Best 5 Bucket-List Golf Courses in North America for 2026/27
Every golfer has a short list of courses they have to play once.
These are the rounds worth planning a whole trip around — iconic layouts that have shaped the game, hosted its biggest championships, and sit in genuinely breathtaking places. Best of all, unlike the private clubs you’ll never get into, every course here is open to the public or bookable through its resort. Save up, book early, and go.
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Compare them on cost, scenery, and trip fit →
1. Pebble Beach Golf Links
Pebble Beach is the bucket-list course — a public layout hugging the Monterey coastline that has hosted multiple US Opens and the AT&T Pro-Am every year. The cliffside stretch around holes 7 through 10 and the walk up the 18th are among the most famous moments in golf. It’s a serious splurge, but it’s open to anyone willing to book it.
- Public access, no membership needed
- Multiple US Opens hosted
- Legendary clifftop holes on Monterey Bay
- Book well in advance; a genuine splurge
2. Pinehurst No. 2
Donald Ross’s masterpiece, Pinehurst No. 2, is the beating heart of American golf and now a permanent US Open venue. Its famous crowned, turtle-back greens punish anything less than a precise approach, making it one of the most strategic tests in the game. As the resort’s flagship course, it’s fully open to guests — a true pilgrimage round.
- Resort-accessible flagship course
- Anchor site for the US Open
- Iconic Donald Ross turtle-back greens
- Full destination resort around it
3. Bandon Dunes
Bandon Dunes is the modern golf pilgrimage — a remote stretch of the Oregon coast where several world-ranked links courses sit atop the dunes above the Pacific. It’s walking-only, caddie-driven, and deliberately stripped back to the purest form of the game. Getting there takes effort, which is exactly why golfers talk about it the way they do.
- Multiple top-ranked public links courses
- Walking-only, true links golf
- Dramatic Oregon coast dunescape
- Remote — plan the trip around it
4. Whistling Straits
Whistling Straits, along Lake Michigan in Kohler, is a windswept faux-links studded with hundreds of bunkers that has hosted PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup. It looks and plays like the Irish coast dropped into Wisconsin. As part of the Destination Kohler resort, it’s open to guests — a championship-caliber round in a genuinely dramatic setting.
- Resort-accessible championship course
- Hosted PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup
- Windswept links along Lake Michigan
- Part of the Destination Kohler resort
5. Spyglass Hill
Just up the road from Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill is regularly rated one of the best public courses in the country and shares the AT&T Pro-Am rotation. It opens with a run of dunes holes near the ocean before turning into the forest of the Del Monte pines. Pair it with Pebble on a Monterey trip and you’ve got two bucket-list rounds in one place.
- Top-rated public course
- Part of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am rotation
- Dunes-and-forest routing near Pebble Beach
- Easy to pair with Pebble on one trip