The world’s finest golf destinations — ranked, reviewed and planned by The Global Golfer.
The Global Golfer covers golf destinations across five continents. Whether you are planning a weekend in East Lothian or a fortnight in New Zealand, a trip to Augusta in Masters week or a solo week on the Algarve, the guides below cover the courses, the logistics and the stay that makes each destination worth the journey.
United Kingdom
The birthplace of golf and still its finest sustained destination — no country on earth produces the variety and density of top-ranked courses within a compact geography that Britain does.
Scotland — Ayrshire · St Andrews & Fife · East Lothian · Perthshire · Highland & Islands
Surrey — Wentworth · Sunningdale · Walton Heath · Queenwood
Berkshire — Swinley Forest · Sunningdale · The Berkshire
Cotswolds & Gloucestershire — Cotswold Hills · Cheltenham · Broadway · Cirencester
Yorkshire — Ganton · Moortown · Rudding Park · Ilkley
Cornwall — St Enodoc · Trevose · Perranporth · St Mellion
Europe
Continental Europe’s finest golf ranges from the Algarve’s ocean courses to the forest layouts outside Berlin, from Sotogrande’s clifftop holes to the Provence parkland of Terre Blanche. The Top 100 includes nineteen European courses across ten countries.
Notable destinations: Algarve (Portugal) · Costa del Sol (Spain) · Sotogrande · French Riviera · Germany · Scandinavia · Ireland
North America
American golf offers the greatest breadth of any single country — from Pebble Beach’s Pacific cliffside to Augusta National’s cathedral pines, from the Nebraska Sandhills to the Oregon coast at Bandon Dunes. Twenty-nine courses in the Global Golfer Top 100 are in North America.
Notable destinations: Pebble Beach · Augusta · Bandon Dunes · Cabot Cape Breton · Scottsdale · Pinehurst · New York area
Asia-Pacific
The Asia-Pacific region contains eleven courses in the Global Golfer Top 100, anchored by Royal Melbourne’s West Course and Australia’s national tradition of exceptional parkland golf. Japan’s Hirono Golf Club is the finest course in Asia. New Zealand’s Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs offer coastal drama that rivals anywhere in the world.
Notable destinations: Melbourne · Sydney · New Zealand · Tokyo · Singapore · Bali
Middle East
Dubai and Abu Dhabi have built world-class golf infrastructure on desert terrain in less than thirty years. The Middle East now hosts multiple European Tour and DP World Tour events and the leading courses — Emirates Golf Club, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Saadiyat Beach — represent an entirely distinctive golf experience.
Notable destinations: Dubai · Abu Dhabi · Oman
Africa
Africa’s golf ranges from Morocco’s forest parkland at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam to the Indian Ocean resort courses of Mauritius and the wildlife-adjacent courses of South Africa. A round on a South African bush course — with impala grazing the fairway edges — is an experience no British heathland can replicate.
Notable destinations: Cape Town · Fancourt · Mauritius · Rabat
Golf & Spa Travel
→ Stay•Play•Recover destinations — resorts where the golf, the hotel and the spa all earn their place
→ Golf & Spa Breaks — the best combinations by region
→ Golf Resorts — self-contained resort destinations worldwide