The golf development business thrived in 2025 and appears to be accelerating into 2026. Architects are flush with work, resorts are expanding, remodel budgets break barriers and new courses are being constructed in all corners of the country. However, the same resources dedicated to private clubs and resorts have yet to find their way to municipal and affordable public courses, at least in a meaningful way. The economics of these courses, the courses that most golfers play, remain challenging.
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Investment in affordable golf lags far behind private projects, but it’s not absent. Three courses qualified for our 2025 Best New or Remodeled Affordable Course prize this year. Our highest scoring course, Bella Ridge, a Troon Golf property located on Colorado’s Front Range north of Denver, is more expensive than the other two nominees but at certain times can be played for around $75, the cutoff line for affordability—especially compared to what most courses on our America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses cost. The other two nominees, the North Course at Corica Park in Alameda, Calif., which combines with the South Course there to make one of the country’s most outstanding 36-hole public facilities, and Old Fort outside Nashville, qualify as more traditionally affordable.
As the health of the entire golf industry continues to be robust, we remain hopeful that more investment will make its way into non-luxury public courses, in 2026 and beyond…