This just in: golf is hard. It was meant to be. Its challenges are central to its charm, but they aren’t constant. Difficulties shift by the day, shot, player and course. Not all designs are equally demanding.
GOLF’s latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World casts a broad lens, capturing a wide swath of architectural styles that are meant to be enjoyed by golfers of all stripes. But stretch them to the tips and let them show their teeth, and some courses in the ranking become especially exacting.
Here are 5 of the toughest from our latest list.
Oakmont
Oakmont, Pa.
On Thursday at the 2025 U.S. Open, Oakmont played to a 74.64 scoring average — the highest opening-round number since a wind-whipped Shinnecock in 2018. For this place, that wasn’t an aberration. The venerable Pittsburgh brute has been punishing golfers for generations with its mix of lightning greens, brute length and bunkers, like the Church Pews, that allow for little more than a wing and prayer. Johnny Miller’s 63 at the rain-softened 1973 U.S. Open remains the outlier that proves the rule. Want another hard figure? This summer the USGA stamped Oakmont’s championship setup with a 78.1 course rating and a 150 slope. Sounds about right.
Pine Valley
Pine Valley, N.J.
True to its name, the Devils’ A-hole — the deep pot bunker guarding the par-3 10th — is not a place you want to be. But it’s just one of countless unpleasant spots to wind up at the world’s No. 1–ranked course. George Crump set out to build a beast, and with help from leading architects of the day, he succeeded so thoroughly that there was once a standing wager no one would break 80 on a first visit. Though modern equipment has softened some of the original bite, Pine Valley still rattles you with its visuals: vast sandy wastes, heroic carries like the one required over Hell’s Half Acre, a purgatorial sandy stretch on the par-5 7th. The bunkers, by the way, aren’t raked — players smooth their footprints with their feet — making them hazards in the truest sense.
Carnoustie
Carnoustie, Scotland
“Carn-nasty” isn’t the most imaginative nickname, but it earns its keep. The course draws blood with its length, its snarling rough, its fickle North Sea winds and its bunkers that seem to multiply in the corner of your eye. And then there’s the Barry Burn, the snaking channel where Jean Van de Velde’s 1999 Open hopes washed away. In his defense, Carnoustie has long been the sternest test on the rota, and in ’99 it was at its absolute worst — gusts howling, scoring brutal. Plus-6 made a playoff. Enough said.
Royal Portrush
Portrush, N. Ireland
Don’t let Scottie Scheffler’s 17-under romp at the 2025 Open fool you. Conditions were benign, and he’s Scottie Scheffler. On a normal day, Portrush offers a steady procession of stout asks: an opening tee shot flanked by out of bounds on both sides; a middle stretch of bruising par-4s; and the long par-3 16th known as Calamity, which is not the only place scorecards come to ruin. When the weather turns — and here, it often does — the entire place grows fangs.
Bethpage Black
Farmingdale, N.Y.
A.W. Tillinghast envisioned Bethpage Black as a public-access answer to Pine Valley (see above!), a municipal monster. Mission accomplished. The opener lulls you in, but the routing quickly hardens into a string of long, punishing holes that call for long irons and hybrids on par-4s that play closer to par-4½s. That famous warning sign by the first tee? It’s there for a reason.
