If you want a straight answer, the five best Seth Raynor golf courses are Fishers Island Club, Chicago Golf Club, Camargo Club, Shoreacres, and Yeamans Hall Club, with Fishers Island holding the top spot across nearly every major ranking.
Keep reading for a closer look at what makes each course stand out, plus how you can actually get on one of them.
Who Was Seth Raynor and Why His Courses Still Matter
Seth Raynor didn't start out as a golf course architect. He trained as a civil engineer at Princeton, and he had no formal background in golf design when he crossed paths with C.B. Macdonald, the man widely considered the father of American golf architecture.
That meeting changed everything. Raynor apprenticed under Macdonald at the National Golf Links of America, absorbing the principles that would define his entire career: geometric greens, bold template holes, and a strategic style borrowed from the great courses of Scotland and England.
What Raynor did with that education is staggering when you consider the timeline. In roughly 13 years, he's credited with somewhere around 85 golf courses, though even that number is a rough estimate.
Some historians put his output as low as 60, others push it past 100. The uncertainty isn't sloppy research on anyone's part; it's because Raynor kept almost no records of his own work.
There's no master list, no comprehensive archive, just scattered club histories and course records that researchers have pieced together over decades.
His career ended abruptly. Raynor died on January 23, 1926, at just 51 years old, after contracting pneumonia while working on the West Coast.
At the time, he was under contract to design Cypress Point, had already laid out two courses in Hawaii, and was scheduled to travel to Japan for further work.
He was, in other words, at the peak of his output when he died, which makes the incompleteness of his historical record even more frustrating for anyone trying to understand his full body of work.
That lack of documentation matters for another reason: it's part of why so few of his original designs survive intact. Only three of his courses still have all 18 original greens exactly as he built them: Chicago Golf Club, Blue Mound Golf and Country Club, and Shoreacres.
Everything else has been touched by later renovations, some faithful to his vision, some not. This scarcity is a big part of why the courses that remain untouched are treated with such reverence today.
The other reason Raynor's name still carries weight is his signature style: the “template hole.” Rather than inventing a new hole design for every situation, Raynor worked from a consistent set of blueprints inspired by famous holes in Scotland and England, adapting each one to fit the land in front of him. His core template lineup included:
- Redan – a angled, well-defended green demanding a specific approach angle
- Biarritz – a long par 3 with a distinctive swale bisecting the green
- Eden – modeled after the 11th at St. Andrews
- Short – a compact, heavily bunkered one-shotter
- Road – based on the famous 17th at St. Andrews
- Alps – a blind approach over a dramatic rise
- Cape – a diagonal carry over hazard or water
- Double Plateau – a green split into distinct upper tiers
- Punchbowl – a green tucked into a natural bowl that gathers approach shots
These templates are the throughline connecting every course on this list, and understanding them is the key to appreciating what makes Raynor's best work so enduring.
How These Rankings Were Determined
Golf course rankings are inherently subjective, so this list draws on three of the most respected panels in the industry rather than relying on a single source. Cross-referencing multiple rankings helps smooth out any one publication's particular biases or blind spots:
- Golfweek 2025 Classic rankings
- GOLF Magazine's 2024-25 U.S. Top 100
- Golf Digest's 2025-26 rankings, including its America's 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest lists
Golf Digest also publishes a standalone “10 Best Seth Raynor Golf Courses” guide, which served as a useful supplementary check. Where its dedicated Raynor list agreed with the broader panels, that overlap reinforced the final selections.
Why Monterey Peninsula's Dunes course didn't make the cut
Golf Digest's own Raynor-specific list includes Monterey Peninsula Country Club's Dunes course at number five, but it's excluded here for a good reason: its Raynor authorship is genuinely contested.
Raynor only routed the course in 1924, shortly before his death, and never got to complete or refine the design himself. Since then, the course has been reshaped twice, once by Rees Jones in 1999 and again by Fazio and Jackson-Kahn in 2016, and both renovations pushed it toward an Alister MacKenzie aesthetic rather than a Raynor one.
What's on the ground today reflects those later architects as much as it does Raynor's original routing, which makes it a poor fit for a list meant to showcase his purest work.
Why Yeamans Hall takes the fifth spot instead
Yeamans Hall Club is the more defensible choice for the final position on this list. Unlike the Dunes course, it's an intact, faithfully restored example of Raynor's design intent, with no competing architectural influences muddying the picture.
Its templates, including a Road Hole, Biarritz, Redan, Alps, and a rare Prize Dogleg, reflect Raynor's work as he actually built it, not as later architects reinterpreted it.
One last note worth keeping in mind: these rankings aren't fixed. They shift from year to year as panels re-rate courses, as restorations get completed, and as new data comes in. What follows is a snapshot based on the most current rankings available, not a permanent hierarchy.
The Top 5 Courses, Ranked
1. Fishers Island Club (New York, opened 1926)
Fishers Island is Raynor's masterpiece and his final major project. He died before it officially opened, leaving Charles Banks to finish the job.
Set on the eastern tip of a two-mile-wide island in Long Island Sound, the par-72 course stretches roughly 6,616 yards and is famous for how its geometric greens and steep bunkers play against sweeping ocean views.
It features Raynor's full template range, including two Redan greens, but three holes stand out above the rest: the 4th (an Alps hole many consider the best in the world), the 5th (a Biarritz), and the 9th (a Double Plateau), all of which appear on Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Holes list.
- Golfweek Classic: No. 9
- GOLF U.S.: No. 11
- Golf Digest 100 Greatest: No. 9 (No. 3 in New York)
2. Chicago Golf Club (Illinois, Raynor redesign opened 1923)
Chicago Golf Club holds a unique distinction: it's America's first 18-hole course, dating back to 1892. Raynor completely reworked Macdonald's original layout between 1921 and 1923, and the course hasn't seen a major remodel since. It's one of only three Raynor designs with all 18 original greens still intact.
The template lineup here is deep: a Road Hole on the 2nd, one of the best Biarritz holes anywhere on the 3rd, a Cape on the 4th, a Punchbowl on the 12th, and a Redan on the 7th.
The course has hosted three U.S. Opens and two Walker Cups, with Bobby Jones setting a course record of 66 during the 1928 event.
- Golfweek Classic: No. 8
- GOLF U.S.: No. 12
- Golf Digest 100 Greatest: No. 11
3. Camargo Club (Ohio, opened 1925)
Camargo is widely regarded as home to the finest collection of par-3 templates anywhere in the country. The Redan, Short, Biarritz, and Eden quartet has earned praise even from architects like Pete Dye, who generally avoided template-style design but still called Camargo's par-3 set the best around.
Robert von Hagge added bunkering in the early 1960s that didn't quite fit Raynor's original aesthetic, but Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf restored the course's geometric character around 2000. The Biarritz 8th green is known for having its front half mowed at fairway height, a small but distinctive detail.
- Golfweek Classic: No. 28
- GOLF U.S.: No. 31 (highest-rated course in Ohio)
- Golf Digest 100 Greatest: No. 48
4. Shoreacres (Illinois, opened 1921)
Shoreacres sits on Chicago's North Shore beside Lake Michigan and is one of only three Raynor courses with all 18 original greens intact. The land itself is mostly flat, but deep ravines cut through it and feed into the lake, most dramatically across holes 10 through 15.
At just over 6,300 yards, it's been noted as the shortest course on GOLF's World Top 100, yet it's still prized for firm, fast conditions and generous green complexes. Templates include a Biarritz on the 6th, a Redan on the 14th, and one of the best American interpretations of the Road Hole on the 10th.
- Golfweek Classic: No. 22
- GOLF U.S.: No. 25
- Golf Digest 100 Greatest: No. 47
5. Yeamans Hall Club (South Carolina, opened 1925)
Yeamans Hall sits on a former 1,100-acre plantation about 12 miles from Charleston and stands as one of the most faithfully restored examples of Raynor's lowcountry work. Its templates include a Road Hole, Biarritz, Redan, Alps, and a rare Prize Dogleg based on a 1914 magazine design contest entry.
The course fell into roughly 50 years of neglect until a superintendent discovered Raynor's original plans tucked away in the clubhouse attic in the late 1980s. Tom Doak and his associate Jim Urbina used those plans to guide a careful restoration of the original design.
- Golfweek Classic: No. 44
- GOLF U.S.: No. 47
- Golf Digest Second 100 Greatest: No. 114
Access and Etiquette at These Private Clubs
Here's the reality check: none of these five courses offer public access. Every one is a private, invitation-only club, which means you can't book a tee time online or show up as a walk-on, no matter how much you're willing to pay. Getting on any of them requires a genuine connection to the club.
Fishers Island adds an extra layer of difficulty on top of its private status. Since the club sits on an island off the Connecticut coast, you can only reach it by ferry or private plane, and you'll need a member to host you once you arrive. GOLF Magazine's advice on the matter is refreshingly blunt: make friends with a member. There's no shortcut around that requirement.
What guest play typically requires
While policies vary slightly from club to club, a few norms hold true across nearly all private Raynor courses:
- A member must sponsor your visit and often needs to accompany you for the round
- Advance notice is standard, sometimes weeks ahead, so this isn't a same-day plan
- Dress codes are strictly enforced, typically collared shirts, tailored shorts or pants, and no denim
- Some clubs limit the number of guest rounds a member can extend per year, so even a willing host may have restrictions
How golf travelers actually get on these courses
If you don't already know a member, there are a few realistic paths worth pursuing:
- Build relationships through your existing network. Ask around at your own club or among golfing friends; private club membership circles overlap more than people expect.
- Work with a golf travel consultant. Some specialize in arranging access to exclusive clubs through established relationships, though this usually comes at a premium.
- Explore reciprocal club arrangements. If you belong to a private club with reciprocity agreements, check whether any of these five (or clubs connected to their members) are included.
None of these routes are fast. Getting access to a course like Chicago Golf Club or Camargo is less about finding the right email address and more about cultivating genuine relationships over time. Patience and persistence matter far more than a well-worded request ever will.
The Best Public Alternative — Yale Golf Course
If you want to experience genuine Macdonald and Raynor design without needing a member's invitation, Yale Golf Course in New Haven is your best option.
After a two-year restoration led by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, costing roughly $25 million, the course reopened to the public on April 28, 2026.
The timing wasn't random: it lined up with the course's centennial, and the project was built around returning the layout to Macdonald and Raynor's original 1926 vision rather than modernizing it.
What the restoration actually changed
Hanse and Wagner didn't just touch up a few greens. The scope of the work was extensive:
- Rebuilt the Double Punch Bowl 3rd green from the ground up
- Restored the famous Biarritz 9th, now spanning roughly 22,000 square feet
- Renewed nearly 200,000 square feet of putting surface across the entire course
- Brought greens to an average size of 14,000 square feet, giving them room to breathe the way Raynor originally intended
The result is a par-70 course that now plays just over 7,050 yards, with a course rating of 74.7 and a slope of 144. That's a serious test of golf, and it puts Yale firmly back in the conversation as one of the most complete Macdonald/Raynor experiences in the country.
How to actually book a tee time
Yale runs public tee times Tuesday through Sunday, but the booking window depends on your affiliation with the university:
- Yale-affiliated golfers can book up to 14 days in advance
- General public golfers can book up to 10 days in advance
Given the attention the restoration has already drawn, booking as early as your window allows is a smart move if you want a specific date.
Another public option worth knowing
Yale isn't the only true public-access course tied to this design lineage. The Old White course at The Greenbrier in West Virginia is another legitimate Macdonald/Raynor design open to the public, and it's worth considering if you're building a golf trip around this style of architecture and want more than one stop on the itinerary.
Other Notable Raynor Courses Worth Watching
The top five don't tell the whole story. Raynor's influence stretches across dozens of courses with varying degrees of authorship, preservation, and prestige, and several of them are worth keeping an eye on even though they didn't make the main list.
Monterey Peninsula Country Club (Dunes course)
This one comes with an asterisk. Raynor routed the course in 1924, right before his death, but he never got to finish shaping it himself.
Later work by Rees Jones in 1999 and by Fazio and Jackson-Kahn in 2016 pushed the course toward an Alister MacKenzie look, which makes its Raynor authorship genuinely contested rather than settled fact.
Lesser-known but historically significant designs
A handful of other courses carry real Raynor pedigree, even if they don't get the same spotlight:
- Fox Chapel (Pittsburgh, PA) — a respected but often overlooked Raynor design
- Mountain Lake (Lake Wales, FL) — another course that rarely comes up outside serious architecture circles
- Blue Mound Golf and Country Club (Wauwatosa, WI) — one of only three Raynor courses with all 18 original greens intact, and host of the 1933 PGA Championship
Other Raynor-linked venues
Two more courses round out the broader picture:
- Country Club of Charleston — another example of Raynor's lowcountry work
- Waialae Country Club (Honolulu) — home to the PGA Tour's Sony Open, giving Raynor's design a rare annual spot on national television
What could shift the rankings next
A few developments are worth watching if you're tracking how this list might change over time:
- Ongoing restoration work at Shoreacres and Yeamans Hall could strengthen their positions in future rankings
- Yale's recent restoration could prompt ranking panels to re-rate the course upward, potentially pushing it into the elite tier alongside the current top five
Raynor's body of work is still being reassessed, restored, and rediscovered nearly a century after his death, which is part of what makes this list worth revisiting every few years rather than treating it as fixed.
Conclusion
Seth Raynor's best courses remain some of the most compelling golf experiences in America, blending strategic template design with landscapes as varied as oceanfront islands and Charleston lowcountry.
While Fishers Island, Chicago Golf Club, Camargo, Shoreacres, and Yeamans Hall require patience and connections to access, Yale's recent restoration proves you don't need a private membership to walk in Raynor's footsteps.
Whether you're chasing an invitation or booking a public tee time, understanding his template holes will change the way you see every green you play.
