The longest short course in the country is Chenequa Country Club (WI), at 6,370 yards — ahead of Belmont Golf Course (VA) at 6,268 yards and Meadows Golf Club (ME) at 5,830 yards.
All 702 short 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.
The band between par-3 golf and regulation golf: executive courses and short regulation ones — an eighteen under par 69, or a nine under par 34. Par-3 courses used to sit in here too and now have their own field, because a 1,300-yard par-3 eighteen and a 5,600-yard par-68 are not the same game and a length board holding both was just the par 68s in order.
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.
How short is short
Published par across the eighteen-hole courses in this cut. The nine-hole ones are left out rather than merged in: a nine's par runs 28–33 and an eighteen's 56–68, and one distribution drawn over both would describe neither.
| Published par | short courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| par 56 | 6 | 1.6% | |
| par 57 | 10 | 2.6% | |
| par 58 | 24 | 6.3% | |
| par 59 | 17 | 4.5% | |
| par 60 | 68 | 17.9% | |
| par 61 | 28 | 7.4% | |
| par 62 | 36 | 9.5% | |
| par 63 | 22 | 5.8% | |
| par 64 | 28 | 7.4% | |
| par 65 | 28 | 7.4% | |
| par 66 | 27 | 7.1% | |
| par 67 | 37 | 9.7% | |
| par 68 | 49 | 12.9% |
Who runs them
The same 714 short 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 | short courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public | 356 | 49.9% | |
| Private | 100 | 14.0% | |
| Semi-private | 84 | 11.8% | |
| Resort | 18 | 2.5% | |
| Municipal | 28 | 3.9% | |
| Military | 3 | 0.4% | |
| Access not stated | 125 | 17.5% |
Longest
— the top 25 of 702 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 410 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 262 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 615 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | State | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Lakes at El Segundo | CA | 4,474 yds between tees |
| 2 | Roosevelt Municipal Golf Course | CA | 3,351 yds between tees |
| 3 | Coyote Trails Golf Course | AZ | 2,738 yds between tees |
| 4 | Peninsula Golf Course | WA | 2,670 yds between tees |
| 5 | Arlington Lakes Golf Course | IL | 2,665 yds between tees |
| 6 | Buckmeadow Golf Club | NH | 2,570 yds between tees |
| 7 | Bluff Pointe Golf Course Learning Center | CA | 2,538 yds between tees |
| 8 | Mount Huff Golf Course | CA | 2,502 yds between tees |
| 9 | Delano Golf Course | CA | 2,465 yds between tees |
| 10 | Sedge Valley | WI | 2,055 yds between tees |
| 11 | Mill Valley Golf Course | CA | 2,027 yds between tees |
| 12 | Allens Golf Course | CA | 1,844 yds between tees |
| 13 | Fullerton Golf Course | CA | 1,697 yds between tees |
| 14 | Crane Lakes Golf Country Club | FL | 1,673 yds between tees |
| 15 | Robbinhurst Golf Club | IN | 1,660 yds between tees |
| 16 | Dublin Ranch Golf Course | CA | 1,624 yds between tees |
| 17 | Bear Creek Golf Complex Cub Course | AZ | 1,511 yds between tees |
| 18 | Sunken Gardens Golf Course | CA | 1,502 yds between tees |
| 19 | Thousand Hills Resort Golf Club | MO | 1,495 yds between tees |
| 20 | Los Lagos Golf Course | CA | 1,490 yds between tees |
| 21 | Regency at Dominion Valley Country Club | VA | 1,487 yds between tees |
| 22 | The Links Golf Course | CO | 1,462 yds between tees |
| 23 | Massanutten Resort Woodstone Meadows Course | VA | 1,460 yds between tees |
| 24 | Bayou Oaks City Park North Course | LA | 1,457 yds between tees |
| 25 | Maple Leaf Golf Country Club | FL | 1,451 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 531 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 714 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 — 531 of the 714 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 | short courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 5 | 0.9% | |
| 1890s | 11 | 2.1% | |
| 1900s | 12 | 2.3% | |
| 1910s | 10 | 1.9% | |
| 1920s | 38 | 7.2% | |
| 1930s | 19 | 3.6% | |
| 1940s | 8 | 1.5% | |
| 1950s | 30 | 5.6% | |
| 1960s | 100 | 18.8% | |
| 1970s | 82 | 15.4% | |
| 1980s | 65 | 12.2% | |
| 1990s | 91 | 17.1% | |
| 2000s | 47 | 8.9% | |
| 2010s | 10 | 1.9% | |
| 2020s | 3 | 0.6% |
Where they are
The 12 states with the most, of 49 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 | short courses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 120 | 16.8% | |
| California | 88 | 12.3% | |
| New York | 55 | 7.7% | |
| Arizona | 44 | 6.2% | |
| Pennsylvania | 43 | 6.0% | |
| Michigan | 26 | 3.6% | |
| Massachusetts | 23 | 3.2% | |
| Wisconsin | 23 | 3.2% | |
| Washington | 22 | 3.1% | |
| New Jersey | 21 | 2.9% | |
| Illinois | 19 | 2.7% | |
| Minnesota | 19 | 2.7% |
37 more states have at least one and are not shown here. Every one of them is in the course search.