The best courses in Continental Europe
Lofoten Links, which had jumped to #24 in our last ranking of the World's 100 Greatest Courses, lacked sufficient ballots to make our top 100 this year—but ranks third in our Best Courses in Continental Europe.
Kevin Murray
The golf courses of continental Europe are typically overshadowed by those of the U.K. and Ireland. Perhaps that’s understandable considering the prominence of the links and Open Championship courses there as well the rich architectural history of the heathland courses around London. But taken on an individual basis, the best courses of continental Europe can go mano a mano with the best of the British Isles and Ireland.
Netherlands alone has two courses ranked in our recently published World’s 100 Greatest rankings, Royal Hague and Utrechtse de Pan, and both fit neatly alongside heathland stars like Sunningdale’s Old and New, and Swinley Forest. In fact, both have a direct connection, with the latter designed by H.S. Colt, architect of Sunningdale and Swinley Forest, and the latter by his longtime associate Charles Alison.
Continental Europe’s top-ranked course, Morfontaine in France, a 1927 Tom Simpson design, is now joined by a French newcomer to the top 100, Les Bordes’ New Course, designed by Americans Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner. France (Le Golf Nationale), Italy (Marco Simone) and Spain (Real Club Valderrama) have each hosted Ryder Cups. Sweden’s coastal designs at Falsterbo and Visby cede no ground to their Scottish cousins for seaside charm and authenticity, and the most aesthetically dazzling courses anywhere in Europe are both located on the continent: Lofoten Links in Norway and Thracian Cliffs in Bulgaria. It’s clear that golf excitement and experiences suffer little by crossing the Channel.
Scroll down for our new ranking of the Best Courses in Continental Europe for 2026-2027.
Editor's Note: Our Best Courses in Continental Europe ranking is part of our rollout of the Best Courses in Every Country. Check back over the next few weeks for more of our rankings of the best golf around the world.
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We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and expanded reviews. 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.
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Touted as one of the best residential golf courses in Europe, Fontana Golf Club, just south of Vienna, was designed by Doug Carrick and Hans Erhardt in 1996. Routed around a 20-acre man-made lake, the ground moved for the excavation has been elegantly used to manufacture dramatic undulations, creating fairways and greens whose slopes appear to fall off into the lakes below. Owner Frank Stronach brought back Carrick Design in 2017 for a renovation project totaling seven million euros. The work was focused on touch-ups to the tees and bunkers as well as rerouting five new holes to accommodate new residential projects. Host of DP World Tour events from 2006 to 2009, the layout at Fontana is target golf, with accuracy and distance control being necessary to deal with forced carries over water and sand. The course is most famous for its dramatic four-hole finishing stretch played alongside the lake, highlighted by the par-3 17th with a peninsula green.
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Estonia might not be on the map for even the most knowledgeable golf traveler, but that needs to change. Pärnu Bay Golf Links sits on wonderfully sandy soil right along the Baltic Sea with shaping done by Mick McShane, who was the lead shaper at Kingsbarns and St. Andrews’ Castle course. Fairways are forgiving and the greens are large to account for the wind—but the putting surfaces are boldly contoured with much interest. Five par 3s on this glorious setting for golf make Pärnu Bay one of the most surprisingly enjoyable rounds you need to have on your radar for Continental Europe golf.
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Sir Henry Cotton was instrumental to bringing great golf into the region of the Algarve. After World War II and post-retirement from his playing career, Cotton helped John Stilwell design the first 18-hole course, the Championship course at Penina. After the success of Penina, Cotton was highly sought-after in the region—and his next project was at Vale do Lobo. He designed two nine-hole courses, one of which became part of the Ocean course, supplemented by a new nine in 2003 by American architect Rocky Roquemore. The first nine presents tight shot-making demands as it winds through residences and cottages including several Florida-style holes that interplay with small lakes, including the third that requires a long approach over water. The second nine moves away from the campus toward the ocean where the 14th and 15th greens sit along the beach.
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The PGA National Czech Republic at Oaks Prague sits on wonderfully gentle, rolling terrain with a strategic design by Kyle Phillips. It’s a former DP World Tour venue that opened in the summer of 2020 in the upscale village of Oaks Prague. The course has catapulted atop the list of the best courses in the Czech Republic and deserving of its spot among the best in Continental Europe.
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Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Bruce Charlton unveiled the New course at the Scandinavian Golf Club in 2011, one year after its predecessor. Laid out in similar fashion to its sister course, the New course rewards accuracy and forces players into risk-reward decisions on almost every hole. Fairways are rarely laid out straight in front of the player as they snake around hazards and thick tufts of native grasses. Classic Robert Trent Jones Jr. bunkering shrinks popular landing areas and visually intimidates players, while the creeping bentgrass greens roll over substantial undulations. Much like its partner course, the New course ends with a reachable but challenging par 5. The finishing hole here has water up the entire left side and a peninsula green jutting out into a lake.
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The South Course at Quinta do Lago, this development’s original course, was part of the first wave of Spanish and Portuguese modern golf resorts in the 1960s and 70s, most built by American and Canadian architects. In this case it was American William Mitchell, who laced slender holes through the umbrella pines of the Algarve region on the country’s southern coast. Tension builds as the holes work toward the second nine and gorgeous views of the Atlantic Ocean, punctuated by a nearly 200-yard par-3 15th that plays entirely over water. The club completed a $7.8 million dollar in-house renovation in late 2020 that has enhanced an already elegant design.
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Marco Simone is the new kid on the block on the Roman golf scene, but Olgiata—on the northern fringes of the city—is the crown jewel of Italian golf. The 27-hole facility is a classic inland layout originally designed in 1962 by Englishman C.K. Cotton and a former member of Golf Digest's World's 100 Greatest rankings. Recent amendments by American architect Jim Fazio (brother of Tom Fazio) lengthened the course, completed a full rebunkering and added water hazards at strategic spots on five holes. Given its new chops, it might've been surprising to some that Italy's first Ryder Cup wasn't awarded to Olgiata. Rumor has it that old Etruscan tunnels run underneath the course.
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At the base of the Swiss Alps, on an alpine plateau in the town of Crans-Montana sits the Ballesteros course at Crans-Sur-Sierre Golf Club. One of the most scenic golf clubs in all of Europe, the club has played host to the European Masters since 1948. The Ballesteros course has undergone multiple revisions dating back to 1905, with the first 18-hole layout being attributed to Harry Nicholson in 1928. The club later commissioned Jack Nicklaus to design a nine-hole course in 1988 to accompany what was previously known as the Plan-Bramois course. The course’s current name is derived from a pair of Ballesteros’ renovations, one in 1995 for general maintenance, and the second in 1997 for a restoration of the greens. Crans-Sur-Sierre is as awe-inspiring as it gets—routed over the undulating foothills of the Alps and framed by some of Europe’s most iconic peaks in the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc. The signature hole is undoubtedly the short dogleg right par-4 seventh with a well-protected green and unbroken panoramic views of Mont Blanc and the Rhone valley in the distance.
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The Scandinavian Golf Club is set on nearly 500 acres of forested Danish countryside, just 20 miles to the north of Copenhagen and is part of a 36-hole complex. Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Bruce Charlton waited four years for approval before they were able to unveil the Old and New courses in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Set on a former rifle range, the club had to bring in copious amounts of sand to make the land drain properly. The results are perfectly surfaced creeping bentgrass greens with manicured fairways shaped by rows of thick trees. Accuracy at the Old course is paramount with water in play on 12 holes, including each par 3. Charlton and Jones Jr. also use visual intimidation to shrink fairway landing areas by making bunkers and hazards appear larger than they are. In 2024, Charlton and Jones Jr. were brought in again to make the course more playable for all handicaps, adding more scoring opportunities. The reachable par-5 finishing hole still has teeth—with a fairway shrunk by hazards on both sides, and a green that appears to fall off into the stone tiered river to the left of the surface.
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American architect Arthur Hills didn’t often work outside the U.S., but the nature preserve site he got for Oitavos Dunes on the southwest coast of Portugal was one of the best of his long career. Opened in 2001, most of the course canvases an arid, upland section of land with holes that cross ravines and play low beneath dune ridges of coastal pines. The key to scoring well is to avoid the numerous fairway bunkers, and have a deft recovery game around the small greens. The set of par 3s rival the best in the country.
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Royal Antwerp Golf Club was founded in 1888 and is not surprisingly the oldest golf club in Belgium. Located just north of Antwerp, the club is set over gently sloping heathland terrain covered in native ground brush and towering pine trees. The club is now home to the 18-hole Tom Simpson course and the nine-hole Dormy House course, each designed originally by Willie Park Jr. in 1912. The club later commissioned Simpson to do renovations in 1930, and the course has been regarded as one of Continental Europe’s great classic courses ever since. Royal Antwerp’s challenge comes in the form of well-guarded fairways lined by heathland and pine trees, often with sets of bunkers shrinking landing areas. The greens at Royal Antwerp are small with subtle breaks but challenge players by forcing precise iron play with tight landing areas. The rolling heathland terrain of Royal Antwerp can easily be mistaken for the best courses in West London, often drawing comparisons to Sunningdale and Wentworth.
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The championship 18 at the multi-course Le Golf National may well be an albatross around the necks of 2018 American Ryder Cup teammates, given their lopsided loss to the Europeans. But they couldn’t blame the Albatros Course, a Florida-style design of the late Robert von Hagge, who delighted in sculpting courses with massive humps and bumps that cast shadows at high noon and carving out water hazards at every turn. What the European team had going for it was familiarity with the design, as it has hosted the European Tour’s French Open for decades. In advance of the Ryder Cup, French officials insisted that sole design credit should be given to French landscape architect Hubert Chesneau (who was a consultant on the project), but that was soon debunked, as von Hagge’s style is clearly evident. Le Golf National also hosted the 2024 Olympics for both the men's and women's competitions, helping to put French golf on the radar for traveling golfers around the world.
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Located on the tranquil shores of Lake Geneva, Domaine Imperial Golf Club is steeped in rich history. The land was originally owned by Swiss-French aristocrats before being transferred to the Bonaparte family who, in 1859 constructed a villa on property, now used as the stunning clubhouse overlooking the 18th hole. Following the collapse of the family in the 19th century, the property changed owners many times until landing with the Morf family in 1953. Plans began for the course in 1971, but due to a variety of issues was not completed by Pete Dye until 1987. The beautiful parkland-style course features undulating treelined fairways that snake around running creeks and small hazards. The front nine plays as the harder of the two sides, with the first eight holes played amongst dense trees, with penal hazards often lurking just off of the fairways. The back nine is more open than the front, highlighted by the par-3 15th, played to a classic visually intimidating Pete Dye green protected by a deep waste area and the uphill par-4 18th framed by the historic clubhouse and Lake Geneva in the background.
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Nestled between the French Alps and the shores of Lake Geneva, Evian Resort Golf Club offers breathtaking views in every direction. Established in 1904 as a nine-hole course, it was expanded and redesigned in the late 1980s by Cabell B. Robinson to create a challenging yet seamless layout that has become a favorite among professional golfers. Each year, Evian Resort hosts The Amundi Evian Championship, one of the five major tournaments in women's golf and the only major played annually on the same course, showcasing renowned champions such as Lydia Ko and Annika Sörenstam.
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Robert von Hagge’s Old Course at Les Bordes, situated in the Loire Valley about 90 minutes south of Paris, could just have easily been built by Pete Dye and situated in South Florida. Dye-esque mounding, island (or peninsula) greens and intimidating sightlines are present throughout. The tranquil setting amid the forest and lakes serve to lower your blood pressure as you play a course where the ball-striking demands would typically have the numbers spiking. The soil is denser and more saturated than that of the Gil Hanse-designed New Course, largely preventing the ground game and demanding precision through the air.
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Great Northern Golf Club opened in 2017 and is home to 27 holes by Jack Nicklaus, an 18-hole championship and nine-hole academy course set on gentle rolling hills surrounded by scenic Danish farmland on the island of Funen. Nicklaus created seven artificial lakes for the design of the two courses, with nine holes of the championship course and nearly the entire short course playing alongside or over the hazards. With the terrain used to create the lakes Nicklaus constructed an 100-plus-foot ridge where eight of the championship course's holes are played. The change in elevation ensures the course plays differently each day, with wind cascading over the man-made hill in different directions creating challenging approaches when the water comes back into play. Highlights of Nicklaus’s design include a gorgeous three-hole stretch of challenging par 4s from holes four through six, with water protecting the entire left or right side of each of the holes. Also notable at Great Northern are the driveable par 4s at seven and 13, played in opposite directions to ensure a chance at reaching the green on at least one.
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Formerly known as PGA Catalunya, Camiral is one of the northernmost golf clubs in Spain, located in the rural Catalunya region near the French border. The Tour course, opened in 2005, is a more casual alternative to the tournament-ready Stadium course, shorter and more inviting, though care must be taken with the driver as the holes are cut through a rolling property of pine.
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Real Las Brisas is another course located in the beautiful, golf rich Andalusian region of southern Spain. Like its cousins Valderrama and Sotogrande 30 miles south, Las Brisas was built by Robert Trent Jones in the late 1960s, shortly after he completed Sotogrande. For American golfers, the vibe is southern California, perhaps Carlsbad to be specific, with flattish holes strung through a wide, narrow property of oaks, palms, olive and cork trees just a mile from the Mediterranean Sea under the guise of mountains. Jones used a canal ingeniously throughout the design, running the water alongside holes and in front of greens demanding brave aerial attacks. Kyle Phillips remodeled the course in 2014 and 2015, reviving Trent Jones’ jagged bunkers and runway tees, and created several new holes on the second nine including the sixth, seventh and eighth to better utilize the limited space and improve flow.
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West Cliffs, on Portugal’s Silver Coast an hour north of Lisbon, it one of the more scenic courses built on the continent in the last decade. Designed in 2017 by American Cynthia Dye McGarey, a niece of the late Pete Dye, it plays through a sandy coastal property with striking elevated views of the Atlantic Ocean several hundred yards away. Think of this as Portugal’s version of Spyglass Hill, with some holes like seven, eight, 10, 11 and 12 situated through a plain of low sea salt vegetation, and others that play inland through forests and the resort development.
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Marco Simone's routing offers views of the Roman countryside and some of the city's great landmarks. The original Jim Fazio design opened in the late 1990s then underwent a complete remodel between 2018 and 2021 to prepare it for the 2023 Ryder Cup. European Golf Design, working with Tom Fazio II, Jim’s son, rebuilt and re-routed the holes with match play in mind, creating a consistent theme of risk-reward holes and high-stakes drives. A majority of the par 4s and par 5s possess strands of bunkers that eat into the landing areas where the professionals typically hit their drives, causing players to decide if they have the horsepower to carry them, the nerve to try to maneuver one around them, or to lay back into a conservative position. The closing holes include a potentially drivable par 4 and the massive par-5 18th with water left of the green.
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Noordwijkse is one of the Netherlands’ oldest and most revered clubs, boosting a Harry Colt design from the 1920s until the Germans’ occupation of the Netherlands during World War II turned the land into unusable for golf. The club relocated and hired British architect Ken Cotton and Frank Pennik to design its new course about three miles from the Noordwijk lighthouse. The course has a true links feel sitting right along the North Sea.
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Carved into the hillside of Spain’s Costa del Sol with views of the Mediterranean Sea, La Reserva is one of the newer courses in the golf-rich Sotogrande region, with Valderrama right down the street. Similar to Finca Corestín, also designed by Cabell Robinson, La Reserva features wide, sweeping fairways with challenging, risk-reward holes.
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Golf Club Budersand Sylt is known as the only true links-style course in Germany. Set on 180 acres of former World War II battleground land, the course weaves through towering fescue-covered dunes surrounded by dense native heathland. The Rolf-Stephan Hansen-designed course debuted in 2008 but is devoid of modernist touches and therefore has the feel of a course laid out many years ago. The course is located in the small town of Hornum on the southern tip of Sylt Island, surrounded on three sides by the windy shores of the Wadden Sea. The swirling breeze is Budersand's greatest defense, as the wind direction feels constantly varied throughout the round. The second nine at Budersand is the harder of the two sides and is highlighted by a pair of challenging par 3s at 13 and 15, as well as a three-hole closing stretch with snaking hazards reminiscent of the final holes at Carnoustie.
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The upscale Finca Corestín, a luxurious resort in Southern Spain laid out over 500 acres on a former farm estate, is as upscale as it gets, boasting stunning villas with terracotta-tiled roofs that blend into the Andalucian landscape. Cabell Robinson, an American architect who’s now based in Spain and has worked all over the world, designed this thrilling course with severely sloping fairways to help boost drives. Finca Corestín, with some great risk/reward holes, is a perfect match-play venue—it hosted the 2023 Solheim Cup and the Volvo Match Play for a number of years soon after the course opened.
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Located west of Paris and near Versailles amongst the Saint-Germain-en-Laye forest, Saint-Germain was designed by Harry Colt and boasts some of France’s strongest golf history. Colt’s design meanders through the trees on a mostly flat design with intriguing putting surfaces and 116 well-placed bunkers. Saint-Germain was ranked within Golf World (U.K.)’s top 20 courses in Continental Europe just a few years ago, so being in the top 10 is no surprise here, though we might’ve expected it to be within the top three of our list. Aside from the main course, Colt also designed a more elementary nine holes here as well.
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Chantilly Golf Club's Vineuil course, situated within the historic grounds of the Château de Chantilly, was originally designed by the English golf champion J.H. Taylor in 1909. The course gained immediate praise, hosting the French Open just four years after establishment. Following World War I, the course underwent a renovation by Tom Simpson, aimed at attracting pre-war members. However, the club faced significant challenges again during World War II, suffering extensive damage in 1944. Repair work was carried out, and by 1947, the club was ready to host its fifth French Open. Chantilly Golf Club has demonstrated admirable resilience, hosting a total of 11 French Opens before Le Golf National became the official venue for the event. In addition to its rich tournament history, the club is renowned for its commitment to biodiversity. Partnering with the French Golf Federation and the National Museum of Natural History, Chantilly is dedicated to preserving its nearly 40 rare or threatened species within its lush, forested course.
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Ålands Golf Club was founded in 1975 and sits on the former hunting estate of King Gustav Vasa bordering the Slottssundet Bay in the Baltic Sea. The club is home to two 18-hole layouts aptly titled Slottsbanan (Castle) and Kungsbanan (King’s), as well as a short course, the Princess. The Slottsbanan course is routed alongside the edge of the bay, while the Kungsbanan course occupies a tighter, more forested section of the property. Originally designed by Jan Sederholm, the Slottsbanan course was finished in two phases with the front nine debuting in 1983 and the second nine following in 1988. More recently, Phillip Spogard led a 2020 renovation that rerouted many of the Slottsbanan holes closer to Slottssundet Bay with the goal of including views to the historic Kastleholm Castle across the bay. The renovation was successful as now all 18 holes have views to the Baltic Sea. The fairways at Slottsbanan rise and fall over undulating terrain surrounded by natural snaking water hazards and outcroppings of rocks and native plants. The pure rolling greens are guarded by strategic deep bunkering as well as large contours that funnel approaches into tricky runoff areas. After the 2020 renovation, Slottsbanan's highlight hole is now the stunning par-4 10th with a tee shot over the bay and an approach played straight toward the Kastleholm Castle in the distance.
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Tom Simpson might not be a name familiar to casual American golfers, but the Englishman’s delivered some of the best work in Europe in the classic era. His early work in France included adding nine holes to Golf de Fontainebleau, just like he did at the No. 1-ranked Morfontaine. Fontainebleau sits on rolling topography just south of Paris, and Simpson utilized rock formations and the rolling terrain to gift the club of the best courses in France.
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Compared to the United Kingdom, golf in Spain is a recent phenomenon. Therefore the “old” moniker of the Old Course at San Roque Club is relative: it opened in the early 1990s. It does, however, predate the club’s New Course, which came over a decade later. San Roque sits just south of the country’s two most prominent layouts, Valderrama and Sotogrande, and shares a similar landscape of gentle topography, mountain views and stylish, state of the art agronomy. The graceful design features numerous doglegs, minimal bunkering and roomy greens.
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At 6,140 yards from the back tees, the Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed Bay course is slightly shorter than the Dunes but no less challenging or fun to play. Most of the tee boxes offer views of the historic Navarino Bay, and two of the holes play along the water. Holes at this course are loosely divided into three distinct landscapes. The seaside holes are framed by a backdrop of the Bay, with the short, par-4 fourth being specifically memorable with the town of Pylos in the background. Elevated tees characterize the Bay course’s canyon holes, and golfers need to navigate their tee shots through box canyons as the course moves inland. And in the grove grouping, more than 1,000 mature olive trees—some more than half a millennium old—guide you through a mountain landscape that is finely juxtaposed against the seaside and canyon holes. —Ju Kuang Tan
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One of the oldest courses in the Algarve region of Portugal, the Frank Pennink-designed Old Course opened in 1969 and underwent extensive renovations by Martin Hawtree in the late 1990s. With five par 5s, the par-73 course is routed around towering trees with doglegs, medium-sized green surfaces and punishing bunkers. The course is part of Dom Pedro Golf Club, which also includes the Victoria course (#13 on our list), the Laguna, Millennium and Pinhal courses.
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The legendary Swedish sportsman-turned-course architect Sven Thumba designed Ullna Golf Club in 1981. Set on the tranquil shores of Lake Ullnasjön, the renowned club sprawls along the banks of the lake, bringing water into play on 15 of the 18 holes. Often categorized as a target golf course, the fairways are split by small hazards, running brooks or bunkers that pinch landing zones. Many holes allow for aggressive and conservative lines off the tee, forcing players to take on more danger to get better angles for approaches. What the greens lack in natural undulation they make up for in quality, as the creeping bentgrass surfaces are known for their immaculate conditioning. In 2011, the club commissioned Jack Nicklaus to head a renovation project creating new teeboxes, fairways, bunkers and greens, beautifully blending modern touches with the original Thumba design. While almost every hole is worthy of mention, the par-3 16th played over the lake to a tiny peninsula green, and the challenging par-4 17th with an island tee box and water down the entire left side stand out as highlights.
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There are few more awe-inspiring settings for golf than Thracian Cliffs in Bulgaria, which truly sits on the side of the cliffs on a beautiful 210-acre site. The most thrilling shot amidst a round of many will be the par-3 sixth hole, hitting to a green more than 120 feet below the tee, built into the hillside right along the Black Sea’s edge. Golfers will be rewarded for making it to this pristine resort with an experience unlike many others in European golf, reminiscient in some ways to Sheep Ranch or Cabot Cliffs.
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Monte Rei narrowly fell out of the World 100 this time around but still ranks among the highest-ranked international courses from Nicklaus Design. It’s located on a panoramic site in the Algarve region of southern Portugal just 3.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean with holes that roll over 1,000 acres of crumpled, arid foothills. The design is a blend of modern and classic—wide fairways, aggressive bunkering and shallow, angled greens that hook around hazards, including a variety of American-style water features. Troubled economic times when the course opened has meant the resort development is peacefully underbuilt, an advantage in accentuating a feeling of remoteness in the surrounding hill country.
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Toni-Doro/Courtesy of Sotogrande Club
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Toni-Doro/Courtesy of Sotogrande Club
Sotogrande, located just off the Mediterranean Sea, was the first course Robert Trent Jones built in Europe and shares many of the same ingredients that distinguish Valderrama (No. 29), the higher ranked of RTJ’s two Spanish gems. In fact, Valderrama, located just two miles higher into the foothills of Cadiz, was originally the second course for Sotogrande members and residents before being acquired by a separate group of investors. The design is American mid-century, defined by tight holes that dogleg through corridors of twisted cork trees and large greens pinched in front by bunkers. The course was the first on the continent to use American 419 Bermuda in the fairways, and water hazards come into play on five of the last seven holes, including the photogenic par 3s at 13 and 17.
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Courtesy of the club/Jacob Sjöman
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Courtesy of the club/Jacob Sjöman
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Courtesy of the club/Jacob Sjöman
Along the windy shores of the Flommen nature preserve on the Falsterbo peninsula sits Falsterbo Golf Club, which is surrounded by the white sand beaches of the Öresund and the Baltic Sea and is home to the oldest clubhouse in the country. The first nine holes at Falsterbo were completed in 1911 by Robert Turnbull of Copenhagen Golf Club. Gunnar Bauer later finished the 18-hole design in 1934, with many of his or Turnbull’s design elements still alive in the course’s modern iteration. Falsterbo has undergone multiple renovation projects, the first being a green restoration by Peter Chamberlain in 2001. Satisfied with the 2001 renovation, Chamberlain returned with Alan Strachan in 2014 to redesign holes three through six, as well as nine, 16 and 17. Since 2020 the club has redesigned two more holes and added two more stories to its iconic clubhouse. Devoid of significant natural undulation, Falsterbo plays as an undeniably links-style course with fescue-lined fairways, windswept oceanside holes and ample run-up areas to play approaches along the ground. The standout hole comes at the par-3 11th, played along the interior marshland section. The hole is played to a peninsula green surrounded by hazards with views to the surrounding sea.
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James Hogg
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James Hogg
Terras de Comporta is one of the largest luxury resort communities in Portugal, featuring two newly opened 18-hole championship golf courses. Located to the south of Lisbon on the Alentejo coast, the expansive resort occupies nearly 5,000 acres bordering the Sado Estuary Nature preserve. The resort, with financial backing from Vanguard, opened the first of its two courses in 2023 with David McLay Kidd’s Dunas course. This was followed by the opening of the Sergio Garcia-designed Torre course two years later. The Dunas course is designed with a focus on sustainability, as fairways follow natural contours and indigenous grass and native areas are used to create hazards. Kidd’s design incorporates modern and classic links elements with fescue fairways that traverse steep sand dunes and large bentgrass greens hidden in hollows and natural bowls. Quite a few holes can make strong arguments as the most dramatic at the Dunas course, however, the standouts come at the long par-3 third with a nearly 70-yard-wide green and the spectacular par-4 13th with a fairway that snakes through sandy native areas and a green protected by overhanging trees. It's no surprise to see the Dunas course debut on our Best in Portugal ranking at #1.
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Johan Hampf/Courtesy of the club
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Johan Hampf/Courtesy of the club
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Jacob Sjöman
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Courtesy of the club
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Courtesy of the club
The Dunes was the first course built at Costa Navarino and is located closest to the hotels. Sea and river views adorn the links-inspired course designed by Masters champion, Ryder Cup captain and German legend Bernhard Langer with European Golf Design. The holes venture through olive and fruit groves with undulation that drapes over the indigenous topography. In season, golfers can pick from these trees and sample the literal fruits of the land. At 6,581 yards from the back tees, the par-71 course is no slouch even if the fairways are ample and the greens large.
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Courtesy of the club
Barsebäck Golf and Country Club, which sits on the windblown shores of the Öresund Sea, is the previous host of the Scandinavian Masters and 2003 Solheim Cup and is home to 36 holes of stunning golf split between the Ocean (formerly Masters) and Pine courses. The Ocean debuted in 1969 and was designed by Ture Bruce, while the Pine course followed in 1989 courtesy of Donald Steele. Since their debuts, the courses have undergone significant renovations. In 2007, The Ocean course underwent a full-scale renovation and most recently, in 2022, the club removed trees and bushes to create more dramatic views out to the sea. The Ocean is the harder of the two courses and has a truly unique routing incorporating elements of parkland, woodland and links-style courses. The round begins with fairways that meander through towering pine trees before being routed traveling downhill toward the waters edge, and then once again back into the pines for the closing holes. Barsebäck’s iconic stretch is undoubtedly from the ninth to 11th, where each hole is routed alongside the beaches of the picturesque Öresund Sea.
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Courtesy of the club/Jacob Sjöman
Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea off of Sweden’s east coast is home to the Visby Golf Club. The club is built over 150 acres of former seaside grazing land in the medieval port town of Visby from which the track gets its name. The 18-hole course, now titled The One, was designed by Nils Sköld in 1958 originally beginning as nine holes with the second nine coming in 1966 following Sköld’s original design. Two years later, the club commissioned Douglas Brasier to oversee new course developments, specifically the creation of a nine-hole course to accompany the 18-hole championship one. The nine-hole course, however, titled The Other One, wasn’t unveiled until 1992 with the help of Peter Nordwall. Elements from each of Sköld’s, Braiser’s and Nordwall’s designs remain, but the modern edition of the course owes its look to the club’s 2009 renovation done under the supervision of Pierre Fulke and Adam Mednickson. Fulke and Mednickson oversaw the reconstruction of all the greens, teeboxes and bunkers, as well as the addition of two new holes, all the while keeping characteristics of Sköld’s original design. The One is laid out along the blustery shores of the Baltic Sea inside the Kronholmen nature preserve with a mix of parkland and links-style holes. The fairways at Visby snake between native trees and groundplants dotted by thin hazards and wispy fescue grass. Visby’s signature hole is the par-5 18th, reminiscent of the final hole at Pebble Beach playing alongside the water to a raised green overlooking the sea below.
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Courtesy of the club
Only about 30 minutes from Paris sits Jack Nicklaus’ only course in France, which sits inside the country's top five courses for the third straight edition. Nicklaus’ team carved the design out of the adjacent Montmorency Forest with the layout utilizing large pines, doglegs, rolling topography and water hazards to present your standard Nicklaus risk-reward tests.
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Courtesy of the club
Hamburger Golf Club Falkenstein is one of the oldest golf clubs in Germany. It originally opened in 1906 before later relocating to a new property in 1930 and expanding to 18 holes. Set alongside a nature preserve on the banks of the Elbe river, the course sprawls over secluded forested heathland. The firm of Colt, Allison and Morrison was originally commissioned to design the course, and it has since undergone multiple changes. The first was Bernhard von Limburger’s renovation in the 1960s, while the second and most recent came in the form of Frank Pont’s 2015 renovation that saw the reconstruction of the course's bunkers, as well as reshaped greens and new collection areas to match more with the original design. The club now features undulating fairways that wind between trees, rarely giving players a straight tee shot. Green complexes are built into natural undulations and have small bowls with difficult-to-read breaks. Although devoid of any water hazards, Hamburger Golf Club’s Falkenstein course is protected by strategically placed bunkers, often shrinking landing areas and creating visually intimidating approach shots.
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Steve Carr Golf
Rebranded as the previous PGA Catalunya course, the Stadium course at Camiral has hosted a European Tour event on multiple occasions, most recently the Catalunya Championship in 2022, and will host Spain's second-ever Ryder Cup in 2031. The course features elevated tees with numerous downhill tee shots and doglegs framed by fir trees and heather. Just a few years ago, the course underwent a major renovation in an effort of sustainability while also moving around a few holes.
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Courtesy of Les Bordes Estate
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Courtesy of Kevin Diss
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Courtesy of Les Bordes Estate
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Courtesy of Les Bordes Estate
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Courtesy of Kevin Diss
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Courtesy of Les Bordes Estate
At Les Bordes, Hanse and design partner Jim Wagner were given a sand-based site—a golf architect’s dream—allowing for firmer, faster playing conditions. As you play the course it feels as though the 18 holes were always there, and that there must’ve been little movement of the existing terrain. “We worked really hard to make sure our course sat softly in the landscape,” Hanse says. Whether by sprawling heathland or fescue-lined bunkering that’s rugged yet refined, the New Course not only sits softly in the landscape, it feels as though it is the landscape.
Despite its moniker, the New Course is a return to an older, more classic style of golf course architecture. One that demands a more nuanced strategy than simply trying to avoid an imposing water hazard—and where angles, created by clever contouring and well-placed bunkering must be properly navigated in order to create the easiest shot into the green. And one that allows the golfer to run the ball up onto nearly every putting surface, incentivizing creativity while giving options to the higher handicapper.
Even with all of the strategic elements, the New Course is incredibly walkable—in fact, it’s a walking-only course. The terrain has plenty of subtle undulations to create some blind shots, but there is hardly an elevation change that will leave you catching your breath.
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Courtesy of the club
Debuting in the World 100 rankings in 2022, de Pan feels like it was cut through the dark woods of a medieval fairy tale, though the city of Utrecht is just two miles away. The holes wander, spin and double back as if searching for a way out, with very few offering any glimpse of another. A beautiful collection of short par 4s await, including the sharp, partially blind dogleg seventh and the remarkable 10th snaking through a narrow passage of mounds. Colt’s golf influence in the Netherlands, here as well as at Kennemer and Koninklijke Haagsche (aka Royal Hague), is almost as significant as it is in the London Heathlands, which makes sense given the similarities of the landscapes.
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Our top-ranked course in the golf-heavy country of Sweden, Bro Hof Slott’s Stadium course has hosted the DP World Tour on a regular basis—boasting a total yardage of 8,056 yards. It’s a significant challenge with well-placed bunkers and the ever-present wind of Lake Mälaren, which creates a beautiful setting about 20 miles from Stockholm. An island green 17th hole, ala TPC Sawgrass, sums up the round as water is always to be navigated. The club’s second course, the Castle, opened in 2009.
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Gary Lisbon
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Gary Lisbon
4. Koninklijke Haagsche Golf and Country Club: Royal Hague
Wassenaar, South Holland, Netherlands
Though located inland from the sea, there’s no question Royal Hague is links golf. The course, north of the city, sits on the edge of a vast region of sand dunes that would be the home to several more world-class courses if it had been developed in the 19th century (as the links of Scotland had) and not environmentally protected. The Charles Alison and H.S. Colt design is a lesson in restraint—following Frank Pont’s restorative efforts over the last decade and a half, there are only 23 bunkers and almost none guarding fairways, and five holes have zero bunkers. Royal Hague doesn’t need them with fairways that caterpillar over electric landforms leaving numerous shots uphill to semi-blind greens that seem like the only calm parts of the property.
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Kevin Murray
The most remote course in the rankings, Lofoten Links is located, for reference, four degrees latitude north of Iceland on Norway’s Lofoten archipelago that branches deep into the Norwegian Sea. The course is set in an austere but stunning Game of Thrones landscape of rock and ocean, and the bumpy links-like holes are studded with pot bunkers and ramble through fields of stone and cold season native grasses. Lofoten started as a six-hole course in the 1990s and was only expanded to 18 holes in 2015, so it’s a newcomer to global golf travelers. Lofoten Links jumped up to #24 in our last World 100 rankings but lacked sufficient ballots to make our rankings in 2026-2027, proving how remote it is.
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Courtesy of Valderrama
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Courtesy of Valderrama
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Courtesy of Valderrama
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Courtesy of Valderrama
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Courtesy of Valderrama
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Courtesy of Valderrama
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Courtesy of Valderrama
Best known as the site of the 1997 Ryder Cup, won by Europe in a squeaker, Valderrama was a favorite design of the late architect Robert Trent Jones. His tight, twisting fairways, pinched at every turn by squat olive trees, led to surprisingly small putting surfaces protected by his trademark splashy bunkers. Valderrama contains one of the more controversial holes in golf: The par-5 17th guarded by water in front, which European captain Seve Ballesteros toughened for that Ryder Cup. It influenced the outcome then, and was a game changer again in 2017, when Sergio Garcia won his own foundation's tournament, the European Tour's Andalucia Valderrama Classic. His birdie on 17 in the final round was the margin of victory.
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Photo by David Scaletti
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A timeless 1927 design north of Paris by British architect Tom Simpson, perhaps the greatest bunker artist of his generation, Morfontaine looks suspiciously like a heathland course around London with windswept Scotch pines and clumps of heather atop a base of sand. But it's tighter than Sunningdale or St. George's Hill, and the forest surrounding holes is far denser. American architect Kyle Phillips updated the layout in 2004, adding a new 12th green to extend the par 5 by 60 yards. It fits in perfectly.
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