The 20 Best Golf Courses in Florida

The consensus No. 1 course in Florida on every major panel - Golf Digest has ranked Seminole first in the state since 1985, and GOLF Magazine puts it first too. Ross routed the course in 1929 along and between two dune ridges hard by the Atlantic, so almost every hole meets the wind from a new direction. Ben Hogan called it the one course he could happily play every day, the 2021 Walker Cup showed off its firm, fast surfaces, and the closing three holes are among the finest finishes in American golf.

The highest-ranked Florida course anyone can book, and No. 2 on both the Golf Digest and GOLF Magazine state lists. Dye conjured the Stadium Course out of flat swampland in 1980 and gave it the most famous finish in tour golf: the reachable par-5 16th, the island-green 17th, and a closing par 4 with water down the entire left side. Home of THE PLAYERS Championship since 1982 - and at $750 peak it is a splurge that delivers the full championship production. Read our full course review.

Golfweek ranks the Red the No. 2 public-access course in Florida, behind only Sawgrass, and GOLF Magazine puts it third in the state overall. Coore and Crenshaw shaped it from the heaving sand of a reclaimed phosphate mine - wide fairways, ground-game options almost unheard of in Florida, and a dramatic par-3 16th over water to a green some 70 yards deep. Walking-first, no houses, no palm-tree postcard golf: this is a links that happens to sit in Central Florida.

Golf Digest ranks Calusa Pines third in Florida and inside the national top 70; GOLF Magazine has it in the state top six. Hurdzan and Fry took a dead-flat Naples site in 2001 and built ridgelines up to 58 feet high from the lakes they dug, planting them with mature oaks and pines. The result plays firm and fast, rivals Streamsong for the fastest turf in the state, has no homes and no tee times - just a pure golf club with a celebrated caddie program.

Doak built the Blue alongside the Red - the two routings actually intertwine - and panelists have argued the sibling order ever since: Golfweek goes Red, Blue, Black, in that order. The Blue plays wider off the tee than the Red, then asks harder questions the closer you get, with boldly contoured greens and a closing pair, the par-5 17th and the long par-4 18th, that rank among the sternest finishes Doak has built. Book both on the same trip and pick your own winner.

Hobe Sound is Florida golf in microcosm - a small coastal town stacked with elite clubs - and McArthur may be its purest golf-only address: no tee times, no pool, no tennis, just the course Fazio and Price built in 2002 through pines and sand hills beside the Medalist. GOLF Magazine rates its two nines so highly it ranked both inside its Florida top 10, and Golf Digest keeps the club on its Second 100 Greatest list. Quiet, exacting, and entirely about the golf.

The oldest course on this list and its great classic surprise. Raynor laid out Mountain Lake in 1917 in the rolling lake country of Central Florida - genuine elevation, template holes, and a private colony setting that feels a world away from the flat, watery Florida stereotype. GOLF Magazine ranks it seventh in the state, Golfweek has it fifth among Florida privates, and a Tyler Rae restoration is returning the course to its 1917 roots.

Named for the most famous act of sportsmanship in Ryder Cup history - Nicklaus conceding Jacklin a short putt to halve the 1969 matches - and co-designed by the two men themselves. Golf Digest named it America's Best New Private Course of 2006, Golf Digest has ranked it as high as fourth in Florida, and in 2021 it stepped in to host a World Golf Championships event on short notice. Small greens, bold bunkering, and live-oak country on the Gulf side of the state.

George Fazio blended the two courses he knew best - Pine Valley and Merion, where he had lost a U.S. Open playoff - into the Hills Course in 1970, routing it along a prominent sand ridge with elevation change almost unheard of in South Florida. His nephew Tom Fazio later restored the original Pine Valley character. Every panel puts the Hills in the Florida top 10, and the club hosted the 2018 U.S. Mid-Amateur on a layout that still feels like a hidden championship test.

Hanse's 2017 addition completed the Streamsong set, and it is the boldest of the three: a par-73 stretched across some 300 acres, with enormous fairways, a punchbowl 9th green, a dual green at the 13th and an infinity green at the 17th. Golfweek ranks it the No. 4 public-access course in Florida. Three architects at the top of the modern game, one resort, three completely different rounds - no other address in American golf offers that.