No fewer than 26 courses ranked among The LINKS 100 have hosted major championships. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, only eight courses in that listing—the 100 best courses in the world as voted on by the architects of the ASGCA, EIGCA, and SAGCA—have served as Ryder Cup venues.
To be sure, some of the omissions in The LINKS 100 were flashing in neon, including past Ryder Cup hosts Ganton and Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England, Valderrama (Spain), Scioto (Ohio), Ridgewood (N.J.), Oak Hill (N.Y.), and Oakland Hills (Mich.). After the votes were tabulated, however, only an elite eight made the grade. The upcoming match will take place at Bethpage Black, ranked No. 89.
For now, here are the eight courses in The LINKS 100 that have hosted the Ryder Cup.
Muirfield (Gullane, Scotland)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 20
Year(s) hosted: 1973
Host to the Open Championship on 16 occasions, most recently when Phil Mickelson triumphed in 2013, Muirfield is an 1891 Old Tom Morris linksland creation on Scotland’s east coast that was substantially redesigned by H.S. Colt in 1925. It’s known to be a stern but fair test with superb bunkering. Tom Weiskopf cites the primary appeal of Muirfield: “The continuous change in direction from hole to hole leads to different winds, great balance, and maximum variety.”
The United States comfortably eased past Great Britain & Ireland, 19–13, in the 1973 Ryder Cup Match—even though the score was tied going into the final day. Led by all-time greats Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, and Lee Trevino, the U.S. squad was also blessed with the hottest player in the game, Open Championship winner Tom Weiskopf. Nicklaus was Man of the Match, winning 4.5 points, most by any player on either team, in the days when eight singles matches took place on Sunday morning, followed by eight more in the afternoon.
Kiawah Island, Ocean Course (Kiawah Island, S.C.)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 24
Year(s) hosted: 1991
Big-name players have delivered big-time performances at this beautiful beast that edges the Atlantic just south of Charleston, S.C.—witness Rory McIlroy winning the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah’s Ocean Course and Phil Mickelson capturing the same title here in 2021. A blend of wind-whipped tidal marsh carries, scrub-topped dunes, and undulating greens pair with 7,876 muscular yards to form The Ocean Course’s relentless mix of gorgeous scenery and gargantuan challenge. While architect Pete Dye softened his greens and their surrounds over the years, the Ocean Course remains among the toughest, most scenic tests in the country.
Kiawah’s 1991 Ryder Cup was one of the most dramatic and suspenseful of all time. It came down to one final putt to settle the Ryder Cup. If it dropped, Europe would retain the Cup. A miss and it belonged to the U.S. Out-of-control emotions had already dominated this Ryder Cup. Post-Gulf War patriotism permeated the grounds. The wind-blown, impossibly rugged, Pete Dye-designed Ocean Course that had opened just prior to the Ryder Cup had further frayed nerves. There had been a whole lotta chokin’ going on, notably when Mark Calcavecchia squandered a 4-up lead with four to play in his singles match against Colin Montgomerie.
It finally came down to veterans Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer at the 18th hole. “The pressure was so great,” said Irwin. “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t swallow.” He limped home with a conceded bogey. After Langer’s 45-foot birdie try burned the edge, he faced a six-foot comebacker. “My caddie said to hit it left-center and firm to avoid the spike marks,” said Langer. His putt rolled straight for the hole—and barely missed to the right. Langer stiffened and grimaced in agony. Bedlam reigned. It was cease-fire at the War by the Shore.
Whistling Straits, Straits (Haven, Wis.)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 33
Year(s) hosted: 2021
Boasting eight holes overlooking Lake Michigan, or what the caddies call, “the Sea of Wisconsin,” the Straits course at Whistling Straits is second to none for beauty, brawn, and drama. Home to three PGA Championships and the 2021 Ryder Cup, this 1998 Pete Dye design boasts 70-foot, fescue-cloaked sandhills, more than 1,000 bunkers, and a course rating and slope so high they could produce nosebleeds. However, the architecture is compelling, without a weak link and the views are stunning, notably on the par threes, each of which peers over the lake from high above.
Postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 Ryder Cup was the first in three years—and proved to be worth the wait for the U.S. side. Recovering from the drubbing they had received in the previous Cup in France, the Americans stormed to a 19–9 victory over Europe, led by Dustin Johnson, the only player on either team that went 5–0–0. With at least a half-dozen legitimate risk/reward holes, Whistling Straits coaxed some of the most heroic shots ever seen in the Ryder Cup, from Jordan Spieth’s near-vertical recovery shot from way down there left of the 17th green to Bryson DeChambeau’s smashing driver onto the green (and sinking a 41-foot eagle putt) at the 364-yard first hole.
Royal Birkdale (Southport, England)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 44
Year(s) hosted: 1965, 1969
Many of the game’s elite consider this northwest England jewel to be the finest of all Open rota layouts. Birkdale boasts towering sandhills and no blind shots, as most of the holes roll through valleys. Host to 10 Open Championships, most recently Jordan Spieth’s remarkable win in 2017, it will also serve as Open host in 2026.
The 1965 Ryder Cup witnessed a fairly routine American victory, 19.5 to 12.5. Captain Byron Nelson’s team was led by Arnold Palmer, who went 4–2–0, but the team’s best record belonged to Tony Lema, who won five matches and lost just one. Lema would tragically die in a plane crash the very next year. The 1969 Ryder Cup, however, ranks as one of history’s best. Perhaps the ultimate display of sportsmanship took place at Royal Birkdale’s 18th green. With the match tied, the Cup would be decided via the final individual match between Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin. With both men on the green, Jacklin putted first, leaving it two-and-a-half feet from the hole. Nicklaus putted for the win, missed, but sank the comebacker. He then picked up Jacklin’s ball, conceding the half. The U.S. retained the cup, after a 16–16 tie.
Pinehurst No. 2 (Pinehurst, N.C.)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 48
Year(s) hosted: 1951
Donald Ross’s 1907 chef d’oeuvre rolls gently and spaciously through tall Longleaf pines in the North 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. Ahead of the 2014 U.S. Open, a Coore & Crenshaw restoration brought back the tawny-edged fairways and native roughs last seen in the 1940s. Providing perhaps the greatest short game test of any championship course, No. 2 soars with tournament lore, hosting the PGA Championship in 1936, the Ryder Cup in 1951, and four U.S. Opens—1999, with Payne Stewart’s dramatic victory, 2005, 2014, and 2024, when Bryson DeChambeau snatched the trophy from Rory McIlroy’s grasp.
As Ryder Cups go, 1951 was one of the strangest. On Friday’s Day 1 Foursomes, the U.S. grabbed a 3–1 lead. On Saturday—Day 2—no one played. The Ryder Cup took the day off, so that players (and officials) could attend the North Carolina Tar Heels versus No. 1-ranked Tennessee Volunteers gridiron duel, 70 miles away in Chapel Hill. Strangely, only the British squad attended; Tennessee lived up to its billing, cruising 27–0. In the Sunday singles, Ben Hogan showed why he had won the 1951 Masters and U.S. Open, beating Charlie Ward, 3 & 2, in part due to his birdie at the par-five 10th, when he drove the trees, punched out, then smoked a 3-wood from 280 yards onto the green. From some 75 feet, he somehow drained the putt and drained any chance Ward had of pulling the upset. The U.S. sailed to 9 ½ to 2 ½ victory, with Arthur Lees earning two of Great Britain’s two-and-a-half points.
Walton Heath, Old (Walton-on-the-Hill, England)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 62
Year(s) hosted: 1981
Its bleak, heathland setting won’t set anyone aglow but as a test of character and shotmaking, Walton Heath (Old) has few peers. Opened in 1904 just 20 miles south of London, it is a superb, strategic delight, with heather, gorse, rough, and bunkers that must be avoided at all costs. Yet, the chalk beneath the sandy subsoil allows for firm fairways that yield plenty of links-like run.
Host to many important tournaments, Walton Heath was the venue of the 1981 Ryder Cup, when arguably the strongest American side of all time—featuring Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Ben Crenshaw, and Tom Kite to name eight—demolished the Europeans, 18 ½ to 9 ½. Nicklaus, Trevino, and Larry Nelson all went 4–0–0 for the victors.
Muirfield Village (Dublin, Ohio)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 71
Year(s) hosted: 1987
Co-designed with Desmond Muirhead, Jack Nicklaus’s 1974 homage to Augusta National was named for the course where he won his first Open Championship in 1966. It has been a favorite of PGA Tour players since the Memorial Tournament started in 1976. Beautiful, fair, and balanced, if devoid of quirk, Muirfield Village rolls through the wooded hills of suburban Columbus. It presents compelling stroke- and match-play drama via risk/reward par fives and a terrific short par four at the 14th, while also being a strong, superbly conditioned test from start to finish.
The last time Europe or its predecessors had defeated America on U.S. soil was—never. Shockingly, it happened for the first time in 1987, when the team captained by Jack Nicklaus, at the course he built in his hometown, fell by a 15–13 tally. A 4–0 sweep of the first afternoon’s Fourballs catapulted Europe to a lead they would never relinquish, paced by stars Seve Ballesteros, who went 4–1–0, and Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, and Ian Woosnam, all who posted 3–1–1 marks.
The Country Club, Main (Brookline, Mass.)—LINKS 100 Ranking: 73
Year(s) hosted: 1999
A Boston Brahmin society haunt for more than 100 years, this tree-lined track has played host to four U.S. Opens and the 1999 Ryder Cup. Its tournament course is a composite layout, comprised of 18 of the club’s 27 holes. The Clyde/Squirrel combo was used for the 1913 Open when local lad Francis Ouimet stunned the Brits. The current “Open” course borrows several holes from the Primrose nine, designed by William Flynn in 1927. Located in the town of Brookline, The Country Club traverses terrain that is quintessentially New England, replete with handsome specimen trees and rock outcrops.
For many American golf fans, the 1999 Ryder Cup is etched in history as the best ever. After two days, the U.S. trailed Europe 10–6. No team in history had ever come back from more than a two-point deficit. Yet, Captain Ben Crenshaw told the media, “I’m a big believer in fate. I have a good feeling about this.”
Following six straight U.S. singles triumphs, it came down to the famous 17th (where Ouimet had holed two clutch putts to win in 1913). From 45 feet below the hole, Justin Leonard rapped his putt, which climbed a ridge—and beelined to the back of the cup. Birdie! Pandemonium. Players, wives, and caddies ran amok. Chants of “Justin, Justin” and “U-S-A, U-S-A” rang out. Leonard’s bomb had clinched the Cup—or had it? Actually, once the dance floor cleared, Jose Maria Olazabal faced a 25-footer to keep Europe’s hopes alive. It was tough for Olazabal to focus after the premature celebration. He missed. Game over.
