Today we reveal the first ten courses to make the list:

100. Woking
Surrey, England
Tom Dunn, 1893
The first of many classic heathland courses from the south of England to appear in our Top 100, Woking was first laid outby Scottish golf professional Tom Dunn, with Stuart Paton and John Low’s subsequent work making the course what it is today. The club is currently working with golf course architects Thomson Perrett & Lobb and is set to unveil a new sixteenth hole in the coming weeks.

99. The Honors Course
Tennessee, USA
Pete Dye, 1983
Created by American businessman Jack Lupton to honour the game of amateur golf, this private club is known for its compelling blend of a Pete Dye golf course and the natural plants and wildlife painstakingly nurtured by greenkeeper David Stone.

98. Shadow Creek
Nevada, USA
Tom Fazio, 1989
Having transformed a parcel of desert into a pine tree-lined golf course, complete with lakes and streams, Shadow Creek is recognised for its feat of landscape engineering. “What Fazio and Wynn did there expanded everyone’s idea of what man can do,” says Armen Suny of Suny Zokol Golf Design. Neil Haworth of Nelson & Haworth says: “With money,talent and creativity anything can be built!”

97. Peachtree
Georgia, USA
Robert Trent Jones, 1947
“As near like Augusta National as possible,and better, if possible,” Bobby Jones is quoted as saying in the planning of Peachtree. Robert Trent Jones was hired and the Jones’s partnership produced a course that is known for its use of contour, with barely a flat lie to be found.

96. Torrey Pines (South)
California, USA
William Bell, 1957
With expansive views over the Pacific Ocean,this public golf course was redesigned by Rees Jones and Greg Muirhead in 2001 to meet the contrasting requirements of public play and professional tournaments, including the 2008 US Open.

95. Olympic Club (Lake)
California, USA
Sam Whiting, 1927
When the original 1924 Lake and Ocean courses designed by Willie Watson were damaged in landslides, superintendent Sam Whiting remodelled and rebuilt both. Robert Trent Jones reworked the Lakecourse, which is characterised by its severely sloping fairways, for the 1955 US Open, the first of five it has hosted, and Bill Love oversaw work in advance of the most recent, in 2012.

94. The Kinloch Club
Waikato, New Zealand
Jack Nicklaus, 2007
One of only six courses built in the last ten years that made our Top 100 list, Kinloch, designed by Jack Nicklaus’s firm,brings a rustic feel to the volcanic hills overlooking Lake Taupo in the North Island of New Zealand.

93. Loch Lomond
Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Tom Weiskopf, Jay Morrish, 1993
Scotland’s first entry into the Top 100 is one of only two inland courses from that country to make the list. This parkland layout visits the lochside on multiple occasions including its fine finishing hole.

92. Fishers Island
New York, United States
Seth Raynor, 1926
Students of golf design will find much toadmire at Fishers Island, with the course featuring Raynor’s take on numerous classic designs, such as Redan, Alps and Biarritz holes.

91. Capilano
British Columbia, Canada
Stanley Thompson, 1937
Routed among fir trees in the hills between the Pacific Ranges and Vancouver Harbour, Capilano is a little-touched insight into the work of Canadian architect Stanley Thompson.

A full report of the Top 100 – including the observations of golf course architects – will be sent to Golf Course Architecture monthly e-mail newsletter subscribers on July 12th. Sign up for free by entering your email address in the e-mail newsletter box on the home page of this website.

Architects’ Choice: 100-91| 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | the full report