Given our president's connection to the game -- owning 19 golf properties around the world -- and the championships these courses will host in 2017 (the U.S. Senior Open is being hosted this week at Trump National Washington D.C., and the U.S. Women's Open at Trump National Bedminster), Trump's courses are bound to be in the fore this summer. 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.
Trump West Palm Beach is Trump's highest-ranked course according to our Golf Digest course-ranking panelists -- coming in at No. 156 in our ranking of America's Second 100 Greatest Courses.
Photo: Courtesy of the Trump Organization
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Trump National G.C., Washington, D.C. (Championship) (58.7801)
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.
Ranked third by our panelists, the Old course at Trump National Bedminster will host the U.S. Women's Open in 2017. The Old course, a Fazio design that opened in 2004, was ranked No. 165 on our 2015 America's Second 100 Greatest, and 141st in 2013.
Courtesy of Stephen Szurlej/The Trump Organization
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner's renovation in 2014 to Dick Wilson's 1961 design added some extra bite and undulating slopes. The Blue Monster course held a PGA Tour event from 1962 to 2017, when the tour moved its WGC to Mexico. This is the highest-ranked public course as scored by our panelists.
Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Szurlej/The Trump Organization
Courtesy of Stephen Szurlej/The Trump Organization
The Jack Nicklaus, John Stanford and Jim Lipe design atop an NYC trash dump opened in 2014 debuted at No. 95 on our newly released 100 Greatest Public ranking.
Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Szurlej/The Trump Organization
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.
Pictured here is a par-3 19th hole at the ultra-private Trump National Colts Neck. The course lacked the 10 ballots necessary, over an eight-year period, to be eligible for our Best in State rankings.
Photo: Courtesy of The Trump Organization
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Trump National G.C., Hudson Valley, Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
Trump Hudson Valley was ranked second in our 2002 ranking of Best New Upscale courses. The course lacked the 10 ballots necessary, over an eight-year period, to be eligible for our Best in State rankings.
Photo: Courtesy of The Trump Organization
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Trump National G.C., Westchester, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Courtesy of Stephen Szurlej/The Trump Organization
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. It lacked the 10 ballots necessary to be eligible for our Best in State rankings this year.
Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Szurlej/The Trump Organization
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Trump's global courses:
Trump Turnberry, Scotland (22nd in our World 100 rankings)
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.
Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images
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Trump International G. Links, Scotland, Aberdeenshire (54th in our last World 100 rankings)
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.
Photo: Courtesy of Steve Carr/The Trump Organization
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner built Trump International Dubai in 2015 from barren land. Trump Golf also has a second project underway, Trump World, with 18 holes being designed by Tiger Woods on the site of Tiger's partially completed, then-abandoned Al Ruwaya design in 2009. The Trump organization projects the course to open in 2018.
Other projects around the world include: Trump International Hotel & Tower Lido, outside Jakarta, Indonesia, where Ernie Els Design will remodel the existing Lido Lakes course.
Trump Golf has also purchased Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali Resort and the adjacent Nirwana Bali Golf Club on Indonesia's island of Bali.
Stephen Hennessey is an Associate Editor at Golf Digest who writes and edits for the magazine, website and digital platforms. Since he got hired, he has been working (probably too) hard to lose the distinction of the Golf Digest editor with the worst golf swing.
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