Golf is a wonderful game. No matter how good your last shot is, you never know how your next shot will turn up. Its main reason is course design. Golf courses around the world are designed with unique hazards to give a challenge to golfers of all skill levels. While some are easy or difficult to play, others have been termed brutal. In this article, we’re rounding up the top 10 hardest golf courses in the world. These courses have brought even the PGA championship winners to their knees. So, if you want to drag your golf club to these places, make sure you can stomach defeat.Â
10 Hardest Golf Courses In the World
While course difficulty is different for every player, we have looked at Slope Rating and Course Rating as two important factors while compiling this list.
- Slope Rating: 155
- Course Rating: 77.5
- Difficulty Rating: 232.5
The Bethpage Black tops the list of the hardest golf courses in the world by slope rating. It’s golf’s ultimate test. It starts playing mind games before the challengers take their first tee shot. Its infamous welcome sign by the first tee reads, “Warning: The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.” The narrow fairways, blind plateau greens, brutal rough, and massive bunkers combine to turn it into a vicious brute of a golf course. At Bethpage Black, you can play 7,426 yards from the back tees. However, unless you are a real professional or a fool, don’t even think about that.
- Ko’olau Golf Club, Oahu, Hawaii, United States
- Slope Rating: 153
- Course Rating: 78.2
- Difficulty Rating: 231.2
The Ko’olau golf club tops the list of the hardest golf courses in the world by course rating. Though not as tricky as our top pick, Ko’olau is still a brute of a golf course. It challenges your physical strength as well as mental capabilities. Since its opening, this golf course has gone through multiple layout alterations to make it easy to play. However, its slope is still 152, just shy of 155, which is the upper rating for difficulty. Ko’olau is a monster golf course with fairways surrounded by thick green Hawaiian jungle, 80+ deep bunkers, and 6 ravines. Whether you’re playing professional golf or just visiting to know what all the fuss is about, make sure you take plenty of balls. You’ll need them!
- Slope Rating: 152
- Course Rating: 77.2
- Difficulty Rating: 229.2
Another work of art from the sadistic mind of Pete Dye, the Whistling straits, lies on an abandoned artillery range on the western edge of Lake Michigan. It’s one of the world’s most dramatic waterfront golf courses, perfectly blending the topography with its shoreline. It’s also very challenging. 8 of its 18 holes are on the water. Moreover, according to some estimates, there are over 960 bunkers, which means each hole has 54 bunkers on average. Some of them are so small that they’re barely recognizable. Others are so small there’s not enough room for the golfer and ball.
- Slope Rating: 155
- Course Rating: 72
- Difficult Rating: 227
Africa’s hardest golf course, Le Touessrok, lies on a tiny island. There are no link roads to this course, and it’s only accessible via a helicopter or a speed boat. La Touessrok was designed by two times Masters champion Bernhard Langer and offers a very challenging layout. Most holes here have extra long carry from tee to the fairway or from fairways to greens. It features mangrove swamps, multiple water hazards, and large bunkers, some of which stretch over 200 yards. In addition, almost all the holes play right beside the clear sandy beaches and blue waters of the Indian Ocean, offering an unforgettable experience.
- Slope Rating: 144
- Course Rating: 77.3
- Difficulty Rating: 221.3
The Ocean Course Kiawah Island is the world’s most notoriously difficult golf course. Pete Dye designed it so torturous and challenging that it earned him the name “Marquis de Sod.” Before the 2021 PGA championship, the Ocean Course added new tees to the layout, stretching it over 7,900 yards from the back tees. It has a windswept coast layout that stretches along the narrow sandy section east of Kiawah island. Pete has expertly embedded massive sand dunes, thorny marshes, friendly bunkers, and super slick greens into the layout to reduce even professionals to nervous wrecks.
- Slope Rating: 145
- Course Rating: 75.4
- Difficulty Rating: 220.4
Cape Kidnappers is so tough that even pros haven’t played a single tournament here. But this golf course isn’t just tough. It’s dangerous as well. It has 183-meter cliffs that plunge straight into the Pacific so close to the edges of several fairways that keeping the ball online is a tough feat. Most holes are exposed to oceanic winds, and rumpled fairways throw tees into the rough. Even good approaches have the tendency to bounce on the putting surface into the deep green bunkers. However, If you want a true experience of Cape Kidnappers, we suggest playing the back nines. They are the most difficult and beautiful on this 18-hole golf course.Â
- Slope Rating: 143
- Course Rating: 76.9
- Difficulty Rating: 219.9
At 8,548 yards, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is the longest golf course in the world. It has a 711-yards par 5, 525 yards par 4, and 270 yards par 3. Designed with on-site input from China’s best golfer Zhang Lian Wei, Jade Dragon lies at an altitude of 3040+ meters and plays to do more traditional yardage. That’s because the ball travels approximately 20 percent further at such a high altitude. However, it also makes the ball fly further right or left. Thus making it an extraordinarily challenging golf course for even the professional golfers to break 80.
- Slope Rating: 142
- Course Rating: 75.1
- Difficulty Rating: 217.1
AKA “The Cobra,” Palm Course at Saujana is another exacting test. Its fangs have tested the sweat and blood of several world-class golfers as it regularly hosts Malaysian Opens. The greens at Saujana are small yet elaborately contoured. The hole routings offer twists and turn as the site was previously an oil palm and rubber plantation field. Add some water & sand hazards and plenty of palm trees lining the fairways, and you get all the ingredients of a challenging layout. But that’s not all. Saujana’s greatest challenge comes from its fast and heavily undulating putting surfaces. Only the best putters win here!
- Championship Links, Royal County Down, Newcastle, Northern Ireland
- Slope Rating: 142
- Course Rating: 75
- Difficulty Rating: 217
As they say, the best-looking golf courses are always the most demanding. The Royal County Down combines spectacular scenery of the mountains of Mourne with a classic Old Tom layout. Its fairways are narrow and hard to recover from, bunkers are deep and almost impossible to escape, and the blind shots are plenty. Many greens are also domed and unforgiving. While the sand dunes isolate each hole, they won’t protect you from the strong winds. Overall, it’s a very big, spectacular, yet brawny golf course. It tries to intimidate and dominate players – and in most instances, it will likely succeed.
- Slope Rating: 139
- Course Rating: 75.2
- Difficulty Rating: 214.2
Lying along the North Sea Coast of Dundee, Carnoustie has earned a reputation for being one of the hardest golf courses in the world. So much so that some players call it “Carnasty.” It’s a long course, measuring 6,434 yards from the shortest tees and par 70. Back tees are 6,941 yards and a par 72. It has brutal rough, fiendish bunkers, and the fairways aren’t generous either. Carnoustie’s main highlight is the 6th hole AKA Hogan’s Alley. It’s 500 yards plus par 5 with split fairways between OOB on the left and open right.
Hardest Golf Courses in the World – FAQs
What’s considered the hardest golf course in the world?
The Bethpage Black Golf Course in New York, with a difficulty rating of 232.5, is the hardest in the world. However, it’s a very subjective question. The difficulty of a golf course depends on your game. For instance, if you hit the ball long but not straight, water-filled or tree-lined courses will be tough for you. Likewise, if you can hit it straight but not long, the yardage of the course will be an issue for you. Finally, if you can neither hit it long nor straight, then every course will be tough for you.
What is the toughest golf course in America?
The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island in South Carolina, is often regarded as the toughest golf course in America. It has the highest combination of Course Rating (79.6) and Slope Rating (155) in America. This Pete Dye-designed course is often called the Looney Dunes because of the mishaps that often happen there.
What is the hardest golf hole in the world?
The special 19th hole at the Legend Golf resort in South Africa holds the distinction of the hardest golf hold in the world. It’s a 630-yard par 3, and to get to the tee, you have to take a helicopter ride over 1400 ft. When you take the shot, the ball hangs in the air for about 30 seconds. It’s so tough that only two players have been able to score a birdie since 2011.
What is the hardest pro golf course?
The Bay Hill Club and Lodge, with 2.106 strokes over par, is the hardest golf course on the PGA tour.