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The best golf courses in Kentucky

By Stephen Hennessey and Derek Duncan
May 29, 2025
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Driving through areas of Kentucky, particularly in and around Lexington, most golfers can’t help but think about the rolling terrain—often used for beautiful horse farms—and think to themselves: Wow, this land would make a great golf course. Thankfully for golfers teeing it up in the Bluegrass State, there are dozens of great courses that have secured some of this sneaky good land for golf. Among those, of course, is Valhalla Golf Club, the state’s only top-100 club and host of a Ryder Cup and four PGA Championships, including in 2024, won by Xander Schauffele.

Most casual golfers, however, might not know other courses in Kentucky, but they should. The second-ranked course, The Club at Olde Stone, is one of the late architect Arthur Hills’ best designs, especially with ongoing renovations by one of Hills’ top former lieutenants, Drew Rogers. The ultra-private Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington, No. 3, also falls in that category—we’ve always struggled to obtain enough ballots to meet our minimum requirements (25 ballots over a 10-year cycle), but we were able to rank the Donald Ross original design for the first time in 2023-’24. Lexington Country Club, No. 6, was laid out by Tom Bendelow in 1913 and is coming off a spectacular renovation by Kentucky native Kevin Hargrave.

Keene Trace’s Champion Trace course also hosts the annual Barbasol Championship on the PGA Tour, and there are some great clubs in the Louisville area such as Hurstbourne Country Club, Big Spring, University of Louisville Golf Club and Persimmon Ridge. Golf in Kentucky deserves the spotlight, and we’re glad to highlight some of the state’s best.

Below you'll find our 2025-'26 ranking of the Best Golf Courses in Kentucky.

Scroll on for the complete list of the best courses in Kentucky. Be sure to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography and reviews from our course panelists. We also encourage you to leave your own ratings … so you can make your case for (or against) any course that you've played.

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10. Park Mammoth Golf Club
Park City, KY
4
1 Panelists
Previous rank: NR
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9. University of Louisville Golf Club
Simpsonville, KY
3.6
10 Panelists
Previous rank: 9
Formerly known as The Cardinal Club, the University of Louisville Golf Club is an appealing, walkable layout in a pastoral setting, sprawled along gentle mounds despite its location adjacent to a major interstate. Ponds, small lakes, and streams are used to create natural hazards and do not appear contrived or out of place. While most of the course is open, several holes are routed through woody areas and provide moments of solitary escape and tranquility before spilling out onto open land once again. Landing areas are fairly wide but thick rough, copious water, dense native grass areas and strategically placed overhanging trees will punish errant tee shots.
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8. Persimmon Ridge Golf Club
Louisville, KY
3.9
6 Panelists
Previous rank: 10
Persimmon Ridge Golf Club in Louisville is ranked as one of the best golf courses in Kentucky. Discover our experts' reviews and tee time information
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7. Big Spring Country Club
Louisville, KY
3.7
13 Panelists
Previous rank: 7
Big Spring Country Club in Louisville is ranked as one of the best golf courses in Kentucky. Discover our experts' reviews and tee time information
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6. Lexington Country Club
Lexington, KY
3.6
9 Panelists
Previous rank: 6
This 1913 Tom Bendelow design is set in the quiet horse country northeast of Lexington, with holes that move back and forth across a bucolic property. Architect and Kentucky resident Kevin Hargrave, who lives 20 minutes away and previously worked for designer Keith Foster, has been consulting with the club for over a decade and recently completed a long-range master plan. The renovation included the installation of new irrigation, the removal of approximately 200 trees and widened fairways. Hargrave expanded putting surfaces and rebuilt five greens, and also shifted and rebuilt each bunker. The creek that runs through holes 12 and 14 was also fortified and refurbished to prevent crawdads from burrowing into the banks.
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5. Keene Trace Golf Club: Champion Trace
Nicholasville, KY
3.9
8 Panelists
Previous rank: 5
The Champion Trace course at Keene Trace has ranked inside the top five in Kentucky in most of our rankings since the Arthur Hills course opened in the late 1980s. Routed on the rolling hills you'd expect on the site of a former horse farm, Champion Trace hosted the 1993 NCAA Championship and the 1994 U.S. Senior Amateur—and after new ownership took over the property in 2015, the course underwent some significant improvements ahead of hosting the PGA Tour's Barbasol Championship for the first time in 2018.
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4. Hurstbourne Country Club
Louisville, KY
4
12 Panelists
Previous rank: 4
Hurstbourne Country Club is one of the finest clubs in Kentucky, boasting a course with excellent holes that test a player in a number of ways. The par-4 sixth hole is a good example—mandating a good drive into the fairway before requiring skilled placement on the long second shot over water to an undulating green. Two very challenging holes end the round—a short par-4 with a green bordered tightly by bunkers, then an uphill par-3. Good players will require some knowledge to master the subtlety of this classic design, renovated in recent years by Keith Foster.
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3. Idle Hour Country Club
Lexington, KY
4.4
7 Panelists
Previous rank: 3
Perhaps the most exclusive club in Kentucky found its way onto our ranking of Kentucky’s Best Golf Courses for the first time in 2023—thanks to finally obtaining enough ballots to be considered. For those fortunate to receive an invitation, you’ll encounter a Donald Ross gem built in the 1920s—with undulating and typically elevated greens that usually run as some of the fastest in the state. Architect Ron Prichard performed a renovation in recent years to restore a number of bunkers, and over time, the routing has been flipped—so the closing stretch on the front nine provides some of the course’s most challenging holes. Walking is encouraged at Idle Hour, with subtle land movement in the fairways, water and well-placed bunkers presenting a stout driving test.
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2. The Club at Olde Stone
Bowling Green, KY
4.5
7 Panelists
Previous rank: 2
The Club at Olde Stone, just a little more than an hour outside Nashville, is a 2006 Arthur Hills design built among an upscale housing development, which also includes a quality golf academy, putting course and a par-3 course. After a challenging opening hole, the next six holes play down into a natural meadow—with some more rolling topography throughout the property creating some blind approach shots and strategic tee shots.
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1. Valhalla Golf Club
Louisville, KY
4.6
36 Panelists
Previous rank: 1
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 bentgrass fairways with firmer, faster zoysia in 2022. Valhalla has proven to be a great championship site where play almost always comes down to the final hole. This has been true at each of the four thrilling PGA Championships, including narrow wins by Rory McIlroy in 2014 and Xander Schauffele in 2024.
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