# The Best Golf Courses in Salt Lake County, Utah

Source: https://thecourserankings.com/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-salt-lake-county-ut/

[The Course Rankings](/)

County Rankings / Utah


A golf course in autumn foliage. Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Salt Lake County has 19 courses on this list, and the headline is that it is a municipal county: one private club with a real renovation budget, a deep bench of city and county courses, and one closed course with the best story in Utah golf. We score the golf first, then the day, then cost. The statewide view is in [the Utah state ranking](/blog/the-5-best-golf-courses-in-utah/).

## 1Hidden Valley Country Club Utah

The county's strongest facility is the private one in Sandy: 27 holes across the Lakes, Valley, and Mountain nines, on nearly 300 acres bought in 1957 by a club that began in the early 1920s as the Fort Douglas Country Club. William Bell Jr. designed the original 18, opened in 1959; William H. Neff added the Mountain nine; Rees Jones Inc. has run a master plan renovation since 2015. The Mountain and Valley combination plays par 72 at 6,915 yards, rated 72.7 and 128. Membership is capped at 446 equity members, costs in the high estimate tier.

## 2Bonneville Golf Course

The best public round in the county since William P. Bell opened it in 1929 on the East Bench foothills, five minutes from downtown. One of the founding courses of Salt Lake City and among its most popular, at 6,824 yards and par 72 across natural contours and a deep ravine. The signature 9th is a 470 yard par 4 across that ravine; the 5th, 457 yards uphill, is its hardest hole.

## 3Mountain Dell Lake Course

Up Parleys Canyon at about 6,000 feet, William H. Neff sculpted most of the Lake Course from the Wasatch Mountains when Mountain Dell expanded to 36 holes in 1991, with PGA Tour player Mike Reid consulting. Par 71, 6,745 yards, rated 71.8 with a 135 slope, the highest on this list. The 192 yard par 3 17th is the signature. The hardest public examination in the county.

## 4Mountain Dell Canyon Course

The Canyon Course kept 13 holes of the original 1962 Mountain Dell, by William F. Bell with William H. Neff, and added five climbing the eastern canyon: par 72, 6,787 yards, rated 72.2 and 128, through oak brush and rose thickets. Often called the most beautiful public course in the city.

## 5Rose Park Golf Course

Mick Riley's design, opened as nine holes in 1959 and grown to 18, par 72 at 6,898 yards. Its claim is some of the finest bent grass greens in Utah, and it hosted U.S. Senior Amateur and National Public Links qualifying in 1996. Danny Summerhays shot a course record 61 at the 2006 Rose Park Open.

## 6Old Mill Golf Course

Gene Bates's county layout in Holladay, par 71 at 6,769 yards, twice a winner of City Weekly's Best Golf Course award. The 18th, a long downhill drive across the whole valley, is the county's best public finishing drive. Rates with a cart have run roughly $40 to $60.

## 7Forest Dale Golf Course

Nine holes with the most history per hole in Utah. Forest Dale opened on July 4, 1906 as the original home of the Salt Lake Country Club, the oldest course in the state still in its original area, and President William Howard Taft played here in 1909. The par 36 nine of 3,122 yards balances three par 3s, three par 4s, and three par 5s, keeps its small tabletop greens, and finishes with a 449 yard par 4 reputed to be one of the state's hardest finishing holes.

## 8Nibley Park Golf Course

The oldest public course in Utah, opened in May 1922 on land Charles W. Nibley donated for golfers who could not afford private clubs. Harold Lamb designed the par 34 nine of 2,895 yards, Heber J. Grant hit the first ball, and it finishes with consecutive par 3s, a quirk almost no American course shares.

## 9Glendale Golf Course

William F. Bell's 1973 municipal on the Jordan River: par 72, 6,908 yards, wide open through wetlands and lakes, with a clear look at the downtown skyline and state capitol from the 9th green.

## 10Murray Parkway Golf Course

Robert Muir Graves designed it, opened July 1986: par 72, 6,900 yards, 150 acres east of the Jordan River, Murray's only municipal course and one of the busiest in Utah. Renamed for former mayor Lynn F. Pett in 2000.

## 11Meadow Brook Golf Course

Mick Riley's 1952 Taylorsville municipal, later renovated by Gene Bates, par 72 at 6,729 yards. The par 5s carry it: the 558 yard 2nd, its longest hole, and the 553 yard 11th, its No. 1 handicap hole.

## 12River Oaks Golf Course

William H. Neff's 1999 Sandy design in the Jordan River bottoms, par 70 at 6,346 yards with a 131 slope that outruns its length. The 14th is its hardest hole, and its natural grass range holds 60 tees.

## 13Mick Riley Golf Course

Murray's two nines, a regulation nine of par 36 at 3,280 yards from 1962 and a par 3 executive nine from 1965, named for the designer of Rose Park and Meadow Brook.

## 14Fort Douglas, University Golf Course (historic listing)

A memorial entry, labeled as such. Built in 1923 beside the University of Utah, grown to 27 championship holes by the 1940s, a PGA Tour stop and Utah Open host. At the 1945 Utah Open here, Emery Zimmerman beat Byron Nelson and ended his record streak of 11 straight wins; Ben Hogan called it the most unfair course he ever played. The university closed it in 2009. On story it would rank first in the county. You cannot play it, so it ranks here.

The last five, South Mountain Golf Club, Stonebridge Golf Club, The Country Club, The Ridge Golf Club, and Willow Creek Country Club, complete the 19. Their verified records were not in hand, so they close the list as a group rather than in detail we cannot stand behind. That is a statement about our file, not their golf.

One valley, nineteen courses, and its best golf split between a capped private club in Sandy and a 1929 municipal above downtown. The county built its golf for residents first. The residents got the better of that deal.

**Reader responses are open.** Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played.