Best in State
The best golf courses in Virginia
The rolling terrain of Virginia has blessed the state with some tremendous golf—including five layouts currently ranked in the top 200 of Golf Digest’s national lists. The state’s public courses are a standout—with three tracks ranked in our upcoming 100 Greatest Public rankings and nine public options within the state’s 25 best courses—one of the highest ratio of public versus private out of any state.
For those planning a buddies trip, Virginia presents a variety of great golf at an affordable price compared to other upscale public resorts. William Flynn, who had a hand in designing five of our nation’s 100 best courses, built the legendary Cascades course at the Omni Homestead, which also boasts another classic (The Old Course). The Highlands course at Primland has been a mainstay in our 100 Greatest Public ranking since its Donald Steel design opened. And Golden Horseshoe in Williamsburg, Va., and Rivermill Resort boasts multiple quality 18-hole courses that would be perfect for any group.
Below you'll find our 2023-'24 ranking of the Best Golf Courses in Virginia.
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.
LC Lambrecht
Since the only way to successfully establish bentgrass tees, fairways and greens in hot, humid Richmond was to create expansive corridors to allow plenty of sunlight and air to the turf, Kinloch Golf Club has more double fairways posing options and alternate routes than nearly every other course on the 100 Greatest, except perhaps National Golf Links of America. In 2016, George prepared a long-range masterplan of adjustments, including expansion of the alternate fairways on nine and 11, for improved visibility and playability, and removal of thick rough between bunkers and fairway edges. Enhancements will continue in the future.
View Course
Laurence Lambrecht
The Olde Farm is old school in concept and execution. The terrain of this site was so nearly perfect for golf that designer Bobby Weed staked it out in just two days, driving around the property in his rental car. The routing hugs the flowing contours of old farmland beneath the foothills of the Appalachians, with holes hopping Sinking Creek a few times and edging slopes of the adjacent hills. It’s a lay-of-the-land design featuring some semi-blind shots, but Weed always provides a target somewhere in the distance. Bentgrass fairways are kept dry and firm and most greens are open in front to encourage the old-style game of low, running approach shots.
View Course
Courtesy of Roger Snyder
Designed by Robert Trent Jones and his long-time associate Roger Rulewich just before they tackled the ambitious and enormous Robert Trent Jones Trail string of courses in Alabama, Robert Trent Jones Golf Club was intended to be the veteran architect’s definitive statement on championship golf. Routed on rolling terrain densely covered with pine and hardwoods, the design reflects the philosophy Trent pioneered—heroic architecture—with well over a hundred glistening white sand bunkers and the last 11 holes playing along the shoreline of Lake Manassas, including the par-3 ninth with a peninsula green, the par-3 11th over a lake cove and the par-4 18th over an inlet and up a lakeside bluff. The RTJ G.C. has hosted the Presidents Cup matches on four occasions and was a PGA Tour stop in 2015.
View Course
Courtesy of the club
The Highland Course at Primland sits atop a mountain plateau overlooking some of the most unusual scenery in America, a deep river valley dotted with tall spirals of rock called the Pinnacles of the Dan River. The course design by veteran British architect Donald Steel is austere in its green contours and bunkering, as if not to overpower the setting. Aided by his then-associates Tom Mackenzie and Martin Ebert (who have since formed their own very successful partnership, Mackenzie & Ebert), Steel routed holes along ridges, over chasms, down valleys and into sideslopes, always offering a safe alternative to every perilous carry. There’s a stretch of three straight holes - 13 through 15 - with no sand, because dense trees and deep gulleys are hazards enough. Primland is Smoky Mountain majesty.
View Course
Jon Cavalier
After architect Lester George completed his design of No. 66 Kinloch, with its dual fairways, optional routes and triple-fairway ninth, he relished the opportunity to do it again on a site that might give him even more flexibility. He got that chance in hills outside Roanoke, and his Ballyhack design is Kinloch on steroids, with vast landing areas, joined fairways, center bunkers, double greens and a plethora of choices off the tees and into the greens. Call Ballyhack a pluperfect blend of challenging shots, rugged terrain and nasty native roughs, The Ballybunion of southern Virginia.
View Course
Courtesy of Omni Hotels & Resorts
As Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul point out in their massive, comprehensive biography of William Flynn, Seth Raynor was originally consulted about building the Cascades Course but declared the property insufficient. So the then-relative unknown William Flynn got the job and made the most of it. The topography of Cascades is magnificent and its bunkering is superb, particularly the cross-bunkers on the really fine 12th and 13th holes, both strong par 4s. The fourth and eighth are considered two of the great par 3s in the country and Cascades finishes with another par 3, a rarity among top courses. The Virginia gem has hosted eight USGA championships, including a U.S. Women's Open, a U.S. Amateur and two U.S. Women's Amateurs.
View Course
Back in 1966, Golden Horseshoe was ranked among America's 200 Toughest Courses by Golf Digest. How times change. In 2012, we ranked The Gold Course as one of America's 50 Most Fun Public Courses. "Trent Jones in his kinder, gentler persona," we wrote. "Even the island green seventh hole is a generous target." The evolved Williamsburg track hosted the 1999 USGA Men's State Team Championship.
View Course
Courtesy of the Trump Organization
Private
8. (8) Trump National Golf Club Washington DC: Championship
Potomac Falls, VA, United States
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.
View Course
A donation from the Goodwin family in 2003 allowed the financial support to cover a complete redesign by Pete Dye on an existing 18-hole layout along the New River in Radford, Va. The River course earned a fourth-place award from Golf Digest in its Best Remodel rankings of 2006, the highest of any public facility. The course—which is the home to both Virginia Tech and Radford University’s golf teams—has earned the reputation as one of the best collegiate courses in the country.
View Course
Pete Dye gained notoriety in the 1960s for his unique, trend-setting take on architecture at courses like The Golf Club, Crooked Stick and Harbour Town. He became a virtual household name in the 1980s after creating sensations like The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, PGA West and Blackwolf Run, and the fame continued throughout the 90s and for the rest of his career—at The Ocean Course, Whistling Straits, The Dye Course at French Lick and numerous others—until his passing in 2020. Less heralded are his courses from the 1970s. But among them, the River Course at Kingsmill Resort continues to stand out and remains a strong expression of Dye’s early design period, more in the mode of Harbour Town than Sawgrass. The course, which hosted the PGA Tour’s Michelob Championship from 1981 through 2002 and now hosts an LPGA event, sits quietly on the land and lets the natural movements of the wooded site—rather than sharp architectural features—define the character. The final three holes circle near the James River, including the par-3 17th that plays on a bluff above the water.
View Course
There’s an admirable polish and sophistication to the holes at Spring Creek as they wind attractively through a quiet property of hardwoods and pine, with the first nine circling out broadly through undisturbed nature and the second moving out and back along the Spring Branch stream. Winner of Golf Digest’s Best New Public Course Under $75 in 2007, the scale and positioning of the bunkering, for reference, brings to mind Bethpage Black, while the topography of streams and ravines recall Mike Strantz’s no-longer-open Stonehouse on the opposite side of Richmond, which won the magazine’s Best New Upscale Course in 1996. Most greens are angled to the line of play and present a decision between playing to a safe, open side or a challenging side only accessible through strategic positioning and precision.
View Course
Stephen Ellis Photography/Courtesy of Boar's Head Resort
Birdwood is a unique course that typifies the multi-purpose direction that future golf developments would be wise to study. Located about 10 minutes from downtown Charlottesville, it’s a convenient, upscale public course (green fees: $75-$125) that serves as an amenity to an adjacent resort, with a walkable routing across interesting and varied land. It’s also the home course for the University of Virginia golf teams boating state-of-the-art practice facilities, including a new par-3 course called “The Nest.” Originally opened in 1984, Davis Love III, along with brother Mark and lead designer Scot Sherman, re-routed and re-engineered the entire course, forging new holes out of previously unused forest. Rolling across the attractive northern Virginia countryside with long fescue grass buffers, the holes are infused with references to Pete Dye and classical-era template presentations. The Charlottesville, Va., layout hosted the 1991 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links.
View Course
More From Golf Digest
Located just outside of Richmond, the Independence Golf Club's Championship course is Tom Fazio’s first public course in Virginia. Later renovated by Lester George, the course offers five sets of tees ranging from 5,000 to 7,100 yards, and boasts fast greens along with punishing bunkers. Renovations by Fazio's team earned an award among Golf Digest’s top 10 remodels of 2016.
View Course
One year after winning his first Golf Digest Best New Course design for Stonehouse, Strantz hit gold again with Royal New Kent, the 1997 Best New Upscale Public Course. Royal New Kent is just a 20-minute drive west of Stonehouse, but it couldn’t be more different. The general theme is golf in the United Kingdom, with holes like the sporty par-4 first that lays out a visible section of tumbling fairway on one line and hides a different section tucked behind a grassy dune on another. The first nine holes are a treasure, especially four through eight that gallop over a peaceful, heathlands-like sector with gorgeous ground movement. The left-right/right-left par-5 10th is another winner, but from there the real estate gets in the way and the routing becomes broken and boxed in. But it didn’t stop Strantz from pulling, twisting and hiding targets. When the land wasn’t giving him much to work with, he made his own fun. The course re-opened under new ownership in 2020 and is currently ranked 12th in state.
View Course
Located just 20 minutes from Lynchburg, Va., in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this Sam Snead and Ed Carton designed course recently underwent a series of extensive renovations and upgrades that were unveiled in 2021. The renovations included a tree clearing and bunker redesign project, a new practice green and practice bunker and comfort stations located on holes 6 and 15. The layout boasts a nice mix of challenging long and short holes, forgiving fairways and smooth putting surfaces.
View Course
Mike Klemme
Located midway between Richmond and Washington D.C., this big, exploratory layout by architect Tom Clark and consultant Ron Whitten (Golf Digest architecture editor emeritus) was two decades in the making. Intended to be the “first true Concept Course of the 21st century,” the wait pays off with a design full of motifs of famous British and American holes, a routing that tackles robust topographical movements, small but highly contoured greens, split fairways and Civil War-inspired fortifications.
View Course
LC Lambrecht
Located between Richmond and Fredericksburg, Va., along the I-95 corridor in central Virginia, this rolling, 330-acre property boasts a Bob Lohmann and Mike Benkusky design with scenic vistas and nice variety. The club was a runner-up on Golf Digest’s Best New Upscale Public courses in 2005 and then ranked among America’s 100 Greatest Public from 2009 to 2013 (it has been as high as 50th on our public list).
View Course
Rolling Greens Photo/Ken E. May (Keswick Hall Resort)
Pete and Alice Dye’s renovations to an existing Arnold Palmer course at the 600-acre boutique Keswick Hall resort opened in 2014—garnering a ranking inside Golf Digest’s top 20 in Virginia ever since. Located just outside of Charlottesville on a serene piece of land with vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Dyes’ minimalist design offers options off the tee and open approaches to run balls onto greens if desired, but challenges golfers that are off line with tough, small bunkers.
View Course
More From Golf Digest
• • •
Explore Golf Digest's recently relaunched Places to Play community, where you can add star ratings and reviews for all the courses you play. We've collected tens of thousands of reviews from our course-ranking panelists to deliver a premium experience, which includes experts' opinions, bonus course photography and videos, plus much more. Check it out here!