Looking for the best private golf courses in each state? Then welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2024 list of top private layouts as judged by our international panel of raters.
The hundreds of members of the ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings.
All the courses on this list are private and don’t accept daily-fee or resort play. We also publish a list of each state’s top public-access layouts.
Sharp eyes might notice there are only 49 states included, because Alaska doesn’t have any private clubs to include among the rankings.
KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.
* indicates new or returning to the rankings