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The best golf courses in Nevada

By Derek Duncan and Stephen Hennessey
May 29, 2025
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Other desert golf destinations like Scottsdale or Palm Springs get more attention, but public golfers in Nevada are lucky. Thirteen of the top 20 courses in Nevada ranked below are accessible to the public (though many with high green fees), which means we probably should be talking more about spots like Las Vegas, Reno and Mesquite as strong golf destinations.

Shadow Creek, ranked first in Nevada since its debut on our lists in 1991, jumped to its highest position on America’s 100 Greatest in 20 years, moving to 24th this year after some recent renovations. Though Southern Highlands fell out of our list of America’s Second 100 Greatest, it was just three tenths of a point shy of remaining in the top 200, so it’s likely to return soon. The Summit Club is right on its heels, also a little over three tenths of a point shy of making our Second 100—emblematic of the depth of great golf that Nevada has to offer.

Scroll on for the complete list of the best courses in Nevada. 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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The best courses you can play in Nevada
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20. Conestoga Golf Club
Mesquite, NV
3.5
7 Panelists
Previous rank: NR
Meandering through canyons and between rocky outcroppings, Conestoga provides a unique experience of playing within Mesquite’s natural landscape. With water in play on just two holes, you likely won’t lose many balls provided you keep it out of the surrounding desert, which lurks to snag errant shots. The picturesque 10th hole, with a mountain backdrop and a green set in front of a tumbling waterfall, is one of Mesquite’s most memorable holes.
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19. Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort: Snow Mountain
Las Vegas, NV
3.9
10 Panelists
Previous rank: NR
Perhaps the most playable of the three courses at the Las Vegas Paiute Resort, Pete Dye’s Snow Mountain offers generous landing areas and plenty of risk-reward challenges. Given the desert setting, wind will likely play a factor. The course finishes strong, offering views of Sheep Mountain on the par-3 16th, traditional Dye railroad-tie bunkers on the 17th, and a stern test with water down the entire left side on the 18th.
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18. Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort: Wolf
Las Vegas, NV
3.8
11 Panelists
Previous rank: 17
You would never know you’re less than 30 miles from the hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas Strip at this Pete Dye design, surrounded by barren desert and jagged peaks. In typical Dye fashion, there are plenty of risk-reward holes, including the split fairways at the par-5 sixth and the par-4 17th. The island green at the par-3 15th closely resembles Dye’s signature 17th at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.
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17. TPC Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
3.7
7 Panelists
Previous rank: 19
This Bobby Weed and Raymond Floyd design previously hosted PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions events when it was known as TPC at The Canyons. The nearby Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area provides a scenic backdrop for a course that features elevation changes and forced carries over canyons. Fairways are generally wide and forgiving, while the greens have subtle breaks influenced by the surrounding mountains. The course has six sets of tees to accommodate every level of player.
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16. Rio Secco Golf Club
Henderson, NV
3.8
24 Panelists
Previous rank: 15
Rees Jones, known as the “Open Doctor” for his work on prominent U.S. Open venues, renovated his original design at Rio Secco in 2017. With the redesign, Jones enhanced the playability for the average golfer, creating many new tees and greens. A former member of Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public Courses, Rio Secco provides exciting elevation changes and views of the Las Vegas Strip. And, if your round didn’t go as planned, the Butch Harmon School of Golf is on property to help.
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15. Incline Village Championship Course
Incline Village, NV
3.8
6 Panelists
Previous rank: 16
In the mid-2000s, Kyle Phillips renovated this Robert Trent Jones Sr. design just as he did at Spain’s famed Valderrama, host of the 1997 Ryder Cup. Make sure that you’re in control of your start line on your tee shots, as stately pines guard many of the tees and fairways. The course features a blend of doglegs moving in each direction, often severely. At over 6,000 feet elevation, the ball flies roughly 10 percent further than at sea level.
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14. Reflection Bay Golf Club
Henderson, NV
3.8
9 Panelists
Previous rank: 13
A former member of Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public Courses, this Jack Nicklaus design sits along the edge of Lake Las Vegas, less than 20 miles east of the Strip. The routing features a variety of hole directions, effectively using the natural landscape to create a balance of uphill and downhill shots. The five holes set along the water make for a memorable finish.
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13. TPC Summerlin
Las Vegas, NV
3.7
12 Panelists
Previous rank: 12
TPC Summerlin co-hosted the 1996 Shriners Children’s Open (then the Las Vegas Invitational), where Tiger Woods captured his first career PGA Tour victory. The Las Vegas desert layout, designed by Fuzzy Zoeller and Bobby Weed, winds through arroyos and canyons. As you’d expect from a TPC facility, the practice facilities are tremendous, covering 12 acres and including two short game areas and a 10,000 square-foot practice green.
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12. DragonRidge Country Club
Henderson, NV
3.6
10 Panelists
Previous rank: 14
In 2001, Jay Morrish and David Druzisky designed DragonRidge Country Club, snaking through the McCullough Mountains that overlook the Las Vegas valley. The club’s entertaining routing meanders through undulating desert terrain where fairways and greens are protected by natural waste areas with dense vegetation. The accessible putting surfaces at DragonRidge are defended by a series of blind shots over rock outcroppings, as well as penal, tightly mown Bermudagrass collection areas just off the greens. DragonRidge is highlighted by the three-hole finishing stretch of the drivable par-4 16th, the difficult par-3 17th with the Vegas skyline in the backdrop and the reachable par-5 18th with a split fairway and narrow green.
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11. Coyote Springs Golf Club
Coyote Springs, NV
3.8
14 Panelists
Previous rank: 11
About an hour north of Las Vegas, this Jack Nicklaus design was a member of Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest Public Courses ranking in 2011. Wide, generous fairways offer a variety of shot options, but undulating, sloping greens require precise approach play. Uneven lies in the fairway—plus an often-present wind in the valley—will also test your irons. The course debuted as No. 2 on Golf Digest’s Best New Public list in 2008, trailing only future U.S. Open host Chambers Bay.
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10. SouthShore Country Club
Henderson, NV
4
13 Panelists
Previous rank: 9
SouthShore Country Club opened in 1996 and was the first private Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in Nevada. Located on the edge of Lake Las Vegas, the fairways at SouthShore snake through desert canyons and feature risk-reward opportunities on nearly every hole, as tee shots and approaches are defended by a series of bunkers or forced carries over natural waste areas. The course at SouthShore traverses over 300 feet of elevation from beginning to end, highlighted by panoramic views of Lake Las Vegas. The course also features a collection of difficult par-3s, where all but one demands a forced carry over water.
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9. Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course
Stateline, NV
4.1
13 Panelists
Previous rank: 10
Edgewood Tahoe is one of golf’s most televised courses as the annual host of the American Century Championship. It also holds the distinction of being the only course in Nevada to have held a USGA championship, hosting a U.S. Senior Open and a U.S. Amateur Public Links in the 1980s. Once a member of Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Courses, Edgewood Tahoe is as telegenic as they come with fairways framed by stately pines, greens flanked by sparkling ponds and several holes positioned on Lake Tahoe, including the final three. At over 6,000 feet elevation, the ball flies roughly 10 percent further than sea level.
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8. Cascata
Boulder City, NV
4.1
30 Panelists
Previous rank: 6
One of the great engineering feats in golf thus far in this century, Cascata climbs up and down a steep, rocky mountain hillside southeast of Las Vegas. It's authentically Nevada on the edges, the barren areas akin to Wolf Creek in Mesquite, but its turfed areas, planted with date palms, ironwoods and willows, and crossed by endless babbling brooks, are something of a salute to nearby Shadow Creek. Cascata plays mostly uphill on the front (the ninth tee is 600 feet above the clubhouse) and downhill on the longer back nine.
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7. Wynn Golf Club
Las Vegas, NV
4.4
12 Panelists
Previous rank: 8
Nestled in the heart of the Vegas strip, Wynn Golf Club has become a go-to venue for Capital One’s “The Match,” hosting the match between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in 2021, the four quarterbacks in 2022, and in 2023, the teammates battle between Steph Curry/Klay Thompson vs. Patrick Mahomes/Travis Kelce. The Tom Fazio design features dramatic elevation changes, created by moving over 400,000 cubic yards of earth. Fazio and his son, Logan, renovated the course in 2019 to make room for a casino and hotel expansion onto the property, creating eight new holes and refurbishing the other 10. The par-70 layout features six par 3s, including the picturesque 18th, with a green perched at the base of a roaring waterfall.
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6. Montreux Golf & Country Club
Reno, NV
4.4
7 Panelists
Previous rank: 7
Montreux Golf and Country Club debuted in 1998 and was immediately named as the host of the PGA Tour’s Reno Tahoe Open, which it hosted through 2019. The Jack Nicklaus design sits at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains just outside of Reno. The private 7,500-yard golf course rises and falls over steep terrain, surrounded by dense forests of pine trees. Montreux plays as a classic Nicklaus design as open driving areas are guarded by over 70 intimidating bunkers, and raised putting surfaces force accurate approach shots. Elevated tee boxes throughout showcase the stunning vistas of the surrounding landscape, dotted with natural creeks and native vegetation. The highlight at Montreux Golf and Country Club is the penultimate hole, the par-4 17th with a 138-foot drop from the tee box to the below fairway, showcasing the best view on the property.
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5. Wolf Creek Golf Club
Mesquite, NV
4.2
20 Panelists
Previous rank: 5
Wolf Creek is a fantasy calendar come to life, with holes clinging to stark canyon hillsides and plunging down narrow ravines. A genuine amateur architect design (although Jim Engh provided an early routing), Wolf Creek finished third in Golf Digest's survey of America's Best New Upscale Public Courses of 2001, behind Pacific Dunes and Arcadia Bluffs (Bluffs). All three are now ranked among America's 100 Greatest Public Courses.
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4. The Summit Club
Las Vegas, NV
4.1
6 Panelists
Previous rank: 4
Tom Fazio did his thing at one of his newer Discovery Land Properties, The Summit Club, maximizing exceptional views of the Las Vegas Strip on this land that sits about 3,000 feet above sea level. Fazio routed the course and molded the land in a way so that every hole is secluded from the next—similar to what he did at Shadow Creek. Summit Club, a runner-up for Golf Digest’s 2017 Best New Private award, offers a strong variety of holes—with optionality particularly on the par 5s. You’ll find the typical Discovery Land offerings here—with multiple comfort stations including Jerry’s—which we got a sneak peek into last year as one of the best halfway houses in the U.S.
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3. Southern Highlands Golf Club
Las Vegas, NV
4.3
10 Panelists
Previous rank: 3

Although Southern Highlands was billed as a co-design between Robert Trent Jones Jr. and his famous father, in truth the senior Jones, who would die in 2000, was retired by the time construction on this lavish Las Vegas layout began in 1998. Still, there’s a plaque on the 12th hole proclaiming it to be the last hole Mr. Jones ever designed. Regardless, Southern Highlands reflects his son Bobby’s design tenets and visuals. The Highlands was always intended to be Bobby’s answer to Tom Fazio’s Shadow Creek, but with a more financially sensible real estate component. It has the same Carolina-pines motif, the same sprawling, overly elaborate bunkers, the same kinetic water features and, if anything, even more elevation change, with the 11th tee box sitting ten stories above the fairway and providing an unobstructed view of the Las Vegas Strip several miles to the north.

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2. Clear Creek Tahoe
Carson City, NV
4.5
20 Panelists
Previous rank: 2
One gets the feeling Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw looked long and hard at this mountain property on the east side of Lake Tahoe before agreeing to take the job. On one hand, the site is gorgeous, an elevated evergreen forest with views of the surrounding Sierra Nevadas and distant valleys. On the other, it was far more rugged than they preferred and would prove challenging to link up 18 well-connected holes on such vast terrain. Ultimately, beauty won out and they were able to find enough calm ground—especially from holes 10 through 15—to make the journey around it seem meditative and not a lurching, adrenaline-filled rush. The boulder-strewn site recalls parts of Rock Creek Cattle Company in western Montana, currently 65th on America's 100 Greatest Courses, and the off-site views and the way fairways and greens blend into the native grasses and conifers bring to mind Gozzer Ranch, ranked No. 43. Pretty good company.
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1. Shadow Creek
North Las Vegas, NV
4.8
27 Panelists
Previous rank: 1
Shadow Creek has the reputation of being one of the most expensive courses built in America, a reported $47 million at the time, which translates to roughly $120 million in today's dollars. Designer Tom Fazio said that a budget was necessary at Shadow Creek to perform what he now calls “total site manipulation,” creating an environment where none existed by carving rolling hills and canyons from the flat desert floor north of Las Vegas and pumping in plenty of water. Alas, this once-in-a-lifetime dream design has been too successful, triggering many equally expensive, but inferior, imitations.
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