Tiger Woods has won more than 100 significant events worldwide, at a gaggle of supreme shotmaking tests. Included are 15 professional major championships and 82 PGA Tour wins. Some of the stages where’s he’s triumphed are more renowned than others. Yet no matter the quality of the course, a Tiger Woods victory at any of them automatically raises its profile.
Here are the top 10 courses where Tiger has lifted trophies.
St. Andrews (Old Course)—St. Andrews, Scotland
The birthplace of golf features multiple blind bunkers, huge double greens, quirks such as the Road Hole and Hell bunker, and strategic options that vary by the day. The emphasis on variety and strategy became foundations for all great designs in years to come, including Augusta National.
Top Tiger Moment: Fresh off a 15-shot victory at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the world witnessed a peak Tiger performance redux at the Open Championship the following month. Woods completed the career Grand Slam at age 24, the youngest ever to do so, winning with a record score of 19-under-par 269. Tiger never found a bunker over 72 holes and lapped the field again, finishing eight shots ahead of Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn. Woods would win again at St. Andrews in 2005, joining a rare list of just five players (including Bob Martin, J.H. Taylor, James Braid, and Jack Nicklaus) to win multiple Open Championships on the Old Course.
Augusta National—Augusta, Ga.
Augusta National is the vision of Bobby Jones and his chosen architect, Alister MacKenzie. Both intended for Augusta National to reflect the spirit and strategic options of the Old Course at St. Andrews, the course that they admired most. They succeeded brilliantly. Nearly every hole at St. Andrews and Augusta National provides a safe route to the green and also a riskier one. Combine staggering beauty and Masters tradition and it’s easy to see why Augusta National is so revered.
Top Tiger Moment: With five unforgettable Masters triumphs, there have been almost too many memorable Tiger moments to count, from his first win in 1997—by 12 shots!—to his fairytale comeback victory in 2019. Still the pick for pure Tiger final-round magic occurred in 2005, when his 50-foot chip shot from behind the 16th green somehow found the hole. “Oh, my goodness!…OH WOW! IN YOUR LIFE, have you seen anything like that?!” was the unforgettable call from Verne Lundquist. Woods would edge Chris DiMarco in a playoff to capture Masters number four.
Kingston Heath—Melbourne, Australia
Count Gil Hanse as a fan of Kingston Heath. “Great sandy soil, interesting native vegetation, compelling strategy, and exceptional feature shaping can overcome an average site,” says Hanse. Much credit, of course, goes to Dan Soutar’s 1925 original design, but Alister MacKenzie’s subsequent intricate bunker work and his creation of the world-class par-three 15th are what elevated the course from good to great, according to Tom Doak. “The 154-yard 15th is one of the best par threes in the world,” says Adam Scott. “It’s slightly uphill and there’s no margin for error because you’ve got steep bunkers on both sides.”
Top Tiger Moment: In front of record crowds, Woods won the 2009 Australian Masters at Kingston Heath by two shots, posting a final-round 68 to shoot 14-under-par 274. He described the bunkers as “phenomenal,” and the course as “a treat to play.”
Pebble Beach—Pebble Beach, Calif.
Host to six U.S. Opens, more than 70 PGA Tour events, and countless photos of the Pacific Ocean, Pebble is oft changed since its 1919 debut, yet even today, no more thrilling, spectacular stretch of holes exists anywhere than holes 5 through 10. And is there anything in golf that can compare with that final stroll up the par-five 18th as it curves to the left around Carmel Bay?
Top Tiger Moment: Perhaps no moment was as electrifying as the final round of the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, when Woods rallied from seven shots back with seven holes to play to win, highlighted by an eagle 2 at the par-four 15th after he holed a sand wedge from 97 yards. Also unforgettable is his utter domination of the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble, when he triumphed by 15 shots, at 12-under-par. Some respected observers called this performance the best golf ever played at a major championship.
TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium)—Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Venue for the PGA Tour’s Players Championship since 1982, Pete Dye’s imaginatively designed, 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. For shotmaking options and memorable individual holes that require a blend of power and finesse, TPC Sawgrass has few peers.
Top Tiger Moment: Tiger began his march to glory on the national stage when he claimed the U.S. Amateur title here in 1994. Aside from his aforementioned 2013 Players win, he’s most renowned for his 2001 victory, highlighted by his “Better than most,” double-breaking, 60-foot birdie putt that dropped on Saturday at the fabled 17th.
Muirfield Village—Dublin, Ohio
Conceived by Jack Nicklaus in 1966 to be his hometown equivalent of Bobby Jones’s Augusta National, this 1974 collaboration with architect Desmond Muirhead was an instant smash, as much for its strategic design as for its flawless conditioning. Equally impressive was how Nicklaus seamlessly integrated spectator areas into the closing holes, using hillsides and amphitheater-style mounding to provide patrons with clear views of the action. Muirfield Village has played host to the PGA Tour’s Memorial event since 1976, and hosted the 1987 Ryder Cup, 1992 U.S. Amateur, and 1998 Solheim Cup.
Top Tiger Moment: Woods has captured the Memorial a record five times, including a three-peat from 1999–2001. “I’ve always played Nicklaus courses well,” said Woods. “At Muirfield Village there is ample room off the tees. The greens are really severe. If you miss the greens, it tests your short game. Those are the things that I think I do well.” Between his chip-in for par astride the 14th green in 1999 and his chip-in for birdie from behind the 16th green in 2012—both final-round shots from deep rough that propelled him to victories—truer words were never spoken.
Newport—Newport, R.I.
One of the oldest clubs in the U.S., dating to 1894, Newport is also among the most historic, having played host to the first official U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open in 1895. One hundred years later, Tiger Woods captured the Amateur here. Newport was also venue for Annika Sorenstam’s 2006 U.S. Women’s Open victory. A.W. Tillinghast substantially changed the original design in the early 1920s; today, the course is an Old World delight, with wind, fescues, and tawny-colored fairways.
Top Tiger Moment: One up at the 36th hole of the 1995 U.S. Amateur final, 19-year-old Stanford sophomore Woods was in a genuine fight with 43-year-old Buddy Marucci. With 140 yards left for his approach to the par four, Woods contemplated a 9-iron or pitching wedge, but instead, chose a knockdown 8-iron, a shot his coach Butch Harmon had worked on with him all summer. Woods executed the risky shot perfectly. It landed 14 feet past the flag and spun back to within 18 inches for a conceded birdie. His 2-up victory made him the ninth man in history to go back-to-back at the U.S. Amateur.
Bethpage State Park (Black)—Farmingdale, N.Y.
In the education of a golfer, Bethpage Black is a bar exam. 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 captured the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens here. The “People’s Open,” as the 2002 U.S. Open came to be known, brutalized players with its Rees Jones-restored A.W. Tillinghast layout, owing to rugged uphill par fours, massive bunkers, and wrist-fracturing rough. High winds at the 2019 PGA Championship sent final-round scores soaring, while mild conditions at the 2025 Ryder Cup led to an onslaught from Team Europe.
Top Tiger Moment: With rounds of 67–68–70–72, Woods’s 3-under-par 277 total made him the only player in the field to finish under par at the 2002 U.S. Open. He was tied with Phil Mickelson with five holes to play, but Tiger birdied the 14th and never looked back, winning by three shots.
Southern Hills—Tulsa, Okla.
Site of three U.S. Opens and a quintet of PGA Championships, this Depression-era Perry Maxwell design rolls out heat, humidity, wind, and stern rough framing fairways and greens. Maxwell’s oval and clamshell bunkers are perfectly placed, thanks in part to a recent Gil Hanse restoration. The 9th and 18th both climb steep hills to reach the greens, the latter being one of the game’s toughest closing par fours. Tougher still is the creek-guarded 12th, which Ben Hogan once called the greatest par four in the U.S.
Top Tiger Moment: Woods captured his 13th major here in 2007, when he won the PGA Championship by two shots over Woody Austin, amid temperatures that hit the century mark for much of the event. Fueling the victory was Tiger’s second-round, 7-under-par 63, which tied the all-time low round at any major championship. Still, Woods rued the ending to that exceptional round. He faced a 15-footer for birdie and a round of 62. His putt caught the lip; he raised his putter skyward in exaltation, but the ball did a 270-degree spin and didn’t drop, leaving him disappointed that he hadn’t set a record.
The Honors Course—Ooltewah, Tenn.
One of Pete Dye’s less celebrated, yet greatest creations, this 1983 design in the northeast suburbs of Chattanooga is a hilly, wooded, wetland-infused tract that might be the tightest 7,450 yards you’ll ever play. Built for Coca-Cola bottling titan Jack Lupton, the course was intended to honor the amateur golfer. The club played host to a slew of USGA national championships, among them the 1991 U.S. Amateur, the 1994 Curtis Cup, and the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Top Tiger Moment: Stanford’s Woods captured the individual title at the 1996 NCAA Championship here, despite a final-round 80, which attests to the difficulty. In his last collegiate tournament before turning pro later in the year, Woods carded rounds of 69–67–69 and held on to win by four over Arizona’s Rory Sabbatini. Despite those final-round nines of 40 and 40, he was the only player to break par for 72 holes in winning his 11th collegiate event.
