Southern California golf is like showing up to a party where everyone’s insanely good-looking and you’re just trying not to spill your drink. Everywhere you turn, the fairways are flawless, the greens are manicured to near-perfection, and the views – oh, the views – are jaw-dropping.
There’s history here, sure, but mostly there’s golf that makes you want to shut your laptop forever and book a one-way ticket…like, yesterday. So, buckle up, these are the best golf courses in Southern California, and once you play them, everywhere else might feel a little, well, ordinary.
Best Golf Courses in Southern California
1. Stadium Course at PGA WEST
La Quinta
Rated by Golf Digest as one of “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses,” the Stadium Course at PGA WEST is 7,300 yards of pure challenge with the highest stroke and slope ratings on the property. But don’t worry if you’re not a scratch golfer; five sets of tees make it playable for everyone.
Pete Dye’s genius shines everywhere, from the dramatic bunkers to the natural spectator seating built right into the landscape, creating a stage for some of golf’s most memorable moments. Fresh off a 2024 restoration led by Dye collaborator Tim Liddy, the course feels reborn, with greens expanded, bunkers sharpened, and every surface refined.
2. Torrey Pines Golf Course
La Jolla
Clinging to the cliffs above the Pacific in La Jolla, Torrey Pines is indisputably one of the best golf courses in Southern California. Once a WWII training ground, now a temple of turf, it’s 36 holes of wind, sea, and swagger framed by the rare Torrey pine trees that grow only here.
The South Course is the showstopper, host of U.S. Opens and the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open. It’s long, unforgiving, and absolutely breathtaking. The North Course is its cooler sibling: a little easier to love and capped with ocean views that make you forget your score, good or bad.
Gliders drift overhead, sea spray lingers in the air. It’s golf on nature’s terms, and that’s exactly why it’s unforgettable.
3. The Riviera Country Club
Pacific Palisades
Private, glamorous, and dripping with history, few places can go toe to toe with Riviera Country Club. It’s hosted more A-listers on its fairways than some red carpets, but its legacy runs far deeper than celebrity sightings. This course was one of the first to truly put Southern California golf on the map.
The course was designed in 1926 by George C. Thomas, one of the era’s most innovative architects. Despite Thomas’s own doubts that the relatively flat land could produce a championship-level course, Riviera quickly proved him wrong. What appears as natural rolling terrain is, in fact, the result of Thomas’s masterful earth-moving, a feat of design and vision. As Ben Crenshaw put it, Riviera isn’t just good golf – it’s one of the finest “made” courses in the United States.
4. Pelican Hill Golf Club
Newport Coast
With 36 holes of Tom Fazio-designed golf, Pelican Hill Golf Club winds gracefully through the cliffs and canyons of Newport Coast. Every tee and fairway feels deliberate, shaped to follow the land’s natural contours while framing sweeping views of the Pacific. It’s golf that blends architecture and artistry in equal measure.
The Ocean North course offers broad fairways and panoramic ocean vistas that invite you to take your time and enjoy the setting. Ocean South, meanwhile, is more exacting – elevation shifts, narrower targets, and forced carries that reward precision over power. Together, they strike a rare balance between calm and challenge, making Pelican Hill one of Southern California’s most complete golf experiences.
5. The Mountain Course at La Quinta Resort & Club
La Quinta
The Mountain Course at La Quinta Resort & Club offers some of the best resort golf in the Coachella Valley under the peaks of the Santa Rosa Mountains. A Pete Dye masterpiece, the course has it all: strategic pot bunkers, rugged rock formations, elevated tees, and well-guarded greens. Every hole challenges your skill and strategy while treating you to sweeping mountain views.
6. Park Hyatt Aviara Golf Club
Carlsbad
Many resort courses fall in that “good enough” bucket, somewhere between well-conditioned and pleasant to play, but lacking a design that really makes you think. Aviara Golf Club is…not that. Perched on the edge of Batiquitos Lagoon, one of the few remaining tidal wetlands on the SoCal coast, it’s breathtaking in a way that almost distracts you from the golf itself. But don’t get too comfortable staring at the water, because this course doesn’t just sit pretty. Water hazards are everywhere, deliberately placed to test your nerve and your shot-making. Pack a ball retriever. Pack an extra sleeve. You’ll need them.
7. Monarch Beach Golf Links
Dana Point
Robert Trent Jones Jr. has designed plenty of courses that make you work for it, but few as easy on the eyes as Monarch Beach. Set atop the bluffs in Dana Point, it’s the kind of place where you might spend as much time staring at the Pacific as you do lining up your next shot. The par-70 layout winds through coastal terrain, where you’ll hit shots over canyons, play alongside surf breaks, and battle a prevailing ocean breeze. It’s equal parts postcard and proving ground.
8. The Classic Club
Palm Desert
Designed by golf legend Arnold Palmer, The Classic Club is one of Southern California’s true gems. From 2006 to 2008, it co-hosted the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and has since welcomed a variety of professional and competitive events. Though it’s often labeled a desert-style layout, don’t let that fool you – over thirty acres of water hazards weave through more than half the holes, keeping even seasoned golfers on their toes. Locals offer a few sage tips: stay cautious around the water, don’t be fooled by the putts (they break less than they appear), and expect the course to play 200–300 yards longer than the card suggests.
9. Rustic Canyon Golf Course
Moorpark
Aptly named, Rustic Canyon Golf Course, hidden in SoCal’s canyon hills, offers a truly one-of-a-kind experience. Built without blueprints or rigid plans, Hanse Golf Design let the landscape lead the way, crafting large, contoured greens and bunkers that feel as if they’ve always belonged in the native barrancas.
As you wander down the wide, open fairways, you can’t help but feel a connection to the untamed beauty around you: sagebrush swaying in the breeze, cactus dotting the rugged landscape, and fescue-lined bunkers that frame each hole like a natural work of art.
10. Firecliff at Desert Willow
Palm Desert
There are more than 100 bunkers on the Firecliff Course at Desert Willow, giving a whole new meaning to a beach day in Southern California. And while you might not expect to find much water in the desert, Firecliff serves up its fair share of that, too. The course earns high marks for its thoughtful design – a varied mix of hole shapes and routings paired with undulating greens that will test both your wedges and your flatstick.
11. North Course at The Los Angeles Country Club
Los Angeles
Just west of Beverly Hills and mere minutes from the iconic Sunset Boulevard, The Los Angeles Country Club sits on 320 acres of prime real estate, with an estimated land value of over $8 billion. Its location places it among the most exclusive addresses in the world, surrounded by luxury estates and the vibrant energy of Los Angeles.
As for the course, LACC is pure parkland perfection – a showcase of more than a century of thoughtful design evolution. From its 1911 origins to George C. Thomas Jr. and William Bell’s inspired routing, and most recently, Gil Hanse’s meticulous restoration, every inch of this layout reflects a deep respect for both strategy and setting. The terrain ripples with character – hills, ridges, swales, and valleys – and it’s every bit as dramatic as the city around it.
Between the cliffside tee boxes, the desert sunsets, and the greens that roll like glass, Southern California golf knows how to make an entrance. So should you. Skip the baggage lines and the “will-my-clubs-make-it?” anxiety – ship them ahead with ShipSticks. You’ll land relaxed, refreshed, and ready to enjoy the best golf courses in Southern California.Â
