The toughest course in the Tulsa-Bartlesville-Muskogee, OK combined area is Front Nine Back Nine at Southern Hills Country Club, at slope 144 — ahead of Cedar Ridge Country Club at slope 142 and The Club at Forest Ridge at slope 140.
All 28 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Tulsa-Bartlesville-Muskogee, OK is a combined statistical area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 28 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— all 22 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Hardest from the tips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cedar Ridge Country Club | rating 77.5 |
| 2 | Front Nine Back Nine at Southern Hills Country Club | rating 76.8 |
| 3 | The Club at Forest Ridge | rating 75.6 |
| 4 | Battle Creek Golf Club | rating 75.3 |
| 5 | Oaks Country Club | rating 75.2 |
| 6 | River at Indian Springs Country Club | rating 74.4 |
| 7 | Patriot Golf Club | rating 73.4 |
| 8 | Bailey Ranch Golf Club | rating 73.1 |
| 8 | Heritage Hills Golf Course | rating 73.1 |
| 10 | Adams Golf Club | rating 73.0 |
| 10 | Meadowbrook Country Club | rating 73.0 |
| 12 | Lafortune Park at Lafortune Park Golf Course | rating 72.9 |
| 13 | Cherokee Hills Golf Club | rating 72.7 |
| 14 | Owasso Golf Athletic Club | rating 72.6 |
| 15 | Olde Page at Page Belcher Golf Course | rating 72.5 |
| 16 | Broken Arrow Golf Club | rating 72.4 |
| 17 | Stone Creek at Page Belcher Golf Course | rating 72.2 |
| 18 | Lew Wentz Golf Course | rating 71.8 |
| 19 | Ponca City Country Club | rating 71.4 |
| 20 | South Lakes Golf Course | rating 71.0 |
| 21 | Okmulgee Country Club | rating 70.7 |
| 22 | Windmill at Indian Springs Country Club | rating 69.2 |
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 40 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 39 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 33 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 41 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lew Wentz Golf Course | 1,071 ft |
| 2 | Ponca City Country Club | 1,023 ft |
| 3 | Keystone Golf Course | 979 ft |
| 4 | Pawnee Municipal Golf Course | 924 ft |
| 5 | Drumright Golf Club | 878 ft |
| 6 | Bristow Golf Country Club | 852 ft |
| 7 | Oaks Country Club | 841 ft |
| 8 | Battle Creek Golf Club | 816 ft |
| 9 | Henryetta Golf Country Club | 783 ft |
| 10 | Cherokee Hills Golf Club | 774 ft |
| 11 | Okmulgee Country Club | 771 ft |
| 12 | Patriot Golf Club | 765 ft |
| 13 | Hillcrest Country Club | 732 ft |
| 14 | Meadowbrook Country Club | 731 ft |
| 14 | Stone Creek at Page Belcher Golf Course | 731 ft |
| 16 | Adams Golf Club | 726 ft |
| 17 | Olde Page at Page Belcher Golf Course | 725 ft |
| 18 | Lafortune Park at Lafortune Park Golf Course | 719 ft |
| 19 | Front Nine Back Nine at Southern Hills Country Club | 695 ft |
| 20 | Par 3 at Lafortune Park Golf Course | 690 ft |
| 21 | Broken Arrow Golf Club | 683 ft |
| 22 | Cedar Links Country Club | 679 ft |
| 22 | Heritage Hills Golf Course | 679 ft |
| 24 | Sapulpa Municipal Golf Course | 675 ft |
| 25 | Cedar Ridge Country Club | 668 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.