Architect Rankings
The Best Robert Trent Jones Sr. Golf Courses in America
Robert Trent Jones Sr. has 115 courses in our dataset across 32 states, and the scale is the first argument about him. The heroic style that championship golf ran on for forty years is substantially his invention. Ranking his best eight means choosing between solo designs, championship remodels, and courses where later architects have removed his work, a verdict we will deal with honestly at No. 1.
1Oakland Hills South Course, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Opened in 1918 as a Donald Ross course and turned by Jones into The Monster, the name Ben Hogan gave it after winning the 1951 U.S. Open with a final round 67. Six U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships, the 2004 Ryder Cup, U.S. Amateurs in 2002 and 2016, par 72 in regular play and 70 for majors at 7,509 yards, with U.S. Opens set again for 2034 and 2051. Gil Hanse's restoration, reopened in 2021, removed Jones era influences to restore Ross character. We rank it first anyway, because the championship course the world knew for seventy years was Jones's version.
2Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minnesota
Jones designed Hazeltine, opened in 1962 southwest of Minneapolis, par 72 at 7,674 yards. U.S. Opens in 1970, won by Tony Jacklin, and 1991, won by Payne Stewart. PGA Championships in 2002 and 2009, the second won by Y.E. Yang over Tiger Woods. The 2016 Ryder Cup, won by the United States 17 to 11, with another set for 2029, plus a KPMG Women's PGA in 2019. Enhanced by his son Rees Jones in 2002 and 2005. This is the purest Jones original on the list, built from his own ground for exactly the championships it kept hosting.
3Point O'Woods, Benton Harbor, Michigan
Opened June 14, 1958, Jones's first original design in Michigan, across roughly 350 acres of rolling wooded terrain, par 72 at about 7,014 yards. Jones called it perhaps his best American course. It hosted the Western Amateur in 1963 and 1965 and every year from 1971 to 2008, returning in 2019, with winners including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ben Crenshaw. When the architect names a favorite, and the best amateurs keep proving it for four decades, we listen.
4Broadmoor East Course, Colorado Springs, Colorado
A shared credit, labeled as one. Ross designed the East, opened July 4, 1918 at over 6,400 feet. Holes 1 to 6 and 16 to 18 are Ross, holes 7 to 15 are Jones, combined in 1952. Jack Nicklaus won his first major here, the 1959 U.S. Amateur at 19, and Annika Sorenstam won her first major here, the 1995 U.S. Women's Open. U.S. Senior Opens in 2008, 2018 and 2025, with returns set for 2031 and 2037. Jones's nine holes hold their own in that company, a higher compliment than most solo designs earn.
5Montauk Downs State Park Golf Course, Montauk, New York
The public heart of this list. Golf was played at Montauk for 40 years before Jones and his son Rees redesigned it in 1968, at the tip of Long Island, where wind off the ocean changes play daily. Ranked No. 6 on Golfweek's 2026 list of the best courses you can play in New York, with residents able to play it for under 50 dollars per Golf Digest, and Rees returning in 2008 to restore bunkers and tees. We cover the town in our Montauk ranking. Jones built for private clubs. He also built this, for anyone with a tee time, and it may be the work of his that does the most good per dollar.
6The Judge Course, Prattville, Alabama
Jones with Roger Rulewich, opened in 2000 as the third course at Capitol Hill, the only Trail stop with three championship eighteens. The first hole drops nearly 100 feet from a cliff tee, water is in play on 14 of 18 holes with an island green par 3 6th, and it measures about 7,813 yards, slope 142, among the longest and toughest on the Trail, ranked No. 7 in Alabama by Golf Digest. The Trail, 468 holes at 11 sites, is Jones's largest public legacy, and we set The Judge in its hometown in our Prattville ranking.
7The Patterson Club, Fairfield, Connecticut
A Jones design that opened June 28, 1947, with Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen in the first official foursome per the club, on land General Electric bought in 1945. Par 71 at 6,790 yards, host of the Connecticut Open in 1996 and 2015 and the Connecticut Amateur in 1991 and 2004, with a renovation and master plan by Jaeger Kovich begun in 2025. Early solo Jones, in Fairfield County, with Bobby Jones himself in the opening group.
8Oakcreek Country Club, Sedona, Arizona
Designed by Jones with his son Robert Trent Jones Jr., Sedona's oldest club and first golf course, first nine in 1968, second in 1971, par 72 at 6,824 yards, slope 134, tree lined fairways through red rock country, three lakes in play on five holes, and a par 3 14th from an elevated tee as the signature hole. We place it in our Sedona ranking. It takes eighth as the most playable Jones on the list, with room to recover, a genuine distinction in an oeuvre famous for punishment.
The concession: Jones's heroic style can date badly, and the restoration movement has spent thirty years removing his bunkering from Ross and Tillinghast courses, sometimes at clubs on this very list. That critique has force. Length and forced carries alone do not make a hole good. But the man who built Hazeltine from open ground, turned Oakland Hills into The Monster, and left a public course at Montauk that residents play for under fifty dollars built the stage American championship golf played on. The best of it still holds that stage.