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The best Jack Nicklaus golf courses

By Stephen Hennessey
June 06, 2024
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Back in the 1960s, an Ohio kid checked in on the construction of what would become the highest-ranked course in the state. The design was The Golf Club, and the kid was Jack Nicklaus—a curious observer to the work being done by Pete Dye. Nicklaus, who by 1966 was a career Grand Slam winner, would sign up with Dye as his player consultant, starting a partnership that included Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, site of an annual tour stop since 1969. The host venue to the PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament for more than 35 years, Jack's Muirfield Village Golf Club actually sits on land that Nicklaus and Dye prospected back in the late 1960s, although that project didn't come to fruition. By the time Muirfield Village came to be in 1974, Nicklaus and Dye had split. Fast-forward almost four decades, and Nicklaus' design company has eight offices in six countries, with Jack designing more than 300 courses and growing his business into one of the most successful design firms of his generation.

Here's a look at Nicklaus' best courses—ranked in the order our Golf Digest course-ranking panelists scored them based on our most recent America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses ranking and Golf Digest's Second 100 Greatest courses. Note: Our previous ranking of Nicklaus' best courses included international courses, but with our new World 100 Greatest Courses ranking going live in a few weeks, we've removed them for now and will republish this list when the new ranking goes live!

We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and reviews from our course panelists. Plus, you can now leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … to make your case why your favorite should be ranked higher. 

13. Desert Highlands Golf Club
CJ Gershon
Private
13. Desert Highlands Golf Club
Scottsdale, AZ, United States
4.1
120 Panelists
Host of the first two televised Skins Games in 1983 and 1984 featuring Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Watson, Desert Highlands is a Jack Nicklaus design sitting at the base of Pinnacle Peak. With stunning views of the surrounding desert, valley and moutains, the course demands precise ball-striking to find the relatively narrow fairways. The course has been previously ranked on our 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest rankings.
Explore our full review
12. Spring Creek Ranch
Private
12. Spring Creek Ranch
Collierville, TN, United States
3.9
65 Panelists
During the early decades of golf in the U.S., courses were developed on natural, open properties in rural areas, often on former farms or ranches where the rolling land dictated the character of the holes. This simple formula describes Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club, a bucolic, stand-alone golf facility located on an old ranch east of Memphis. The easygoing design was part of a philosophical shift in the way Nicklaus built courses, transitioning from an eye that emphasized shotmaking to a more genteel style of shaping sympathetic to a range of skill sets. That’s not to suggest Spring Creek Ranch is benign—the holes zig-zag around ponds and wetlands, jump creeks and dart through the woods. One of them, a double-fairway par 5, occupies a staggering 20 acres of land.
Explore our full review
11. Sherwood Country Club
Martin Miller
Private
11. Sherwood Country Club
Thousand Oaks, CA
4.5
106 Panelists
When Jack Nicklaus completed Sherwood Country Club for industrialist David Murdock in the late 1980s, critics immediately compared it to No. 26 Shadow Creek, which Nicklaus felt was unfair, since his land—a river valley with homesites on high surrounding hills—was far more natural than the barren Vegas desert. But critics were comparing ledger books. They spent lots of money at Sherwood. Several hundred mature oaks were transplanted at an estimated cost of $6 million. The massive boulders edging some fairways were trucked in as well, and the ponds and streams guarding landing areas and greens were manufactured by experts in that business. In the end, it added up to producing one of the best courses money could buy, until the drought of 2014. Nicklaus returned in 2016 to approve agronomic improvements that reduce water use by 25 percent. Sherwood remains a great layout, but more austere in presentation.
Explore our full review
11. Sherwood Country Club
Martin Miller
Private
11. Sherwood Country Club
Thousand Oaks, CA
4.5
106 Panelists
When Jack Nicklaus completed Sherwood Country Club for industrialist David Murdock in the late 1980s, critics immediately compared it to No. 26 Shadow Creek, which Nicklaus felt was unfair, since his land—a river valley with homesites on high surrounding hills—was far more natural than the barren Vegas desert. But critics were comparing ledger books. They spent lots of money at Sherwood. Several hundred mature oaks were transplanted at an estimated cost of $6 million. The massive boulders edging some fairways were trucked in as well, and the ponds and streams guarding landing areas and greens were manufactured by experts in that business. In the end, it added up to producing one of the best courses money could buy, until the drought of 2014. Nicklaus returned in 2016 to approve agronomic improvements that reduce water use by 25 percent. Sherwood remains a great layout, but more austere in presentation.
Explore our full review
10. The Bear's Club
Courtesy of Nicklaus Design
Private
10. The Bear's Club
Jupiter, FL
4.2
81 Panelists


From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:


The Bear’s Club marked a transition point in Jack Nicklaus’ design outlook when it opened in 1999. His architecture had typically been analytical and, while still lovely, oriented toward factoring how players might break down the features tactically. That strategic backbone is present in The Bear’s Club, but the team approached the design more holistically than they had previously, factoring in aesthetics to an unprecedented degree. Instead of building holes on a golf site, Jack and his associates created a golf environment, expanding and enhancing a dune ridge running through the low pine and palmetto scrub and anchoring large, sensuous bunkers into the native vegetation.
 

The course is part of an upscale residential development near the Intracoastal Waterway, but it blends so well you wouldn’t know it. The change in perspective that Nicklaus Design developed at The Bear’s Club pushed the firm toward similar successes in the 2000s like Sebonack (with Tom Doak), The Concession and Mayacama.
 

Explore more about Bear's Club with our complete review here—including bonus photography and ratings from our expert panelists.

Explore our full review

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9. The Reserve At Moonlight Basin
Aidan Bradley
Private
9. The Reserve At Moonlight Basin
Big Sky, MT, United States
4.6
86 Panelists
The Reserve at Moonlight Basin is just the third course from Montana to appear in the national rankings, joining Tom Doak’s Rock Creek Cattle Company (No. 56) and Robert Trent Jones’ Yellowstone C.C., which surfaced in the 1960s on the list of America’s “Toughest” courses. Located near Big Sky at an elevation of 7,500 feet above sea level, the Jack Nicklaus design is the highest (in altitude) in the rankings. Big sky is apt—the course was built on the site of an old ski mountain with 360-degree panoramas of the surrounding Rockies, and the impressively large holes race, slalom and dive across circuits of terrain that twist different directions through the wilderness. With numerous downhill shots through the thin air, the championship yardage of 8,000 yards doesn’t seem egregious, and scoring well actually requires a high degree control in judging where the ball will carry and settle. The epic vistas of holes like the par 4 first and par 5 17th (at over 700 yards) are sights to behold, for golfers and non-golfers alike.
Read our full review
8. Harbour Town Golf Links
Courtesy of Rob Tipton
Public
8. Harbour Town Golf Links
Hilton Head Island, SC, United States
4.4
250 Panelists
In the late 1960s, Jack Nicklaus landed the design contract for Harbour Town, then turned it over to his new partner, Pete Dye, who was determined to distinguish his work from that of rival Robert Trent Jones. Soon after Harbour Town opened in late November 1969 (with a victory by Arnold Palmer in the Heritage Classic), the course debuted on America’s 100 Greatest as one of the Top 10. It was a total departure for golf at the time. No mounds, no elevated tees, no elevated greens—just low-profile and abrupt change. Tiny greens hung atop railroad ties directly over water hazards. Trees blocked direct shots. Harbour Town gave Pete Dye national attention and put Jack Nicklaus, who made more than 100 inspection trips in collaborating with Dye, in the design business. Pete’s wife, Alice, also contributed, instructing workers on the size and shape of the unique 13th green, a sinister one edged by cypress planks.
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7. Manele Golf Course
Public
7. Manele Golf Course
Lanai, HI
4.6
83 Panelists
Manele, previously called The Challenge at Manele, unseated Kapalua’s Plantation course as the highest-ranked public course in Hawaii several years ago. Now the course, located on the southern coast of Lanai, has the votes to make it eligible for the 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest ranking as well, buoyed by an Aesthetics score that regularly ranks among the top 30 in the U.S. The Nicklaus design is worthy of high praise. It has three ocean-cove holes, including the par-3 12th and dogleg-right par-4 17th. You might argue Manele has been perpetually underranked, starting with its finish on Golf Digest’s ranking of Best New Resort Courses in 1994, well behind World Woods’ Pine Barrens course (now known as Cabot Barrens at Cabot Citrus Farms), which is currently 90th on our 100 Greatest Public. It’s hard to argue it’s under ranked now.
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6. Mayacama Golf Club
Private
6. Mayacama Golf Club
Santa Rosa, CA, United States
4.4
157 Panelists
As Jack Nicklaus wound down his competitive career, his empathy for average golfers rose, and rather than continue to build back-breaking championship-length courses, he began to tailor some of his designs toward the average golfers who foot the bill. Thus Mayacama is less than 6,800 yards and is routed to be a very comfortable walk, essential since the club has no golf carts. A bold design, it explores every facet of the oak-dotted hillsides above Santa Rosa. Watersheds and gulches figure prominently in the layout, which has some dramatically elevated tees and four stunning, gambling par 5s.
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5. Sycamore Hills Golf Club
Courtesy of Jim Mandeville
Private
5. Sycamore Hills Golf Club
Fort Wayne, IN, United States
4.4
114 Panelists
Jack Nicklaus has redesigned some aspect of every hole at No. 16 Muirfield Village over the decades, in efforts to make sure that course remains competitive as annual host of the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament. But he’s done no major remodeling at Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, just modest adjustments. Although the course sees its share of amateur competitions, Nicklaus has seen no need to toughen it for everyday member play. After all, it has always had plenty of challenge, like the long freeform bunker left of the fairway on the par-4 third, the 14 bunkers scattered about the par-5 fifth and the serpentine stream that crosses the fairway four times from tee to green at the par-5 15th. Sycamore Hills is Nicklaus at his most imaginative, with strategic golf on some holes, gambling golf on other holes and target golf on still others.
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4. The Concession Golf Club
Russell Kirk
Private
4. The Concession Golf Club
Bradenton, FL
4.5
141 Panelists
The Concession was originally established by Sarasota resident Tony Jacklin, who convinced Jack Nicklaus to handle the design while Jacklin would offer design suggestions. The club name honors the famous final-putt concession from Jack to Tony in the 1969 Ryder Cup, which resulted in a tie between the teams and a moral victory for the underdog Europeans. The Concession is a terrific design, a rare Nicklaus one that’s not a residential development. The course flows across a variety of landscapes—meadows, wetlands, oak hammocks and pine forests—with spectacular bunkering and exciting green contours. Jack had been working on this course at the same time he and Tom Doak were doing No. 43 Sebonack, and Jack later admitted the small, heavily-contoured greens at The Concession were inspired by those at Sebonack. In 2021, The Concession hosted the World Golf Championships - Workday Championship, won by Colin Morikawa.
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3. Shoal Creek
Courtesy of Michael Clemmer
Private
3. Shoal Creek
Shoal Creek, AL, United States
4.6
131 Panelists
Asked if a course could be built in a Birmingham forest, Jack Nicklaus scouted the site from lumber haul roads and said of the mountainous terrain, “Well, there are a lot of par 3s out there, that’s for sure.” But then he discovered a gentle valley in which to put par 4s and 5s, so he took the job. It became one of his great early designs. But as it neared 40 years of existence, Shoal Creek needed some reconditioning, so Nicklaus and his former senior designer Jim Lipe (now operating his own firm in Louisiana) literally ripped up every hole and rethought strategies and options. The result was not a restoration but an updating. Gone are huge fairway bunkers, replaced by smaller clusters of traps. Greens have been recontoured, with one, the 12th, actually flowing front to back, unheard of back in the late 1970s when the course was first built. Shoal Creek has twice hosted the PGA Championship and the remodeled layout hosted the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Ariya Jutanugarn in a four-hole playoff over Hoo-joo Kim.
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2. Valhalla Golf Club
The 351-yard 13th. Photographs by Brian Oar
Private
2. Valhalla Golf Club
Louisville, KY, United States
4.6
102 Panelists
Given a difficult piece of land on which to create Valhalla (half the site was floodplain, with high-tension power poles), Jack Nicklaus drew on his training under Pete Dye and Desmond Muirhead to produce a unique design, with an alternate fairway par 5, a par 4 with an island green and an 18th green shaped like a horseshoe. Over the decades, Nicklaus returned periodically to update its challenges, and the club rebuilt bunkers and replaced its soft bent grass fairways with firmer, faster zoysia in 2022. Valhalla has proven to be a great championship site. It has hosted three thrilling PGA Championships, the latest Rory McIlroy’s win in 2014, and will host a fourth in 2024.
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1. Muirfield Village Golf Club
Private
1. Muirfield Village Golf Club
Dublin, OH, United States
4.9
172 Panelists
This is the course that Jack built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again and again. Since its opening in 1974, Jack Nicklaus has remodeled every hole at Muirfield Village, some more than once, using play at the PGA Tour’s annual Memorial Tournament for some guidance. The most recent renovation in 2020 was one of the most extensive and included the rebuilding of every hole, the shifting of greens and tees, strategic changes to the iconic par 5s and a new, more player-friendly par3 16th. That’s how a championship course remains competitive. But with every change, Nicklaus always made sure the general membership could still play and enjoy the course as well. The latest word is that Nicklaus is still not happy with the 16th hole and has plans for yet another version.
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