This just in: Golf is hard. It was meant to be. The challenges are central to its charm, but they are not constant. Difficulties change with the day, shot, player and course. Not all designs are equally demanding.
GOLF’s latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World casts a wide lens, capturing a wide range of architectural styles for golfers of all stripes to enjoy. But stretch them to the tips and let them bare their teeth, and some courses in the rankings become particularly demanding.
Here are 5 of the toughest from our latest list.
Oakmont
Oakmont, Pa.
On Thursday at the 2025 US Open, Oakmont played with a scoring average of 74.64 – the highest opening-round number since a wind-whipped Shinnecock in 2018. For this spot, that was no anomaly. The venerable Pittsburgh brute has punished golfers for generations with his mix of lightning greens, brutal length and bunkers, like the Church Pews, that allow for little more than a wing and a prayer. Johnny Miller’s 63 at the rain-mitigated 1973 US Open remains the outlier that proves the rule. Do you still want a hard figure? This summer, the USGA awarded Oakmont’s championship lineup with a course rating of 78.1 and a slope of 150. Sounds about right.
Pine Valley
Pine Valley, NJ
True to its name, the Devils’ A-hole – the deep pot bunker guarding the par-3 10th – is not a place you want to be. But it’s just one of countless unpleasant places to end up on the world’s No. 1 ranked course. George Crump wanted to build a beast, and with the help of leading architects of the day, he succeeded so thoroughly that there was once a bet that no one would break 80 on a first visit. Although modern equipment has softened some of the original bite, Pine Valley still rattles you with its images: vast sandy deserts, heroic carries as required across Hell’s Half Acre, a purgatory sand strip on the par-5 7th. The bunkers are not raked – players smooth their footprints with their feet – making them a danger in the true sense of the word.
Carnoustie
Carnoustie, Scotland
“Carn-nasty” isn’t the most imaginative nickname, but it gets its money’s worth. The course draws your blood with its length, its snarling roughness, its fickle North Sea wind and its bunkers that seem to multiply in the corner of your eye. And then there is the Barry Burn, the winding canal where Jean Van de Velde’s 1999 Open hope washed away. In defense, Carnoustie has long been the toughest test on the roster, and in ’99 it was at its very worst: howling winds and brutal scores. Plus-6 made a play-off. Enough said.
Royal Portrush
Portrush, Northern Ireland
Don’t let Scottie Scheffler’s 17-year-olds at the 2025 Open fool you. The conditions were good, and he’s Scottie Scheffler. On a normal day, Portrush offers a steady procession of tough questions: an opening tee shot flanked by out-of-bounds on either side; a middle stretch of bruising par-4s; and the long par-3 16th known as Calamity, which isn’t the only place where scorecards break. When the weather turns bad – and here it often does – fangs grow everywhere.
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