Buzzworthy new golf courses are the exception these days, not the rule. In the 1990s and early 2000s, heavy investment and mass-scale earthmoving supplied golfers with a smorgasbord of fresh playing options—and it oversaturated the very industry golf developers sought to catapult. But golf is having a renaissance: Spurred by the pandemic and ever-increasing accessibility to the sport, golf across the world is as popular today as it’s ever been. While the days of rampant course construction will likely never return, a spree of new developments have sprung up in recent years, and that means there are new golf courses to add to your hit list.
From a clone course in Wisconsin to a track nestled along Saint Lucia’s jaw-dropping shoreline, these are some of the best new golf courses to put on your radar in 2023. The usual suspects (that is, the game’s most-respected designers) are behind the bulk of this work: Coore, Crenshaw, Doak, and Hanse. Even C.B. Macdonald, a long-deceased architectural pioneer, makes a scorecard cameo on the year’s most innovative layout.
Here are 7 new courses we’re stoked to play in the year ahead.
The Best New Golf Courses to Play in 2023
