Which course is the best U.S. Open venue? Our 'definitive' ranking

Torrey Pines sits on one of the prettiest golf course sites in America atop coastal bluffs north of San Diego. And its big, brawny layout is a great championship venue.  Tiger Woods' iconic win in 2008 ensures that casual golf fans will always think fondly of Torrey. That being said, after the 2021 U.S. Open, it's unclear whether the San Diego area muny will get another U.S. Open. Its repeatable layout lacks some of the design gravitas as other more famous U.S. Open courses. Southern California does have another U.S. Open in its sights as the 2031 U.S. Open will be contested at Riviera Country Club, which first hosted the U.S. Open in 1948.

Donald Ross felt his 1918 design was out-of-date for the 1951 U.S. Open and was prepared to remodel it. Sadly, he died in 1948, so Robert Trent Jones got the job. His rebunkering was overshadowed by ankle-deep rough, and after Ben Hogan closed with a 67, one of only two rounds under par 70 all week, to win his second consecutive Open, he complained that Jones had created a Frankenstein. Seventy-plus years later, Oakland Hills is even longer, but its bite wasn’t severe when it hosted the 2016 U.S. Amateur. In 2019, the South course closed as Gil Hanse and his team significantly renovated the course with the intention of removing the Jones-era influences and restoring its Ross feel. They did that by expanding greens to recapture what are some of Ross's best contours, removed trees to show off the rolling landscape and shifted bunkers back to where Ross, not RTJ (or RTJ's son Rees, during previous remodels), placed them. The course re-opened in Spring 2021, and though a crippling fire destroyed the club's iconic clubhouse, the USGA delivered some kind news to the club, bringing the 2034 and 2051 U.S. Opens to Oakland Hills—as well as a number of upcoming USGA championships.

It’s on the edge of Tinsel Town, but the architecture of the North Course at Los Angeles Country Club has been solid gold ever since its 2010 restoration by architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner. It matters not that Hanse’s team didn’t replicate the bunkering style of original architect George C. Thomas, but rather the more visually exciting style of Thomas’ associate, William P. Bell. The first nine plays rustically up and down a shallow canyon with holes switching back and forth across a dry barranca, and the second nine loops across a more spacious upland section with one par 3 (the 11th) that can stretch to nearly 300 yards and another (the 15th) that often plays just 90 yards. The hole strategies reinstituted by Hanse provided an intriguing examination when LACC's North course hosted the 2023 U.S. Open as Wyndham Clark beat Rory McIlroy by a stroke.

Brookline holds a special place in American golf. The Country Club has been the site of the U.S. Amateur six times, tied for the most with Merion and Oakmont. It's also seen four U.S. Opens (most notably Francis Ouimet's 1913 upset of Harry Vardon and Ted Ray), three U.S. Women's Amateurs and the famed Yankee comeback at the 1999 Ryder Cup. A restoration by Gil Hanse and his team ahead of the 2013 U.S. Amateur has the great club to still challenge the best players in the world. The tournament will return again in 2038.

Winged Foot is one of the best clubs in the world and the only private club with two courses ranked inside the top 50 of Golf Digest's ranking of America's 100 Greatest Courses. The history is irrefutable here with six U.S. Opens taking place at the legendary Westchester County, N.Y. club. The only knock: The last U.S. Open here hasn't aged well, as Bryson DeChambeau overpowered the course, though it should be noted he was the only competitor to finish under par.

In 2010, a team lead by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw killed and ripped out all the Bermudagrass rough on Pinehurst No. 2 that had been foolishly planted in the 1970s. Between fairways and tree lines, they established vast bands of native hardpan sand dotted with clumps of wiregrass and scattered pine needles. They reduced the irrigation to mere single rows in fairways to prevent grass from ever returning to the new sandy wastelands. Playing firm and fast, it was wildly successful as the site of the 2014 Men’s and Women’s U.S. Opens, played on consecutive weeks, and produced an even more exciting Open in 2024 when Bryson DeChambeau beat Rory McIlroy on the final hole. It's the rare course that a wide variety of resort players can enjoy and play quickly one day, and be a test for tour pros the next by essentially just quickening the greens. A new favorite of the USGA with a headquarters in town, Pinehurst No. 2 will host Opens again in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.

Merion East has long been considered the best course on the tightest acreage in America, and when it hosted the U.S. Open in 2013, its first since 1981, the present generation of big hitters couldn’t conquer this clever little course. They couldn’t consistently hit its twisting fairways, which are edged by creeks, hodge-podge rough and OB stakes and couldn’t consistently hold its canted greens, edged by bunkers that stare back. Justin Rose won with a 72-hole total of one-over-par, two ahead of Jason Day and Phil Mickelson. With Gil Hanse's extensive two-year renovation after that tournament making even more improvements at Merion's East Course, the design should be even more polished and pristine when the U.S. Amateur returns in 2026 and the U.S. Open returns again in 2030.

Generally considered to be the earliest links in America, heavily remodeled by C.B. Macdonald, then replaced (except for three holes) by William S. Flynn in the early 1930s, it’s so sublime that its architecture hasn’t really been altered for nearly 60 years. Stands of trees that once framed many holes have been removed, and in 2012, the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw did make a few changes, mostly greens and fairways expansions and new mowing patterns, though those were modified in preparation for the 2018 U.S. Open, won by Brooks Koepka. Shinnecock will again host the U.S. Open in 2026.

Not just the greatest meeting of land and sea in American golf, but the most extensive one, too, with nine holes perched immediately above the crashing Pacific surf—the fourth through 10th plus the 17th and 18th. Pebble’s sixth through eighth are golf’s real Amen Corner, with a few Hail Marys thrown in over an ocean cove on the eighth from atop a 75-foot-high bluff. Pebble hosted a successful U.S. Amateur in 2018 and a sixth U.S. Open in 2019. Recent improvements include the redesign of the once-treacherous 14th green, and reshaping of the par-3 17th green, both planned by Arnold Palmer’s Design Company a few years back, and modifications to the green at the famous eighth hole, what we deemed the second Greatest Hole in America. We ranked Pebble Beach No. 1 in this list in 2017, but the 2019 U.S. Open wasn't quite up to snuff with the other historic past national championships held here, so we're moving it to No. 2...

Once tens of thousands of trees were removed between the early 1990s and 2015 (most planted in the 1960s), Oakmont’s original penal design was re-established, with the game’s nastiest, most notorious bunkers (founder-architect H.C. Fownes staked out bunkers whenever and where ever he saw a player hit an offline shot), deep drainage ditches and ankle-deep rough. Oakmont also has the game’s swiftest putting surfaces, which were showcased during the U.S. Open in 2016, despite early rains that slowed them down a bit. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner made bunker modifications and expanded the greens throughout the course in 2023 in preparation for the 2025 U.S. Open. The USGA has already awarded Oakmont three additional Opens between 2033 and 2049, reinforcing its title as the host of the most U.S. Opens, ever.