The Top 100 Public Golf Courses in America: A Field Guide to the Map
Every golfer carries the list around in their head. Pebble Beach at dawn with the tide coming in. Pinehurst No. 2 and its impossible turtleback greens. Bandon Dunes, where you walk 36 a day because the wind won't let you stop. Bethpage Black and the warning sign that dares you to tee it up. The beautiful thing about American golf — the thing that makes it different from almost anywhere else — is that all of it is public. No member sponsor, no letter of introduction. Just a tee time, whenever you're ready to chase one. The Top 100 US Public Golf Courses Scratch-Off Map puts the whole list on your wall and dares you to start scratching.
Know before you go: Every one of the 100 courses on the map is open to public play — the mix runs from crown-jewel resorts like Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes to legendary municipals like Bethpage Black, where a state resident with an alarm clock can play a US Open venue for muni money. The marquee courses book out months ahead (and resort guests usually get priority windows), so the list rewards planners. Played regionally — a coastal Oregon trip, a Carolinas swing, a Wisconsin loop — the 100 breaks into a series of achievable buddy trips rather than one impossible pilgrimage.
What counts as a top-100 public course?
Public means you can get on: resort courses, daily-fee designs, and municipals all qualify — private clubs don't, no matter how famous. From there we weighed architecture, setting, condition, walkability, and the thing rankings always undercount: whether the round stays with you. A course earns its foil when the golfer who plays it once tells the story for years. That's why the map spans US Open municipals, windswept links resorts, desert target golf, and mountain courses — the best of every kind of public golf America offers.
How do you actually play the list?
Plan by pilgrimage, not by course. The 100 clusters into trips: the Monterey Peninsula and the California coast; Bandon's remote links compound on the Oregon dunes; the Carolinas corridor anchored by Pinehurst; Wisconsin's surprising murderer's row of Whistling Straits-caliber golf; the Southwest's desert season; the Northeast's muni royalty. Pick one region a year and the map fills faster than you'd think.
Learn each course's booking game. Every marquee public has one: resort-guest priority windows, online lotteries, walk-up singles lines, state-resident discounts, twilight standby. The difference between "impossible to get on" and "played it twice" is usually just knowing the system — our course-by-course guides in the Adventure Database break down exactly how (start with Torrey Pines South, the people's US Open venue in San Diego).
Budget for the mix. The map deliberately isn't 100 four-figure green fees. For every splurge round there are courses where the scratch costs less than a cart at the resort next door. The municipals are the soul of the list — championship golf at civic prices.
Which courses should you scratch first?
Start close to home — there's almost certainly map gold within a day's drive — and bank the easy scratches while you plot the pilgrimages. Then build the calendar around one anchor trip a year: Bandon or Pebble for the west, Pinehurst for the east, Wisconsin in high summer, the desert in February. The finishers we hear from all say the same thing: the trips became the tradition, and the map became the excuse.
FAQs
Can anyone really play all 100 courses on the map?
Yes — that's the point of the list. Every course is open to public play with no membership required. Some take planning (resort stays, booking windows, or early alarms for the famous municipals), but there's no course on the map a determined public golfer can't reach.
How far in advance do the famous public courses book up?
The marquee resorts typically open tee sheets months ahead, and peak-season weekends go quickly — while famous municipals often work on short-window online systems or same-day lines instead. Each course runs its own game, so check the course's own site before building a trip around it.
What's the cheapest way to play the top-100 list?
Lean on the municipals and daily-fee courses first, play shoulder season, and use twilight rates at the resorts — the same course at 2 p.m. often costs a fraction of the morning rate. Regional trips that combine one splurge round with two or three value courses keep the average way down.
When does the Top 100 map ship?
The Top 100 US Public Golf Courses Scratch-Off Map is in presale now and ships August 5, 2026, in a limited first run of 500 maps.
Start scratching: grab the Top 100 US Public Golf Courses Scratch-Off Map before the first run of 500 is gone. Playing your way through one state first? The Arizona Top 50 is the same idea, concentrated.
Ryan Laboy co-founded McSenderson with Michelle Laboy in 2023. He plays to a single-digit handicap out of Continental Country Club in Flagstaff, Arizona, and has spent years on golf course architecture and Arizona golf history. He researched and verified the course lists behind McSenderson's Top 100 US Public Courses map and the California, Arizona, and Colorado Top 50 maps. hello@mcsenderson.com