# The Best Jack Nicklaus Golf Courses in America Source: https://thecourserankings.com/blog/the-best-jack-nicklaus-golf-courses-in-america/ [The Course Rankings](/) Architect Rankings A golfer walking a fairway. Photo: PattayaPatrol, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses the way he played tournaments: for the examination at the top of the game. One hundred thirty seven of his courses sit in our dataset across 38 states, and the range surprises people. Yes, there are private championship venues built to host majors. There is also a public course in Michigan where play stops every day at 1 p.m. for Taps, a remodel in Idaho with water on 17 holes, and his first par 3 course above a lake in Missouri. The Nicklaus idea, across all of it, is a test that rewards the brave shot executed properly and charges full price for the brave shot attempted loosely. We rank the best eight from his strongest work below. Some of these towns get their own treatment in [our Southampton town ranking](/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-southampton-ny/), [our Louisville town ranking](/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-louisville-ky/), and [our Sandpoint town ranking](/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-sandpoint-id/). ## 1Valhalla Golf Club Louisville, Kentucky, 1986: 7,458 yards, par 71, rating 76.4, slope 148, on 486 acres of former farm along Floyds Fork. Four PGA Championships: Mark Brooks in a playoff in 1996, Tiger Woods over Bob May in a playoff in 2000, Rory McIlroy by one over Phil Mickelson in 2014, Xander Schauffele in 2024. The 2008 Ryder Cup, won by the U.S. 16.5 to 11.5. Senior PGAs in 2004 and 2011, and the Solheim Cup coming in 2028. Nicklaus counts the double fairway par 5 7th among his favorite designs, and the horseshoe shaped 18th green finishes the argument. Kentucky's only top 100 club and No. 1 in the state. No other Nicklaus course has produced this many great finishes. ## 2Sebonack Golf Club Southampton, New York, 2006, a Nicklaus and Tom Doak collaboration on Great Peconic Bay, next door to National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills. Par 72 at about 7,220 yards, rating 77.3. It hosted the 2013 U.S. Women's Open, the first on Long Island. Two architects with opposite instincts built one course and neither erased the other, which is why it ranks this high: Nicklaus scale with Doak texture, in the best golf neighborhood in America. ## 3Shoal Creek Club Shoal Creek, Alabama, 1977, Nicklaus's first solo design in the United States, routed through 1,550 wooded acres between Oak and Double Oak mountains. PGA Championships in 1984 and 1990, the U.S. Amateur in 1986, the U.S. Women's Open in 2018. Invitation only and rated the top course in Alabama by Golf Digest. The first solo work remains one of the best, which says something about how formed his ideas already were. ## 4American Dunes Golf Club Grand Haven, Michigan, opened May 2, 2021. Nicklaus redesigned the former Grand Haven Golf Club, waived his design fee, and the renovation removed more than 2,000 trees to reveal sand dunes, leaving 30 bunkers across a par 72, 7,213 yard course. All annual profits go to Folds of Honor, funding scholarships for families of fallen and disabled service members, and play stops daily at 1 p.m. for Taps at the flag memorial. Public access. It ranks fourth on design and first on this list in purpose, and the two are not in conflict. ## 5Golf Club at Dove Mountain Marana, Arizona, 27 holes opened in January 2009 in the Tortolita foothills, elevation 2,300 to 3,000 feet. The Saguaro and Tortolita nines combine for a par 72 championship layout of 7,849 yards, with bunkering from deep pots to waste areas close to 80 yards long. It hosted the WGC Accenture Match Play from 2009 to 2013, the world's top 64 in the desert. Resort access, and the most complete modern Nicklaus tournament venue in the West on this list. ## 6The Idaho Club Sandpoint, Idaho, Idaho's only Nicklaus Signature course, a remodel of Hidden Lakes that reopened in 2008. Par 71, 7,089 yards, rating 74.6, slope 148, with water in play on 17 holes as the Lower Pack River winds through the delta where it meets Lake Pend Oreille. Public, and listed in Golf Digest Best in State for Idaho. Its clubhouse burned months after reopening, a brutal start the golf outlasted. ## 7Sycamore Hills Golf Club Fort Wayne, Indiana, opened July 2, 1989, with Nicklaus playing the inaugural round. Built on a former estate, with the Aboite River crossing the 15th fairway four times. It hosted Web.com Tour Finals events in 2013, 2014, and 2015, the U.S. Girls' Junior in 2013, and three Junior PGA Championships. The only Golf Digest nationally ranked Nicklaus Signature course in Indiana, slope 149. Private, tough, and underrated outside its region. ## 8The Country Club of Louisiana Baton Rouge, 1986, a par 72 over 7,100 yards with a slope of 149, carved through bayou country with live oaks and holes along Selene Bayou. Among the first Nicklaus Signature courses in a residential setting, ranked No. 2 in Louisiana in Golf Digest's 2025-26 Best in State. Its 6th hole replicates the par 3 16th at Augusta National, a Nicklaus tell: he was never shy about quoting a hole he admired. The concession: early Nicklaus design could be severe to the point of unfair, with difficulty treated as proof of quality, and some of his courses have softened his work since. The eight above did not need much softening. They needed a field, a championship, or in American Dunes' case a cause, and they delivered on the biggest stages his architecture was built for. **Reader responses are open.** Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played.