Best golf courses near Plano, TX

Preston Trail Golf Club is our sixth-ranked course in Texas.

Time, and previous renovations, tend to shrink and constrict golf courses. The mission of a major 2021 remodel by architect Keith Foster was to return Brook Hollow’s worn features to a better iteration of its first-generation A.W. Tillinghast design. Foster achieved magnificent results by accentuating the pedestal-like greens and bringing back their squared-off edges, installing steep-faced bunkers (as opposed to their previously flashed faces) and re-introducing several of Tillinghast's “great hazard” sand wastelands on holes like the par-5 15th. The result is a magnificent renaissance of one of Tilly's best courses and a first-time appearance in our Second 100 Greatest Courses ranking.

The East Course at the Omni PGA Frisco is one of two courses to open at the new Fields Ranch Golf Club. Alongside the Beau Welling-designed West course is the East, built by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, which measures over 7,800 yards from the championship tees and puts a greater emphasis on driving than the West, demanding length, accuracy and the courage to take on cross-bunkers and central hazards. The greens, perched above bunkers and chipping runoffs, are smaller and require controlled approaches, and the holes of the second nine prowl the basin of Panther Creek. Both courses opened in May 2023, and the East has already hosted the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. It is set to host a number of other prestigious events, including the PGA Championship (2027, 2034), the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (2025, 2031) and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship again in 2029.

Architect Steve Smyers and his associate Patrick Andrews transformed the old Columbian Club in designing Maridoe Golf Club outside Dallas, which earned third-place in Golf Digest's 2018 ranking of the Best New Courses. Smyers' design can challenge the best players in the world—with the plates tipping out at 7,800 yards—with shaved-off areas around the undulating green complexes, but also tempting better players into taking aggressive lines off the tee. The course hosted charitable exhibition tournaments during COVID to raise money for the club's charity, and Maridoe will host a LIV event in 2025.

Beau Welling, the lead architect for Tiger Woods’ design company, was instrumental in building Bluejack National, ranked fourth in the state. He returned to Texas with his own design of Fields Ranch West Course at the new Omni PGA Frisco, headquarters of the PGA of America, a course designed to be a swashbuckling, playable alter-ego to the more tournament-oriented East Course. Welling accentuated the site’s gradual elevations to create a number of downhill drives to go along with large, roller-coaster greens and fairways that stretch 50 to 90 yards across. As one of our course-ranking panelists put it, “America definitely needs more courses like the West—fun to play, tough to lose balls and good birdie opportunities with well-executed shots.”

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: A story about the late country music superstar Waylon Jennings comes to mind—when he was asked once to watch a tribute artist’s performance. The young singer looked like Waylon, sang like Waylon, had Waylon's mannerisms and stage presence. After the show, the kid asked the legend what he thought. You’re good, Waylon told him, but you’ll always be one hit behind.So it is with The Tribute Golf Links, a Tripp Davis design on the eastern shore of Lake Lewisville, north of Dallas. It’s one of the best replica courses in the country, replicating 18 of Great Britain’s most iconic golf holes, as good a links experience as one could expect on Bermuda turf.Some holes are more homage than duplicates. The par-3 fifth is Royal Troon’s Postage Stamp, and while architect Davis nailed the topography, the green is far bigger than the original, a grudging concession, I suppose, to the demands of public golf.Conspicuously absent from The Tribute is North Berwick’s par-3 Redan hole. Davis’ original routing had it slotted as his 14th hole, but in construction it was replaced in favor of Muirfield’s heavily bunkered par-3 13th, which is now labeled “Tripp’s Favorite.”My point is, most of the holes are dead ringers, until you look closely. The 418-yard par-4 16th seems like a painstaking reproduction of the famed 16th at Trump Turnberry’s Ailsa Course, with a sneaky burn wrapping itself around its steeply pitched green. The problem is, The Tribute was built in 2000. In 2007, the Turnberry Ailsa hole was remodeled in preparation for the 2009 Open, lengthened and turned into a dogleg right, with new fairway bunkers and a new approach angle over the burn into the green. Should The Tribute have followed suit and remodeled its 16th to conform? Or is it OK that the hole remains as built to remind golfers just how good Ailsa’s 16th was before its remodeling?The Tribute's first, 17th and 18th are full-scale reproductions of the first, 17th and 18th at the Old Course at St. Andrews, complete with the Swilcan Burn and Valley of Sin on the last green. Though The Tribute’s par-4 17th is certainly the Road Hole at St. Andrews, including the blind tee shot over faux black sheds, a Road Bunker left and to the right a road and rock wall, it measures 471 yards, not the 495 yards that the real Road Hole has played in The Opens of 2010 and 2015. Of course, that was from a temporary tee installed just for those Opens, so maybe there’s no necessity for The Tribute to expand its Road Hole. Still, if a purist expects the total experience when playing The Tribute, will he or she be disappointed if it's not the accurate length?Therein lies the conundrum for any copycat course. They’re always one renovation behind.

Lakewood Country Club is ranked 35th in Texas

Set over the gentle and densely wooded terrain of the White Rock Creek floodplain is the Billy Martindale-designed Royal Oaks Country Club. Originally opened in 1969, the club has undergone multiple renovations, first by Jay Morrish in 1985, then by Weibring-Walford golf design in 2001, and ultimately Chet Williams, who in 2014 and 2023 focused on regrassing the course to Tahoma 31 fairways and TifEagle bermuda greens. The course has the honor of being the home of current World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who came to the club as a kid to work with the club’s longtime teaching professional, Randy Smith. Royal Oaks features tight tree-lined fairways and subtly sloping greens that meander around intimidating hazards. The signature hole at Royal Oaks is the par-4 13th, playing over 470 yards and forcing players to carry a creek off the tee and for their approach into the green.

The Dye course at Stonebridge Ranch originally debuted in 1988 and was designed by Pete Dye and his son Perry. Host of the 1994 NCAA Championships, the Dye course is the signature of the three courses at Stonebridge Ranch and is rich with classic Pete Dye design elements, like undulating fairways guarded by snaking bunkers and hazards and exposed railroad ties on greens and island tee boxes. Tall fescue grasses bordering fairways and large sloping greens make Stonebridge Ranch a stark test, something Pete Dye himself confirmed when he is said to have labeled the final four holes the hardest finishing stretch he had ever set on a golf course. The closing holes are highlighted by the long par-3 17th, played to a narrow green visually shrunk by the railroad ties and water hazard that guard its front.