If you’re the type to plan vacations — or business trips — around golf, a new list makes it easier to hit the links at Missouri’s best courses.
Earlier this month, Golfweek, a part of the USA Today Network, released its ranking of best public and private courses in all 50 states. Here’s how the Show Me State showed up in the rankings.
Courses at Big Cedar Lodge in Hollister took the top three spots on the statewide ranking of public courses. Ozarks National, Buffalo Ridge and Payne’s Valley finished 1, 2, 3, respectively.
“The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel,” Golfweek staff noted. “If there’s a will, there’s a tee time — no membership required.”
The full top 10 public courses, with a high concentration in Missouri’s southwest region, laid out as follows, with links to learn more and plan your visit to each course:
Turning its attention to private courses, four of Golfweek’s top five in Missouri land in the St. Louis region:
- St. Louis CC, St. Louis
- Bellerive, St. Louis
- Old Warson, Ladue
- Dalhousie, Cape Girardeau
- Norwood Hills West, St. Louis
Golfweek compiles its lists by commissioning “the hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel” to play and rate courses on a 1-to-10 scale, according to this year’s tally. Those scores are then averaged to achieve the final ranking.
To check out both rankings, and the list of best courses in each state, visit https://golfweek.usatoday.com/.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He’s on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.