How this is built
Rankings. Every course keeps its rank on each published list: the three national top-100 public lists (Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public, GOLF's Top 100 You Can Play, Golfweek's Best Courses You Can Play, from your Golf Trip Guide spreadsheet), GolfPass Golfers' Choice 2026 (a national top 50 and state lists voted by golfers' reviews), and the state lists from Golf Digest (NC, SC, FL, AZ, NY) and Golfweek's Best 2025 (every state). Duplicates across lists are merged into one course.
Private clubs come from Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses (2025-26) and GOLF's Top 100 Courses in the U.S. (2024-25), which rank every course, public or private. Private clubs carry a Private badge, have no rate or Trip button, and are judged nationally on those two lists alone; they get no state rank because the state lists cover public courses. Public courses on those two lists get badges for them too.
Our national rank adds up a course's position on each national panel list it can appear on (Golf Digest, GOLF and Golfweek; private clubs are judged on the two all-course lists alone), where simply being on a list is worth a floor, so every nationally listed course ranks above courses only state lists know. GolfPass's golfer-voted national top 50 counts a quarter. Below that, courses are ordered by their state standing, weighted by how deep that state's list is (a top course in Florida outranks a top course in Alaska). Our state rank averages the panel state lists available for that state (a course missing from one counts zero) and adds GolfPass's state list at half weight only when the course is on it, plus a lift for national-list rankings. State lists also have a floor, so a course a panel picked at all outranks one only golfer reviews list. GolfPass star ratings are shown but don't affect any rank. Badges show a course's two strongest lists; the drawer lists every one.
Rates are peak-season 18-hole public rates: your spreadsheet first (* marks resort-stay or variable pricing), then the green-fee range GolfPass lists (the top of the range is shown), then October 2026 research. Estimates are shown with ~ in grey. Hover a rate to see its source.
Photos come from Wikimedia Commons under free licenses, credited under each photo.
Map pins sit at the course's town, not the clubhouse. The Max drive filter and Closest to home sort use straight-line miles from Roselle, NJ, scaled by 1.2 at 62 mph.
Sources: Golf Digest NC , SC , FL , AZ , NY ; Golfweek NJ ; Golfweek's Best 2025, every state . GolfPass Golfers' Choice 2026 . Town locations come from the Census Bureau gazetteers.