The Genesis Invitational

Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course)



    Golf Digest Logo best new

    Hundreds of experts reviewed the best new courses of the year. These were the best of the best

    New construction and renovations are hot again. 2024 was our most competitive survey in recent memory.
    January 15, 2025
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    In 2024, hundreds of Golf Digest course-ranking panelists visited 59 new or remodeled courses that were candidates for our annual awards. The Best New Public and Private awards are given to the year’s most outstanding original courses, including those built over the bones of an older course. Traditional renovations and restorations, consisting of alterations and projects that return the design to some historically based version of its past, are combined in Best Renovation. Best Renovation winners are determined by surveys that measure the effectiveness of the work before and after construction. (Panelists must have played the course previously.) Best Transformation assesses major remodels that go beyond mere renovation to include a newly conceived architectural intent, new holes and possibly newly routed sections of the property—the name remains the same, but if you blinked you might not recognize the course. Here’s the work that our panelists deemed most significant for 2024.

    You will find the winners below—but beyond just a list, please explore our expanded stories on each of the winners and runners-up for the categories at links below.

    Additional write-ups and photos on every candidate can be found on each of the additional pieces of content. Plus, explore each course review page and leave reviews on the courses you've played to have your ratings featured on our pages.

    BEST NEW PRIVATE COURSE

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    BACKCOUNTRY STUNNER Chet Williams made great use of the land at Big Easy Ranch.

    Brian Oar

    WINNER
    THE COVEY AT BIG EASY RANCH

    Columbus, Texas
    7,511 yards, par 72
    Architect: Chet Williams

    Brian Oar captured exclusive drone footage of The Covey for Golf Digest. You can find one of the drone shots below—find more at our separate story here.

    Big Easy Ranch: The Covey
    Brian Oar
    Private
    Big Easy Ranch: The Covey
    Columbus, TX
    4.6
    12 Panelists

    With no surrounding development, The Covey is a scenic journey through the Texas outback through groves of pines and hardwoods and cross-course views. Numerous specimen trees have been left standing in the fairways that must be maneuvered around, and Williams’ green complexes can be wicked, flanked and fronted with deep, staggered bunkers, with strong putting contours that create multiple internal levels and severe false fronts that eject any short approached 30 or 40 yards back down the fairway. 

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    SECOND PLACE
    OLD BARNWELL

    Aiken, S.C.
    7,070 yards, par 73
    Architects: Brian Schneider, Blake Conant

    Old Barnwell Golf Club
    Jeff Marsh
    Private
    Old Barnwell Golf Club
    Aiken, SC
    4.3
    24 Panelists
    The Old Barnwell property, 12 miles southeast of Aiken, shares much in common with nearby Tree Farm, which was contrasted at virtually the same time in 2022 and 2023. The latter is a better pure golf site, but the more enigmatic if less aesthetically endowed Old Barnwell property is profound in other architecturally advantageous ways. The course plays around and through a treeless basin at the center of the 500-acre site, shooting the occasional sortie of holes into thinned out sections of pine along a perimeter rim. The landforms surrounding the amphitheater are nakedly muscular and eight holes traverse and tumble off these fallaway ridgelines. First-time lead architects Brian Schneider and Blake Conant used those movement to prop up wide holes that skirt the edges, and handled the less suggestive parts of the property by constructing an assortment of contemporary and antique architectural features: old bathtub bunkers recalling hazards at Garden City Golf Club and Myopia Hunt; linear shaggy-grass berms that evoke military entrenchments; open waste areas and geometric chasms of sand; and vertical grass embankments protecting bunkers and greens. On top of this are a set of putting surfaces that crash any conversation of the game’s most profoundly contoured, pushing the limits playability without crossing into needless ornamentation.
    Explore our full review

    THIRD PLACE
    THE TREE FARM

    Aiken, S.C.
    6,855 yards, par 71
    Architects: Kye Goalby, Tom Doak, Zac Blair

    The Tree Farm
    Jeff Marsh
    Private
    The Tree Farm
    Batesburg, SC
    4.6
    21 Panelists

    At The Tree Farm, PGA Tour player and founder Zac Blair has attracted a kindred young-in-spirit if not exclusively young-in-age membership from across the country that mirrors his infectious relaxed-casual passion for walking, fast play, head-to-head matches and creative architecture, particularly from the approach shot through the green. A majority of them are good players who think nothing of hoofing 36 or more holes a day. 

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    BEST NEW PUBLIC COURSE

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    HIGH NOTES Pinehurst #10 boasts extreme elevation, unlike the resort's other courses.

    Jeff Marsh

    WINNER
    PINEHURST (N.C.) #10

    7,020 yards, par 70
    Architect: Tom Doak

    Pinehurst #10
    Public
    Pinehurst #10
    Pinehurst, NC
    4.5
    27 Panelists

    Sand is the defining character of Pinehurst, and Pinehurst #10 goes right to the source: a former sand mining site south of the resort, portions of which used to be a golf course called The Pit that closed in 2010. Several holes of this Tom Doak design, opened in 2024, plunge through the old quarries, including the turbulent eighth where players will want to pop Dramamine before tackling fairway swells that would pitch and toss a fishing vessel.

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    SECOND PLACE
    CABOT CITRUS FARMS (KAROO)

    Brooksville, Fla.
    7,562 yards, par 72
    Architect: Kyle Franz

    Cabot Citrus Farms: Karoo
    Jeff Marsh
    Public
    Cabot Citrus Farms: Karoo
    Brooksville, FL
    4.1
    18 Panelists

    When arriving at Cabot Citrus Farms you’ll understand why Ben Cowan-Dewar sought this property for decades. The modern trend of pushing width and options is amplified with “super width” here, with some fairways over 100 yards wide, though strategy is still present—as large, exposed sand hazards often split the playing areas. Choosing the ideal side of the fairway will often open up an easier approach.

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    THIRD PLACE
    SEDGE VALLEY AT SAND VALLEY

    Nekoosa, Wis.
    5,829 yards, par 68
    Architect: Tom Doak

    Sand Valley: Sedge Valley
    Brandon Carter
    Public
    Sand Valley: Sedge Valley
    Nekoosa, WI
    4.4
    30 Panelists

    Sedge Valley is architect Tom Doak’s homage to the early 20th century, sub-par 70 courses popular in the London heathlands and throughout the U.K. Tipping the scales at less than 6,000 yards and par 68, it might seem like light fare but it isn’t—this is real golf that demands confident driving and smart approaches into a set of small, distinguished green complexes.

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    BEST RENOVATION

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    UNCOVERED GEMS Andrew Green used Donald Ross' blueprints to help guide his Interlachen renovation.

    Brad Rempel

    WINNER
    INTERLACHEN COUNTRY CLUB

    Edina, Minn.
    7,201 yards, par 72
    Architect: Andrew Green

    Interlachen Country Club
    Brad Rempel
    Private
    Interlachen Country Club
    Edina, MN
    4.7
    29 Panelists

    When Bobby Jones won the 1930 U.S. Open at Interlachen (completing the second leg of what would become the game’s first Grand Slam), fellow competitor Gene Sarazen insisted the course was tougher than everything but Oakmont. In the decades that followed a series of architects including Robert Trent Jones, Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva worked to keep Interlachen’s edge, but nothing could staunch the march of time. Enter Andrew Green in 2023, who was given the resources to strip back the layers and rebuild the course based on the blueprints Donald Ross developed in 1922 when he remodeled the course.

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    SECOND PLACE
    OCEAN FOREST GOLF CLUB

    Sea Island, Ga.
    7,365 yards, par 72
    Architect: Beau Welling

    Ocean Forest Golf Club
    Courtesy of the club
    Private
    Ocean Forest Golf Club
    Sea Island, GA

    Ocean Forest occupies one of the premier oceanside settings on the East Coast. Originally designed by Rees Jones, the fairways laterally traverse the site’s interior pines, skirting marshes and breaking out in memorable moments to the shore of the broad Hampton River inlet before finishing along the Atlantic Ocean at 17 and 18.

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    THIRD PLACE
    OMNI LA COSTA RESORT & SPA (NORTH)

    Carlsbad, Calif.
    7,500 yards, par 72
    Architects: Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner

    Omni La Costa Resort & Spa: Champions
    Brian Walters
    Public
    Omni La Costa Resort & Spa: Champions
    Carlsbad, CA
    4
    18 Panelists
    Just north of San Diego, this Carlsbad championship course has hosted 37 PGA Tour events since it opened in the 1950s, but four new holes were added during its 2011 renovation by Steve Pete, Damian Pascuzzo and Jeff Brauer. This layout meanders through the surrounding valley—providing an enjoyable setting with some history.
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    BEST TRANSFORMATION

    Course 3  - Hole 17 Green

    GOLD VISION Medinah #3's prairie-style redesign makes best use of the land.

    Medinah Country Club

    WINNER
    MEDINAH (ILL.) COUNTRY CLUB (#3)

    7,564 yards, par 72
    Architects: Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking, Ashley Mead

    Medinah Country Club: #3
    Medinah Country Club/Seth Jenkins
    Private
    Medinah Country Club: #3
    Medinah, IL
    4.6
    27 Panelists

    The evolution of golf course architecture—and how courses change to suit the demands of the times—can be mapped directly on top of Medinah’s #3 course. It was built in the fields west of Chicago in the 1920s on land that was part farmland and partly wooded. It became a major championship site when it hosted the 1949 U.S. Open, putting it on a track of perpetual improvements to toughen it up to keep pace with tournament demands. But when No. 3 was blistered to the tune of 25-under during the 2019 BMW Championship, which coincided with a plunge in the rankings from 53 to 93, the club knew it was time to adapt again. They took a swing and hired the Australian firm of Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead to overhaul the design with the notion of making the course look and play like it might have in the 1920s.

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    SECOND PLACE
    EAST LAKE GOLF CLUB

    Atlanta
    7,490 yards, par 72
    Architect: Andrew Green

    East Lake Golf Club
    Evan Schiller
    Private
    East Lake Golf Club
    Atlanta, GA

    East Lake underwent another major restoration following the 2023 Tour Championship, this time by Andrew Green, highlighting the course's Donald Ross heritage. Green used a 1949 aerial to inform the replacement of bunkers and the shape of greens, which are much larger and possess a wider variety of hole location and slopes than before. Almost every hole was dramatically revamped, creating a course that poses driving options and requires the careful calibration of each shot rather than a mere test of straight hitting.

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    THIRD PLACE
    WOODMONT COUNTRY CLUB (SOUTH)

    Rockville, Md.
    7,002 yards, par 71
    Architect: Joel Weiman

    Woodmont Country Club: South
    Larry Lambrecht
    Private
    Woodmont Country Club: South
    Rockville, MD
    4.1
    11 Panelists

    Since it first opened as a nine hole amenity in the early 1950s, Woodmont South (it was expanded to 18 a few years later) has been the club's shorter, sportier course compared to the more robust North, ranked fifth in Maryland. That all changed following a 2023 remodel by architect Joel Weiman, who transformed the course into a Melbourne Sand Belt/American prairie hybrid by recontouring every green and surrrounding them with expanses of tight turf, building Australian-style bunkers with sharp lips that cut toward the edges of putting surfaces and introducing native grass buffers throughout the course. He also found additional length, taking the championship tees to over 7,000 yards. No longer the "other" course, the South more than holds its own in distinctiveness not just against the North but against most other designs in the region.

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    BEST AFFORDABLE

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    Dustin Gilder

    WINNER
    WELLMAN CLUB

    Wellman Club
    Dustin Gilder
    Public
    Wellman Club
    Johnsonville, SC
    3.4
    9 Panelists
    Everyone loves an underdog, especially when it’s mixed with a revival story. Golfers once teemed over the holes of Wellman Golf Course, a simple but lovely Ellis Maples and Ed Seay hidden gem from the late 1960s located in the rural South Carolina town of Johnsonville, an hour west of Myrtle Beach. But with a population of just over 1,000, there weren’t enough local players to keep the business running following the 2009 recession, and the owners filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Eventually the city purchased the closed course and hired Rees Jones and longtime associate Bryce Swanson to remodel the layout, which reopened in 2024 as the rebranded Wellman Club. Jones described the land as closer to Pinehurst than to Myrtle Beach, and the holes flow through corridors of pines into enlarged greens and more consequential bunkering. Two par 3s play across ponds, and the par-5 11th boomeranging around a lake is a doppelganger of the par-5 13th at The Dunes 50 miles east, one of mid-century golf’s most famous holes designed by Jones’ father, Robert Trent Jones. Wellman symbolizes the resilience of golf in small towns and has become a sort of community gathering space, as well as a worthwhile stopover for anyone passing nearby.
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    SECOND PLACE
    BOBBY JONES GOLF CLUB

    Bobby Jones Golf Club: Main Course
    Richard Mandell Golf Architecture
    Public
    Bobby Jones Golf Club: Main Course
    Sarasota, FL
    3.6
    5 Panelists
    The original 18 holes at this affordable public facility in Sarasota were designed by Donald Ross in 1926 and first called Sarasota Municipal Golf Course. The following year the course was renamed Bobby Jones Golf Course. New nines were later added in the 1950s and 1960s, and these were each coupled with one nine from the Ross course to create what were known as the American and British courses. In the late 2010s, the city of Sarasota embarked on a major re-imagining of the public property and hired architect Richard Mandell to restore the original core Ross 18, in large part based on old photos and Ross’s blueprints. The newer nines were converted into one of the largest practice facilities in the region compete with a wild Himalayas putting course, and the rest of the space reestablished as a nature area with walking and biking paths around a newly created chain of ponds. Mandell also revamped the 9-hole Gillespie short course, punching up the fun factor. The course is a great model for public golf, a walkable, spacious design with interesting green complexes and everything a player could want for game improvement.
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    THIRD PLACE
    THE LINKS AT AUDUBON

    The Links At Audubon
    Public
    The Links At Audubon
    Memphis, TN
    3.7
    6 Panelists
    This city of Memphis course first opened in the early 1950s during the first country’s first great post-World War II boom of municipal golf offering easy access and a simple but enjoyable layout for residents of all skill levels. As needs, golf popularity and economies changed through the decades, a new program was called for and the city and Memphis Parks hired Atlanta-based designer. Bill Bergin to reimagine what the Links at Audubon could represent for Memphis golfers. Bergin essentially designed a new course over the top of the old property, creating an entirely new 18-hole routing that makes more efficient use of the available land, filling empty space with original holes and converting an unused seven-acre parcel on the west side of the property into a flexible 10-acre practice range that will be used by both residents and the University of Memphis golf team. Bergin’s bunkering is sparse but impactful, forcing players to think through their plans for each hole, and the enlarged greens offer more nuance, more diverse recovery options and a variety of changing hole locations. The course reopened August of 2023.
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    Come back on Friday for a full story on the reintroduction of our Best Affordable Public Course survey.

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