The 7 most expensive courses in the world by green fees

13/01/2024 19:15

There are a number of reasons that a club might choose to charge steep green fees from a desire to keep your course exclusive to wanting to preserve the state of the course.

These seven courses charge a premium, and as far as we can tell are the most expensive courses to play according to green fees.

7. Kingsbarns Golf Links

Green Fees: Up to $478/round in peak season (from May to November)

Kingsbarns Golf Links situated 7 miles from St Andrews along 1.8 miles of picturesque North Sea coastline, where each hole embraces the sea, is the priciest round in the United Kingdom.

Kingsbarns co-hosts the annual DP World Tour's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (3 – 6 October 2024) with the Old Course at St Andrews and Carnoustie Golf Links. In 2017, Kingsbarns hosted The Ricoh Women's British Open.

6. Pinehurst Course Number 2

Green Fees: Up to $495/round in peak season

Part of the impressive Pinehurst resort, No.2 is the toughest and most expensive offering at the venue.

Donald Ross's masterpiece, No.2 at Pinehurst has served as the site of more single golf championships than any other course in America. It has also hosted back-to-back U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open Championships in 2014. The US Open championship returns in 2024, 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.

5. Whistling Straits – Straits Course

Green Fees: Approximately $555/round

In 1998, the course opened for play, and even designer Pete Dye labelled building Whistling Straits a "once in a lifetime thing". It took a few million dollars and an enormous effort to build the dramatic Straits course, which is sculpted for two miles alongside the Lake Michigan shoreline.

There was consensus in the field after the 2004 PGA Championship that the Straits course is one of the greatest golf courses in the world. In 2010, the PGA Championship made a comeback to Whistling Straits, where Martin Kaymer of Germany emerged victorious in a play-off match against Bubba Watson. This was Kaymer’s first Major victory, and he was just the second German major champion after Bernhard Langer.

4. TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course

Green Fees: Up to $600/round in peak season

From the initial idea by former PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman, THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was built in 1980 to be the permanent home of THE PLAYERS Championship. It is recognised as the first true Stadium Course, and it was designed to improve the overall on-site fan experience.

Renowned golf course architect Pete Dye, worked alongside Commissioner Deane Beman to create a course design that favored no particular style of play, resulting in a truly balanced layout. The signature island green on the par-3, 17th hole is one of the most recognized in golf and the course is consistently named among the best in the world.

3. Pebble Beach Golf Club

Green Fees: Up to $620/round in peak season

Since 1919, Pebble Beach Golf Links’ exquisite beauty and unique challenges have electrified golfers and spectators alike. Designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, the course hugs California's rugged coastline, providing wide-open vistas, cliff-side fairways and sloping greens.

Pebble Beach hosted its sixth US Open in 2019, more than any other course over the last 50 years. Eight future championships will be hosted including: a first US Women's Open in 2023 plus three additional Women's Opens in 2035, 2040 and 2048, and four future US Opens in 2027, 2032, 2037 and 2044. Every February, the PGA TOUR visits for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a tradition that began in 1947.

2. Wynn Golf Club

Green Fees: Approximately $650/round

Wynn Golf Club’s recent green fees increase sees them now rank as the second-most expensive round of golf in the world. On the plus side, if you haven’t brought your weapons, the club offers Callaway loaner clubs at no additional cost. Wynn Golf Club is a 6,722-yard, par-70 championship-length course built to accommodate and challenge all skill-level golfers.

Over 400,000 cubic yards of earth were moved to create the dramatic elevation changes once considered unimaginable on the Las Vegas Strip. Over 8,000 trees span the landscape, including 1,200 that remain from this property's Desert Inn Golf Club legacy. Many trees are more than 70 years old and over 60 feet tall.

1. Shadow Creek Golf Course

Green Fees: Up to $1000/round in peak season

Designed by Tom Fazio, this 18-hole championship course is characterized by its creeks, towering waterfalls and lush gardens framed by commanding mountains.

Fazio said that the $47 million budget was necessary to perform what he now calls "total site manipulation," creating an environment at Shadow Creek where none existed, by carving rolling hills and canyons from the flat desert floor north of Las Vegas and pumping in plenty of water.

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