Golfweek Honors the Nation's Top Tracks with Its Annual Best Courses Issue

(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Golfweek released its annual Best Courses Issue, which celebrates the crème de la crème in golf course design and architecture. This dedicated edition features the complete national rankings of Golfweek’s Best Classic, Modern and State-by-State Courses, serving as avid golfers’ go-to guide for the country’s finest layouts.

“This year’s rankings and accompanying stories highlight courses that are hosting majors in 2016,” said Bradley S. Klein, national director of Golfweek’s Best Courses rating program. “With No. 56 Scioto Country Club (Columbus, Ohio) hosting the U.S. Senior Open, No. 45 Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course (Springfield, New Jersey) playing home to the 2016 PGA Championship, No. 6 Oakmont Country Club (Oakmont, Pennsylvania) as the site of the U.S. Open, and – of course – No. 5 Augusta National Golf Club (Augusta, Georgia) as the home of the Masters, we explore what keeps these great old layouts relevant and challenging to championship play today.”

In addition to the highly anticipated rankings, this special issue also features expert reports and commentary that delve deeper into what it takes to build an award-winning course. Delivering modern-day architects’ perspectives on why some timeless principles continue to resonate more than a century later, Golfweek’s cover story explores the strong influence classic course design still has on the game today. Meanwhile, the magazine’s 19th Hole column offers Klein’s take on what unique architectural characteristics and embellishments truly make a course stand out.

To produce Golfweek's Best Courses lists, an expert team of more than 850 course raters uses a 10-point ranking system to select the best layouts from two distinctly different eras: pre-1960 and post-1960. The exclusive system recognizes that prior to 1960 – the year that separates Classic from Modern – most golf course architects relied on natural contours for course features. After 1960, as the game’s popularity grew, architects began to utilize high-tech engineering and advanced mechanical means to transform the landscape to suit their designs.

To view complete lists of the 2016 Golfweek's Best Modern, Classic and State-by-State Courses, visit Golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest.