5 Ryder Cup golf courses everyone should have on their bucket list

Ranking the Ryder Cup courses is a near-impossible task. At the risk of shattering your illusions the host venue is all about money and making as much of it as possible. Millions, maybe as much as £100m, are made through sponsorship, ticket sales, TV and merchandising and the Cup is run by different bodies that have nothing to do with the PGA Tour, R&A or USGA.

It is administered by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, with the latter having a 60 per cent share by the European Tour Group while the PGA of Great Britain & Europe and the PGAs of Europe both own a 20 per cent share.

Formal bids are put in and the venue will be selected based on the course, venue, infrastructure and how much money the government is happy to pump into the competition. The PGA of America have their own courses which they will go to and the result is a bunch of courses that don't get close to the standard of courses of the Walker Cup venues.

The last 10 Ryder Cup matches have been played at Marco Simone (Italy), Whistling Straits, Le Golf National (France), Hazeltine, Gleneagles (Scotland), Medinah, Celtic Manor (Wales), Valhalla, K Club (Ireland) and Oakland Hills.

Compare that to the Walker Cup where we have been to Cypress Point, the Old Course, Seminole, Royal Liverpool, Los Angeles Country Club, Lytham, National Golf Links, Royal Aberdeen, Merion and Royal County Down. The next two venues are Lahinch and Bandon Dunes.

So, for quality of courses, they don't even compare. The PGA Centenary at Gleneagles is ranked by the Top 100 Golf Courses as the 71st best course in Scotland so this should make it clear that the quality of the course isn't overly high on the list of priorities.

But that's not to say that the Ryder Cup hasn't visited some incredible courses. The job here is to provide five outstanding and worthy courses to host a brilliant Ryder Cup. There's an element of truth in saying that the course has almost become futile, given the excitement and drama flying around the property, but imagine if we could revisit the best courses.

So the only stipulation is that the Ryder Cup has to have been held here before. The easy move would to just plump for the best courses ie lots of seaside links but we’ve tried to produce a mix of the wonderful courses on both sides of the Atlantic.

1. Pinehurst No.2 

Top of the shop is Pinehurst No. 2 which many of us would struggle to pinpoint as a former Ryder Cup venue. There is going to be an 11th course here, which is fairly mind-blowing, and No. 2 is very special indeed. Every two years we get to salivate over the Walker Cup venues and this would take the Ryder Cup to even greater levels.

How many players came away from the 2024 US Open without the usual grumbles about the set-up or playing of the course? And the finish is spectacular – we might even see a long iron being needed at 16, then a world-class par 3 and then the prospect of trying to negotiate the 18th.

We don’t want corporate stands to make a Ryder Cup special or to create a special atmosphere – and the Payne Stewart link would add a nice touch.

READ OUR FULL PINEHURST NO. 2 COURSE REVIEW

2. Royal Lytham & St Annes

The very easy thing to now do would be to simply throw in a collection of Major-style links courses and there are plenty to choose from – Muirfield, Southport & Ainsdale and Royal Birkdale – but Royal Lytham & St Annes has gone under the radar in recent years so let’s take the Ryder Cup to the environs of Blackpool.

Lytham is a fantastic championship course which would make a sensational setting for a Ryder Cup. We all understand the talk of logistics and timing in the calendar but a Ryder Cup held on a links course would be off the charts.  

READ OUR ROYAL LYTHAM & ST ANNES COURSE REVIEW

3. Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island has always delivered but, relatively speaking, we’ve barely seen it on the big stage. The 2031 PGA is heading back here but, if you’ve only got into the game in the past decade, then Phil Mickelson’s very cool win here in 2021 will be your only memory of the place.

For all the War On The Shore talk, the 1991 Ryder Cup was pretty epic on many levels. The course, which had barely just opened, provided a brilliant and very tricky test which made the players look very good or very silly. And the setting, for the American celebrations, was incredible.

READ OUR FULL KIAWAH ISLAND COURSE REVIEW

4. Real Club Valderrama

Let’s add a bit of Continental Europe flavour. Bizarrely the Ryder Cup has only been outside Great Britain and Ireland three times – Valderrama (1997), Le Golf National (2018) and Marco Simone (2023) – and so it’s not that hard to single out Valderrama.

Marco Simone is ranked as the 11th best course in Italy (Top 100 Golf Courses) and doesn’t make it into Europe’s Top 100 while Le Golf National is 51st. Valderrama is on another level, 5th in Europe and the final entry in the best 100 courses on the planet.

For all the talk of Seve getting overly involved this provided a brilliant three days of competition, despite the lack of daylight and rain, and the captain rightfully got to lift the trophy on home soil.  

READ OUR FULL VALDERRAMA REVIEW

5. Oakland Hills Country Club

Golf Digest now have Oakland Hills as the 20th best course in the States which, in Ryder Cup talk, is something else. We could have gone with Oak Hill, Muirfield Village or Brookline, which are similarly ranked, but we’ve gone with this Donald Ross design.

The South Course has now been restored to what Ross intended, more rolling landscape than the tree-lined and rough set-up that we might remember it by. This was the scene of Tiger and Phil being thrust together as a Ryder Cup pairing which lasted for just a single day and brought about zero points.

READ OUR FULL OAKLAND HILLS COURSE REVIEW

We all have our favourite Ryder Cup moments and many of them have come on quite ordinary courses. If you were to hold the next five Ryder Cups on the above courses then the competition would be even better, even more dramatic and even more special.

For the record the next four Ryder Cups will be held at Adare Manor (Ireland), Hazeltine, Camiral (Spain) and the Olympic Club. In 2037 Congressional will play host to the matches.