How our staff will spend $1,000 on the Top 100 Golf Courses You Can Play

You can play Shadow Creek in Vegas – but you need to get a little lucky at the slot machine first.

Or you can play George Wright 16 times – and have change left over.

But you can play them, and to access perhaps the best part of GOLF’s latest list of the top 100 courses to play in the U.S. You don’t need a membership to these gems. It’s just money. And that got us thinking:

How can our employees spend a lot of money on the list?

Could we pay for four Shadow figures? Or two Wright? Our answers are below. For reference, we used an article titled: “Top 100 Courses to Play, Ranked from Most Expensive to Least,” which you can read by clicking here. (For more, please click here for our list of the top 100 courses in the US)

How our staff will spend $1,000 on the Top 100 Golf Courses to Play in the US

OPERATOR: Josh Sens

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: Thousands of dollars, eh? Should that cover my travel expenses, too? If so, I live somewhere in Northern California, driving down the coast from my home in Oakland to the Pasatiempo ($385) in Santa Cruz, one of the rare Alister Mackenzie designs in the country that anyone can play. The course will reopen in mid-December following a green restoration project and a bathroom that I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around because it’s hard to imagine that those greens and bunkers could be any better than they were. Maybe I’ll wait until late spring or summer to get out, if the days are long, which will give me time to play 36 about what is California’s favorite public course. From there, I’ll drive home (an excellent bed and breakfast), then wake up the next day and drive across the bay to San Francisco for 18 minutes to Harding Park ($125), the tournament’s most likely host. The back nine, which surrounds Lake Merced, is the equivalent of a golf course in town. This two-day tour will give me 54 holes on quality courses, each with a distinct sense of place. And it will leave enough in the budget to grab a burrito in the Mission District on my drive home, with extra guacamole, I mean.

OPERATOR: Dylan Dethier

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: I started my own writing, but then I read Sens’ and realized something: I’ll just double his! The best golf outing is the one your friend plans, after all. If that trip includes free lodging, 36 Pasatiempo, an ocean view and a burrito? Everything is better. My only concern is the Sens’ trick play. Before long, I feel like he might be looking down a 4-for-3 par putt and I’ll be down an extra thousand. …

OPERATOR: Nick Dimengo

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: Don’t get me wrong — playing any place on the Top 100 GOLF Courses is always amazing, but if I have $1,000 to spend, I’m booking my tee time at Pinehurst No. 2. Of course, there are a lot of places with views in front of the sea and green cliffs, but I choose the home of the 2024 US Open, where I saw for myself that the structure offered the best to players in the world of all kinds. How well can a mid-handicapper like myself handle Pinehurst No. My guess isn’t good – but the best part about golf is that it surprises me, so maybe I can shoot the round of my life and finally break 80 on the course where Bryson DeChambeau won his second major.

OPERATOR: Jessica Marksbury

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: Am I the only person on staff who hasn’t been to Bandon Dunes yet? That needs fixing, stat! With four courses on the Top 100 Playable list (Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, Bandon Dunes, Old Macdonald – all ranked in the top 13!), I would try to increase the value and get all four for that $1K. That means playing in the offseason, when prices are lower. Costs for hotel guests are highest from June to September, at $370 per round. But you can save a little more by visiting in April, when green fees are $235 each — plus $235 x 4 = $940! It’s an almost smokin’ deal, to be fair, with a place for taxes, too.

OPERATOR: Connor Federico

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: This is a fun game! Let’s create an itinerary with as much variety as possible, not a care in the world about accommodation and travel expenses. The variety of surroundings, architectural styles and prices will really add to our overall thoughtful experience. Let’s start with the best bang for our buck. Black Mesa ($93) puts us in the New Mexico desert, Rustic Canyon ($104) winds through the mountains of Southern California, Wild Horse ($75) offers sweeping views of the Nebraska Sandhills, and George Wright ($62) is a muni designed by Donald Ross. just outside Boston. Spending less than $350 on four of the top 100 courses right off the bat now allows for some real bucket list spots. The Lido ($295), CB Macdonald’s famous masterpiece restored at Sand Valley Resort, is a must-see experience for any golf enthusiast. After that, I’ll take the rest of my money to the Oregon coast for a bargain at Pacific Dunes ($370) and some real golf links here in the US, bringing the total for this trip to $999.

OPERATOR: Josh Behow

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: Since this is a fun activity and it doesn’t have to be logical — if you want that trip, I’ve created eight Top 100 road trips you can take — I want to get in at least a few laps, which means Whistling, Pebble, etc., out. I’ll spend $420 on Sheep Ranch, since it’s the only Bandon course I’ve yet to play, and drop $265 on Chambers Bay (as you can see, I’m a bit of a specter). I’ll then head to South Carolina for a $120 tee time at Caledonia, then finish my trip with rounds at Lawsonia Links ($99) and Wild Horse ($75). That leaves me with $21 to spend on brat and beer.

OPERATOR: Zephyr Melton

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: I’ll start my splurge of a thousand dollars a round at one of my favorite courses, Pasatiempo ($385) in Santa Cruz, Calif. With ~$600 to spare, I will buy as many merchandise as I can at the pro shop. – I kid (type). The Loop at Forest Dunes ($195) has been on my bucket list for a while, so I’ll have to knock that one out of this boondoggle. Assuming I can play the course back and forth with one green fee, I would have $400 left over. With that, I’d head to the mountains of North Carolina for a spin at Pine Needles ($305), one of Donald Ross’s most understated designs. I’d take my last ~$100 down the road to Pinehurst and spend it on a quick round at the Cradle ($50), with the rest going to cocktails on the patio overlooking the green of No. 2 of fame.

OPERATOR: Jack Hirsh

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: Knowing that each of these courses is smart, I’ll start by covering a few premium courses before spreading the rest out among the cheaper options to make sure I stretch that $1,000 as much as I can. To start, I’m going to take a trip to Bandon because I’ve been in the area and only played Bandon Trails as part of a tournament. So I’ll add Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Old Mac and Sheep Ranch to touch them all. Normally, this would be well over $1,000, but we’re going in March, when the price is just $200 for resort guests, with a $100 replay value. Sure, we can get cold, 40 degree days, but we have about the same chance of sunny weather as 65. I’ll settle for anything in the high 40s and 50s, though. We’ll spend two days, play 36 each day and combine it in four top 100 public courses for $600. Now let’s make that $400 last. We’ll start with the cheapest option on the list, George Wright in Boston ($62), as I always choose Ross munis, as I grew up near Jeffersonville in PA. Next, we’ll go to Wisconsin and play Lawsonia Links ($99), the cheapest option on the Top 100 list, public or private. Finally, we’ll head over to the east coast to play the Bethpage Black ($140) and Red ($90) during the week. That leaves us with $9, which will unfortunately get you a hot dog at most of these places, except for George Wright.

OPERATOR: Nick Piastowski

HOW TO SPEND $1,000: How much does postage cost these days? Whatever it is, just divide it by our number so I know how many letters to write to Chairman Ridley asking for Augusta membership. Playing, playing. I’m from Wisconsin, but unfortunately I have yet to play Erin Hills ($455), so I’ll start there. Then we take out the volume, because if this is on the company’s dime, I want max vacay, too. So we’ll play Wright ($62), Wild Horse ($75), Black Mesa ($93), Lawsonia (Links) ($99), Bethpage (Red) ($100) and Rustic Canyon ($104) — and $12 left over, which we spent on beer and brake at a food shack on the Lawsonia bend.