The longest 18-hole regulation course in the country is Stillwater Golf and Country Club (FL), at 9,797 yards — ahead of Raindance National (CO) at 8,463 yards and Promontory Club Painted Valley Golf Course (UT) at 8,098 yards.
All 9,017 18-hole regulation courses with a published scorecard are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: toughest test, hardest from the tips, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Eighteen holes at par 69 or above — regulation golf, the shape almost every published figure on this site assumes. The par floor is what keeps an eighteen-hole par 54 out: it is a par-3 course, and ranking it for length against a championship course tells a reader nothing.
Each list counts only the courses that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality. How this is worked out.
Who runs them
The same 9,106 18-hole regulation courses by the access type each record publishes — never guessed from a name or a fee. Courses that publish no type keep their own row.
| Access type | 18-hole regulation courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public | 2,811 | 30.9% | |
| Private | 2,527 | 27.8% | |
| Semi-private | 1,481 | 16.3% | |
| Resort | 535 | 5.9% | |
| Municipal | 162 | 1.8% | |
| Military | 88 | 1.0% | |
| Access not stated | 1,502 | 16.5% |
Longest
— the top 25 of 9,017 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.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 7,089 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
— the top 25 of 7,034 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
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.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 8,962 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | State | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eagle Crest Golf Club | NY | 6,288 yds between tees |
| 2 | Promontory Club Dye Canyon Golf Course | UT | 5,880 yds between tees |
| 3 | Juday Creek Golf Course | IN | 5,860 yds between tees |
| 4 | Woodstone Country Club | PA | 5,297 yds between tees |
| 5 | The Home Course | WA | 5,185 yds between tees |
| 6 | Suncadia Resort Rope Rider Course | WA | 5,141 yds between tees |
| 7 | Tpc Summerlin | NV | 5,060 yds between tees |
| 8 | Stillwater Golf and Country Club | FL | 5,037 yds between tees |
| 9 | Jekyll Island Golf Club Pine Lakes Course | GA | 4,914 yds between tees |
| 10 | Green Valley Ranch Golf Club | CO | 4,884 yds between tees |
| 11 | Pinecrest Golf Course | IL | 4,848 yds between tees |
| 12 | Doublegate Country Club | GA | 4,846 yds between tees |
| 13 | Oak Knoll Golf Course | IN | 4,830 yds between tees |
| 14 | Piedmont Driving Club | GA | 4,813 yds between tees |
| 15 | Martis Camp Club | CA | 4,806 yds between tees |
| 16 | St Johns Golf Country Club | FL | 4,786 yds between tees |
| 17 | Coosaw Creek Country Club | SC | 4,739 yds between tees |
| 18 | Dalhousie Golf Club | MO | 4,721 yds between tees |
| 19 | Nashawtuc Country Club | MA | 4,697 yds between tees |
| 20 | The Reserve at Lake Keowee | SC | 4,648 yds between tees |
| 21 | Oaks Golf Club The | WI | 4,627 yds between tees |
| 22 | Thorncreek Golf Club | CO | 4,609 yds between tees |
| 23 | The Woodlands Golf & Country Club | SC | 4,585 yds between tees |
| 24 | The Arnold Palmer Signature Course at Stonewall Resort | WV | 4,581 yds between tees |
| 25 | Mozingo Lake Recreation Watson 9 Course | MO | 4,564 yds between tees |
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 7,001 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 9,106 courses with a coordinate we could sample
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.
When they opened
Opening year by decade, where the record carries one — 7,001 of the 9,106 in this cut. 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.
| Decade opened | 18-hole regulation courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1800s | 1 | 0.0% | |
| 1810s | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 1820s | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 1830s | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 1840s | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 1850s | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 1860s | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 1870s | 1 | 0.0% | |
| 1880s | 12 | 0.2% | |
| 1890s | 133 | 1.9% | |
| 1900s | 124 | 1.8% | |
| 1910s | 263 | 3.8% | |
| 1920s | 774 | 11.1% | |
| 1930s | 209 | 3.0% | |
| 1940s | 143 | 2.0% | |
| 1950s | 431 | 6.2% | |
| 1960s | 1,065 | 15.2% | |
| 1970s | 692 | 9.9% | |
| 1980s | 657 | 9.4% | |
| 1990s | 1,424 | 20.3% | |
| 2000s | 910 | 13.0% | |
| 2010s | 107 | 1.5% | |
| 2020s | 55 | 0.8% |
Where they are
The 12 states with the most, of 51 that have at least one. Each links to that state's own page, where its courses are ranked against the rest of the state rather than against this cut.
| State | 18-hole regulation courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 956 | 10.5% | |
| California | 693 | 7.6% | |
| New York | 577 | 6.3% | |
| Pennsylvania | 508 | 5.6% | |
| Michigan | 498 | 5.5% | |
| North Carolina | 471 | 5.2% | |
| Illinois | 355 | 3.9% | |
| Ohio | 351 | 3.9% | |
| Georgia | 338 | 3.7% | |
| South Carolina | 316 | 3.5% | |
| Arizona | 282 | 3.1% | |
| Virginia | 280 | 3.1% |
39 more states have at least one and are not shown here. Every one of them is in the course search.