Architect Rankings
The Best Bob Cupp Golf Courses in America
Bob Cupp spent more than 15 years as Jack Nicklaus's senior designer before starting his own firm, and Golf World Magazine named him its first Golf Architect of the Year in 1992. That biography explains his work better than any style label. Cupp learned the business inside the most demanding design shop in golf, then went out and built a portfolio with a geographic center most signature architects never bothered with: the American South, with excursions to Oregon, Minnesota, and the New Jersey waterfront. Our dataset holds 27 Cupp courses across 16 states. His best courses share a trait his Nicklaus years taught him: they hold up under championship fields. Three of the top four below have hosted USGA championships or senior majors. The Georgia work is collected in our Atlanta ranking and the Greensboro, Georgia ranking; the order here is the national one, anchored by the course his hometown knows best in the Hoover ranking.
1Old Waverly Golf Club (West Point, MS)
Cupp's masterpiece, built with Jerry Pate and opened in September 1988 on George Bryan's vision, Bryan and 29 other founders in West Point, Mississippi. The championship record is the strongest in his portfolio: the 1999 U.S. Women's Open, won by Juli Inkster with a record tying 272, the 2006 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur, and the 2019 U.S. Women's Amateur. It finished No. 3 among Golf Digest's Best New Private Courses in 1989 and spent time in America's 100 Greatest through the 1990s and 2000s. Par 72 at 7,088 yards, and the home course for Mississippi State's golf teams. A private club in Clay County, Mississippi, that the USGA trusted three times is a career argument all by itself.
2Liberty National Golf Club (Jersey City, NJ)
The most visible Cupp course, designed with Tom Kite in Jersey City, with the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan as its backdrop. It hosted PGA Tour events under the Barclays and Northern Trust names and the 2017 Presidents Cup. Golf Digest ranked it No. 10 in New Jersey in its 2023 summary, and noted in 2025 that the course had just dropped out of its top 200 for the first time since its debut, which we record because this list grades careers honestly. Built on a former industrial and landfill site on the Hudson waterfront, Liberty National is Cupp working at maximum scale and maximum scrutiny. The views are famous. The golf underneath them is good enough that the tour kept coming back.
3Greystone Founders Course (Hoover, AL)
Cupp and two time U.S. Open champion Hubert Green built the Founders Course at Greystone in 1991, and it became a Champions Tour fixture, hosting the Bruno's Memorial Classic from 1992 to 2005, then the Regions Tradition senior major after it moved from Shoal Creek in 2016. Par 72 at 7,299 yards in its Tradition setup. Golf Digest ranks it No. 9 in Alabama. A course does not hold a senior major and a 14 year tour run without giving professionals a fair, exacting test, and Greystone's second life with the Tradition confirms the first one was no accident. Private, in Shelby County.
4Hawks Ridge Golf Club (Ball Ground, GA)
The connoisseur's Cupp. Opened in 1999 in Ball Ground, in the North Georgia foothills, private with a small, golf focused membership. The record describes dramatic elevation and pristine conditioning, and the course is consistently ranked among Georgia's best private courses. Hawks Ridge makes no championship claim and does not need one. It is the Cupp course Georgia's serious golfers mention with the tone usually reserved for places they hope stay quiet. Costs sit in the highest estimate tier, unpublished, which fits a club that is not recruiting.
5Rush Creek Golf Club (Maple Grove, MN)
Cupp and John Fought opened Rush Creek in June 1996, developed by W. Duncan MacMillan of the Cargill family to give Minnesota a first class public facility. It got one. The course hosted the 2004 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and three LPGA Tour events, a public course with a USGA championship and a tour history. Scottish inspired, par 72 through wetlands, playing up to 7,125 yards. Its Mac Nine par three course opened in 2012 and feeds a junior program of about 1,200 kids, which may be the best legacy line on this entire page. Championship golf that also grows the game, at public rates.
6Langdon Farms Golf Club (Aurora, OR)
Cupp and Fought again, south of Portland, and the most characterful public course in his portfolio. The record needs care here: the club's own history says the Langdon family farm was sold in 1994 and the course opened in spring 1995, whatever earlier listings claim. The signature par four 8th plays around the original Langdon barn, built in 1908 and deliberately kept inside the hole's design. Par 71 at 6,931 yards, ranked No. 13 among Oregon public courses by Golfweek, with a noted par four 4th and a closing stretch from 13 to 18. It hosted the local U.S. Open qualifier for years, where the best score shot was 67. Brothers Chris and Tom Maletis bought it outright in 2003 and run it under a Public Only motto. A Cupp course with a barn in play and a motto like that earns its spot.
7Ansley Golf Club Settindown Creek (Roswell, GA)
Cupp's Atlanta championship course, opened in 1990 as the championship layout of Ansley Golf Club. It hosted the 1995 U.S. Women's Amateur and Nike Tour events in the 1990s, and its back nine is shaped by creek and wetlands into the most demanding stretch in his Georgia work. Private, costs in a high estimate tier. Settindown Creek closes this list because it represents the mode Cupp worked in most: a private Southern club course built to championship standard, tested by a USGA field, and still asking the questions 35 years later.
The concession: Cupp never became a brand. His courses are introduced as Nicklaus school work or as tour venues, his name is pronounced by fewer casual golfers than any architect with this record, and one of his most famous builds just slipped out of the national top 200. Some of the portfolio is also period work, solid and stern in the 1990s manner. None of that touches the top of this list. Old Waverly hosted three USGA championships from West Point, Mississippi. Architects with bigger names have smaller proof.