In November 2024, Robert Trent Jones Jr. received the Donald Ross Award from the American Society of Golf Course Architects, that association’s highest honor. The inaugural recipient of the Ross Award was Robert Trent Jones Sr., in 1976. Jones the elder was a titan in the business. More than 50 of his courses cracked different Top 100 lists and he was tasked with renovating or building anew more than half of the U.S. Open venues between 1950 and 1970. “Give your course a signature,” and “hard par, easy bogey” were among his mantras. He also popularized the heroic school of design.
Many of his best works are private, including Peachtree, Hazeltine National, and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, but countless others are open to outside play. Here are the top 10 must-play public-access Robert Trent Jones Sr. golf courses.
10. Kananaskis Country Golf Course—Kananaskis Village, Alberta, Canada
In the heart of the Canadian Rockies, Kananaskis Country Golf Course is made up of two courses, Mt. Lorette and Mt. Kidd, each named for the mountain they face. Ahead of their 1984 creation, Jones Sr. famously praised the site as “the finest location I have ever seen for a golf course.” Rivers, pine forests, snow-capped mountain backdrops, and huge bunkers spice the proceedings, and the modest green fees will let you enjoy a double dose. Mt. Lorette, at 7,232 yards, par 72, is tighter and has more water while Mt. Kidd, at 7,136 yards, par 72, offers more dramatic bunkering and more striking mountain views. Following a devastating flood in 2013, architect Gary Browning brought back both courses in 2018, making them more playable and every bit as handsome as ever.
9. Tanglewood Park (Championship)—Clemmons, N.C.
One of America’s best golf bargains, this abundantly trapped, 1957 original Jones Sr. design sits eight miles west of Winston-Salem in the heart of tobacco country. Lee Trevino smoked the field to win the 1974 PGA Championship, easing past Jack Nicklaus and a 62-year-old named Sam Snead. Trevino, Gary Player, and Hale Irwin were among those who captured Senior Tour titles here between 1987 and 2002. In 2018, Trent Jones’s son, Bobby, collaborated with architect Richard Mandell to improve playability. They did so by redesigning bunkers, converting the greens from bentgrass to Champion Bermuda, and adding emphasis on angles and strategic options.
8. Port Royal Golf Course—Southampton, Bermuda
Host venue for the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship since 2019, this government-owned layout dazzles with photo ops throughout, notably at the incomparably beautiful yet brutal 235-yard par-three 16th. A 180-yard carry is required from the isolated back tee, through the cross-breezes and over a cove of the Atlantic to reach the long, slender green that’s further guarded by bunkers and a rough-choked slope to the right. The course won’t punish with length, at 6,842 yards, par 71, but with several blind shots and a fistful of severely elevated greens, it feels like it plays 7,842. The 213-yard par-three 8th and the 412-yard par-four 15th that eases past the ruins of a navy battery fort are other standouts.
7. Golden Horseshoe Golf Club (Gold)—Williamsburg, Va.
This 1963 creation in Virginia’s Tidewater region features topsy-turvy, wooded terrain that yields one of golf’s best par-three quartets. The downhill 16th, its banana-shaped green jutting out island-style into a lake, is unforgettable. Dense forests, deep ravines, and a plethora of water hazards further spice up the play. Jones’s son, Rees, tweaked the layout in 1998 and 2017, but he tipped his cap to his father’s work, stating, “The original tailor cut a great suit.”
6. Firestone Country Club (South)—Akron, Ohio
Long considered one of the toughest tracks on the PGA Tour, Firestone South epitomized the “hard par, easy bogey” design mantra of RTJ Sr., who substantially reworked the 1920s layout in 1959. Tiger Woods effectively owned the place, capturing seven titles here. Now home to a PGA Tour Champions major, the Senior Players Championship (a.k.a. the Kaulig Companies Championship), it was a past venue for three PGA Championships, in 1960 (Jay Hebert), 1966 (Al Geiberger), and 1975 (Jack Nicklaus). A private corporate club and retreat since inception, Firestone opened its doors to limited public play in 2020, when it created a stay-and-play package. Guests who book in one of the 61 on-site, villa-style suite rooms or in one of the 30 dormitory-style clubhouse rooms have full access to dining and golf at the club.
5. Grand National Golf Club (Lake)—Opelika, Ala.
There are no weak links in the chain of Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail courses, though Grand National may well be the Trail’s best value. Tattered-edge bunkers, huge, elevated greens, and water hazards galore make this the prototypical Trent Jones Trail course. A dozen holes hug 600-acre Lake Saugahatchee, notably the par-five 12th that boomerangs around the shoreline and the 230-yard par-three 15th, its long, narrow peninsula green looking nearly impossible to hit and hold. Longtime Jones Sr. lieutenant Roger Rulewich handled most of the heavy lifting on the Jones Trail courses; other RTJ Alabama must-plays are the Judge at Capitol Hill near Montgomery and Ross Bridge near Birmingham.
4. Valderrama Golf Club—Sotogrande, Spain
Robert Trent Jones Sr. lists this Spanish course among his five favorite designs (of more than 500), saying, “The greatest golfers in the world have found it a difficult test, yet it is beautiful and playable for the club member.” This impeccably manicured 1997 Ryder Cup host, long considered the Augusta National of Europe for conditioning, features narrow, cork tree-framed fairways, sculptured bunkers, small greens, and the short but diabolical par-five 17th that was infamously toughened by Seve Ballesteros. The club is private but does welcome limited outside play.
3. Spyglass Hill Golf Course—Pebble Beach, Calif.
Another one of Jones Sr.’s “favorite five,” Spyglass suffers in comparisons to neighbors Pebble Beach and Cypress Point, but he once said, “I’ve had knowledgeable people tell me that Spyglass is the best course on the Monterey Peninsula.” The architect was miffed that developers didn’t stick with the original name, Pebble Pines, but the opening five holes that cut through brilliant white sand dunes next to the Pacific, followed by 13 holes in the forest, allow Spyglass to stand on its own.
2. Mauna Kea Golf Course—Kamuela, Hawaii
This lava-laced, 1964 Big Island layout is also among Jones Sr.’s “five favorites” and it’s easy to see why. It boasts his signature characteristics: long tees, propped-up greens protected by yawning traps, and imposing carries over water—notably at the gargantuan, 272-yard par-three 3rd hole, which skirts the Pacific Ocean. It opened its doors with a splash on December 8, 1964, hosting the televised “Big Three” event, when Jack Nicklaus outdueled Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
1. Dunes Golf & Beach Club—Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Vintage early Trent Jones Sr. from the late 1940s, this coastal layout paved the way for Myrtle Beach’s ascension as a big-time golf destination. Classic RTJ Sr. features include runway tee boxes, elevated, well-guarded greens, and heroic holes, such as the 640-yard par-five 13th that doglegs 110 degrees around Singleton Lake. Alligators and double bogeys await any sliced shots. Home to the PGA Tour Champions season-ending Senior Tour Championship from 1994–99, the Dunes now hosts the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic.
