For more than 40 years, golf has compiled a list of the top golf courses on the planet. Furthermore, I bet my best Pinehurst No. 2 ball marker against anything else in your bag that this ranking era (which spanned from January 2020 to the present) was the most complex yet.

To offer a thorough analysis of the game’s finest venues, GOLF’s 107 raters from all over the world worked around COVID constraints. This included large restoration projects that required complete attention, in addition to a continual stream of new ideas. Bravo to the team.

But around halfway through, I began to adore it. We are ranking the entire world, after all, and the differences between the top courses on the list and those just outside of it are minuscule, so of course, I admit that it is more arbitrary than our other lists. But it is thoughtful, it is thorough, and I genuinely think it is a true reflection of the very, very top courses around the entire globe. Outside of the 100, there are many outstanding courses, but each and every course within is special.

There is a healthy regional divide, a nice balance of traditional and contemporary, however, it is undeniably true that some nations do dominate. You won’t be surprised to see that America is number one, but is it shocking to learn that the UK and Ireland have more entries than the US? Could we be favouring UK&I programs? Although it’s feasible, we were not. 

In fact, our international panel felt that there should be more British entities. This list demonstrates how fortunate we are to have so many top-notch courses nearby, even without them (and there are two Irish links and a Berkshire heathland I would want to include as well).

There is one condition, though: we only took into account public courses, regardless of how expensive the green fee is or how few tee times are available. As a result, a number of legendary US courses, as well as Morfontaine, Loch Lomond, and others were disqualified (click here for the full list). With so many “inaccessible” courses included, we thought that the Top 100 lost its importance and value to our readers.

Also quick to acknowledge greatness are our panelists. In the past, courses like Cape Wickham (No. 12), Tara Iti (No. 2 this year), and Cabot Cliffs have quickly risen to the top of the rankings. Each becomes a mainstay after their 2015 openings. The New Course by Jim Wagner and Gil Hanse in Les Bordes in France, as well as Tom Doak’s St.

Patrick’s Links at Rosapenna in Ireland, two new courses that opened in 2021 that we expect to see on the ranking soon, scored highly but didn’t receive enough panelist play to qualify for this year’s list, undoubtedly because of the COVID travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021. 

This is because they were not able to receive COVID certification until after those years. This year’s list included twelve courses that weren’t included in last year’s rankings. While many others, including a European trio, are making their debuts, others, like St. Enodoc in southwest England and The Durban Country Club, are making their comebacks. Some courses, including South Cape Owner’s Club in South Korea, Ellerston in Australia, Doonbeg in Ireland, and Cabo del Sol’s Ocean Course in Mexico, dropped off the World 100, maybe temporarily or not. Course rankings are always changing, and estimates and evaluations seldom remain static.