Travel

Stay, play and escape! These are the Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World for 2024-25

By: GOLF Editors September 13, 2023

From the mountains to the sea and everywhere in between, these are the 100 best golf resorts in the world.

In the beginning, there was golf, and it was good.

But it was sorely lacking in amenities. No swimming pools. No spas. No comfort stations. Fifteenth-century Scottish shepherds did not exfoliate or sit for mutton sliders at the turn.

Some 400 years later, though, when golf migrated to the United States, it fell sway to market forces. For certain well-heeled travelers, stand-alone courses no longer sufficed. Conveyed by train or horse-drawn buggy, these golfers sought the game in luxe destinations. They played and stayed, enjoying their rounds and then indulging in the trappings. They perspired in saunas, soaked in sulfur hot springs, slept in beds with silken sheets. To accommodate their interests, a new creature emerged in the sporting ecosystem, from the mountains of Virginia to the Carolina Sandhills and the sun-kissed shores of West Palm Beach. The golf club was now joined by the golf resort.

It proved highly adaptive.

As America spread west, the golf resort went with it, taking root in the Rockies and the Great Lakes Region, finding purchase in the desert and on to the California coast. But its spread was not confined to the United States. Today, golf resorts exist on every continent where the game is played. Like golfers, they run the spectrum in shape and size. By turns intimate, expansive, extravagant, low-key, they also cater to a range of clientele. Some are built for buddies’ trips; others appeal to families. Still others cast themselves as romantic escapes, or clubby hideaways for corporate retreats. At some, the spa menu is longer than the beer list. At others, the most reliable relaxant is at the whiskey bar.

What they all have in common is the offer of a course (or several courses) operated in conjunction with accommodations, where the golfer is a guest and the other way around. That’s a baseline definition, though that line can blur. Take a place like St. Andrews, where the Old Course Hotel overlooks the Old Course. Shared name. Shared terrain. But, otherwise, the two are not connected, so they don’t qualify as a “resort.” Just up the road, by contrast, the Fairmont St. Andrews checks the resort box, with its hotel and two courses.

“In some cases, there’s some understandable confusion,” says Gordon Dalgleish, a GOLF Magazine course rater and the president of PerryGolf, a leading golf travel operator. “There is no worldwide commission that defines a golf resort.”

Another variable is expectations. As with so much else, golf resorts reflect the culture and economy of their surroundings. What passes as five-star in southern Turkey might not be the same as it is in Turks and Caicos, which might differ from the standards in Western Canada. Some resorts require caddies. Some urge against walking. Still others insist on a doctor’s note if you want to take a cart.

For all that sets them apart, their geographic separation is narrower than ever. Remote golf may be the rage, but no resort is much more than a plane ride away.

“Just do your research, so you know what you’re getting,” Dalgleish says.

To get you started, here’s a roster of 100 standout golf resorts around the world.