The best Jack Nicklaus golf courses

By Stephen Hennessey

January 20, 2023

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Back in the 1960s, an Ohio kid checked in on the construction of what would become the highest-ranked course in the state. The design was The Golf Club, and the kid was Jack Nicklaus—a curious observer to the work being done by Pete Dye. Nicklaus, who by 1966 was a career Grand Slam winner, would sign up with Dye as his player consultant, starting a partnership that included Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, site of an annual tour stop since 1969. The host venue to the PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament for more than 35 years, Jack's Muirfield Village Golf Club actually sits on land that Nicklaus and Dye prospected back in the late 1960s, although that project didn't come to fruition. By the time Muirfield Village came to be in 1974, Nicklaus and Dye had split. Fast-forward almost four decades, and Nicklaus' design company has eight offices in six countries, with Jack designing more than 300 courses and growing his business into one of the most successful design firms of his generation.

Here's a look at Jack's best courses—ranked in the order our Golf Digest course-ranking panelists scored them based on our most recent America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses ranking and Golf Digest's World 100 Greatest Courses ranking.

10. Quivira Golf Club, Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur, Mexico

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Courtesy of Quivira Golf Club

Ranked seventh on our Best in Mexico ranking from 2020, this Cabo course isn't short on views. As our Ron Kaspriske put it, "The quirky, fun design is like playing golf inside a Salvador Dali painting."

9. Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Incheon City, South Korea

Host of the 2015 Presidents Cup, Nicklaus transformed this once-flat layout into rolling terrain that has views of Songdo International Business District.

8. Mayacama Golf Club, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Courtesy of Mayacama GC

Dramatic, elevated tees within the Sonoma foothills make for some incredible vistas at Mayacama, currently 114th on our latest Second 100 Greatest. Mayacama has been ranked inside the 100 Greatest since 2005 (highest ranking was No. 66) for all but two years (it was ranked 100th on our 2019-2020 list).

Private

Mayacama Golf Club

Santa Rosa, CA

4.4

137 Panelists

As Jack Nicklaus wound down his competitive career, his empathy for average golfers rose, and rather than continue to build back-breaking championship-length courses, he began to tailor some of his designs toward the average golfers who foot the bill. Thus Mayacama is less than 6,800 yards and is routed to be a very comfortable walk, essential since the club has no golf carts. A bold design, it explores every facet of the oak-dotted hillsides above Santa Rosa. Watersheds and gulches figure prominently in the layout, which has some dramatically elevated tees and four stunning, gambling par 5s.

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7. Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville

The PGA of America purchased the course in 2000, and it has hosted many of its championships at this former floodplain site that opened in 1986. Valhalla is slated to host the 2024 PGA Championship, which would be its fourth major, having held the 1996, 2000 and 2014 PGAs, as well as the 2008 Ryder Cup.

Private

Valhalla Golf Club

Louisville, KY

4.7

54 Panelists

Given a difficult piece of land on which to create Valhalla (half the site was floodplain, with high-tension power poles), Jack Nicklaus drew on his training under Pete Dye and Desmond Muirhead to produce a unique design, with an alternate fairway par 5, a par 4 with an island green and an 18th green shaped like a horseshoe. Over the decades, Nicklaus returned periodically to update its challenges, and the club replaced turf and rebuilt bunkers as recently as 2022. Valhalla has proven to be a great championship site. It has hosted three thrilling PGA Championships, the latest Rory McIlroy’s win in 2014, and will host a fourth in 2024.

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6. Kinloch Golf Club, Taupo, New Zealand

This 2007 Jack Nicklaus design built on the base of a volcanic base on New Zealand’s North Island, three hours from Auckland, moved up nearly 30 spots in our latest World’s 100 Greatest list.

5. Punta Espada Golf Club, Cap Cana, Dominican Republic

Evan Schiller

Sitting in the 46-square-mile Cap Cana community that is a short drive from the airport—the largest privately held airport in the world—Punta Espada opened in 2006 and has incredible views with eight of its greens perched right on the Caribbean shore.

4. Monte Rai Golf & Country Club, Cacela, Portugal

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Courtesy of the club

Monte Rei leaps into the World 100 for the first time and is the highest ranked international course from Nicklaus Design. How could that be? Well, let’s see: 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.

3. Castle Pines Golf Club, Castle Rock, Colo.

Castle Pines—after 21 years of hosting a PGA Tour event, The International—will again have the best players in the world on its fairways when it hosts the 2024 BMW Championship, part of the FedEx Cup playoffs. The Nicklaus design is currently ranked 48th on our latest 100 Greatest and has been ranked as high as 28th in 2009. Our panelists give Castle Pines particular credit for being one of Jack's most playable, top-ranked courses. Though the design tips out at nearly 7,800 yards, it sits at nearly 6,000 feet above elevation—so it'll present a different type of challenge for players who have to adjust their yardages.

Private

Castle Pines Golf Club

Castle Rock, CO

4.6

131 Panelists

When Golf Digest began its annual Best New Course awards in 1983, the review panel selected Castle Pines as the Private Course winner, but Bill Davis, co-founder of Golf Digest and founding father of all its course rankings, didn’t care for the course and vetoed its inclusion. So no private course was honored that year. Davis soon recognized his error, and in 1987—its first year of eligibility—Castle Pines joined America’s 100 Greatest and has remained there ever since. Club founder Jack Vickers, a Midwest oilman, had urged architect Jack Nicklaus to produce a mountain-venue design worthy of a major championship. Jack did, but when a championship never resulted, Vickers established his own, The International, which for many years was the only PGA Tour event played under a unique Stableford format. It’s a pity that The International is no longer on the Tour’s schedule. Like Muirfield Village, the only other solo Nicklaus design in the top 50, Castle Pines has undergone a steady procession of hole alterations to keep pace with changing technology, and changing tastes.

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2. Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton, N.Y.

This neighborhood of Long Island already had two of the world's best courses, National Golf Links of America and Shinnecock Hills, but the addition of Sebonack, sitting on 300 acres on the Peconic Bay, with clear views of National and Shinnecock, clinched this stretch of golf as one of the best in the world. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak collaborated on their 2006 design, as Ron Whitten put it, they were "on the same team, but not necessarily on the same page." Nonetheless, the end result is a great addition to the eastern edge of Long Island, forever a golf mecca.

Private

Sebonack Golf Club

Southampton, NY

4.2

90 Panelists

Not since Augusta National had the nation’s greatest golfer teamed with one of the most highly regarded course architects on a design project. But the joint venture by Jack Nicklaus with Tom Doak at Sebonack was complicated by the fact that golfer Nicklaus was also an esteemed course architect in his own right, and the project sat right beside two American icons, Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links. Some pundits have reduced Sebonack to “Tom’s bunkers, Jack’s greens,” but in truth it’s just the opposite. Doak convinced Nicklaus to go with small greens of sweeping contours and little imperfections the likes of which Jack would never have considered on his own. Meanwhile, Jack insisted that Tom tone down his usual ragged, jagged bunker faces to make them palatable to high-handicap club members. Sebonack hosted the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open to great success.

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1. Muirfield Village Golf Club, Dublin, Ohio

Always being worked on and tweaked by Jack Nicklaus and his team (including a complete restoration ahead of the 2021 Memorial Tournament), Muirfield Village is a dream realized for Jack, who wanted to bring a great club to his hometown of Columbus. The club has been a worthy venue to the Memorial since 1976 and also hosted the 1987 Ryder Cup and 2013 Presidents Cup. Muirfield Village ranks 15th on our latest 100 Greatest, and it has ranked as high as eighth in 1985.

Private

Muirfield Village Golf Club

Dublin, OH

4.9

142 Panelists

This is the course that Jack built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again and again. Since its opening in 1974, Jack Nicklaus has remodeled every hole at Muirfield Village, some more than once, using play at the PGA Tour’s annual Memorial Tournament for some guidance. The most recent renovation in 2020 was one of the most extensive and included the rebuilding of every hole, the shifting of greens and tees, strategic changes to the iconic par 5s and a new, more player-friendly par3 16th. That’s how a championship course remains competitive. But with every change, Nicklaus always made sure the general membership could still play and enjoy the course as well.

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Other notable Jack Nicklaus golf courses:

Shoal Creek, Shoal Creek, Ala.

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Ranked as high as 14th on Golf Digest's 1983 100 Greatest ranking, Shoal Creek slipped into our Second 100 Greatest in our past three rankings (currently No. 119). But the club underwent a significant renovation over the past couple years, earning runner-up for the Best Renovation award in 2017. Shoal Creek was designed with hosting major championships in mind, the club holding the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championships, the 2018 U.S. Women's Open, as well as the 1986 U.S. Amateur.

Private

Shoal Creek

Shoal Creek, AL

4.6

114 Panelists

Asked if a course could be built in a Birmingham forest, Jack Nicklaus scouted the site from lumber haul roads and said of the mountainous terrain, “Well, there are a lot of par 3s out there, that’s for sure.” But then he discovered a gentle valley in which to put par 4s and 5s, so he took the job. It became one of his great early designs. But as it neared 40 years of existence, Shoal Creek needed some reconditioning, so Nicklaus and his former senior designer Jim Lipe (now operating his own firm in Louisiana) literally ripped up every hole and rethought strategies and options. The result was not a restoration but an updating. Gone are huge fairway bunkers, replaced by smaller clusters of traps. Greens have been recontoured, with one, the 12th, actually flowing front to back, unheard of back in the late 1970s when the course was first built. Shoal Creek has twice hosted the PGA Championship and the remodeled layout hosted the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Ariya Jutanugarn in a four-hole playoff over Hoo-joo Kim.

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The Concession Golf Club, Bradenton, Fla.

Russell Kirk

Ranked 141st on our Second 100 Greatest rankings, this Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin collaboration is an ode to the famous Ryder Cup gesture in 1969 at Birkdale, where both sides agreed to tie the matches. This is one of the rare Jack Nicklaus designs that isn't surrounded by homesites. Concession hosted a WGC event in 2021, won by Collin Morikawa.

Private

The Concession Golf Club

Bradenton, FL

4.6

131 Panelists

The Concession was originally established by Sarasota resident Tony Jacklin, who convinced Jack Nicklaus to handle the design while Jacklin would offer design suggestions. The club name honors the famous final-putt concession from Jack to Tony in the 1969 Ryder Cup, which resulted in a tie between the teams and a moral victory for the underdog Europeans. The Concession is a terrific design, a rare Nicklaus one that’s not a residential development. The course flows across a variety of landscapes—meadows, wetlands, oak hammocks and pine forests—with spectacular bunkering and exciting green contours. Jack had been working on this course at the same time he and Tom Doak were doing No. 43 Sebonack, and Jack later admitted the small, heavily-contoured greens at The Concession were inspired by those at Sebonack. In 2021, The Concession hosted the World Golf Championships - Workday Championship, won by Colin Morikawa.

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Harbour Town Golf Links, Hilton Head Island

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Courtesy of Rob Tipton

Long considered one of the best designs in the country, ranking inside the top 50 from its debut on our 100 Greatest in 1971 through 1991, Harbour Town continues to fall on our rankings. Its spot at No. 142 on our latest Second 100 Greatest is the course's lowest-ever spot. But the history at this Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus design is undeniable. Site of a PGA Tour event since 1969, Harbour Town remains a great test for its use of angles and emphasis on rewarding quality ball-striking. It's also home to the first waste bunker in the U.S.

Public

Harbour Town Golf Links

Hilton Head Island, SC

4.4

221 Panelists

In the late 1960s, Jack Nicklaus landed the design contract for Harbour Town, then turned it over to his new partner, Pete Dye, who was determined to distinguish his work from that of rival Robert Trent Jones. Soon after Harbour Town opened in late November 1969 (with a victory by Arnold Palmer in the Heritage Classic), the course debuted on America’s 100 Greatest as one of the Top 10. It was a total departure for golf at the time. No mounds, no elevated tees, no elevated greens—just low-profile and abrupt change. Tiny greens hung atop railroad ties directly over water hazards. Trees blocked direct shots. Harbour Town gave Pete Dye national attention and put Jack Nicklaus, who made more than 100 inspection trips in collaborating with Dye, in the design business. Pete’s wife, Alice, also contributed, instructing workers on the size and shape of the unique 13th green, a sinister one edged by cypress planks.

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Sycamore Hills Golf Club, Fort Wayne, Ind.

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Courtesy of Jim Mandeville

This Nicklaus design debuted as high as 40th on our 1993 100 Greatest. The Fort Wayne, Ind., design is currently ranked 143rd on our Second 100 Greatest.

Private

Sycamore Hills Golf Club

Fort Wayne, IN

4.5

100 Panelists

Jack Nicklaus has redesigned some aspect of every hole at No. 16 Muirfield Village over the decades, in efforts to make sure that course remains competitive as annual host of the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament. But he’s done no major remodeling at Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, just modest adjustments. Although the course sees its share of amateur competitions, Nicklaus has seen no need to toughen it for everyday member play. After all, it has always had plenty of challenge, like the long freeform bunker left of the fairway on the par-4 third, the 14 bunkers scattered about the par-5 fifth and the serpentine stream that crosses the fairway four times from tee to green at the par-5 15th. Sycamore Hills is Nicklaus at his most imaginative, with strategic golf on some holes, gambling golf on other holes and target golf on still others.

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Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club, Collierville, Tenn.

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About 40 minutes from downtown Memphis, this Nicklaus design sits at No. 168 on our Second 100 Greatest.

Private

Spring Creek Ranch

Collierville, TN

4.4

62 Panelists

During the early decades of golf in the U.S., courses were developed on natural, open properties in rural areas, often on former farms or ranches where the rolling land dictated the character of the holes. This simple formula describes Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club, a bucolic, stand-alone golf facility located on an old ranch east of Memphis. The easygoing design was part of a philosophical shift in the way Nicklaus built courses, transitioning from an eye that emphasized shotmaking to a more genteel style of shaping sympathetic to a range of skill sets. That’s not to suggest Spring Creek Ranch is benign—the holes zig-zag around ponds and wetlands, jump creeks and dart through the woods. One of them, a double-fairway par 5, occupies a staggering 20 acres of land.

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Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Courtesy of the club

The club's name was derived from the 1939 Academy Award winning film: The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn, where some of the scenes were shot on and near the present day course. Ranked as high as 79th on our 1993 100 Greatest, Sherwood just underwent an extensive renovation. It was last ranked 180th on our Second 100 Greatest.

Private

Sherwood Country Club

Thousand Oaks, CA

4.5

93 Panelists

When Jack Nicklaus completed Sherwood Country Club for industrialist David Murdock in the late 1980s, critics immediately compared it to No. 26 Shadow Creek, which Nicklaus felt was unfair, since his land—a river valley with homesites on high surrounding hills—was far more natural than the barren Vegas desert. But critics were comparing ledger books. They spent lots of money at Sherwood. Several hundred mature oaks were transplanted at an estimated cost of $6 million. The massive boulders edging some fairways were trucked in as well, and the ponds and streams guarding landing areas and greens were manufactured by experts in that business. In the end, it added up to producing one of the best courses money could buy, until the drought of 2014. Nicklaus returned in 2016 to approve agronomic improvements that reduce water use by 25 percent. Sherwood remains a great layout, but more austere in presentation.

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Pronghorn Club (Nicklaus), Bend, Ore.

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Courtesy of Evan Schiller

Ranked 40th on Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Public ranking and 190th on our Second 100 Greatest, the Nicklaus course at Pronghorn is a nice high desert course with beautiful scenery.

Public

Pronghorn Resort: Nicklaus Course

Bend, OR

4.3

66 Panelists

When it first opened, Pronghorn was strictly private and its Nicklaus Course was ranked by Golf Digest as No. 2 among America’s Best New Private Courses of 2004. A few years back, the club (which also has a Fazio-designed 18), began allowing public play on its Nicklaus track. The Nicklaus back nine, carved from a flow of volcanic rock, may be the most delightful Jack has ever designed, with gambling holes and gorgeous scenery at every turn.

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Punta Mita Resort (Pacifico), Riviera Nayarit, Mexico.

Perhaps one of the more interesting greensites in the world is the optional green at Pacifico's par-3 third hole—with a green built out of an island outcropping 180 yards from the Pacific shore.

Courtesy of the club

May River Golf Club at Palmetto Bluff, Bluffton, S.C.: Within walking distance from a Golf Digest Editors' Choice resort winner, The Inn at Palmetto Bluff. Currently ranked 40th on our 100 Greatest Public and 10th best in South Carolina.

May River Golf Club At Palmetto Bluff

Bluffton, SC

4.4

123 Panelists

Built some 35 years after nearby Harbour Town Golf Links, May River is an interesting contrast in Jack Nicklaus's portfolio. It's an equally low-profile layout with a number of bump-and-run approach shots but with several Pine Valley-like waste areas and with larger, bolder greens. The classic routing has the front nine turning clockwise through forest while the back nine circles counter-clockwise. Both touch repeatedly on the wetlands of namesake May River.

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Desert Highlands, Scottsdale: Once as high as 25th on our 100 Greatest (in 1987, after the course's debut), Desert Highlands has fallen out of our Second 100 Greatest but ranks eighth in Arizona.

Private

Desert Highlands Golf Club

Scottsdale, AZ

4.1

118 Panelists

Best In State

Host of the first two televised Skins Games in 1983 and 1984 featuring Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Watson, Desert Highlands is a Jack Nicklaus design sitting at the base of Pinnacle Peak. With stunning views of the surrounding desert, valley and moutains, the course demands precise ball-striking to find the relatively narrow fairways. The course has been previously ranked on our 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest rankings and is currently No. 8 on our Best in Arizona list.

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Desert Mountain Club (Renegade), Scottsdale: Our Ron Whitten has called the Renegade course at Desert Mountain Club the most versatile design in the country with its handful of two flag locations on every green—allowing golfers to play the same course multiple ways. After a massive renovation project, Renegade moved up 10 spots in our most recent Best in State rankings—and has reclaimed the top spot among courses at Desert Mountain.

Private

Desert Mountain Club: Renegade Course

Scottsdale, AZ

79 Panelists

Best In State

We named Renegade one of the most important designs of its decade in a magazine feature in 2010 for its unique versatility. Each hole includes seven tee boxes and two pin placements. There are six double greens with two pin locations, and 12 holes have two greens that are separated by as much as 100 yards. Before the round, golfers can decide the set of tees and pins that are preferred for their skill level. The first of six Jack Nicklaus courses to open at Desert Mountain Club, the Renegade is our highest ranked of the bunch—currently No. 9 on our Best in Arizona list. A recent renovation has ensured Renegade maintains its place as one of the most influential courses in the country.

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The G.C. at Southshore, Henderson

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Designed on dramatic terrain with elevation changes on Lake Las Vegas, SouthShore Country Club is ranked fifth in our Best in Nevada rankings.

Private

SouthShore Country Club

Henderson, NV

84 Panelists

Best In State

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Montreux G. & C.C., Reno: The club hosted a PGA Tour event in Reno for 21 years before the event moved in 2020. Montreux is ranked sixth in our current Best in State.

Colleton River Plantation G.C. (Nicklaus), Bluffton, S.C.: Winner of Golf Digest's Best New Private Course in 1993. Ranked 160th on our 2013 Second 100 Greatest and currently 16th on our Best in State.

Private

Colleton River Club: Jack Nicklaus Course

Bluffton, SC

4.3

53 Panelists

Best In State

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The Club at Las Campanas (Sunset), Santa Fe, N.M.

Located in the high desert of Santa Fe, the Sunset course at Las Campanas offers breathtaking views of the surrounding Sangre de Cristo Mountain range. along with other mountain ranges in the distance. The course is second on our most recent Best in New Mexico rankings.

Great-Waters-Course-at-Reynolds-Plantation-Lake Oconee-Fourteenth-Hole-16647

Evan Schiller

--Great Waters, Reynolds Plantation, Ga.: Sits 94th on our most recent 100 Greatest Public ranking, Great Waters has been a member of that ranking for 12 years. It was second among Golf Digest's Best New Resort Course of 1993.

Reynolds Lake Oconee: Great Waters

Eatonton, GA

4.2

79 Panelists

Early in his design career, Jack Nicklaus said he would design resort courses differently than championship ones. Great Waters is a vivid example of that intent. With a routing that features 10 holes on Lake Oconee, Jack and his associate Jim Lipe worked hard to vary the encounters with water. On one hole it's a carry off a tee, on another, it's beside a green, while on a couple, it's a cove in front of a green. Every encounter features a generous bailout option. Another concession to resort golfers: The greens are big but simple, with few complex contours.

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Country Club of the Rockies, Edwards, Colo.

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Sitting about 7,500 feet above elevation with the flowing Eagle River through it, the Country Club of the Rockies has been ranked as one of Golf Digest's best courses in Colorado since its first listing in 1987. It's currently 12th.

Trump National Jupiter (Fla.)

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Stephen Szurlej

First opened as a Ritz Carlton property, Trump Golf acquired the 7,500-plus course in the early 2010s. It moved up five spots in our most recent Best in Florida rankings to No. 24.

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Courtesy of Nicklaus Design

Toscana Country Club, Palm Desert, Calif.: Two Nicklaus courses are each ranked inside our Best in State in California (The North is 38th and the South is 40th).

--Nicklaus North G.C., Whistler, B.C.: Set in a valley surrounded by tall mountains, the internal aesthetics are strong with good use of native trees and water. And perhaps appropriately, there are frequently black-bear sightings on this scenic track.

PGA Championship

The best Jack Nicklaus golf courses

Santa Rosa, CA

Louisville, KY

Castle Rock, CO

Southampton, NY

Dublin, OH

Shoal Creek, AL

Bradenton, FL

Hilton Head Island, SC

Fort Wayne, IN

Collierville, TN

Thousand Oaks, CA

Bend, OR

Bluffton, SC

Scottsdale, AZ

Scottsdale, AZ

Henderson, NV

Bluffton, SC

Eatonton, GA

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