Golf Digest Logo best new

Hundreds of experts reviewed the best new courses of the year. These were the best of the best

New construction and renovations are hot again. 2024 was our most competitive survey in recent memory.
January 15, 2025
default

In 2024, hundreds of Golf Digest course-ranking panelists visited 59 new or remodeled courses that were candidates for our annual awards. The Best New Public and Private awards are given to the year’s most outstanding original courses, including those built over the bones of an older course. Traditional renovations and restorations, consisting of alterations and projects that return the design to some historically based version of its past, are combined in Best Renovation. Best Renovation winners are determined by surveys that measure the effectiveness of the work before and after construction. (Panelists must have played the course previously.) Best Transformation assesses major remodels that go beyond mere renovation to include a newly conceived architectural intent, new holes and possibly newly routed sections of the property—the name remains the same, but if you blinked you might not recognize the course. Here’s the work that our panelists deemed most significant for 2024.

You will find the winners below—but beyond just a list, please explore our expanded stories on each of the winners and runners-up for the categories at links below.

Additional write-ups and photos on every candidate can be found on each of the additional pieces of content. Plus, explore each course review page and leave reviews on the courses you've played to have your ratings featured on our pages.

BEST NEW PRIVATE COURSE

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/GD0225_WHERE_BESTNEWCOURSES_02.jpg

BACKCOUNTRY STUNNER Chet Williams made great use of the land at Big Easy Ranch.

Brian Oar

WINNER
THE COVEY AT BIG EASY RANCH

Columbus, Texas
7,511 yards, par 72
Architect: Chet Williams

Brian Oar captured exclusive drone footage of The Covey for Golf Digest. You can find one of the drone shots below—find more at our separate story here.

Big Easy Ranch: The Covey
Brian Oar
Private
Big Easy Ranch: The Covey
Columbus, TX
4.6
12 Panelists

With no surrounding development, The Covey is a scenic journey through the Texas outback through groves of pines and hardwoods and cross-course views. Numerous specimen trees have been left standing in the fairways that must be maneuvered around, and Williams’ green complexes can be wicked, flanked and fronted with deep, staggered bunkers, with strong putting contours that create multiple internal levels and severe false fronts that eject any short approached 30 or 40 yards back down the fairway. 

View Course

SECOND PLACE
OLD BARNWELL

Aiken, S.C.
7,070 yards, par 73
Architects: Brian Schneider, Blake Conant

Old Barnwell Golf Club
Jeff Marsh
Private
Old Barnwell Golf Club
Aiken, SC
4.3
25 Panelists
The Old Barnwell property, 12 miles southeast of Aiken, shares much in common with nearby Tree Farm, which was contrasted at virtually the same time in 2022 and 2023. The latter is a better pure golf site, but the more enigmatic if less aesthetically endowed Old Barnwell property is profound in other architecturally advantageous ways. The course plays around and through a treeless basin at the center of the 500-acre site, shooting the occasional sortie of holes into thinned out sections of pine along a perimeter rim. The landforms surrounding the amphitheater are nakedly muscular and eight holes traverse and tumble off these fallaway ridgelines. First-time lead architects Brian Schneider and Blake Conant used those movement to prop up wide holes that skirt the edges, and handled the less suggestive parts of the property by constructing an assortment of contemporary and antique architectural features: old bathtub bunkers recalling hazards at Garden City Golf Club and Myopia Hunt; linear shaggy-grass berms that evoke military entrenchments; open waste areas and geometric chasms of sand; and vertical grass embankments protecting bunkers and greens. On top of this are a set of putting surfaces that crash any conversation of the game’s most profoundly contoured, pushing the limits playability without crossing into needless ornamentation.
Explore our full review

THIRD PLACE
THE TREE FARM

Aiken, S.C.
6,855 yards, par 71
Architects: Kye Goalby, Tom Doak, Zac Blair

The Tree Farm
Jeff Marsh
Private
The Tree Farm
Batesburg, SC
4.6
22 Panelists

At The Tree Farm, PGA Tour player and founder Zac Blair has attracted a kindred young-in-spirit if not exclusively young-in-age membership from across the country that mirrors his infectious relaxed-casual passion for walking, fast play, head-to-head matches and creative architecture, particularly from the approach shot through the green. A majority of them are good players who think nothing of hoofing 36 or more holes a day. 

View Course

BEST NEW PUBLIC COURSE

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/GD0225_WHERE_BESTNEWCOURSES_03.jpg

HIGH NOTES Pinehurst #10 boasts extreme elevation, unlike the resort's other courses.

Jeff Marsh

WINNER
PINEHURST (N.C.) #10

7,020 yards, par 70
Architect: Tom Doak

Pinehurst #10
Public
Pinehurst #10
Pinehurst, NC
4.5
29 Panelists

Sand is the defining character of Pinehurst, and Pinehurst #10 goes right to the source: a former sand mining site south of the resort, portions of which used to be a golf course called The Pit that closed in 2010. Several holes of this Tom Doak design, opened in 2024, plunge through the old quarries, including the turbulent eighth where players will want to pop Dramamine before tackling fairway swells that would pitch and toss a fishing vessel.

View Course

SECOND PLACE
CABOT CITRUS FARMS (KAROO)

Brooksville, Fla.
7,562 yards, par 72
Architect: Kyle Franz

Cabot Citrus Farms: Karoo
Jeff Marsh
Public
Cabot Citrus Farms: Karoo
Brooksville, FL
4.2
21 Panelists

When arriving at Cabot Citrus Farms you’ll understand why Ben Cowan-Dewar sought this property for decades. The modern trend of pushing width and options is amplified with “super width” here, with some fairways over 100 yards wide, though strategy is still present—as large, exposed sand hazards often split the playing areas. Choosing the ideal side of the fairway will often open up an easier approach.

View Course

THIRD PLACE
SEDGE VALLEY AT SAND VALLEY

Nekoosa, Wis.
5,829 yards, par 68
Architect: Tom Doak

Sand Valley: Sedge Valley
Brandon Carter
Public
Sand Valley: Sedge Valley
Nekoosa, WI
4.4
30 Panelists

Sedge Valley is architect Tom Doak’s homage to the early 20th century, sub-par 70 courses popular in the London heathlands and throughout the U.K. Tipping the scales at less than 6,000 yards and par 68, it might seem like light fare but it isn’t—this is real golf that demands confident driving and smart approaches into a set of small, distinguished green complexes.

View Course

BEST RENOVATION

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/GD0225_WHERE_BESTNEWCOURSES_04.jpg

UNCOVERED GEMS Andrew Green used Donald Ross' blueprints to help guide his Interlachen renovation.

Brad Rempel

WINNER
INTERLACHEN COUNTRY CLUB

Edina, Minn.
7,201 yards, par 72
Architect: Andrew Green

Interlachen Country Club
Brad Rempel
Private
Interlachen Country Club
Edina, MN
4.7
29 Panelists

When Bobby Jones won the 1930 U.S. Open at Interlachen (completing the second leg of what would become the game’s first Grand Slam), fellow competitor Gene Sarazen insisted the course was tougher than everything but Oakmont. In the decades that followed a series of architects including Robert Trent Jones, Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva worked to keep Interlachen’s edge, but nothing could staunch the march of time. Enter Andrew Green in 2023, who was given the resources to strip back the layers and rebuild the course based on the blueprints Donald Ross developed in 1922 when he remodeled the course.

View Course

SECOND PLACE
OCEAN FOREST GOLF CLUB

Sea Island, Ga.
7,365 yards, par 72
Architect: Beau Welling

Ocean Forest Golf Club
Courtesy of the club
Private
Ocean Forest Golf Club
Sea Island, GA

Ocean Forest occupies one of the premier oceanside settings on the East Coast. Originally designed by Rees Jones, the fairways laterally traverse the site’s interior pines, skirting marshes and breaking out in memorable moments to the shore of the broad Hampton River inlet before finishing along the Atlantic Ocean at 17 and 18.

View Course

THIRD PLACE
OMNI LA COSTA RESORT & SPA (NORTH)

Carlsbad, Calif.
7,500 yards, par 72
Architects: Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner

Omni La Costa Resort & Spa: Champions
Brian Walters
Public
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa: Champions
Carlsbad, CA
4
19 Panelists
Just north of San Diego, this Carlsbad championship course has hosted 37 PGA Tour events since it opened in the 1950s, but four new holes were added during its 2011 renovation by Steve Pete, Damian Pascuzzo and Jeff Brauer. This layout meanders through the surrounding valley—providing an enjoyable setting with some history.
View Course

BEST TRANSFORMATION

Course 3  - Hole 17 Green

GOLD VISION Medinah #3's prairie-style redesign makes best use of the land.

Medinah Country Club

WINNER
MEDINAH (ILL.) COUNTRY CLUB (#3)

7,564 yards, par 72
Architects: Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking, Ashley Mead

Medinah Country Club: #3
Medinah Country Club/Seth Jenkins
Private
Medinah Country Club: #3
Medinah, IL
4.6
27 Panelists

The evolution of golf course architecture—and how courses change to suit the demands of the times—can be mapped directly on top of Medinah’s #3 course. It was built in the fields west of Chicago in the 1920s on land that was part farmland and partly wooded. It became a major championship site when it hosted the 1949 U.S. Open, putting it on a track of perpetual improvements to toughen it up to keep pace with tournament demands. But when No. 3 was blistered to the tune of 25-under during the 2019 BMW Championship, which coincided with a plunge in the rankings from 53 to 93, the club knew it was time to adapt again. They took a swing and hired the Australian firm of Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead to overhaul the design with the notion of making the course look and play like it might have in the 1920s.

View Course

SECOND PLACE
EAST LAKE GOLF CLUB

Atlanta
7,490 yards, par 72
Architect: Andrew Green

East Lake Golf Club
Evan Schiller
Private
East Lake Golf Club
Atlanta, GA

East Lake underwent another major restoration following the 2023 Tour Championship, this time by Andrew Green, highlighting the course's Donald Ross heritage. Green used a 1949 aerial to inform the replacement of bunkers and the shape of greens, which are much larger and possess a wider variety of hole location and slopes than before. Almost every hole was dramatically revamped, creating a course that poses driving options and requires the careful calibration of each shot rather than a mere test of straight hitting.

View Course

THIRD PLACE
WOODMONT COUNTRY CLUB (SOUTH)

Rockville, Md.
7,002 yards, par 71
Architect: Joel Weiman

Woodmont Country Club: South
Larry Lambrecht
Private
Woodmont Country Club: South
Rockville, MD
4.1
11 Panelists

Since it first opened as a nine hole amenity in the early 1950s, Woodmont South (it was expanded to 18 a few years later) has been the club's shorter, sportier course compared to the more robust North, ranked fifth in Maryland. That all changed following a 2023 remodel by architect Joel Weiman, who transformed the course into a Melbourne Sand Belt/American prairie hybrid by recontouring every green and surrrounding them with expanses of tight turf, building Australian-style bunkers with sharp lips that cut toward the edges of putting surfaces and introducing native grass buffers throughout the course. He also found additional length, taking the championship tees to over 7,000 yards. No longer the "other" course, the South more than holds its own in distinctiveness not just against the North but against most other designs in the region.

View Course

BEST AFFORDABLE

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2023/1/Wellman 11.jpeg

Dustin Gilder

WINNER
WELLMAN CLUB

Wellman Club
Dustin Gilder
Public
Wellman Club
Johnsonville, SC
3.4
9 Panelists
Everyone loves an underdog, especially when it’s mixed with a revival story. Golfers once teemed over the holes of Wellman Golf Course, a simple but lovely Ellis Maples and Ed Seay hidden gem from the late 1960s located in the rural South Carolina town of Johnsonville, an hour west of Myrtle Beach. But with a population of just over 1,000, there weren’t enough local players to keep the business running following the 2009 recession, and the owners filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Eventually the city purchased the closed course and hired Rees Jones and longtime associate Bryce Swanson to remodel the layout, which reopened in 2024 as the rebranded Wellman Club. Jones described the land as closer to Pinehurst than to Myrtle Beach, and the holes flow through corridors of pines into enlarged greens and more consequential bunkering. Two par 3s play across ponds, and the par-5 11th boomeranging around a lake is a doppelganger of the par-5 13th at The Dunes 50 miles east, one of mid-century golf’s most famous holes designed by Jones’ father, Robert Trent Jones. Wellman symbolizes the resilience of golf in small towns and has become a sort of community gathering space, as well as a worthwhile stopover for anyone passing nearby.
View Course

SECOND PLACE
BOBBY JONES GOLF CLUB

Bobby Jones Golf Club: Main Course
Richard Mandell Golf Architecture
Public
Bobby Jones Golf Club: Main Course
Sarasota, FL
3.6
5 Panelists
The original 18 holes at this affordable public facility in Sarasota were designed by Donald Ross in 1926 and first called Sarasota Municipal Golf Course. The following year the course was renamed Bobby Jones Golf Course. New nines were later added in the 1950s and 1960s, and these were each coupled with one nine from the Ross course to create what were known as the American and British courses. In the late 2010s, the city of Sarasota embarked on a major re-imagining of the public property and hired architect Richard Mandell to restore the original core Ross 18, in large part based on old photos and Ross’s blueprints. The newer nines were converted into one of the largest practice facilities in the region compete with a wild Himalayas putting course, and the rest of the space reestablished as a nature area with walking and biking paths around a newly created chain of ponds. Mandell also revamped the 9-hole Gillespie short course, punching up the fun factor. The course is a great model for public golf, a walkable, spacious design with interesting green complexes and everything a player could want for game improvement.
View Course

THIRD PLACE
THE LINKS AT AUDUBON

The Links At Audubon
Public
The Links At Audubon
Memphis, TN
3.7
6 Panelists
This city of Memphis course first opened in the early 1950s during the first country’s first great post-World War II boom of municipal golf offering easy access and a simple but enjoyable layout for residents of all skill levels. As needs, golf popularity and economies changed through the decades, a new program was called for and the city and Memphis Parks hired Atlanta-based designer. Bill Bergin to reimagine what the Links at Audubon could represent for Memphis golfers. Bergin essentially designed a new course over the top of the old property, creating an entirely new 18-hole routing that makes more efficient use of the available land, filling empty space with original holes and converting an unused seven-acre parcel on the west side of the property into a flexible 10-acre practice range that will be used by both residents and the University of Memphis golf team. Bergin’s bunkering is sparse but impactful, forcing players to think through their plans for each hole, and the enlarged greens offer more nuance, more diverse recovery options and a variety of changing hole locations. The course reopened August of 2023.
View Course

Come back on Friday for a full story on the reintroduction of our Best Affordable Public Course survey.

• • •

Explore our brand-new course reviews experience with individual course pages for bonus photography, drone footage and expanded reviews of top international courses and all 17,000-plus courses in the United States. Post your own ratings for courses you’ve played … and tell us where it should be ranked.