The best golf trips in the US: budget, value, and bucket list.

The buddies golf trip is the best week of the golf calendar, and picking the destination is half the fun and most of the arguments. This guide sorts the 20 best golf trip destinations in the US into three honest tiers: budget trips that keep golf and a bed under about $150 a day, value trips where the quality-per-dollar math peaks, and bucket-list resorts where the courses themselves are the reason to fly. Filter by tier or state below, then read the deep dives, and when the destination is set, sort out the games your group will play, because those travel with you.

The best golf trips in the US split into three tiers: budget destinations like Myrtle Beach and Alabama's RTJ Golf Trail, where golf plus lodging stays under about $150 a day; value destinations like Northern Michigan, Streamsong, and Palm Springs; and bucket-list resorts like Bandon Dunes and Pinehurst, where a full trip runs $2,200 to $6,500 per person.

How this list is grouped

Budget means a whole trip a foursome can cover without anyone wincing: golf plus lodging under roughly $150 per person per day. Value means the $150–350 range where course quality climbs far faster than the invoice. Bucket list means the golf itself is the trip: top-100 courses, major venues, walking-only dunes. Costs are 2026 per-person ballparks pulled from resort rate cards, package operators, and published trip-cost breakdowns; course rankings lean on the Golfweek, Golf Digest, and GolfPass consensus. Prices move with seasons, so treat every number as a planning anchor, not a quote.

Find your trip

Best budget golf trips

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

The capital of the American buddies trip: more than 90 courses on one 60-mile strand, package operators who handle the whole tee sheet, and beach-house lodging that swallows a 12-player group. Low-season packages start around $245 for two nights and two rounds, and most trips land between $400 and $1,200 per golfer depending on season and course tier. Spend the savings on one marquee round: Caledonia and The Dunes Club hold their own on any list.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Alabama

The best golf-per-dollar math in America, full stop. The Trail runs 26 courses across 11 sites, green fees sit around $50–125, and a four-night, eight-round trip can come in under $800. This is not bargain-bin golf either: Golfweek ranks four Trail courses among Alabama's top five, with Grand National's Lake course and Ross Bridge leading the list.

Crossville, Tennessee

The Cumberland Plateau's quiet golf hub stacks ten courses inside a 30-minute radius, led by Stonehenge and the Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain, and sells five-night, five-round packages for under $500. If the group cares about golf volume per dollar more than nightlife, nothing beats it.

St. George, Utah

Red-rock desert golf two hours northeast of Las Vegas at a fraction of Strip pricing. Entrada at Snow Canyon, Coral Canyon, and Sky Mountain deliver the scenery Arizona charges triple for, and the October-to-April season is exactly when northern courses are closed.

Orlando, Florida

Permanent supply-and-demand bargain: enormous course inventory, enormous lodging inventory, and a summer off-season where rates border on free if your group can take the heat. Orange County National's 45 holes make a perfect base camp, with Bay Hill available as the splurge round.

Atlantic City, New Jersey

The Northeast's drive-to trip. Historic private clubs turned public (Atlantic City Country Club claims the word "birdie" was coined there in 1903), modern standouts like Twisted Dune, and a boardwalk for the evenings, all without a flight for half the East Coast.

Best value golf trips

Northern Michigan

America's best summer golf region and the value pick on nearly every published budget list. Arcadia Bluffs, Forest Dunes and its reversible Loop, Treetops, and Bay Harbor pack top-100-caliber golf into cool July evenings at resort rates the coasts cannot touch.

Palm Springs, California

Scottsdale-grade golf without Scottsdale-grade invoices. Twilight and replay rates routinely put 36 holes under $200, PGA West's Stadium course gives the group its tournament-venue round, and October-to-December shoulder season is the steal of desert golf.

Streamsong, Florida

Three top-40 public courses (Red, Blue, Black) on one property an hour from Tampa, with three-round trips landing near $1,300 per person with lodging. It is the cheapest way in America to play architecture this serious, and summer rates drop even further.

Sand Valley, Wisconsin

Bandon's Midwest sibling in the central Wisconsin sand barrens: Golfweek slots three of its courses inside the top 18 public in the country, The Lido is the most talked-about restoration in golf, and a three-round trip runs around $1,800 per person, well under the Oregon pilgrimage.

Brainerd Lakes, Minnesota

Classic Northwoods resort golf where the stay-and-play package never died. Madden's, Grand View, and Cragun's stack cabins, docks, and 36-hole days for regional-airport money, and the June-to-September window is prime.

San Diego, California

Ninety-plus courses, weather that never cancels a trip, and a U.S. Open venue, Torrey Pines South, that books like a municipal course. Mix one Torrey round with Coronado and Balboa Park and the week's math beats almost any warm-weather rival.

Las Vegas & Mesquite, Nevada

Split the trip: Mesquite's Wolf Creek serves the most photographed holes in desert golf at value rates, Paiute's three courses handle the volume days, and the Strip handles the evenings, with Shadow Creek waiting if someone's feeling flush.

Scottsdale, Arizona

The desert-golf party capital: the WM Phoenix Open's Stadium course, fifty resort layouts, and a nightlife scene built for groups. Peak-season three-day trips run about $1,100–1,500 per person, but October-to-December shoulder season drops it a full price tier.

Bucket-list trips: the best golf courses in America

Bandon Dunes, Oregon

The consensus best pure-golf trip in the country. Five of Golfweek's top-13 public courses sit on one remote stretch of coast, everything is walking only, and 36 holes a day is the norm. A full trip runs $3,800 to $6,500 per person with peak-season rounds near $375, and nobody has ever come home saying it wasn't worth it.

Pinehurst, North Carolina

The cradle of American golf: ten courses, Donald Ross's No. 2 with its crowned greens, the game's best short course in The Cradle, and a village built around evening putting contests. Budget about $5,000 per person for the full resort treatment, or use the escape hatch: nearby Southern Pines and Tobacco Road offer the same sandhills golf at half the price.

Destination Kohler, Wisconsin

Pete Dye's Whistling Straits on Lake Michigan is a major venue your whole group can actually book, with Blackwolf Run's 36 holes next door and a five-star resort town in between. May through October only, and worth planning a summer around.

Big Cedar Lodge, Missouri

The easiest bucket trip to actually organize: Tiger Woods's Payne's Valley, Coore-Crenshaw's Ozarks National, and Fazio's Buffalo Ridge stacked in the Ozarks, with ready-made lodging-and-golf packages around $2,200 per person, carts included.

Kiawah Island, South Carolina

The Ocean Course is the hardest resort course in America, ocean wind on every hole, and it anchors a barrier-island resort 40 minutes from Charleston's food scene. Wind, waste areas, and stories for the whole winter.

Monterey Peninsula, California

The one every golfer owes themselves once. Pebble Beach's seventh at dawn, Spyglass Hill through the pines, Spanish Bay's fescue sunsets, and 17-Mile Drive between rounds. Pebble alone runs about $675 a round; budget $4,000-plus for the trip and call it a life event.

The quick reference

Destination	State	Tier	Cost anchor	Best months
Myrtle Beach	South Carolina	Budget	From ~$100/day	Mar–May, Sep–Nov
RTJ Golf Trail	Alabama	Budget	8 rounds under $800	Mar–May, Oct–Nov
Crossville	Tennessee	Budget	5 rounds under $500	Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
St. George	Utah	Budget	~$100–200/day	Oct–Apr
Orlando	Florida	Budget	~$100–200/day	Nov–Apr
Atlantic City	New Jersey	Budget	~$150–250/day	May–Oct
Northern Michigan	Michigan	Value	~$150–300/day	Jun–Sep
Palm Springs	California	Value	36 holes < $200	Jan–Apr, Oct–Dec
Streamsong	Florida	Value	~$1,300 / 3 rounds	Nov–May
Sand Valley	Wisconsin	Value	~$1,800 / 3 rounds	May–Oct
Brainerd Lakes	Minnesota	Value	~$150–250/day	Jun–Sep
San Diego	California	Value	~$150–300/day	Year-round
Las Vegas & Mesquite	Nevada	Value	~$150–400/day	Oct–May
Scottsdale	Arizona	Value	~$1,100–1,500 / 3 days	Jan–Apr, Oct–Dec
Bandon Dunes	Oregon	Bucket list	$3,800–6,500/trip	May–Oct
Pinehurst	North Carolina	Bucket list	~$5,000/trip	Mar–May, Sep–Nov
Destination Kohler	Wisconsin	Bucket list	~$2,500+/trip	May–Oct
Big Cedar Lodge	Missouri	Bucket list	~$2,200/trip	Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
Kiawah Island	South Carolina	Bucket list	~$2,500+/trip	Mar–May, Sep–Nov
Monterey Peninsula	California	Bucket list	$4,000+/trip	Apr–Nov

When to book and how to keep the cost down

• Shoulder seasons flip the math. Myrtle Beach in November, Scottsdale in October, Streamsong in June: same courses, a full price tier lower.
• Use the package operators. In Myrtle Beach and Atlantic City they hold the tee sheets and the lodging blocks; a group of 8+ almost always beats a la carte pricing through them.
• Twilight and replay rates are the 36-hole cheat code, especially in Palm Springs and Orlando.
• Mix one splurge with the rotation. The San Diego pattern works everywhere: one marquee round (Torrey, Caledonia, the Stadium course) surrounded by the destination's honest $60 golf.
• At Bandon and Pinehurst, book golf before flights. Tee sheets gate the whole trip; lodging and air travel bend, prime tee times don't.

The games make the trip

The destination is half the trip. The other half is the standings: the week-long Nassau that starts on day one, the 6-6-6 with rotating partners so everyone plays with everyone, the Ryder Cup format for big groups, and the presses that keep day three as competitive as day one, because a trailing side can always open a fresh match. Groups that track it all in one place argue less and press more.

That's what Press Tracker is for: every game, every press, and one running net per player across the whole trip, so the last-night settle-up takes thirty seconds instead of thirty minutes. Enter scores as you play; the app holds every chain no matter how deep the week gets.

Press Tracker is a scorekeeping companion for entertainment use only. It does not accept, hold, or process money. Planning the games next? Start with golf side games and how presses work.