This Is The Best Golf Course In CA, Golf Digest Says

CALIFORNIA — Cypress Point Club in the Monterey Peninsula is the best golf course California has to offer, according to a new ranking developed by golfers themselves.

Golf Digest deploys 1,700 professionally trained low-handicap golfers to continually assess the golf courses. The rankings are based on more than 80,000 evaluations over 10 years looking at criteria such as short options, challenge, design variety, conditioning, aesthetics, and character.

"Cypress Point, the sublime Monterey Peninsula work of sandbox sculpture, whittled Cypress and chiseled coastline, has become Exhibit A in the argument that classic architecture has been rendered ineffectual by modern technology," the ranking said.

There are plenty of other courses in California that prioritize the aesthetics of their fairways and greens and test the golfers who play on them with a variety of challenges.

Trailing the Monterey Peninsula golf course is the Pebble Beach Golf Links, which ranked #2 for its breathtaking views of land and sea and its recent improvements.

"Not just the greatest meeting of land and sea in American golf, but the most extensive one, too, with nine holes perched immediately above the crashing Pacific surf," the ranking said. "Pebble’s sixth through eighth are golf’s real Amen Corner, with a few Hail Marys thrown in over an ocean cove on the eighth from atop a 75-foot-high bluff."

Third on the list was the Los Angeles Country Club: North for its breathtaking architecture and canyon views.

Ranking #4 on the list was the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, which places for its compact and shrewd design and its extensive list of amenities.

"It hosted a PGA Championship in 1995, a U.S. Senior Open in 1998 and a U.S. Amateur in 2017, but no U.S. Open since 1948," the report said. "Riviera was recently awarded the 2031 U.S. Open, and it will also host the 2028 Olympics. But it’s the site of an annual PGA Tour event, which is even better exposure to the golf world."

This is the 25th edition of Golf Digest’s Best in State ranking, which has been published continually since 1977