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Closest public golf course to SoFi Stadium for the Super Bowl

SoFi Stadium in Englewood has a few nearby municipal and par 3 courses available, but if your in town for the Super Bowl and looking for quality golf, one must head south 20 miles to Rancho Palos Verdes in the hills atop the Palos Verdes Peninsula high above the Pacific and literally a world away from Englewood’s density and traffic.

  • There you will find a Billy Bell classic, Los Verdes Golf Course, providing some of the better views of the Pacific of any golf course in the state, and certainly the least expensive. It’s a parkland style layout with a slight change in elevation along fairways defined by trees above the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes. From the tips it plays to 6,617 yards, 72.2/121, course/slope ratings with four shorter tees.

A little further south and out on the tip of the Peninsula is Terranea, a 9-hole, par-3 oceanfront layout and part of the Terranea Resort.

The course features views of the Pacific and Catalina Island from all the holes as it flows over a scenic setting once occupied by Marineland. There’s a good amount of elevation change with the greens well protected by sand bunkers. On the third tee you’re aiming at the Point Vicente Lighthouse, with the next hole overlooking Point Fermin, and the finishing holes along a bluff overlooking the Pacific. The course was designed by Todd Eckenrode and accommodates players of all levels with tees ranging from 50 to 180 yards with a total of 1,239 yards, par 27 from the tips. 

Alternatively, if money is no object, then head over to the Trump National Golf Club on a bench overlooking the Pacific. The course, formerly Pete Dye’s Ocean Trails Golf Club, is a faux links style layout with views of the Pacific from every hole and Catalina Island on a clear day. The broad, undulating fairways are bordered by a variety of conventional, pot, and long waste area sand bunkers filled with crushed marble in addition to multiple water features in play including a 45 foot waterfall on the way to the 17th green. From the tips it’s 7,242 yards, 75.0/146, course/slope ratings with three shorter tees, designed by Tom Fazio.

Shula’s Golf Club in northwest Miami is no longer….

It only took a couple of years since Don Shula’s passing to remove almost all references to his legacy in Miami Lakes. The former Shula’s Golf Club and Resort is now Miami Lakes Golf Club and Hotel. The former Shula’s Steak House is now ML Steaks & Sports. The former Shula’s Athletic Club is now the Miami Lakes Athletic Club. Shula originally became involved in these businesses when he joined the Dolphins in the 1970s by lending his name to the golf club/hotel. Both were originally builtin the early 1960s by the Graham Family, the original developers of the Miami Lakes Community. There are a few reminders of Shula’s presence remaining in the Miami Lakes area as he was among the inaugural class in the Miami Lakes Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and a plaque in his honor hangs in the clubhouse at Miami Lakes Optimist Park.

The Miami Lakes Golf Club remains a well regarded layout in the Northwest Miami area. while the clubhouse and facilities are a bit dated, the golf course is generally well maintained and rates reasonable for the quality of the layout and the market.  

  • The layout is over level terrain with water hazards on most of the holes along the narrow oak, cypress, and magnolia tree lined fairways with a liberal use of sand traps along the landing zones and guarding the greens. There’s five sets of tees with the tips playing to 6,757 yards, 72.1/127, course/slope ratings, originally designed by Bill Watts in the early 1960s with a redesign by Kipp Schulties.

And, if you plans call for travel throughout the Sunshine State, please use our guide to find the best golf courses and resorts open to public play.

Golf and a Wildlife Tour….Africa you say, nope, another unique Florida attraction

With the recent winter storm systems moving through the Midwest and the Northeast, many are fleeing the frozen north for Florida. A pleasant diversion off I-95 provides for a golf/wildlife tour combination. The White Oak Conservation Foundation is on the banks of St. Mary’s River about thirty miles north of Jacksonville off I-95 to the west a few miles. It’s located on 7,400 acres of preserved land which is home to 30 endangered species including rhino, cheetah, giraffe, and okapi.  and is open for tours.

It’s also home to a 9 hole golf course trekking over level terrain in a scenic, natural setting with 54 different teeing grounds that create 27 distinct holes featuring a signature par 4 with a series of three waterfalls. The layout offers broad fairways bordered by lakes, ponds, and wetlands with an abundance of conventional and long waste area sand traps. There’s three sets of tees with the tips playing to 3,379 yards, 36.0/127, course/slope ratings, designed by Steve Melnyk.

Richmond, VA and I-95

We couldn’t help but think of almost any Interstate highway we’d rather be than the stretch between Richmond and NOVA…especially on January 4, 2022! If you happen to travel this section of highway frequently, or occasionally, it can be literally a 100 mile parking lot depending on the time of day or day of the week.

There is a 3 hour alternative to this madness if you must pass through Richmond on I-95 and if you have your clubs in the trunk. That is pulling off just north of downtown Richmond to experience a classic of golf course architecture restored to nearly its original design, the Belmont Golf Course.

Belmont is a historic layout built in 1917 which held the 1949 PGA Championship won by Sam Snead as well as the Richmond Invitational won by Ben Hogan. It was designed by A. W. Tillinghast(Bethpage? among others) with follow-on consultant work by Donald Ross, and redesigned by Davis Love III in 2020. It’s a hybrid facility where 12 conventional holes from the original #7-#18 holes and a 6-hole short course form the balance. It’s a classic, parkland layout over rolling terrain with a significant amount of fingered sand bunkering defending the fairway landing zones and undulating green complexes with a lake and a creek adding further to the challenge.

A worthy stop on your travels through central Virginia, but also check out the other golf courses and resorts open to public play in our guide here.

Aiken, SC starting to look like a golf destination!

The new “Chalk Mine” 9 hole short course is apparently opening soon near Aiken, SC. Check out this video by Bryan Bros Golf which features the new, okay maybe the first, course record by George Bryan @bryanbrosgolf

While the opening date/rates are yet to be determined, this continues to make a case for Aiken/Augusta as a legitimate golf destination with the Aiken Golf Club, Cedar Creek, Midland Valley, and across the Savannah River, the River Club, and Forest Hills, all with varying levels of architectural pedigree.

With the typically mild winters, reasonable lodging rates, at least when the Masters isn’t on, and plenty of restaurants across the value spectrum, Aiken/Augusta begins to look like a legitimate golf destination.

Be sure to check out our Georgia and South Carolina maps and guides to the best public golf courses in the area.

Southern Pines Golf Club, Pinehurst, North Carolina

Most golf course architectural aficionados are no doubt aware and may have already made the pilgrimage to play the recently restored a 1906 Donald Ross classic in Southern Pines, NC. The course was acquired in 2020 by the owners of Pine Needles/Mid-PInes who promptly commissioned a reawakening of the golf course. It has been faithfully restored by Kyle Franz to Ross’s original intentions, a contemporary so to speak of Pinehurst No. 2 designed in 1907.

As with No.2, Southern Pines featured crowned greens most with false fronts providing a myriad of undulations, and depending on the speed can be mind boggling. The holes were widened, trees removed, the greens surrounds tightly mowed, sand bunkers restored, and the waste areas redefined. The routing moves over undulating, varying terrain providing a host of lies and and angles. It features the “lost hole” and concept that disappeared over he years from Ross’s original design. It was added by Franz as a 140 yard, par 3 bonus holes showcasing a sand green, a look back to golf before the advent of Bermuda greens.

Southern Pines Golf Club

There’s five sets of tees from 4,015 yards to 6,354 yards with the Gold, middle tees playing to 5,724 yards, 67.4/121, course/slope ratings, par of 70. The course reopened to rave reviews in 2021, but spent the year growing in and finalizing some punch list items, but should be ready for the 2022 season.

Many come to Pinehurst to enjoy the Pinehurst Resort and its 9 golf courses, featuring Nos. 2,4,& 8, the five star accommodations, and the restaurants, but there are alternatives like a week playing Tobacco Road, Mid-PInes, Pine Needles, and now Southern Pines. And, if you’re traveling throughout the Tarheel state, use our guide and map to find the best golf courses and resorts to play.

An unbiased guide to the best public golf courses and resorts in America.

One of the over 4,000 golf courses in our guide

BestPublicGolfCourses.com was built out of a frustration in finding suitable guides on the web for the better golf courses and golf resorts in the U.S. It was founded in 2008 when the golf industry began a steady decline of course closings leading to over 1,600 closures. The existing guides on the web were/are lacking in updating and removing closed courses, name changes, courses moving from public to private, and course renovations. Secondly, the 16,000 golf courses in the U.S. range from resorts to private to semi-private to public to municipal to military. Until BestPublicGolfCourses.com there was no guide to the best golf courses and resorts open to public play, irrespective of their classification.

Our unbiased guide has become a resource for traveling golfers who want to seek out more than the Top 100 golf course lists from the major golf publications. We set off in finding the best golf courses per state by using a variety of resources linkling Golf, Golf Magazine, Golfweek, Golf Club Atlas, GolfWrx, and the ASGCA among a variety of other credible sources. We then combed through actual reviews of the courses to determine the best courses open to public play in a given area. Research was conducted on each listing to provide a brief description of the golf course, its location and map, nearby courses,, contact details including the website link as well as USGA course ratings. We’re constantly assisted by our users who provide updates on courses to add or remove based upon a variety of factors and stay current with those new golf courses being added every year, albeit a very few number at this juncture.

The final guide, which evolves daily, provides the traveling golfer with the ability to seek out and find the best golf courses in a given area or to find courses along planned traveling routes. In addition to identifying the best courses open to public play in designated golf destinations like PInehurst, Scottsdale, Myrtle Beach, and Orlando it allows the user to create their own “golf trail” of sorts in any area of the country where multiple golf courses are located.

We hope you enjoy our guide and help keep it current by letting us know of courses to add or remove. The website’s sole function is to provide traveling golfers with an easy and current guide with our sole support from ads placed on the margins of the site.