You likely know that TPC Sawgrass started the Tournament Players Club movement in the 1980s as the first PGA Tour-owned and operated club. But do you know the origin of the concept of stadium golf, and how the TPC golf courses network grew since Sawgrass’ debut 42 years ago?

Much credit is due to Deane Beman, whose legendary commissionership included the immense expansion of the tour’s footprint, which included with a new network of courses. In 1988, the PGA Tour owned eight courses. Today, the TPC network includes nearly 30 courses, both private and public-access, with many other facilities either being sold or renamed since.

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Here’s a look at the best TPC courses—ranked in the order our Golf Digest course-ranking panelists scored them based on our most recent America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses ranking and Best in State rankings.

Scroll on for the complete list of the best TPC courses, and be sure to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography and reviews from our course panelists. We also encourage you to leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … so you can make your case for why a course should be higher or lower on our rankings.

15. TPC Stonebrae Private TPC Stonebrae Hayward, CA 4.2 38 Panelists Explore our full review 14. TPC Craig Ranch Private TPC Craig Ranch McKinney, TX 3.3 31 Panelists

TPC Craig Ranch, located in the Dallas suburb of McKinney, is a Tom Weiskopf design that plays among gently rolling hills and on the limestone banks of Rowlett Creek, which crosses the course 14 times. In 2020, the course signed a five-year agreement to host the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson. South Korean K.H. Lee captured the first two titles at TPC Craig Ranch, which surrendered low scoring in each of the three years it’s held the event, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Explore our full review 13. TPC River’s Bend Private TPC River’s Bend Maineville, OH 3.8 23 Panelists

Explore our full review 12. TPC Scottsdale (Stadium) Public TPC Scottsdale: Stadium Scottsdale, AZ 3.9 232 Panelists

The famed home of the WM Phoenix Open boasts probably the most well-known stadium hole in golf: the par-3 16th. Tiger Woods’ hole-in-one in 1997 put it on the map for casual fans, who now flock to Scottsdale during Super Bowl week. The layout has architectural merit, too, with its risk-and-reward-filled back nine. Tom Weiskopf, who designed the course with Jay Morrish, has overseen renovations of the course—making tweaks to please the tour player and resort guest alike. Explore our full review More From Golf Digest Desert golf Golf Digest Logo The 25 best courses you can play in Scottsdale 11. TPC Summerlin Private TPC Summerlin Las Vegas, NV 4 52 Panelists

TPC Summerlin co-hosted the 1996 Shriners Children’s Open (then the Las Vegas Invitational), where Tiger Woods captured his first career PGA Tour victory. The Las Vegas desert layout, designed by Fuzzy Zoeller and Bobby Weed, winds through arroyos and canyons. As you’d expect from a TPC facility, the practice facilities are tremendous, covering 12 acres and including two short game areas and a 10,000 square-foot practice green. Explore our full review 10 . TPC River Highlands Private TPC River Highlands Cromwell, CT 4.3 34 Panelists

TPC River Highlands has a long history hosting the annual Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour, dating back to 1984, when Pete Dye redesigned nine of the existing holes (formerly Edgewood Country Club). Then one of Dye’s former associates, Bobby Weed, returned in 1989 to not only renovate the existing course but add holes as part of a newly built home-development project, one of the first of its kind. Weed has continued to return to renovate the course over the years, including most recently a substantial bunker project in 2016. Explore our full review 9. TPC Harding Park Public TPC Harding Park San Francisco, CA 3.9 117 Panelists Across the street from the Olympic Club is San Francisco’s most famous muny, designed by the same architect, Willie Watson. Framed by eucalyptus, cypress and monterey pines, TPC Harding Park hosted a PGA Tour event in the 1950s and 1960s. And it hosted the 2020 PGA Championship, won by Collin Morikawa, after a significant renovation a couple years prior. The course also hosted the 2009 Presidents Cup, as well as the 1937 and 1956 U.S. Amateur Public Links. Explore our full review 8. TPC Myrtle Beach Public TPC Myrtle Beach Murrells Inlet, SC 3.9 65 Panelists

Once the host of the Senior PGA Tour Championship and now home to Dustin Johnson’s annual World Junior Golf Championship, TPC Myrtle Beach is designed to challenge even the pros. Numerous water hazards, strategically placed trees, and forced carries make this track a tough, but enjoyable test. Explore our full review 7. TPC Sugarloaf Private TPC Sugarloaf: Stables/Meadows Duluth, GA 0 32 Panelists

TPC Sugarloaf was the host of the Bell South Classic from 1997 through 2008, held on the Stables and Meadows nines of this 27 hole club. The Greg Norman design was impressive for the champions it produced, including Tiger Woods, David Duval, Retief Goosen, Zach Johnson (twice) and Phil Mickelson (three times). The course is notable for its slick-shouldered greens and stacked sod-wall bunkers, a feature not often seen in U.S. golf in the 90s. The club recently completed a multi-million dollar renovation that has brought the infrastructure up to 21st century standards. Explore our full review More From Golf Digest USGA Certified Golf Digest Logo 5 courses that I played to prepare for the U.S. Amateur 6. TPC Deere Run Public TPC Deere Run Silvis, IL 4.1 44 Panelists

The John Deere Classic began in 1971 as the Quad Cities Open (named for the four cities—Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island and Moline—that border the Iowa and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River, respectively). It moved to its current home, TPC Deere Run, in 2000, a layout designed at that time by former PGA Tour player D.A. Weibring and design partner Steve Wolfard. The architecture is befitting of a course that came off the desk of a tour pro and was calibrated to host a professional event: Though the strength of the field is typically diluted given the tournament’s traditional place on the schedule the week before the Open Championship, it’s a venue the players who participate in the John Deere Classic love.The routing constantly switches directions as it winds through a wooded property near Rock River, and most holes have some degree of left-to-right or right-to-left movement caused by doglegs and bunkers. At just over 7,200 yards and yielding winning scores around 20-under, it’s an attractive test for shorter players who like to work the ball as well as for those in dire need of seeing plenty of birdies on their card. –Derek Duncan Explore our full review 5. TPC San Antonio (AT&T Oaks) Private TPC San Antonio Oaks Course San Antonio, TX 3 55 Panelists

TPC San Antonio’s Oaks course has hosted the Valero Texas Open since 2010. Playing through the dry outlands north of the city, the Greg Norman design is one of the most strategically compelling courses on tour with aggressive bunkering, some wonderful short par 4s and several uniquely demanding par 5s, including the 18th, one of the most underrated and frustrating closing holes the professionals play. –Derek Duncan, architecture editor Explore our full review 4. TPC Colorado Public TPC Colorado Berthoud, CO 4.1 61 Panelists

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: I walked TPC Colorado with its architect, Art Schaupeter, during a Korn Ferry Tour event in 2019. The course is located north of Denver, south of Fort Collins, on highlands where the Great Plains intersects the Rocky Mountains. It’s a layout serving a residential development called Heron Lakes and stretches along the east side of Lonetree Reservoir. Art explained to me that back in 2004, he’d done Highland Meadows Golf Club in nearby Windsor, Colo. for developer John Turner, who then hired him to design this course. But the project got put on hold until 2015. Art had just dusted off his 10-year-old blueprints and started staking the course when Turner informed him that he’d contracted with the PGA Tour to license the course as part of the TPC network.

Read Whitten’s complete review, here.

Explore our full review More From Golf Digest Everyman golf Golf Digest Logo 10 hidden gems near bucket-list golf courses 3. TPC Southwind Private TPC Southwind Memphis, TN 3.8 55 Panelists

The Ron Prichard design (with consultation from Hubert Green and Fuzzy Zoeller) has hosted an event on the PGA Tour since 1989, and starting in 2022, it hosts one of the premier events on the PGA Tour schedule, the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Located about a half hour from downtown Memphis on an old dairy farm, TPC Southwind holds its own against the best players in the game with water coming into play on 11 holes. The par-3 11th hole is perhaps the course’s signature hole, featuring a peninsula green that requires a short iron, similar to the 17th at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium course. The hole will be memorable for anyone who watched the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, when Will Zalatoris’ tee shot ended up staying dry and wedging itself between the grass, in his playoff victory over Sepp Straka. Explore our full review 2. TPC Boston Private TPC Boston Norton, MA 4.2 40 Panelists

Gil Hanse’s team completed renovation on the 12th and 13th holes at TPC Boston in 2017, completing a 10-plus-year project in which Hanse’s team attempted to reestablish a New England-type style to the course. The course, which sits about 45 minutes from downtown Boston, was the longtime host of a FedEx Cup Playoff event on the PGA Tour. Explore our full review 1. TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium) Public TPC Sawgrass: Stadium Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 4.6 178 Panelists

• 100 Greatest
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• Best In State

TPC’s stadium concept was the idea of then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman. The 1980 design was pure Pete Dye, who set out to test the world’s best golfers by mixing demands of distance with target golf. Most greens are ringed by random lumps, bumps and hollows, what Dye calls his “grenade attack architecture.” His ultimate target hole is the heart-pounding sink-or-swim island green 17th, which offers no bailout, perhaps unfairly in windy Atlantic coast conditions. The 17th has spawned over a hundred imitation island greens in the past 40 years. To make the layout even more exciting during tournament play, Steve Wenzloff of PGA Tour Design Services recently remodeled several holes, most significantly the 12th, which is now a drivable par 4. Explore our full review

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com