You can check out the links below to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in Utah. And if you’re looking to create your own trip in the future, you’d be wise to let GOLF’s new Course Finder tool assist you. Here, you can toggle all of our lists — Top 100 public, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s and more — or filter by price to create the perfect itinerary for your next trip.
Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.
1. Sand Hollow (Hurricane) [Y, P, V]
Built on the same colorful sedimentary stone as nearby Zion National Park, Sand Hollow is as close as you’ll get to playing golf on Mars. The more traditional desert front nine winds through red sand bunkers and native sage brush. The wild backside takes golfers across a rising ridgeline to an astonishing five-hole stretch that makes picking a favorite hole impossible. The short par-4 13th with mind-blowing cliffside views? The long par-3 15th some compare to the iconic 16th at Cypress Point? The epic 525-yard par-4 14th (yes, we said par-4)? You’ll still be trying to decide as you ask the pro shop if you can play another 18.
2. Glenwild (Park City)
3. Victory Ranch (Karmas)
4. Black Desert (Ivins)
5. The Country Club (Salt Lake City)
How we rank our courses
For our newly released Top 100 U.S. and Top 100 You Can Play lists — a process that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — each panelist was provided a ballot that consisted of 609 courses. Beside the list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the U.S., they ticked that first column. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on out to 250+ and even a column for “remove.” Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot.
Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it historically has produced results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily complicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.
The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the worldwide golf meccas, each of our 127 handpicked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1,000 courses in 20-plus countries, some over 2,000. Their handicaps range from +5 to 15.
Because the nature of course rating is so intensely subjective, no one opinion carries the day. The only way, then, to build meaningful consensus is to incorporate this diversity of panelists and experiences into one ranking.
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