Jones & MacKenzie's cathedral of azaleas. Amen Corner (11–13) and the Sunday back nine decide the green jacket.

The brutal public muni: deep bunkers, long carries and the famous warning sign at the 1st.

Cliff-top links on Carmel Bay. The ocean holes 7–10 and 18 make or break the card.

America's oldest links test, wind-battered above the dunes. Fescue, shaved run-offs and the Redan 7th punish the timid.

A muscular public U.S. Open course on the Pacific bluffs — long, exposed, and a water-guarded par-5 home hole.

The Home of Golf. Shared fairways, hidden pot bunkers and the wind off the North Sea.

MacKenzie's coastal masterpiece — forest to dunes to raw Pacific. The back-to-back par 3s at 15 and 16 carry the ocean itself.

Pete Dye's water-lined gauntlet, home of THE PLAYERS and the island-green 17th.

Often ranked the world's #1. Islands of fairway in a sea of sand and pine — Hell's Half Acre (7) and the Devil's pot bunker (10) await.

Hogan's Alley — a George Thomas classic of barrancas, Kikuyu rough, strategic angles, and tiny Poa annua targets.

Pete Dye's faux-links along Lake Michigan — a thousand bunkers and the wind off the water.

Rod Whitman's links on the Gulf of St. Lawrence — Canada's first true links. Every hole sees the sea; the 100-yard 16th hangs over the water.

Firm, wide and wind-blown over glacial terrain and waist-high fescue — a par-5 finish.

Donald Ross's masterpiece. No water — just turtle-back greens and sandy native scrub.

America's sternest test — lightning greens, the Church Pews, and a par-70 with only two par 5s.

Wicker-basket flags and a par-70 quirk: both par 5s in the first four holes, Hogan's 1-iron to finish.

The 2019 & 2025 Open host — dramatic clifftop links with the fewest bunkers on the rota, defended by dunes, elevation and Atlantic wind. Calamity Corner waits at 16.

Pete Dye's short, strategic gem through tight Lowcountry oaks, closing at the iconic lighthouse on Calibogue Sound.

A modern PGA Championship venue closing with the fearsome water-lined 'Green Mile' — holes 16, 17 and 18.

The Blue Monster — a long, firm, water-heavy Florida test with a brutal closing par 4 hugging the lake all the way home.

A classic Southport links through towering dunes — an Open Championship venue where the wind off the Irish Sea decides the card.

A Donald Ross parkland classic — crowned greens and demanding par 4s on a par-70 that has tested BMW Championship fields.

Pete Dye's wind-lashed masterpiece — host of 'War by the Shore' and two PGA Championships, with more seaside holes than any course in the northern hemisphere.

A dramatic links-style course perched 200 feet above Lake Michigan. An unusual balance of five par 3s and five par 5s, all exposed to the lake wind.

A.W. Tillinghast's brute — small, fiercely contoured greens and a punishing par-4 finish. At the 2020 US Open only one man broke par all week.

The 2015 U.S. Open venue, built on a former quarry above Puget Sound. Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s brutal, treeless links plays to nearly 7,900 yards of fescue and contour.

One of the USGA's five founding clubs. Francis Ouimet's 1913 upset here launched American golf; it returned for the 1999 Ryder Cup and the 2022 U.S. Open. Tight, tree-lined, and full of blind rock outcrops.

Tom Doak's masterpiece at Bandon, routinely ranked among the world's best. An unconventional routing with back-to-back par 3s on the ocean and only two par 4s on the back nine.

Tiger Woods' first public design, carved into the Ozarks. Wide fairways, huge greens, and dramatic elevation to a par-5 13th that stretches to 653 yards.

Alister MacKenzie's sandbelt masterpiece, played here as the Composite Course used for the Presidents Cup. Fast, tilted greens and the most beautiful bunkering in golf.

Donald Ross routes across a coastal dune ridge — every turn changes the wind, and 167 bunkers defend firm greens.

George Thomas's barranca-laced North Course, restored by Gil Hanse and revealed to the world at the 2023 U.S. Open. A 633-yard par 5 and a 133-yard par 3 on the same nine.

Old Tom Morris's Highlands masterpiece — plateau greens on a ridge, then home along the Dornoch Firth beaches.

Home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and to many the finest links on earth. Two concentric loops — the front nine clockwise, the back counter — so the wind never repeats.

The founding course of the Oregon coast's links mecca. David McLay Kidd's fescue layout runs along Pacific bluffs where the wind defines every shot.

C.B. Macdonald's 1911 masterpiece — the course that brought the great template holes of Britain to America. Redan, Alps, Short, Biarritz: the originals are all here, above Peconic Bay.

"Carnasty." The Barry Burn crosses the course six times and waits for you again at 18.

Jack Nicklaus's tournament laboratory — creeks, lakes, and severe greens build toward one of golf's hardest finishes.

Tillinghast's Lower Course — seven U.S. Opens, and the only major venue that finishes with back-to-back par 5s.

Chet Williams's East Texas gem in the piney woods — Caney Creek shapes a dramatic closing stretch.

A PGA TOUR test through wooded Maryland terrain, where Rock Run Creek and small elevated greens punish misses.

Washington's championship monster — 7,800 yards through the Maryland hardwoods, reborn under Andrew Green and finishing beside the lake.

The most intact Tillinghast there is — an open, tame front nine, then a hilly water-strewn back that turns the round upside down.

Seth Raynor's template masterwork — Redan, Eden, Biarritz and Short, on quietly rolling Ohio ground.

Out along the shore, home through the gorse — with the Postage Stamp waiting at 8.

Perry Maxwell's inland links through rolling prairie — wind, native grass, and greens that reject the wrong angle.

The Firth of Clyde, Ailsa Craig on the horizon and a lighthouse at the turn — where Watson and Nicklaus fought the Duel in the Sun.

Tom Watson's favourite links — dunes stacked against the Atlantic, with the cliff-top stretch from the 7th the reason people cross an ocean.

Donald Ross in upstate New York, restored to its bones for the 2023 PGA — 7,394 yards of par 70 with Allen's Creek waiting.

Coore & Crenshaw found this one rather than built it — eighteen holes routed through Nebraska dunes, with blowout bunkers and endless width.

Tillinghast's Westchester jewel — fairways so narrow the driver stays in the bag, and a par 70 that defends every stroke.

Seth Raynor's final and finest work — templates laid along Long Island Sound, on an island reachable only by ferry.

Old Tom Morris beneath the Mountains of Mourne — blind drives, bearded bunkers and gorse, and a view from the 9th tee that has no equal.