is yardage markers, however solely as a result of the membership doesn’t imagine in them. Refreshing to discover a place the place the sport is performed by really feel, not analytics.

8. Olympic – Lake (Daly Metropolis) [#]

It’s at all times a delight to discover a course that rewards the misplaced artwork of shaping photographs. The 4th gap, for example, includes a reverse-camber fairway: the opening swings proper to left however the fairway tilts left to proper, mandating a draw from the tee. The subsequent gap, a dogleg proper, requires a fade. Latest clearing has helped to focus on the gorgeous nature of the cypress timber that line this hillside overlooking Lake Merced. Its well-known 5-5-short 4 closing stretch produced one other climactic end on the 2021 U.S. Girls’s Open. Kudos to William Watson, who would possibly nicely be the least appreciated vital architect from the Golden Age.

9. Pasatiempo (Santa Cruz) [#, Y, P]

Some nitpickers wish to level out that components of the course are pinched by properties. However a kind of homes, alongside the par-5 sixth, belonged to Alister Mackenzie, who selected to spend his closing years on what he as soon as described as his best course. Not like Cypress Level, about an hour down the coast, Pasatiempo sits simply inland, however its excessive factors supply views of the Pacific and the whole property is a sight to behold, with large paw-print bunkers and rumpled fairways that give approach to ample, undulating greens. All through a spherical right here, it’s not exhausting to see the affect that Pasatiempo had on Mackenzie’s later work at Augusta Nationwide — nowhere extra so than on the par-4 tenth, a brawny two-shotter with the identical dramatic sweep of what you see on TV each April. These and different nice Mackenzian options at the moment are sharper than ever because the course emerges from a restoration and reopens to the general public this fall.

10. Bel-Air (Los Angeles) [#]

A George C. Thomas traditional that winds by way of the canyons overlooking Los Angeles. Nice architects had tinkered with Bel-Air over time, however Tom Doak’s latest restoration took out the trendy gimmicks and greater than 30 bunkers, bringing Bel-Air again a lot nearer to its unique design. What hasn’t modified: the clubby environment on the patio, that gorgeous stroll over golf’s most well-known suspension bridge and a again 9 showcasing what Ken Venturi known as among the greatest lengthy par-3s on the earth.

11. Monterey Peninsula – Shore (Pebble Seaside) [#]

As soon as a ho-hum structure that languished within the shadow of its well-known 17-Mile Drive neighbors, the Shore Course began drawing discover in 2004 after the iconoclastic architect Mike Strantz constructed 12 new holes and overhauled six others. Strantz stated his purpose was to make gamers “dance among the many cypress.” However his routing, which opens and ends amid the pines, additionally takes benefit of an enormous expanse of shoreline, with fairways fringed by wispy native grasses, and dramatic rock outcrops framing a number of greens and tees. In 2010, 5 years after Strantz’s passing, his work gained even larger recognition when the Shore Course joined the rota of the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am.

12. Ladera (Thermal) [#]

Tucked away within the decrease Coachella Valley, this personal membership nestles up towards the Santa Rosa Mountains and gives one of many sport’s most peaceable settings. Provided that Jim Wagner and Gil Hanse manipulated each inch of this desert web site, they had been free to configure the fairways as greatest they noticed match. A number of tee photographs now require interesting diagonal carries over the likes of barrancas, low-lying vegetation and well-placed bunkers on the within of doglegs. Standout holes embody the 210-yard par-3 twelfth that includes a Biarritz kind swale on the rear of the inexperienced, and the drivable par-4 fifteenth that performs to an elevated, angled inexperienced. The very best of the bunch is perhaps the 18th, with its large bunker on the left working in good unison with a sister bunker entrance proper. That is strategic golf at a excessive degree.

13. Monterey Peninsula – Dunes (Pebble Seaside) [#]

Every part previous is new once more. Working with the unique Raynor routing, wunderkinds Tim Jackson and David Kahn dropped at fore the rugged options of a forest-meets-sea panorama on a reborn course that boasts majestic dunes, expansive sandy wastes and greens of wildly diversified dimension and contour. Previously straight fairways now sashay gracefully with the coastal terrain, and the par-3s, lengthy a power, have grown remarkably nice. They embody the hard-along-the-water 14th, which performs over the waves and is such a putting sight, vacationers typically cease to spectate from an overlook on 17-Mile Drive.

14. Spyglass Hill (Pebble Seaside) [Y, P]

The hardest of the three websites in Pebble’s superstar pro-am rota, this imposing design performs like two programs in a single. After plunging towards the ocean on its opening par 5, the routing romps by way of coastal dunes, a captivating and difficult stretch highlighted by the artful par-4 4th, with its slender, angled hourglass-shaped inexperienced that runs away from the participant. Two holes later, it’s again into the timber, the place a special kind of take a look at awaits in pine-framed tee photographs, dog-legged fairways and pond-guarded greens. Emblematic of the problem is the par-4 sixteenth, a 476-yard right-bending beast that, yr after yr, ranks among the many hardest holes on Tour.

15. Meadow Membership (Fairfax)

16. Lakeside (Burbank)

17. Stone Eagle (Palm Desert)

18. Wilshire (Los Angeles)

19. The Quarry at La Quinta (La Quinta)

20. Lake Merced (Daly Metropolis)

21. Hillcrest (Los Angeles)

22. Torrey Pines – South (La Jolla) [Y, P]

In search of an unrelenting take a look at? Do this stunning beast. The 2-time U.S. Open venue (2008 and 2021) is polarizing for some structure aficionados who really feel the routing doesn’t take full benefit of the coastal setting. But it surely actually does on the 4th gap, a protracted par-4 that hugs an oceanside bluff. Benefit from the stroll, keep out of the tough — which is particularly juicy proper earlier than and after the annual PGA Tour occasion every January — and play the suitable tees on a structure that stretches to a meaty 7,802 yards. Oh, and good luck.

23. Rustic Canyon (Moorpark) [Y, V, P]

Tucked away in Moorpark, a northwest suburb of Los Angeles, Rustic Canyon retains an under-the-radar vibe. Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford infused a minimalist theme right here to the max, with an emphasis on angles and the bottom sport — components extra generally discovered on the designers’ inspiration: the hyperlinks programs of Nice Britain and Eire. Acknowledged as probably the greatest values for public golf within the area (and presumably the nation), the aptly-named course kicks off with a vertical barranca dividing the primary fairway in need of the inexperienced, a powerful trace on the expertise to observe.

24. Madison Membership (La Quinta)

25. PGA West – Dye Stadium (La Quinta) [Y, P]

Pete Dye put his singular imprint on desert golf at PGA West, and whereas it’s not fairly the Southwest’s model of TPC Sawgrass, it comes shut. Witness the island-green par-3 seventeenth, which Lee Trevino famously aced on the 1987 Skins sport. Former Dye affiliate Tim Liddy returned in the summertime of 2024 to reclaim gap places by restoring greens to their unique sizes; he additionally rebuilt bunkers in his mentor’s inimitable type. This take a look at will depart you each flummoxed and fascinated, simply as Dye would have needed it.

26. The Protect (Carmel-By-The-Sea)

27. Diablo (Diablo)

28. San Diego CC (Chula Vista)

29. Los Angeles – South (Los Angeles)

30. Rancho Santa Fe (Rancho Santa Fe)

31. TPC Harding Park (San Francisco) [Y, P]

Even for those who can’t drive the inexperienced on the par-4 sixteenth, like Collin Morikawa famously did through the closing spherical of the 2020 PGA Championship, Harding Park stays a must-play. The course, which rubs shoulders with some elite personal neighbors (The Olympic Membership, Lake Merced, San Francisco Golf Membership), was reborn within the early 2000s with an intensive renovation. Huge Cypress timber line the fairways, and also you’d be hard-pressed to discover a tougher closing stretch within the Bay Space than 13 by way of 18 right here. Go too far left on the closing gap or your ball will disappear into Lake Merced. Charges: Various inexperienced charges, with on-demand tee-time pricing.

32. Sherwood (Lake Sherwood)

33. Mayacama (Santa Rosa)

34. Martis Camp Membership (Truckee)

35. PGA West – Mountain (La Quinta) [Y, P]

Elevated above the valley flooring, the Mountain course is without doubt one of the extra scenic locations to play in La Quinta. Seven holes run parallel to the Santa Rosa Mountains. Amongst them are the quick par-4 14th that performs over a riverbed on the strategy, the par-5 fifteenth tucked round a jutting slice of the mountain and the par-3 sixteenth, one in all Pete Dye’s forgotten island greens. As with most programs that bear the Dye title, there are beneficiant functions of railroad ties and water hazards, with lengthy angular bunkers harking back to TPC Sawgrass’ dictating technique into the greens. Attempt to play early within the morning or late within the afternoon to see the prismatic colours replicate off the valley and surrounding vistas.

36. CordeValle (San Martin) [Y, P]

Positioned within the sleepy city of San Martin only a quick drive from Silicon Valley, CordeValle is one in all Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s greatest designs. The 260-acre property is without doubt one of the solely within the space with out actual property, maintaining the tucked-away valley within the shadow of the Santa Cruz Mountains a pure expression of Northern California golf. A latest bunker renovation has given the course higher distinction with the pure creeks that act as hazards. A spotlight of the spherical is the textbook instance of a Redan gap on the par-3 twelfth, the place the tightly mown inexperienced surrounds feed strategically positioned photographs onto the placing floor. A former PGA Tour web site, CordeValle additionally performed host to the 2016 U.S. Girls’s Open.

37. La Jolla CC (La Jolla)

38. Orinda (Orinda)

39. Omni La Costa Resort and Spa – North (Carlsbad) [Y, P]

Gil Hanse was introduced aboard — alongside John Fields, the College of Texas’ males’s golf coach — to bolster a venue that will be worthy of internet hosting the NCAA Championships. Each inch of La Costa North is calculated to check the highest collegiate gamers whereas sustaining a component of forgiveness and diversified choices for resort friends, a feat simpler idealized than actualized. Naturalized areas and huge taking part in corridors energy a powerful ending stretch that features, on the par-3 sixteenth, a flipped model of the twelfth at Augusta Nationwide. The 600-yard, par-5 18th will produce riveting NCAA theater with birdies and eagles for the taking.

40. Rams Hill (Borrego Springs) [Y, P]

An oasis with waterfalls and streams fed by native springs, Rams Hill is in Anza-Borrego State Park, about an hour south of La Quinta. Constructed within the early Nineteen Eighties, the course was redesigned in 2007 by Tom Fazio on a hill overlooking the sleepy city of Borrego Springs; it performs up a rocky ridgeline on the entrance 9 and again down for the returning 9. Uninhibited views of the Santa Rosa Mountains to the west are met with among the most iconic bunker work Fazio and his workforce have ever achieved; surrounding the bunkers are perpetually dormant grasses that strike an attractive distinction towards the stainless fairways and greens.

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 offered a poll that consisted of 609 programs. Beside the checklist of programs had been 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists thought-about a course to be among the many prime 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 had been additionally free to jot down in programs that they felt ought to have been included on the poll.

Factors had 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 can be broadly lauded. Like the sport itself, there’s no have to unnecessarily complicate issues or attempt to repair one thing that already works so nicely.

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 nations, some over 2,000. Their handicaps vary from +5 to fifteen.

As a result of the character after all ranking is so intensely subjective, nobody opinion carries the day. The one manner, then, to construct significant consensus is to include this range of panelists and experiences into one rating.

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