Vermont's five best golf courses, according to Golf Digest's 2025-26 Best in State rankings, are Ekwanok Country Club, Country Club of Vermont, Rutland Country Club, Dorset Field Club, and The Quechee Club's Highland Course.
Keep reading for a closer look at what makes each one worth knowing about.
Ekwanok Country Club — Manchester
Ekwanok sits at the base of Mt. Equinox on a 200-acre farm, and its history runs deep — this was Walter Travis's very first course design, completed in 1899.
Travis went on to win the U.S. Amateur three times and became one of America's most influential architects, which makes Ekwanok something of a founding document for American golf. The course also hosted the 1914 U.S. Amateur, won by Francis Ouimet.
The layout plays to a par 71 at roughly 6,569–6,612 yards with a slope of 134, though the real challenge comes from the greens — near-circular, severely contoured, and consistently fast.
The 7th hole is Vermont's most famous, requiring a blind second shot over a hill that, according to Golf Digest, has never been reached in two. The 15th adds more drama with a diagonal stream cutting the fairway at 150 yards.
Five tee sets make the course accessible across skill levels, and Ekwanok runs the only caddie program in Vermont. It has ranked #1 in the state nearly every year since 1991, and access is strictly by invitation.
Country Club of Vermont — Waterbury Center
The only modern course in Vermont's top five, Country Club of Vermont opened in 1998 on 225 acres framed by the Worcester and Mansfield mountain ranges, with Camel's Hump visible in the distance.
Canadian architect Graham Cooke — whose firm also redesigned Royal Montreal Golf Club ahead of the 2007 Presidents Cup — called the site “enormously powerful,” and the routing reflects that confidence.
The front and back nines play like two different courses. The front runs through open, treeless terrain with rolling hills and a links feel, while the back shifts into classic parkland winding through Vermont woodland. It's an unusual split that works well, giving the round a natural change of pace at the turn.
The course measures 6,788 yards, par 72, with a course rating of 72.6 and a slope ranging from 130 to 135. Bent grass covers the tees, fairways, and greens, with native fescue defining the roughs. Guest play runs around $225 through a member, and the club has held the #2 spot in Vermont continuously since 2011.
Rutland Country Club — Rutland
Rutland has been around since 1902, when George Low laid out the original nine holes. Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek — a respected Golden Age design duo — expanded it to 18 in 1927, retaining three of Low's holes while rebuilding and rerouting the rest. The result is a course with genuine historical layering.
At 6,134–6,223 yards and par 70, the card looks manageable. It isn't. A creek comes into play on five holes, the west side runs heavily wooded, and the greens are widely regarded as some of the most demanding in New England — small, fast, and slanted in ways that punish anything short of a precise approach. The slope of 125 understates the actual difficulty.
The par-3s are where Rutland makes its strongest case. Four of them stand out:
- 3rd (170 yards): A small, slanted green tucked hard against a rock wall
- 5th (223 yards): All carry from an elevated tee across a river
- 12th (205 yards): Flanked by two deep, ball-eating bunkers
- 14th: A par 4 that opens up to an unobstructed Green Mountain panorama, particularly striking during foliage season
Rutland sits at #3 in Golf Digest's 2025-26 Vermont rankings and has been back in the top five continuously since 2023.
Dorset Field Club — Dorset
Dorset Field Club has a claim no other American course can match: the oldest continuously operating golf course in the United States, with its original nine holes laid out on September 12, 1886. Vermont designer Steve Durkee expanded it to 18 holes in 1999, more than a century after that first round was ever played.
The course plays 6,168–6,240 yards to a par 70 with a slope of 124, but the terrain keeps things interesting.
Stone-lined brooks cross six holes, postage-stamp greens at the 1st, 2nd, and 18th demand precision, and a St. Andrews-style stone bridge frames the 9th in a way that feels entirely at home here. The signature 16th is a back-nine par 5 that bends 90 degrees around a stand of birches guarding the green.
Beyond golf, the club offers tennis, paddle tennis, croquet, and over two miles of cross-country ski trails in winter. It ranks #4 in Golf Digest's 2025-26 Vermont list and has held a top-five spot continuously since 2017.
The Quechee Club: Highland Course — Quechee
The Quechee Club is Vermont's only 36-hole facility, and both of its courses — Highland and Lakeland — were designed by Geoffrey Cornish and William G. Robinson in 1970.
Highland is the stronger of the two, described by golf writer Daniel Wexler as the pinnacle of Cornish's prolific design career. Tropical Storm Irene heavily damaged the property in 2011, and architect Brian Silva completed a full restoration by 2013.
Highland is built along a mountainside, and the terrain shapes every hole. Elevation changes are dramatic, rock walls come into play throughout, and sidehill lies are a consistent factor.
A demanding sequence of par 3s adds to the difficulty. The course plays 6,765–6,840 yards, par 72, with a course rating between 72.6 and 73.1 and a slope of 129–134. Five tee sets bring it down to 5,439 yards at the shortest.
Access runs through the Quechee Lakes Landowners' Association — property owners and renters get access, but outside play is essentially invitation-only. Highland ranks #5 in Golf Digest's 2025-26 Vermont standings.
The Best Public Golf Courses in Vermont
Since all five Golf Digest-ranked courses are private, travelers without member connections need solid public options. Two stand out.
Green Mountain National Golf Course (Killington) is the stronger of the two from a difficulty standpoint. Designed by Gene Bates and Steve Durkee and opened in 1996, it plays 6,589 yards to a par 71 with a slope of 138 — among the toughest numbers of any public course in the state. It holds the top public ranking in Vermont, with peak rates running $95–$145 including a cart.
Woodstock Country Club brings history to the table as Vermont's oldest public course, founded in 1895 and redesigned by Robert Trent Jones Sr. It plays 6,052 yards, par 70, with a slope of 133, and rates sit around $90 per player.
The course operates through the Woodstock Inn & Resort and has earned a spot on Golf Magazine's Top 100 Golf Resorts list worldwide. Golf-and-lodging packages are available.
Neither course matches the private five on architectural pedigree, but both offer a worthwhile Vermont golf experience without the need for an invitation.
Conclusion
Vermont's best golf is defined by historical depth, design restraint, and scenery that few states can match — not by length or championship spectacle.
The top five are all private, so getting on them requires a member connection or reciprocal access, making the public options at Green Mountain National and Woodstock the practical starting point for most visitors.
Either way, Vermont rewards golfers who appreciate subtlety over showmanship.
