TheGrint HQ
7 minutes
Updated
October 22, 2026
TheGrint Top 100 Rankings are community-powered golf course rankings built from what everyday golfers actually do on TheGrint: golfer ratings, rounds played, personal rankings, Course Ranking Game comparisons and other course-engagement signals. The five lists are free to browse on the web at thegrint.com/golf-courses/top-100 and in TheGrint app under Courses › Top 100. The current edition is 2026.
This guide covers where to see the lists, what the five Top 100 lists are and which course is No. 1 on each, how courses are ranked and how the rankings compare with expert-panel lists. The Top 100 sits alongside the Course Ranking Game and the Course Discovery Map as part of TheGrint's course tools.
You can see TheGrint Top 100 on the web at thegrint.com/golf-courses/top-100 or in TheGrint app on iPhone and Android. Both are free.
Don't have the app yet? Download TheGrint on iPhone or Android. TheGrint is free.
TheGrint has five Top 100 lists, which together form a global set of golfer-driven course rankings:
Public and private U.S. courses are ranked on separate lists, and Canada and the UK & Ireland each have their own. Golfers can use the lists for golf-trip inspiration, Bucket List planning, discovering highly regarded courses and seeing how a favorite course compares with others.
In the 2026 edition, the No. 1 courses are Erin Hills (U.S. Public), Cypress Point Club (U.S. Private), Redtail Golf Club (Canada), Trump Turnberry: Ailsa (UK & Ireland) and Te Arai Golf Club: South Course (Rest of World).
| List | No. 1 in 2026 | Location |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Public | Erin Hills Golf Course | Erin, WI |
| U.S. Private | Cypress Point Club | Pebble Beach, CA |
| Canada | Redtail Golf Club | Port Stanley, Ontario |
| UK & Ireland | Trump Turnberry: Ailsa | Ayrshire, Scotland |
| Rest of World | Te Arai Golf Club: South Course | Tomarata, New Zealand |
California has the most courses on the two U.S. lists combined, with 25, followed by Michigan and New York with 11 each. See the full lists, and the courses that just missed out, on TheGrint Top 100.
Courses in TheGrint Top 100 are ranked by combining several signals from golfers' activity on TheGrint, rather than by a traditional expert panel alone.
TheGrint says the lists draw on tens of millions of real reviews and ranking lists from golfers who played the courses. Each list is published as an annual edition, and courses that narrowly miss a list but stand out in their state, province or country are recognized as Highly Rated.
The Course Ranking Game is what sets the method apart. TheGrint shows two courses side by side and asks one question: which course would you rather play? A new course usually finds its place in a golfer's personal rankings after roughly 3 to 5 comparisons, depending on how many courses they have ranked. If it beats highly ranked courses, it moves up; if it loses to them, it settles lower.
Head-to-head picks capture relative preference, not just an isolated rating. Two golfers can both like a course yet rank it very differently, depending on what else they have played. At scale, those comparisons help surface courses golfers consistently prefer, hidden gems and courses that outperform expectations. Read more in how the Course Ranking Game works.
Traditional rankings answer what experts think; TheGrint Top 100 adds what golfers think.
Traditional course rankings are typically shaped by expert panels that evaluate courses and compare them against one another. TheGrint's lists are meant as an additional lens on course quality, not a claim that expert rankings are invalid.
| Expert-panel rankings | TheGrint Top 100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | What do experts think? | What do golfers think? |
| Who shapes it | A panel of evaluators | Everyday golfers who use TheGrint |
| Main inputs | Panel evaluations and course-to-course comparisons | Golfer ratings, rounds played, personal rankings, Course Ranking Game comparisons, other course-engagement signals |
| Lists | Vary by publisher | U.S. Public, U.S. Private, Canada, UK & Ireland, Rest of World |
The two views are not mutually exclusive, and a golfer can use both. What the golfer view adds is behavior at scale: which courses people actually play, rank highly and prefer.
The Top 100 is one of TheGrint's connected course tools, alongside personal Course Rankings, Course Discovery and the golf course directory.
Bucket List helps you plan from there. Save courses you want to play in the future, and use Course Discovery to see golfer ratings, how difficult a course plays based on actual scoring data, whether friends have played it, whether it appears on golfers' Bucket Lists and how it ranks against nearby courses.
Course profiles also show weekly King of the Course leaderboards, so you can see who has been posting the best scores at a course you are planning to play.
Yes. All five TheGrint Top 100 lists are on the web at thegrint.com/golf-courses/top-100: U.S. Public, U.S. Private, Canada, UK & Ireland and Rest of World. Each list has its own page, and each course links to its page in TheGrint's golf course directory. The lists are also in TheGrint app under Courses › Top 100.
Yes. All five Top 100 lists are free to browse on the web and in TheGrint app on iPhone and Android. You don't need a Pro Membership on TheGrint to browse them; see what Free and Pro include for the features that do come with Pro.
TheGrint ranks courses using signals from golfers' own activity: golfer ratings, rounds played, personal rankings, Course Ranking Game comparisons and other course-engagement signals. The Course Ranking Game asks golfers which of two courses they would rather play, which captures relative preference. The result reflects what everyday golfers think, not the view of an expert panel alone.
Yes. Top 100 Canada Courses is one of TheGrint's five Top 100 lists, alongside Top 100 U.S. Public Courses, Top 100 U.S. Private Courses, Top 100 UK & Ireland Courses and Top 100 Rest of World Courses. Like the other lists, it is built from golfer activity on TheGrint. In the 2026 edition, Redtail Golf Club in Port Stanley, Ontario is No. 1. See the Top 100 Canada list.
Yes. Top 100 U.S. Public Courses is its own list, separate from Top 100 U.S. Private Courses, so public courses are ranked against each other rather than against private clubs. It is a useful starting point when planning a golf trip. In the 2026 edition, Erin Hills in Wisconsin is No. 1. See the Top 100 U.S. Public list.
TheGrint Top 100 has five lists, so there are five No. 1s. In the 2026 edition they are Erin Hills (U.S. Public), Cypress Point Club (U.S. Private), Redtail Golf Club (Canada), Trump Turnberry: Ailsa (UK & Ireland) and Te Arai Golf Club: South Course (Rest of World).
Browse the five lists at thegrint.com/golf-courses/top-100, then open TheGrint to rank the courses you have played in the Course Ranking Game and save the ones you want to play to your Bucket List. TheGrint is free on iPhone and Android. Get started with TheGrint.
