"Best Courses in South Carolina" Announced for 2026
New Courses Feature Among Activity in Panel Rankings
By: Trent Bouts, Palmetto Golfer | Spring 2026 Edition
Activity is the buzzword in South Carolina golf these days. It's a catch-all for record levels of play, a wave of new course construction and a flood of old course renovations. Turns out there has also been considerable activity within the ranks of the South Carolina Golf Course Rankings Panel. And that in turn has sparked even more activity – in the panel's biennial rankings of the best courses in the state.
Indeed, the ranking of the Best 50 Modern Courses – those which opened since January 1, 1980 – includes two first timers near the top of the chart.
The Tree Farm, a design collaboration between owner and PGA TOUR player Zac Blair, Kyle Goalby and Tom Doak, lands at No. 9. Broomsedge, another joint project between founder Mike Koprowski and golf course architect Kyle Franz, comes in at 16.
The other big news on the Modern Course list is that Old Barnwell, which debuted in 2024, rose from No. 10 to now sit at No. 3 behind only The Ocean Course and Congaree Golf Club. That is some stellar company and a credit to the design work of Brian Schneider and Blake Conant.
Among plenty that is notable with Tree Farm and Old Barnwell, both near Aiken, and Broomsedge, near Camden, is their geography. All sit on a vein of sandy soil that, relative to its millennia in the making, has become an overnight sensation in golf. That sand belt runs from Georgia through South Carolina to Pinehurst in North Carolina.
Across the entire Southeast, perhaps only Florida's east coast, around Jupiter, is busier with new course development.
If the soil beneath Tree Farm, Broomsedge, and Old Barnwell wasn't so sandy, you might hear the stampede of an emerging generation of golf course architects. Of all the individuals named above, only Doak – with the Heathland course at Legends Resort in Myrtle Beach – has designed a course in the state previously.
And that is a good thing. Golf is no different than any ecosystem where the more variety the healthier it tends to be. In that vein, the South Carolina golf world is getting ready to welcome works by other designers making their Palmetto State debut – Andrew Green with Kawonu near Greenville and Tyler Rae with Old Sawmill near Charleston.
As much "activity" as there is within this iteration of rankings, there may well be as much, if not more, two years now. By then, panelists will have also had the chance to take in Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's recently opened Anson Point at Palmetto Bluff. If it is anything like their work at Chechessee Creek Club, which climbed from No. 11 to No. 5, then Anson Point will be a strong contender in 2028.
For the time being though, the old guard – with Pete Dye at The Ocean Course and Tom Fazio at Congaree – holds sway at the very top of the Modern Course list.
That is not the case on the list of Classic Courses where Dye's Harbour Town Golf Links slipped to No. 2 behind venerable Yeamans Hall Club, the 1925 Seth Raynor gem, outside Charleston. There could be scarcely be a greater contrast between the two. Home of the PGA TOUR's annual RBC Heritage, Harbour Town with its trademark red and white lighthouse behind the 18th green is among the most recognizable courses in the game. Golfers flock from all over the country and overseas to play it.
You have to be on property to get a look at Yeamans Hall. Accessed by a single lane dirt road, it is cut off by Goose Creek on two sides and elsewhere by trees. A former executive director of the National Golf Course Owners Association, who lived in Charleston, once held a summer membership but only ever set foot in the clubhouse once, as guest speaker at an event.
It is worth nothing that before casting their votes, the vast majority of panelists had not had an opportunity to play the renovated version of Harbour Town, which only reopened in November.
As might be expected, most of the movement among the Classic Courses was minimal, with all of this round's top 10 coming from the top 16 in 2024. Stack that against the Modern Course list where, not including first timers, a dozen courses moved at a dozen places – either up or down – in the rankings.
Golf panel executive director Mo York suggests several factors contributed to the movement, but two stand out. One is the sheer volume of play post-pandemic which has limited panelist access, particularly at private clubs. The other is turnover within the panel itself as older panelists have aged out of active play.
"There's been a little bit of churn there with younger people joining the panel and I think you see that reflected in the rankings," he says.
