Florida on Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Lists, 2025-26

Golf Digest's 2025-26 rankings put three Florida courses on America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses and seven on America's 100 Greatest Public Courses. The magazine's Best in State ranking for Florida goes 70 deep.

What follows is every Florida course on the two national lists, in rank order, then the other Best in State courses we carry. Access is stated as each of our course pages states it. A ranking tells you how a course is regarded. It does not tell you whether you can get on, and in Florida the answer runs from an open tee sheet to needing a member to sign you in.

America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses

Three Florida courses make the national list, and two of them are private clubs.

No. 12: Seminole Golf Club, Juno Beach

Seminole Golf Club is Donald Ross's 1929 course on the Atlantic at Juno Beach, and it is also No. 1 on Golf Digest's Florida list. Half a dozen holes sit hard against the ocean, and the dune ridges running through the property give it elevation change that does not look like Florida at all.

It is not long by modern standards. The wind and the angles do the defending, and Ross routed the holes so that the breeze rarely comes from the same quarter twice. Ben Hogan used it to sharpen his game before the Masters each spring, and it hosted the Walker Cup in 2021. Dick Wilson, Brian Silva and later Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have all worked on it, the last as a restoration back toward Ross.

Seminole is a private club, played by members and their guests. There are no public tee times.

No. 41: TPC Sawgrass, Players Stadium Course, Ponte Vedra Beach

TPC Sawgrass's Players Stadium Course opened in 1980 as the first purpose-built stadium course. Deane Beman, then head of the PGA Tour, asked Pete Dye for a course that favored no particular player or style and that could be watched, and Pete and Alice Dye made spectator viewing part of the design rather than an afterthought. Alice Dye is credited with the island green at the par-3 17th.

No two consecutive holes run in the same direction, so the wind keeps changing through the round, and there is water on every hole. The Players Championship has been played here since 1982.

The Stadium Course is the only Florida course on both national lists: No. 41 here, No. 8 on the public list, and No. 2 in the state. It is semi-private and takes public tee times; the course page has how to book.

No. 68: Calusa Pines Golf Club, Naples

Calusa Pines Golf Club is Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry's 2001 design in Naples. They moved large volumes of earth to build hills on the flat Gulf Coast, so where the courses around it are defined by water, Calusa Pines has elevation and pine, and the routing uses both. The turf plays firm and fast, and the course runs 7,284 yards to a par 72 over Bermuda greens. It is No. 3 on the Florida list.

Calusa Pines is a private club, played by members and their guests.

America's 100 Greatest Public Courses

America's 100 Greatest Public Courses is the list for visitors. Florida has seven courses on it, and every one we carry takes public tee times.

No. 8: TPC Sawgrass, Players Stadium Course

Florida's highest-ranked public course, and the only one in the top 10. If a trip has room for one ranked round anyone can book, this is it. The island-green 17th is the hole people know, but at 7,352 yards, with the wind changing as the holes change direction, the round tests every shot shape in the bag.

Nos. 20, 26 and 33: Streamsong Red, Blue and Black, Bowling Green

Streamsong puts three courses on the public list, more than any other Florida address. The resort sits on reclaimed phosphate-mining land in Polk County, and each of its courses comes from a different design team.

No. 20: Streamsong Red. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's course opened in 2012 alongside the Blue. The two were built at the same time and wind through each other across the property, which invites the comparison. Coore and Crenshaw work in a minimalist way: holes found in the existing ground, wide fairways, and difficulty concentrated in the angles and around the greens rather than in hazards blocking the way forward. It plays firm and fast. No. 6 in Florida.

No. 26: Streamsong Blue. Tom Doak's half of the 2012 pair, built by using the terrain the mining left rather than reshaping it. Tall dunes give way to big bunkers and real elevation change. The 3rd is a cape hole that offers an aggressive line for a shorter approach, and the 7th plays over water to a green ringed by dune. No. 9 in Florida.

No. 33: Streamsong Black. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner added the third course in 2017. It is the largest in scale of the three, a par 73 at 7,320 yards, and the green complexes carry the design: the 9th is a punchbowl played blind off a windmill aiming point, and the 17th falls away from a giant oak. No. 11 in Florida.

All three are semi-private and take public tee times. Each course page has how to book.

No. 50: Cabot Citrus Farms, Karoo, Brooksville

Karoo is the one Florida course on the public list that we do not carry, so there is no course page for it here. It is also No. 19 on Golf Digest's Florida list.

No. 86: Trump National Doral, Blue Monster, Miami

The Blue Monster at Trump National Doral is Dick Wilson's 1961 course, re-sculpted hole by hole by Gil Hanse in 2014. It hosted a PGA Tour stop from the 1960s through 2006, then the WGC-Cadillac Championship from 2007 to 2016.

Water comes into play on 17 of the 18 holes, and the course runs 7,590 yards. The water and bunkering are placed so that distance alone will not get you around, which makes it a course that asks for strategy and length together. It is No. 30 in Florida.

The Blue Monster is semi-private and takes public tee times; the course page has how to book.

No. 89: The Park, West Palm Beach

The Park is Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner's 2023 course on the site of West Palm Beach's former municipal course. They were briefed to make the game accessible rather than to build a championship test, and the design follows from that: wide playing corridors, difficulty concentrated in the green complexes rather than in forced carries, and a routing that stays playable in wind. City residents play at a discounted rate. Beside the main course is the Lit 9, a floodlit par-3 nine. It is No. 31 in Florida.

The Park is a public course and takes public tee times; the course page has how to book.

Also ranked in Florida

Golf Digest's Best in State list for Florida runs to 70 courses. Beyond the ones above, these are the ranked courses we carry, in rank order.

• No. 5: The Concession Golf Club, Bradenton. Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin's 2006 design, named for Nicklaus conceding Jacklin's short putt at the 1969 Ryder Cup. It hosted the 2015 NCAA Championship and a World Golf Championships event in 2021. A private club, played by members and their guests.
• No. 15: Trump International's Championship course, West Palm Beach. Jim Fazio's 1999 design, built long to a par 72 on flat ground, with significant earth moved to create the elevation and framing the site did not offer. A private club, played by members and their guests.
• No. 36: Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando. Golf Digest ranks the Challenger/Champion layout. Dick Wilson routed the course in 1961, and Arnold Palmer bought the club in 1975 and reworked the course over decades. It has hosted a PGA Tour event since 1979, now the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Play is for lodge guests and members.
• No. 37: Innisbrook's Copperhead Course, Palm Harbor. Larry Packard's 1972 course over rolling, pine-lined ground, home of the PGA Tour's Valspar Championship and the closing three holes known as the Snake Pit. For resort guests and members only.
• No. 38: PGA National's Champion Course, Palm Beach Gardens. Tom and George Fazio built it in 1981, and Jack Nicklaus's 1990 redesign created the Bear Trap at holes 15 through 17. It has hosted the PGA Tour's Palm Beach Gardens event since 2007, now the Cognizant Classic. For resort guests and members only.
• No. 48: Hammock Beach's Ocean Course, Palm Coast. Jack Nicklaus's 2000 design, with several holes running directly along the Atlantic. He returned in 2017 to rework it. Semi-private: it takes public tee times, and the course page has how to book.
• No. 49: Emerald Dunes Club, West Palm Beach. Tom Fazio's 1990 course, revised by him in 2012. With no elevation to work with, he built some: the SuperDune rises fifty feet and holds three tees, three greens and a waterfall. It opened as a high-end public course and is now a private club, played by members and their guests.
• No. 55: Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club, Ocala. Ron Garl's 1987 course, with eight holes modeled on famous originals at St. Andrews, Augusta National, Royal Troon and elsewhere. A private club, played by members and their guests.
• No. 58: Tiburón's Gold Course, Naples. Greg Norman's 1998 course at the Ritz-Carlton, with stacked sod-wall bunkers and coquina waste areas. It stages the LPGA's season-ending CME Group Tour Championship and the Grant Thornton Invitational. Semi-private: it takes public tee times, and the course page has how to book.
• No. 59: Hammock Beach's Conservatory Course, Palm Coast. Tom Watson's 2006 inland counterpart to the Ocean Course, 7,776 yards and among the longest in Florida, with deep, steep-faced bunkering. It takes its name from the glass-domed clubhouse it plays around. Semi-private: it takes public tee times, and the course page has how to book.
• No. 69: TPC Sawgrass's Dye's Valley Course, Ponte Vedra Beach. The second course at Sawgrass, built by Pete Dye and Bobby Weed with Jerry Pate in 1987: large greens and water spread over rolling ground. It has hosted Korn Ferry Tour golf. Semi-private: it takes public tee times, and the course page has how to book.

Beyond the lists

Of the 19 ranked courses we carry, ten take public tee times, three are for resort guests and members, and six are private clubs. The ten are where a trip starts: Sawgrass and Dye's Valley in Ponte Vedra, the three Streamsongs, the Blue Monster, The Park, Tiburón's Gold and both Hammock Beach courses.

For access and booking details on every course, browse the Florida courses. For planning by region and season, start with the guides, and for the wider tier anyone can book, the best public golf courses in Florida.