SC has 5 of 100 best public golf courses for 2026, Golfweek says. Here’s where to find them

Five public access golf courses in South Carolina made Golfweek’s list of the top 100 in the nation.

South Carolina has the seventh most, after California and Oregon with nine each, North Carolina and Wisconsin eight, Florida seven and Hawaii six, Golfweek said.

The top ranked course for the second year was Pebble Beach Golf Links at Pebble Beach Resorts in California. It was designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant and opened in 1919.

The designers were amateur golfers.

Neville told the San Francisco Chronicle: “Years before it was built, I could see this place as a golf links. Nature had intended it to be nothing else. All we did was cut away a few trees, install a few sprinklers, and sow a little seed.”

Numerous other designers have worked on the course since, including Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

The top 10 Golf Week courses includes four of the seven Bandon Dunes courses along the Oregon coast. They bill themselves as being in the true spirit of Scotland’s ancient links.

Pacific Dunes was ranked second, Bandon Trails fifth, Old Macdonald, sixth and Bandon Dunes seventh.

The top ranked South Carolina course was No. 10 the Ocean Course at Kiawah, which was also ranked tenth last year.

It was designed by Pete Dye and hosted the PGA Championship in 2021 and 2012 and will again in 2013.

There are four other public courses on the island, which is about 30 miles south of Charleston.

Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head tied with Lawsonia Links in Green Lake, Wisconsin for No. 28.

The Pete Dye Harbour Town hosts the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing each year, held the week after the Masters.

Broomsedge in Rembert tied for No. 33 with Streamsong (Black) in Bowling Green, Florida and Arcadia Bluffs (Bluffs) in Michigan.

Broomsedge is a private club but allows limited play by non-members. It is located near Camden off Interstate 20, about 40 miles east of Columbia.

Opened in 2024, it was designed by Kyle Franz and Mike Koprowski, who also designed Southern Pines Golf Club in North Carolina.

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club was ranked No. 81. The Pawleys Island course was designed by Michael Strantz, a protege of Tom Fazio.

Opened in 1994, it was built on the site of a historic rice plantation.

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club tied for No. 82 with Prairie Club (Pines) in Nebraska, Rams Hill in Borrego Springs, California, Forest Dunes in Michigan and Arcadia Bluffs (South), also in Michigan.

Located in Myrtle Beach, the Dunes Golf & Beach Club was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Rees Jones.

The Dunes Club was the second Myrtle Beach golf course, opening in 1949, and has hosted the Senior PGA Tour Championships, the U.S. Women’s Open, and the finals of the PGA Tour’s Q-School.

The other courses in the top 10 were:

3. Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina

4. Kohler Whistling Straits in Wisconsin

8. Bethpage State Park (Black) in New York and Shadow Creek in Nevada.