Who says that golf lacks a compelling mano-a-mano rivalry? In our ranking of the Top 100 Courses You Can Play, two heavy hitters have dominated the competition for more than a decade. Now, for the first time in 12 years, there’s a new Number One: Pebble Beach has reclaimed the top spot from Pacific Dunes. Mind you, Tom Doak’s design on the Oregon coast is no less brilliant. Rather, our judges were swayed by Pebble’s ongoing improvements. Since our last survey two years ago, Pebble has enhanced the seaside 17th (restoring the size of the green and revamping the bunkering) and smoothed out the wildly sloping 14th green, which had gotten out of control with modern green speeds. Beyond Pebble and Pacific, six rookies have catapulted their way onto the list, headed by urban legend Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx, N.Y., and by Gamble Sands, David McLay Kidd’s high-desert funfest in central Washington State. And kudos to Streamsong Resort’s Red course in Florida, a Bill Coore–Ben Crenshaw design that’s cracked the top 10. Could one of these newcomers challenge the Big Two for supremacy? Check back in 2018 for the answer. THE LIST 1. Pebble Beach Golf Links

Pebble Beach, Calif. ($495-$565) Site of five U.S. Opens, 70 PGA Tour events and countless photos of the Pacific Ocean, Pebble has been tweaked several times since its 1919 debut, yet even today there isn’t a more thrilling, spectacular stretch of holes anywhere than holes 7 through 10. And is there anything in golf that can compare with that final stroll up the par-5 18th as it curls to the left around the splendor of Carmel Bay? 2. Pacific Dunes

Bandon, Ore. ($85-$310) The highest-ranking American links, this 2001 Tom Doak creation checks in as one of the greatest modern designs in the world. It fits so majestically into its billowing terrain, it looks like it’s been there 100 years. Scattered blow-out bunkers, gigantic natural dunes, smartly contoured greens and Pacific panoramas are headliners. 3. Pinehurst Resort No. 2

Pinehurst, N.C. ($370-$480) Donald Ross’s 108-year-old chef d’oeuvre rolls gently and spaciously through tall Longleaf pines in the Carolina Sandhills, with holes culminating in the legendary “inverted saucer” greens that have confounded the game’s very best since they were first grassed in 1935. For the 2014 U.S. Open, a Coore-Crenshaw restoration brought back the tawny-edged fairways and native roughs last seen in the 1940s. 4. Bethpage State Park (Black)

Farmingdale, N.Y. ($78-$150) The Black scares golfers with a sign at the first tee: “Warning — The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.” Among the highly skilled? Tiger Woods and Lucas Glover, who won the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens here. The “People’s Open,” as the 2002 edition came to be known, brutalized players with its Rees Jones-restored A.W. Tillinghast layout, owing to rugged, uphill par-4s, massive bunkers and wrist-fracturing rough. Woods was the only golfer to break par for 72 holes. 5. Whistling Straits (Straits)

Kohler, Wis. ($395-$460) Venue for the 2004, ’10 and ’15 PGA Championships, this 1998 Pete Dye design on Lake Michigan was once a poker table-flat military training base in World War II. Eventually it became a site for illegal dumping of toxic waste. Dye and owner Herb Kohler engineered a mind-boggling cleanup, moved three million cubic yards of dirt, trucked in 7,000 loads of sand to create the hills and bunkers, and repositioned the bluffs farther back from the shore. All Kohler told Dye was “I want the course to look like it’s in Ireland.” Mission accomplished. 6. The Ocean Course at Kiawah Resort

Kiawah Island, S.C. ($274-$374) A blend of tidal marsh carries, scrub-topped dunes and wildly undulating greens pair with 7,600 muscular yards to form a relentless mix of beauty and brawn. While architect Pete Dye has softened his greens and their surrounds over years, the Ocean Course remains among the toughest tests in the country. That’s what competitors in the 1991 “War by the Shore” Ryder Cup maintain; Rory McIlroy, who decimated the course in winning the 2012 PGA Championship, might feel differently. 7. TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium)

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. ($350-$495) Venue for the PGA Tour’s Players Championship since 1982, Pete Dye’s imaginative, variety-filled and occasionally terror-inducing track has crowned winners such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Greg Norman and Adam Scott. One of the wildest finishes took place in 2013, when Sergio Garcia, tied with Woods, splashed two tee shots at the infamous island-green 17th, made quadruple-bogey, and sunk to eighth place. Some sniff at its artificiality, yet for shotmaking options and memorable individual holes that require a blend of power and finesse, TPC Sawgrass has few peers. 8. Bandon Dunes

Bandon, Ore. ($85-$310) Bandon’s original course is a David McLay Kidd design draped atop craggy headlands above the Pacific. Ocean views stun the senses, along with bluff-top sand dunes sprinkled with Scotch broom and gorse bushes, coastal pines, crashing surf, wind-whipped tall native grasses, and stacked sod bunkers. The most memorable seaside tests are the par-4 fourth, the par-3 12th and the par-4 16th, each with eye-popping scenery and enjoyable risk/rewards. 9. Harbour Town Golf Links

Hilton Head Island, S.C. ($190-$380) A favorite of PGA Tour pros for more than 40 years, Harbour Town boasts the iconic candy cane-striped lighthouse that backdrops the 18th hole — and so much more. A place of subtle beauty, this is a shotmaker’s paradise where power takes a backseat to precision. Mixing live oaks, lagoons, tiny greens, bunkers banked by railroad ties and a closing stretch along the Calibogue Sound, this Pete Dye/Jack Nicklaus collaboration delights and terrorizes at every turn. 10. Streamsong Resort (Red)

Streamsong, Fla. ($85-$255) Streamsong dishes out a unique palette for Florida golf. Tall, odd-shaped sand piles, significant climbs and drops, firm, fast-running Bermuda fairways and lakes submerged in the sand spice the play on the Coore-Crenshaw-designed Red course. The uphill, 474-yard, par-4 opener sets the tone, with a drive over water and scrub. Most dramatic is the 208-yard, par-3 16th, a funky, stunning Biarritz hole, with a forced carry over water leading to a green that’s bisected by a massive hollow.

11. Old Macdonald

Bandon, Ore. ($85-$310) This 2010 Tom Doak/Jim Urbina collaboration features turnpike-wide landing areas and gigantic, heaving greens that are hard to miss. To get the ball into the hole, however, you’ll need to master angles, strategy, trajectory and the ground game, making for an Old World links experience second to none in the U.S. The course pays homage to the design style and template holes of C.B. Macdonald, American’s pioneer architect, though the most memorable hole is a Doak/Urbina original, the par-4 7th, where the elevated green peers down over the beach.

12. Bandon Trails

Bandon, Ore. ($85-$310) Unlike its elder Bandon siblings, “Trails” doesn’t cling to cliffs, but it’s no less spectacular. It opens in massive, scrub-covered dunes, then plunges into pine forest and touches linksy meadow before returning to dunesland. Along the way are stirring long views of the Pacific and a superb set of wildly different par-3s. 13. Pasatiempo Golf Club

Santa Cruz, Calif. ($240-$272) Par has been shaved from 74 to 70 since Dr. Alister MacKenzie’s finest public access course first opened in 1929, yet it seldom takes a beating, even at the hands of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson or Tiger Woods, none of whom has bettered 67. How can such a pipsqueak in the yardage department play so difficult? Try rolling terrain that’s crisscrossed by barrancas, slender fairways hemmed in by trees, hordes of deep, artfully sculpted bunkers, Pacific Ocean breezes and nightmarishly quick, canted greens. 14. Streamsong Resort (Blue)

Streamsong, Fla. ($85-$255)

Hewn from the remnants of old phosphate mines, Streamsong Blue features a distinctive sand-based canvas that puts an emphasis on ground-game prowess. Tom Doak crafted fairways that cling to the terrain as if they’ve been here for thousands of years. Greens melt into their surrounds. Imaginative green-contouring forces players to think before approaching. After the dizzying panorama from the par-4 1st, the next stunner is the 203-yard, par-3 7th that demands a lake carry to a wildly undulating green cocooned in the sandhills. This is retro golf with modern trappings. 15. Spyglass Hill Golf Course

Pebble Beach, Calif ($395-$435) Part of the rotation for the PGA Tour’s Bing Crosby (now AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am) since 1967, this Robert Trent Jones Sr. design has been one of the Tour’s hardest layouts for nearly 50 years. Few have conquered its dune-flecked, oceanside start, nor its final 13 holes through the pines, except Phil Mickelson in 2005 and Luke Donald in 2006, when both posted astonishing 10-under-par 62s. 16. Shadow Creek North

Las Vegas, Nev. ($500) Tom Fazio and Steve Wynn demonstrated in 1990 that with sufficient money and imagination, there’s nothing that couldn’t be accomplished in golf course design. Hewn from flat, featureless desert, Shadow Creek emerged with rolling hills, a forest of pines, bursts of flowers and a network of creeks and lakes. 17. Chambers Bay Golf Course

University Place, Wash. ($100-$275) Controversial home to the 2010 U.S. Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Open, this 7,500-yard, walking-only, Robert Trent Jones II design unfolds atop an old gravel mine at the southeast tip of Puget Sound, 45 minutes south of Seattle. The eye candy commences at the first hole, a par-4 that shares a fairway with the 18th a la St. Andrews, amid 50-foot dunes. 18. Trump National Doral (Blue Monster)

Miami, Fla. ($250-$450) An extraordinary makeover from Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner took what had become a tired resort course and turned it into one of the toughest tests on the PGA Tour, a fire-breather that once again lived up to its name. Newly installed teeth in the form of added yardage, altered angles, contoured greens and steeper slopes around the putting surfaces have dramatically altered the layout, strengthening it in every way. 19. Blackwolf Run (River)

Kohler, Wis. ($285-$320) Often an afterthought to its sibling, Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run’s River is a major venue in its own right. It played host to the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open, when nine of its holes paired with Blackwolf Run’s original front nine (now the back nine of the Meadow Valleys course). Dye’s typically penal hard edges along water hazards, ligament-snapping rough and nasty, steep, grass-faced bunkers are angst-inducing, but memorable holes abound, such as the remarkable short par-4 9th, with three legitimate options off the tee and the handsome, if brutal closing stretch of 16-18 that incorporates a twisting arm of the Sheboygan River.

20. Torrey Pines Golf Course (South)

La Jolla, Calif. ($110-$272) This clifftop, city-owned venue overlooking the Pacific Ocean in suburban San Diego stretches 7,600 yards, following a 2001 Rees Jones renovation that also moved greens closer to canyon edges. Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson have won Tour events here. Tiger Woods has dominated, with seven wins in the Farmers Insurance Open and one amazing U.S. Open victory in 2008. Omni Homestead (Cascades) Hole 16 21. Forest Dunes Golf Club

Roscommon, Mich. ($69-$149) An inspired Tom Weiskopf design three hours northwest of Detroit rolls through man-made sand dunes and red pine forests, with ground game options aided by firm, fast, rumpled fairways and perfectly groomed greens. Strategic tests such as the double-fairway, par-4 10th and the drivable par-4 17th, framed with sand and fescues, are superb. 22. Sea Island Golf Club (Seaside)

St. Simons Island, Ga. ($235-$320) Home to the PGA Tour since 2010, the venerable 88-year-old Seaside layout was redesigned by Tom Fazio in 1999. Marsh-tinged wetlands, bold bunkers and views of the Atlantic Ocean are highlights. Most remarkable was the 2012 event, when Tommy Gainey’s final-round 60 catapulted him over Davis Love, Jim Furyk and David Toms for the win. 23. Erin Hills Golf Course

Erin, Wisc. ($265-$280) Thirty-five miles northwest of Milwaukee, Erin Hills occupies a massive, topsy-turvy spread of ridges, dunes and fescue grasses, lending an Ireland-in-the-Heartland ambiance — but no Emerald Isle course stretches to 7,823 yards, as this one does. Designed by Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten, Erin Hills controversially was chosen to host the 2017 U.S. Open before it had fully established itself. Yet, it proved worthy as host to the 2008 U.S. Women’s Public Links event, and again at the 2011 U.S. Amateur. A few ill-advised design changes by the original owner have now been reversed and today, Erin Hills boasts a formidable test of modern links-style shotmaking, with contour, angles, varied green sites and Old World bunkering. 24. Kapalua Resort (Plantation)

Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii ($219-$299) Home to the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, this 1991 Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw creation features extra-wide landing areas draped atop a former pineapple plantation. Past winners Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els have each conquered the downhill-plunging 508-yard, par-4 17th and the 663-yard, par-5 18th, both with jungle-strewn canyons to the left and Pacific Ocean views beyond. 25. Troon North Golf Club (Pinnacle)

Scottsdale, Ariz. ($39-$279) Tucked into the shadows of Pinnacle Peak and down the block from the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale, this Weiskopf/Morrish creation zigzags through boulders and cacti, at times leapfrogging dry desert washes and at others, skirting mountain slopes. Daunting forced carries and strategic risk/reward options elevates the Pinnacle for strong players. 26. Omni Homestead (Cascades)

Hot Springs, Va. ($100-$195) Sloping fairways, gurgling brooks, tree-shrouded mountains and library-like tranquility fuel a round of golf at this 1923 William Flynn design that demands artful shotmaking, of the likes once favored by native son Sam Snead, who grew up here. Cascades serves up a dazzling array of lies, stances and imaginative shots you will be asked to manufacture, with the first 12 holes hemmed in by thick woods. The last six open up and strategy options abound. 27. Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles

Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. ($160-$280) The world’s only Donald J. Trump Signature design will have you fired up to experience its spectacular bluff-top setting above the Pacific, some 40 minutes south of LAX. Draped atop cliffs amid the rolling horse country of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, no course in America offers such exquisite ocean vistas for four and a half hours. Pete Dye and Tom Fazio contributed to Trump’s original design and most recently, Gil Hanse has installed some classical features. 28. The Highland Course at Primland Resort

Meadows of Dan, Va. ($135-$220) Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 20 miles north of the North Carolina border, English architect Donald Steel draped the Highland course across mountain peaks and into valleys that edge a River Dan gorge. He also outfitted the layout with deep bunkers and closely mown green surrounds that place an emphasis on precise approaches. At 3,000 feet elevation, the fall color palette is rich. 29. Caledonia Golf and Fish Club

Pawleys Island, S.C. ($69-$209) Don’t let Caledonia’s miniscule 6,526 back tee yardage fool you: Stands of hardwoods, lakes, wetlands and imposing live oaks whose branches swat away stray shots like Tim Duncan make this 1994 Mike Strantz design a complete test of shotmaking. An antebellum clubhouse and 18th hole that border an old rice plantation and the Waccamaw River completes a pretty picture.

30. Fallen Oak at Beau Rivage Resort

Biloxi, Miss. ($200) Picture Shadow Creek drenched in Deep South aesthetics and you have another Tom Fazio-MGM masterpiece, 20 minutes inland from the coastal Beau Rivage. Fallen Oak dishes out streams, orchards, lakes and wetlands, along with Fazio’s sprawling bunkers—plus an Acadian-style, Southern Mansion clubhouse. 31. Cog Hill (No. 4)

Lemont, Ill. ($155) Former Western Open/BMW Championship venue Cog Hill in the southwestern Chicago suburbs became Tiger Woods’ personal playground. In 14 appearances, he triumphed five times between 1997 and 2009. Dick Wilson and Joe Lee crafted Cog Hill in 1964. More than 50 years later, Rees Jones added new back tees and reworked bunkers and greens to restore the dread in a course nicknamed, “Dubsdread.” 32. Mauna Kea Golf Course

Kamuela, Big Island, Hawaii ($165-$275) Robert Trent Jones lists this 1964 Big Island layout as among his five favorite designs (of more than 500) and it’s easy to see why. It boasts his signature characteristics: long tees, propped-up greens protected by yawning traps and man-sized carries over water—notably at the 272-yard, par-3 third hole, which skirts the Pacific Ocean. 33. Dancing Rabbit (Azaleas)

Choctaw, Miss. ($70-$150) This undulating 1997 Tom Fazio/Jerry Pate design 70 miles northeast of Jackson darts through thick forest for most of its journey, on a canvas ribboned with creeks, wetlands and in springtime, countless azaleas, notably at the par-4 sixth and the par-3 13th, both boasting amphitheater settings. If your luck runs out at the long, watery, par-4 18th, you can find it again down the street at the Pearl River Resort. 34. Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club

Sandia Park, N.M. ($62-$117) Situated between 6,500 and 7,000 breathtaking feet on the eastern side of the Sandia Mountains, 25 minutes from Albuquerque, Paa-Ko dishes out a series of option-laden desert jewels that tumble through junipers, cedars and pines, forming a surprisingly green backdrop to many holes. However, numerous rock outcroppings, sagebrush and arroyos remind you that you’ll still in the desert. 35. World Woods (Pine Barrens)

Brooksville, Fla. ($40-$119) With its forced carries over sandy waste areas and pine-framed, risk/reward holes, Pine Barrens is intended to resemble Pine Valley, but this 1993 Tom Fazio design is more player-friendly and much easier to get onto. It’s an hour-plus ride north of Tampa into Nowheresville, but well worth the journey. The 330-yard, split-fairway, drivable par-4 15th is a standout. 36. Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club

Arcadia, Mich. ($85-$190) Top teacher Rick Smith and design associate Warren Henderson teamed in 1998 to craft this headlands course that peers down at Lake Michigan early and often, inevitably in spectacular fashion. With breezes off the lake, tawny fescues and tall sand dunes, the course professes a linksy feel, without being quite as bouncy as a true links, but at least the wide fairways and large greens make for extra playability in the wind. 37. The Greenbrier (Old White TPC)

White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. ($250-$425) Following a sensitive 2007 restoration by Lester George, this 102-year-old C.B. Macdonald-Seth Raynor effort has charmed the old admirers and wowed the new ones. The PGA Tour has played here since 2010, amid the rolling terrain in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains and players delight in the classic accents, such as the Redan par-3 8th, Punchbowl par-4 9th and Eden par-3 15th. Devastating floods closed the course in June 2016. It’s scheduled to reopen in 2017. 38. Pronghorn Golf Club and Resort (Nicklaus)

Bend, Ore. ($95-$215) This 2004 creation didn’t reach mass appeal until it opened its doors to outside play in 2010. Since then, folks have been scaling the snow-topped Cascades for a chance to duel with this sagebrush-lined, high desert treat that’s dotted with lava rock ridges and juniper trees, notably at the lake-guarded, dogleg-right, 378-yard, par-4 13th. 39. Dunes Golf and Beach Club

Myrtle Beach, S.C. ($100-$215) The Dunes is a 1948 Robert Trent Jones Sr. creation that sports the master’s celebrated elevated greens, strategically deployed water hazards and heroic shot values, notably at the vaunted 590-yard, par-5 13th, that doglegs 110 degrees to the right around Lake Singleton. Double bogeys and alligators await any sliced shot.

40. We-Ko-Pa Golf Club (Saguaro)

Fort McDowell, Ariz. ($75-$235) Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s 2006 gem may lack the in-your-face drama of its sibling the Cholla, but its jaw-dropping mountain vistas are no less impressive and its subtle strategies are superior. Rolling, tilted, walkable fairways, imaginative green contouring, cactus-covered hillsides and no homes or roads make for a remarkable back-to-nature experience. 41. Reynolds Lake Oconee (Great Waters)

Greensboro, Ga. ($159-$245) Few courses so successfully fuse beauty, challenge and playability as this 1992 effort that hugs the shoreline of Lake Oconee for nearly the entire back nine. Tall pines frame most of the holes, but the essence of the course centers on superior risk/reward tests such as the par-4 9th, par-4th 11th and par-5 18th, each of which challenges the mind and delights the eye with lakeside peril. 42. Taconic Golf Club

Williamstown, Mass. ($100-$160) Abutting the postcard perfect campus of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., Taconic blends heart-of-the-Berkshires charm with superb shotmaking challenges. Trivia buffs: 16-year-old Jack Nicklaus aced the par-3 14th hole in a practice round at the 1956 U.S. Junior Amateur. Still, it’s the 470-yard, downhill, par-4 11th that will set your camera clicking. 43. Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point

Bronx, N.Y. ($194-$255) New York City finally has a track to challenge Bethpage Black for public-access state supremacy. This Jack Nicklaus creation, with John Sanford consulting, is a treeless faux-links, complete with dunes and fescue grasses framing the fairways and options around the greens. Most memorable, however, are the Gotham visuals, from the Whitestone Bridge to the East River to the Manhattan skyline. 44. Manele Golf Course

Lanai City, Lanai, Hawaii ($325) Jack Nicklaus’ 23-year-old hillside layout in the shadow of the Four Seasons Resort is best known for its incomparable 202-yard, par-3 12th, its green and tees separated by vertical cliff faces and the crashing surf of Hulopo’e Bay 150 feet below. The rest of the course isn’t far behind, with holes twisting among black lava outcroppings above the Pacific Ocean. 45. Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge (Challenger/Champion)

Orlando, Fla. ($90-$324) Arnold Palmer and Bay Hill have been synonymous since 1965, when Arnie shot 66 and waxed Jack Nicklaus in an exhibition. Four years later, Arnie bought the place. Tiger Woods owns eight Tour triumphs at Bay Hill and captured the 1991 U.S. Junior Amateur here—his first USGA victory. Gently rolling—unusual for Florida—and splashed with lakes, bunkers and doglegs, Bay Hill favors shotmakers, as well as someone with nerves, as the watery two-hole finish is as scary as they come. 46. We-Ko-Pa Golf Club (Cholla)

Fort McDowell, Ariz. ($75-$235) We-Ko-Pa’s original course, designed by Scott Miller in 2001, zigzags through cactus-framed canyons, climb atop ridges and offer stunning vistas of Four Peaks Mountain and Red Mountain, with nary a home or road in sight. Three split-fairway holes are Cholla highlights. 47. The Links at Spanish Bay

Pebble Beach, Calif. ($280-$320) This undeniably gorgeous layout begins at the Pacific Ocean, eases through marshes and dunes, climbs into the forest and finally returns to the sea. The green at the par-5 first affords a sweeping panorama of the waters of Spanish Bay, clear out to the spit of land known as Point Joe, which serves as home to the Restless Sea, where ocean and bay currents collide, creating a tumult of foamy, white sea spray. 48. Gamble Sands

Brewster, Wash. ($85-$160) GOLF Magazine’s Best New Course winner of 2014 is a David McLay Kidd design in central Washington that serves up extra-wide, firm fairways that zigzag around massive sand ridges and heavily contoured greens that place significant emphasis on ground game options. The rugged, high-desert scenery includes Columbia River views and vistas of the snow-capped northern Cascades. 49. Bulle Rock

Havre de Grace, Md. ($79-$130) Five times the venue for the LPGA Championship, this beautiful 18-year-old brute from Pete Dye that’s situated 40 minutes north of Baltimore unfolds over rolling, tree-lined terrain for 7,375 yards and enjoys several grin-inducing vistas of Chesapeake Bay. The 485-yard, par-4 final hole with water down the entire left side is one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most memorable closers.