GOLF’s Course Raters and Ran Morrissett, Structure Editor
JAMES LEWIS
As a part of GOLF’s rigorous rankings course of for our newly launched High 100 Programs within the U.S. and High 100 Programs You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus professional panelists recognized the perfect golf programs in each state.
You may try the hyperlinks beneath to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll right down to see the perfect programs in Maryland. And if you happen to’re seeking to create your individual journey sooner or later, you’d be smart to let GOLF’s new Course Finder software help you. Right here, you may toggle all of our lists — High 100 public, greatest munis, greatest brief programs, greatest par-3s and extra — or filter by worth to create the proper itinerary on your subsequent journey.
GOLF’s different course rankings: High 100 Programs within the World | High 100 Programs within the U.S. | High 100 Programs You Can Play | High 100 Worth Programs within the U.S. | America’s Finest Municipal Programs | The 100 Finest Brief Programs within the World
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The very best golf programs in Maryland (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = High 100 Course within the U.S.
Y = High 100 You Can Play within the U.S.
V = High 100 Worth Course within the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. word: Some programs have been omitted from our rankings as a result of they didn’t obtain sufficient votes.
1. Congressional — Blue (Bethesda) [#]
Nice issues have been all the time meant for this course, given its location simply exterior our nation’s capital. However after 100 years of existence, too many architects had had a hand in its evolution, and this Devereux Emmet design misplaced its Golden Age ethos. What to do? The membership pivoted to Andrew Inexperienced and gave him carte blanche to wholly reimagine the course and unify it beneath one hand. Inexperienced delivered with the revamped design now wanting prefer it has been there for greater than a century. The alternating asks are wonderful and each side of your recreation is examined. Take the stretch of seven through 9: the uphill par-3 seventh requires a carry over the course’s deepest greenside bunker; the eighth is a teaser of a brief par-4 with par amply defended on the angled inexperienced; and the ninth is a 600-plus yard rollercoaster that follows the heaving land again to the majestic clubhouse. Pete Wendt is without doubt one of the nation’s most interesting greenkeepers and his layering of native grasses throughout the rollicking panorama lends the course a luxurious texture that had lengthy been absent. With bushes eliminated and the wind blowing by, the times of a smooth course — just like the one Rory McIlroy encountered when he received the 2011 U.S. Open right here — are a distant reminiscence on the “new previous” Congressional.
2. Baltimore — 5 Farms East (Baltimore) [#]
5 Farms lays on an awesome piece of rolling land. Tillinghast used the land effectively with a routing that takes benefit of the various pure inexperienced websites leading to assorted, attention-grabbing and difficult greens that are the crown jewels of the course. 5 Farms additionally options arguably two of Tillinghast’s greatest par-5s, the barn gap sixth and the nice hazard 14th. The course restoration expanded the greens and fairways, permitting for extra gap areas leading to extra angles and choices throughout the course. For those who rating an invitation, drop all the pieces and go.
3. Burning Tree (Bethesda)
4. Columbia Nation Membership (Chevy Chase)
5. Caves Valley (Owings Mills)
How we rank our programs
For our newly launched High 100 U.S. and High 100 You Can Play lists — a course of that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — every panelist was offered a poll that consisted of 609 programs. Beside the checklist of programs have been 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists thought-about a course to be among the many prime three within the U.S., they ticked that first column. In the event that they believed the course to be amongst Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, adopted by 11-25, 26-50, and so forth out to 250+ and even a column for “take away.” Panelists have been additionally free to put in writing in programs that they felt ought to have been included on the poll.
Factors have been assigned to every bucket; to reach at a mean rating for every course, we divide its combination rating by the variety of votes. From these level tallies, the programs are then ranked accordingly. It’s an deliberately easy and easy course of. Why? As a result of it traditionally has produced outcomes which can be broadly lauded. Like the sport itself, there’s no must unnecessarily complicate issues or attempt to repair one thing that already works so effectively.
The important thing to the method is the expertise and experience of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all of the worldwide golf meccas, every of our 127 handpicked panelists has a eager eye for structure, each regionally and globally. Lots of our panelists have performed greater than 1,000 programs in 20-plus nations, some over 2,000. Their handicaps vary from +5 to fifteen.
As a result of the character in fact ranking is so intensely subjective, nobody opinion carries the day. The one means, then, to construct significant consensus is to include this range of panelists and experiences into one rating.
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