Looking to try out the best golf courses this summer? Golfweek compiled a list of the best classic and modern courses in the U.S. and several New York courses came out on top.
Golfweek’s Best 2025 list of top courses were rated by a panel of hundreds based on 10 criteria: routing, integrity of design/quality of shaping, overall land plan, greens and surrounds, variety and memorability of par 3s, 4s and 5s, tree and landscape management, conditioning and ecology and a “walk in the park” test — if it’s worthy of spending four hours on.
Each course also received a single, overall rating from each panel member, which were then averaged to produce all of Golfweek’s best course rankings. With the Top 200 Modern or Top 200 Classic lists, courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify, which means the courses could have made the Best 2025 list but not the top modern or classic lists.
“Why do we split our rankings between Modern and Classic, with 1960 as a break point? Because they are two very different eras,” Golfweek says.
Here’s which New York golf courses are some of the best in the country.
Classic New York courses in Golfweek’s top 100
To be considered a classic course by Golfweek, the course has to have opened before 1960 in the U.S.
“As written in our rater’s handbook, the Classic style of architecture was basically natural with intimate routings that enabled holes to cling to native landforms,” according to Golfweek. “Greens were built from native soil that was pushed up and shaped, giving Classic designers enormous freedom to build oddly shaped putting surfaces with more contour than typically seen in the Modern era, when green speeds became much greater.”
Here’s which classic golf courses in New York are in Golfweek’s top 100.
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
National Golf Links of America
Fishers Island Club
Winged Foot Golf Club (West)
Maidstone Club
Bethpage State Park Golf Course (Black)
Garden City Golf Club
Sleepy Hollow Country Club
Winged Foot Golf Club (East)
Oak Hill Country Club (East)
Piping Rock Club
Quaker Ridge Golf Club
The Creek
St. George’s Golf and Country Club
Glens Falls Country Club
Country Club of Buffalo
Fenway Golf Club
Modern New York golf courses in Golfweek’s top 100
Golfweek’s modern course list includes all courses opened since 1960 in the U.S.
“As noted in our rater’s handbook that guides these rankings, design and construction techniques for courses shifted fundamentally after 1960,” Golfweek said. “Mechanized earth-moving became the norm, and the USGA developed sophisticated methods to build sand-based greens … The skills required to build a great course became those of professionally trained landscape architects, not just creative golf visionaries.”
Here’s which modern golf courses in New York are in Golfweek’s top 100.
Friar’s Head
Sebonack Golf Club
Hudson National Golf Club
Emily Barnes reports on consumer-related issues for the USA TODAY Network’s New York Connect Team, focusing on scam and recall-related topics. Follow her on X and Instagram @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Golfweek names top U.S. courses for 2025: See which NY courses made the cut
Reporting by Emily Barnes, New York Connect Team / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
