GOLF has released its latest rankings of the 100 Best Golf Courses in the World (2025-2026), and while Pine Valley once again took the top spot, there were three newcomers and two returnees to the rankings. Here we introduce you to them.
The “find sand, hire a great architect, build a great course” playbook is used ad nauseam in the golf industry. It has spawned many of the top courses of the past 25 years, but a sameness has crept into many of today’s new products. That said, some places still rise above, where all those familiar inputs undeniably produce something of their own, with a powerful sense of place. I haven’t seen a better recent example than Tom Doak’s Childress Hall in the Texas Panhandle.
Doak is often at his best when the brilliance of a course isn’t initially apparent, and Childress fits that bill. Pacific Dunes is another Doak that takes a few rounds to fully understand: the routing, angles, and constant decision-making reveal themselves over time. Childress Hall gives me similar feelings. Several tee shots will not show the entire landing zone, and the preferred lines on the short par-4s and par-5s will not be clear after one loop. But that’s the point: the course’s persistent demand for choices is what makes it so compelling. Combined with his striking presentation, that strategic diversity elevates Childress from ‘strong’ to the World Top 100.
The course is located in a sandy dune landscape that few would associate with Texas. The scale and contours are more reminiscent of Ireland or Tasmania than the Lone Star State. The sandy ground provides firm conditions that make the routing sing and fit with the club’s ethos of a single daily setup that still plays vastly different from hole to hole. On the 325-yard opener alone, I hit everything from a 3-iron over the green to a driver wedge that came up short in four rounds. In this windy region, the course changes as much from day to day as the best links, making multi-day visits a pleasure.
Doak’s architecture typically honors the land without forcing it into something it is not. Childress is goofy, devious, and an absolute dream site, and Doak fit the bill perfectly. It’s not brutally difficult, but it does ask each player to shoot and reward or punish accordingly. The greens follow suit: interesting and varied, with many hole locations that command respect without ever feeling contrived. Given how dramatic the country is, it would have been a disservice to create anything other than a player’s course that was enjoyable for all.
I’m not always in favor of brand new builds going straight into the top 100 lists. But if you can’t honestly say that many established golf courses offer a better playing experience, age shouldn’t matter. Anyone who visits Childress Hall will leave with sand in their shoes, a healthy fear of missing fairways, a greater appreciation for Doak and agreement with his ranking. A top-100 course needs a real sense of place from the moment you arrive – and by that standard, Childress Hall is as good as anything I’ve seen in a long time.
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