Every January starts the same way: big plans, blank calendars, and a sincere promise that this will be the year you play more golf. Not necessarily better golf – baby steps – just more of it. More rounds, more memories, more chasing daylight on the back nine.
If that’s your goal for 2026, these golf resorts make it oh so easy to follow through.
Best Golf Resorts to Visit in 2026
1. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort
Bandon, Oregon
If you haven’t already made the pilgrimage to Bandon Dunes, consider this your sign. And if you have, let us help you justify going back. Bandon isn’t your usual resort – there’s no pool scene, no kids running amok. Just golf that transports you to the Scottish links without stamping your passport.
Seven distinct courses unfold across the property, each shaped as much by wind and weather as by human hands. You’ll stand atop towering cliffs, you’ll walk (because this is golf as it was meant to be), you’ll feel the weather shift mid-round and watch shots ride the breeze – or disappear into it entirely.
From the raw drama of Bandon Dunes, the genesis of golf here, to the rumpled fairways of Old Macdonald, the one mile of ocean frontage at Sheep Ranch, and the quiet brilliance of Bandon Trails, every course is familiar enough to belong, but different enough to matter.
2. Adare Manor
County Limerick, Ireland
Adare Manor has a way of recalibrating your sense of what “worth it” really means – because it delivers on every possible level. It may not carry the same instant recognition as other bucket-list destinations, but with the estate set to host the 2027 Ryder Cup, there may be no better time to experience it in full showpiece form.
Set across 840 acres along the River Maigue, Adare Manor seamlessly blends five-star Irish hospitality with a Tom Fazio–designed championship golf experience already written into the future of the game.
And yet, as memorable as the golf is, the manor itself steals the show. The neo-Gothic estate has been restored to near perfection, striking a rare balance between old-world grandeur and modern luxury. There’s Michelin-starred dining, fires crackling in impossibly large hearths, unhurried afternoon tea, and evening whiskey tastings to cap it all off.
3. Pinehurst Resort
Pinehurst, North Carolina
Golf in the Sandhills has a rhythm you can’t quite find anywhere else. Around here, everyone either swings a club or knows someone who does. So it doesn’t take long to feel right at home.
Pinehurst Resort is the epicenter of it all. The property boasts 10 courses (with an 11th on the way), plus a putting course and a short course widely considered among the best in the country. Pinehurst No. 2 remains the crown jewel, with No. 4 close behind after a recent green restoration. And then there’s No. 10, the resort’s newest addition, which opened in 2024. Translation: even if you’ve been here before, Pinehurst has already given you plenty of excuses to come back.
Off the fairways, the Village of Pinehurst leans into its storybook charm. There are restaurants worth lingering at, bars worth lingering longer at, and boutique shopping to keep non-golfers happily occupied. Accommodations are just as iconic, led by the Carolina Hotel, dubbed the “Queen of the South,” where classic Southern elegance meets the very modern convenience of being a short shuttle ride from the golf… and the grub.
4. Streamsong Resort
Bowling Green, Florida
Streamsong Resort is likely not what you imagine when you think of Florida golf. There’s no endless beachfront or pastel-colored clubhouses. Instead, the resort’s courses rise from raw, windswept dunes, whispering pine forests, and glinting lakes – a landscape that feels more Big Sky than Sunshine State.
Set on a former phosphate mining site in central Florida, Streamsong is home to three of the most architecturally daring courses in the country: Red, Blue, and Black. Designed by Coore & Crenshaw, Tom Doak, and Gil Hanse, each course has its own personality, yet all share a dramatic scale, firm turf, and truly inventive greens.
Days at Streamsong are simple, but sublime: it’s walking the courses, savoring long meals, and watching purple and orange sunsets spill over the horizon.
5. St. Andrews Links
St. Andrews, Scotland
No list of must-play courses (or must-visit golf towns) would be complete without St. Andrews, where golf’s history lives in every bunker, breeze, barroom, blade of fescue – you get the idea. Golf has been played on this land since the early 1400s, and somehow, centuries later, it still feels more alive than ever.
From the Swilcan Bridge, the game’s most famous photo-op, to the nerve-rattling Road Hole, the Old Course is the heart and soul of both the links and the town. It’s woven into daily life here: dog walkers stroll the fairways on Sundays, picnickers spread out when play pauses, students cut through on their way to class.
But it doesn’t stop there. St. Andrews Links is actually home to a total of eight golf courses, ranging from the storied Old Course to the New, Jubilee, Castle, and beyond. Together, they make this small seaside town one of the most concentrated and meaningful golf destinations on Earth.
6. Casa de Campo Resort and Villas
La Romana, Dominican Republic
The most playable. The hidden gem. The best in the Caribbean. That’s how golfers describe the three Pete Dye–designed courses at Casa de Campo. With the resort celebrating its 50th anniversary, there’s no better time to experience them in person.
Teeth of the Dog® is the headliner here, ranked No. 1 in the Caribbean and No. 27 in the world. Seven holes cling to craggy coral cliffs that rise dramatically from the turquoise Caribbean waters – holes Dye humbly credits to God, while the remaining 11 he claims as his handiwork.
Dye Fore, added in 2002, winds across 300-foot cliffs and along the Chavón River, offering panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea. Its three distinct nines deliver variety and challenge, and it’s often cited as the most underrated golf experience in the region.
Finally, The Links brings a touch of the British Isles to the tropics. With a classic links-style layout, it’s the most playable of the three courses – perfect for those who want a little strategy without sacrificing their sanity.
7. Big Cedar Lodge
Ridgedale, Missouri
Tucked into the folds of the Missouri Ozarks, Big Cedar is the rare golf destination that proves you don’t need ocean views or centuries of history to be worthy of your bucket list. All you need is land with something to say, and designers willing to listen. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and other legends have done just that.
In 2025, the resort cemented its cultural cachet as host of the first-ever Internet Invitational, produced with Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports, where the top content creators in the game battled for a $1 million prize.
Three 18-hole championship layouts anchor the collection, while Payne’s Valley throws in a bonus 19th hole you have to see to believe. Two par-3 tracks and a 13-hole walking course add variety, but what ties it all together is the scenery: forested ridges, exposed limestone outcroppings, spring‑fed streams, and hills that roll on forever.
8. Cabot Cape Breton
Nova Scotia, Canada
Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs, located at Cabot Cape Breton, are both ranked among the World’s Top 100 golf courses, and they deliver two very different but equally unforgettable tests of golf.
At Cabot Links, you walk a true seaside links – firm, sandy turf with ocean breezes on nearly every hole and five holes that play right along the beach. Cabot Cliffs turns up the drama even further. Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, this course feels like it was carved directly out of the coastline’s ridges and dunes with views that pull your eye farther than the next shot.
For quick fun and variety, The Nest is an 11‑hole par‑3 route perched high atop the Cliffs. Golfers love it for a twilight round or post‑dinner jaunt with friends.
Off the courses, cozy fireplaces warm chilly evenings, terraces invite lingering sunsets, and every comfort of home is right at your fingertips. Dining here is equally deliberate, celebrating Nova Scotia’s freshest catches and local flavors – each dish a subtle, savory reminder of the ocean that defines this place.
9. Kohler
Kohler, Wisconsin
Wisconsin may be most known for cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers, but it’s also home to Kohler: one of the most complete golf destinations in the country.
Including Whistling Straits, which is golf on a grand scale. Exposed and demanding, it’s designed to reveal decisions under pressure and built for moments that matter – from the Ryder Cup and PGA Championship to your very own dream golf trip. It plays like a classic links course, dropped on the edge of Lake Michigan instead of the North Sea.
Just inland, Blackwolf Run brings a completely different energy. Routed along the Sheboygan River, its River and Meadow Valleys courses trade lakeside exposure for tree-lined corridors and elevation changes.
10. Pebble Beach Resorts
Pebble Beach, California
Even if you’ve never played Pebble Beach Golf Links, you know the course. You’ve seen it on screens, in magazines, in highlight reels. But nothing prepares you for the first tee once you’re actually there, standing with the Pacific at your back, wind off the water, and the world’s most famous fairways stretching before you. And the best part? You can actually play it. Pebble Beach remains the No. 1 public course in the country, and it’s every bit as breathtaking as its reputation suggests.
But Pebble Beach Resorts offers more than just its namesake course. Del Monte Golf Course, a short ride inland, actually predates Pebble Beach itself. It opened in 1897 and is the oldest course in continuous operation west of the Mississippi.
Spyglass Hill is a different animal. Designed to blend seaside links with tight tree-lined golf, it opens with dramatic holes among sandy dunes before diving into the Del Monte Forest. The Links at Spanish Bay, meanwhile, emphasizes firm turf, coastal winds, and classic links-style play – less punishing than Spyglass but every bit as memorable
No world-class golf destination is complete without a short course, and Pebble delivers in spades with The Hay. Redesigned by Tiger Woods’ TGR Design team, this nine-hole layout is approachable for golfers of every level.
Morning fog lifts off the water. Sea lions bark in the distance. Waves lap the shore like a metronome for your swing. As the day fades, the sun sets over Spanish Bay to the call of a lone bagpiper. And it really doesn’t get much better than that.
You come for the golf, you stay for the setting, and you leave wondering how soon is too soon to start planning a return – not because you didn’t see it all, but because you want to feel it again. That’s the magic of these best golf resorts.
With ShipSticks, getting there doesn’t get in the way of being there. Ship your clubs (and your luggage) ahead of your arrival, then send them home after the last putt drops. No juggling, no waiting, no distractions – just you, the golf, and every special moment in between.
