Courses

Donald Trump's best golf courses, ranked

By Stephen Hennessey

October 28, 2022

Given the former president's connection to the game—owning 19 golf properties around the world—and the championships his courses have hosted, including the LIV Golf finale at Trump National Doral in Miami, Trump's courses are a common topic of conversation in golf circles.

Which courses are the best? Our course-ranking panelists, who evaluated candidate courses across the country and Canada, will let the scores do the talking.

Private

Trump National Golf Club Bedminster: Old Course

Bedminster, NJ

4.3

43 Panelists

Best In State

The highest-ranked Trump-owned course, the Old course at Trump National Bedminster hosted the 2017 U.S. Women's Open and was set to host the 2022 PGA Championship before the PGA of America moved the event to Southern Hills. The Fazio design, which opened in 2004, was ranked as high as 141st on our America's Second 100 Greatest rankings in 2013-2014—and 165th in 2015-2016—before falling off our rankings for not having enough ballots to meet our minimum evaluation count.

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Private

Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach: Championship

West Palm Beach, FL

4.3

114 Panelists

Best In State

Long before he was President of the United States, or even a TV reality show host, Donald Trump built a golf course, on prime real estate in West Palm Beach, which he got from Palm Beach County. In exchange for a 100-year lease, Trump agreed not to sue the county for noise disturbance to Mar-A-Lago resort. He hired Tom Fazio’s older, less-celebrated brother Jim Fazio to design a course that would rival Trump’s casino rival Steve Wynn’s baby, No. 27 Shadow Creek in Vegas. Jim moved 2 million cubic yards of dirt to create 58 feet of elevation change and planted 5,000 mature trees. Lakes linked by recirculating streams were built, as was a monolithic waterfall on the 17th. The result is Shadow Creek Southeast. “Steve Wynn is a friend of mine,” Trump said in a 1999 interview. “I did get certain ideas from Shadow Creek because I think he did a very good job. I made them bigger and better.”

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Washington DC: Championship

Potomac Falls, VA

4.1

43 Panelists

Best In State

Trump National in Washington, D.C., features the Championship and Riverview courses. The Championship course, host of the Senior PGA Championship, is a Tom Fazio design.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Bedminster: New Course

Bedminster, NJ

3.9

28 Panelists

The sister course to the Old course at Trump Bedminster, the New course opened in 2008 and is ranked 18th on our most recent Best Courses in New Jersey list.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Jupiter

Jupiter, FL

4.5

90 Panelists

Best In State

Trump bought the Ritz-Carlton resort in 2012. Its Jack Nicklaus design is one of a number of quality courses in the area—including the Bear's Club down the road and the Floridian.

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Public

Trump National Doral: Blue Monster

Miami, FL

4.1

170 Panelists

The linchpin of the famous four-course complex previously known as Doral Golf Resort, the Blue Monster had hosted a PGA Tour event annually from 1962 to 2016. The fearsome layout was designed by Dick Wilson in 1962 and set the template for the modern south Florida course with lakes galore, deep bunkers and greenpads elevated above the fairways for drainage and aerial target golf. Several questionable renovations in the 1990s and early 2000s moved it away from the original Wilson look, and the design was lost for a period of time. Always intended to be a course presenting shot-making demands for good players, the Blue Monster was given added bite by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner through the creation of new slopes and ridges on several holes and the excavation of new lakes on the par-3 15 and drivable par-4 16 to add more excitement to the finish. But they wisely left the legendary 18th nearly untouched. Why mess with history? The changes were completed shortly before the PGA Tour took the course out of its annual location.

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Public

Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point

Bronx, NY

103 Panelists

Best In State

The Jack Nicklaus, John Stanford and Jim Lipe design atop an old NYC trash dump opened in 2014 debuted at No. 95 on 2017-2018 100 Greatest Public ranking. It's currently ranked 35th on our Best in New York list. Reports estimate the cost of the Bronx links to be near $127 million.

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Public

Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

3.9

44 Panelists

Best In State

Just 30 minutes south of LAX, the Pete Dye design features Pacific Ocean views on every single hole. Built among the jagged cliffs of Palos Verdes Peninsula, Trump National Los Angeles is reportedly one of the most expensive courses constructed in the United States, as the Trump Golf folks claim it took $250 million to develop this scenic public golf experience.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Charlotte

Mooresville, NC

4.1

39 Panelists

Best In State

Trump National Charlotte possesses plenty of aesthetic tee shots and approaches with great views of Lake Norman. Greg Norman, the architect, did a great job of balancing a fun course, while maintaining a very distinct and playable course layout meandering through the inlets of Lake Norman incorporating both water hazards and elevation challenges.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia

Pine Hill, NJ

3.8

42 Panelists

Best In State

Trump National Philadelphia, in Pine Hill, N.J., is a Tom Fazio design with some rolling terrain down the street from Pine Valley. Donald Trump told our John Barton in 2014: "I think it's as good as Pine Valley, OK? People from Pine Valley are playing it all the time, and some say it's just as good, and some say it's better."

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Private

Trump National Hudson Valley: Branton Woods

Hopewell Junction, NY

5 Panelists

Trump Hudson Valley was ranked second in our 2002 ranking of Best New Upscale courses.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Washington DC: Riverview

Potomac Falls, VA

3.6

19 Panelists

Trump National in Washington, D.C., with 36 holes, is the former Lowes Island Club purchased about a decade ago by Trump.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck: Trump National

Colts Neck, NJ

8 Panelists

Pictured here is a par-3 19th hole at the ultra-private Trump National Colts Neck.

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Private

Trump National Golf Club Westchester: Trump National

Briarcliff Manor, NY

13 Panelists

The Jim Fazio design was ranked in our top 25 in New York in 2007 and 2009, and inside the top 30 in state in 2011.

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Trump's international courses:

Trump Turnberry, Scotland

David Cannon/Getty Images

Donald Trump hired Martin Ebert to upgrade the legendary Ailsa course, which reopened in 2016. Changes included converting the par-4 ninth hole into a par 3, and moving the green on the par-3 11th onto the water, turning the hole into a beautiful, short one-shotter.

Trump International G. Links, Scotland, Aberdeenshire

Trump-International-Golf-Links-Aberdeenshire-Scotland.jpg

Courtesy of the Trump Organization

Our Ron Whitten wrote of Trump International, Scotland: "This Martin Hawtree design is set in as dramatic a set of sand dunes as there is in golf."

Trump International G. Links, Ireland, Doonbeg

Courtesy of Steve Carr/The Trump Organization

The Greg Norman course opened in 2002 and was purchased by the Trump Organization in 2014. Trump hired Hawtree, who worked at Trump Turnberry, to modify the course.

Trump International G.C., Dubai

Courtesy of the Trump Organization

Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner built Trump International Dubai in 2015 from barren land.

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Donald Trump's best golf courses, ranked

Bedminster, NJ

West Palm Beach, FL

Potomac Falls, VA

Bedminster, NJ

Jupiter, FL

Miami, FL

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Bronx, NY

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

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Mooresville, NC

Pine Hill, NJ

Hopewell Junction, NY

Potomac Falls, VA

Colts Neck, NJ

Briarcliff Manor, NY

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