There is a rhythm to American golf that year-round Sunbelt courses will never replicate. Every spring, across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes, the most storied courses in the game emerge from winter dormancy — greens crews rolling out for the first mow, flagsticks returning to pins that have stood empty since November, and members arriving to find the course they love reset and renewed.
These are the clubs that defined American golf — founding institutions of the USGA, hosts of dozens of major championships, the canvases of Tillinghast and Ross and Macdonald and Flynn. Here are twelve of the most iconic preparing to welcome members back this spring.
1. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club — Southampton, New York
Founded in 1891, Shinnecock Hills is one of the oldest golf clubs in America and among the five founding member clubs of the USGA. The course has hosted five U.S. Opens — 1896, 1986, 1995, 2004, and 2018 — with a sixth scheduled for June 2026, and its windswept layout on the eastern end of Long Island remains one of the most respected tests in championship golf. The current course was designed by William S. Flynn and opened in 1931, replacing an earlier layout that dated to the club’s founding. The Stanford White-designed clubhouse, built in 1892, is often cited as the first purpose-built golf clubhouse in America. Membership is by invitation only, with initiation fees estimated at $250,000. The club was notably progressive from its earliest days, admitting women members when few American clubs did so.
The course plays firm and fast in early season, with ocean breezes shaping every shot — a links that rewards imagination over power and has made Shinnecock a favorite of serious golfers for more than 130 years.
2. Winged Foot Golf Club — Mamaroneck, New York
Winged Foot Golf Club holds a distinction no other club in the world can claim: both of its courses — the West and the East — rank in the top 100 nationally. The West Course, designed by A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1923, is ranked 13th in the United States in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings. The East Course sits at 45th. Founded in 1921 by members of the New York Athletic Club, Winged Foot has hosted six U.S. Opens, one PGA Championship, two U.S. Women’s Opens, and two U.S. Amateurs, among other major events.
Tillinghast’s design philosophy — demanding par, generous bogey — is on full display at Winged Foot. The West Course’s narrow, tree-lined fairways and small, tilted greens have produced some of the most dramatic finishes in major championship history, including the 2020 U.S. Open. Spring means soft conditions on greens that will firm up through summer, giving early-season players a rare window of receptiveness.
3. Oakmont Country Club — Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Oakmont is, by almost any measure, the most penal championship course in America. Founded in 1903 and designed by Henry Clay Fownes, the course was built on the principle that par should be earned through exacting shotmaking, not given away by generous routing. The church pew bunkers — a series of grass-ridged sand traps between the third and fourth fairways — are among the most photographed hazards in golf. Oakmont has hosted ten U.S. Opens, more than any other club, most recently in 2025, along with six U.S. Amateurs, three PGA Championships, and two U.S. Women’s Opens. It is ranked 5th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings.
Regular membership initiation fees are reportedly in the range of $150,000, with the club maintaining approximately 835 total members, of whom about 400 are regular members. Spring at Oakmont reveals the course at its most vulnerable — the lightning-fast greens that terrorize U.S. Open fields are softer in April, and the rough has not yet reached its suffocating summer height.
4. Merion Golf Club — Ardmore, Pennsylvania
Merion Golf Club’s East Course is a masterpiece of compact design. Laid out by thirty-two-year-old club member Hugh Wilson in 1912, the course occupies just 126 acres — remarkably small for a top-ranked layout — yet it has hosted five U.S. Opens, including the 2013 championship won by Justin Rose. The club was founded in 1896, and the East Course is ranked 6th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings, making it the highest-ranked course on Philadelphia’s Main Line and the second-best in Pennsylvania.
Merion is a walking-only club, and its famous wicker basket flagsticks — a tradition unique to Merion — are among the most recognizable icons in American golf. Spring brings the club’s stunning collection of mature trees back to life, transforming the tight corridors Wilson carved through suburban Philadelphia into cathedral-like passages of green.
5. The Country Club — Brookline, Massachusetts
The Country Club, founded in 1882, holds the distinction of being the first country club in the United States. It was one of the five founding clubs of the USGA in 1894, and its golf course has hosted four U.S. Opens — 1913, 1963, 1988, and most recently 2022, when Matt Fitzpatrick won his first major title. The 1913 U.S. Open is one of the most significant events in golf history: twenty-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet, who grew up across the street from the course, defeated British professionals Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff, capturing the American public’s imagination and helping to popularize the game.
The course evolved over decades, with contributions from Willie Campbell, William Flynn, and Rees Jones. Membership is capped at approximately 1,500, and joining fees are estimated at $500,000. Spring in Brookline arrives late — the course typically opens in mid-April — but the New England light and the property’s rolling terrain make it one of the most beautiful settings in American golf.
6. Chicago Golf Club — Wheaton, Illinois
Chicago Golf Club is the oldest 18-hole golf course in North America. Founded in 1893 by Charles Blair Macdonald — a World Golf Hall of Fame member who had studied the game at the University of St Andrews — the club was one of the five founding members of the USGA. Macdonald designed the links-style layout himself on a 200-acre parcel of farmland in Wheaton, Illinois, purchased in 1894 for $28,000. By the lore of the club, Macdonald was a chronic slicer, so he routed both nines to play clockwise.
The course has been meticulously preserved, and its understated character — wide fairways, subtle contours, greens that reward feel over force — reflects a vision of golf that predates the modern power game. Spring on the Illinois prairie can be raw, but the firm conditions that cold weather leaves behind are precisely the playing surface Macdonald intended when he built the course to echo the links of Scotland.
7. National Golf Links of America — Southampton, New York
Charles Blair Macdonald’s second masterpiece — and the course he considered his life’s work — the National Golf Links was founded in 1908 and opened in 1911 on the shore of Peconic Bay in Southampton. Macdonald modeled the holes after the great links of Scotland and England, creating what he called a “classical” golf course built on principles rather than terrain alone. Construction was supervised by Seth Raynor, a local civil engineer who would go on to become one of the most important golf architects of the early twentieth century.
The National is ranked 7th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings. Membership is by invitation only, capped at roughly 600, with initiation fees estimated well into six figures. Spring at the National means ocean wind off the bay, firm turf, and the links-like conditions that Macdonald spent years in Scotland learning to appreciate.
8. Oakland Hills Country Club — Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Oakland Hills was founded in 1916 and its South Course — designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918 — has hosted six U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships, two U.S. Senior Opens, two U.S. Amateurs, and the 2004 Ryder Cup. The course earned its nickname “The Monster” from Ben Hogan after his victory in the 1951 U.S. Open, when he described his final-round 67 as bringing “this monster to its knees.” The South Course is ranked 20th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings.
The club recently completed a major renovation of the South Course under the direction of Gil Hanse, returning many of Ross’s original design features that had been altered over decades of championship preparation. Spring at Oakland Hills — typically mid-to-late April — gives members their first look at the restored layout, with the course playing softer and more receptive than it will through summer.
9. Fishers Island Club — Fishers Island, New York
Fishers Island is accessible only by ferry or private boat, and that remoteness is central to its identity. The golf course was designed by Seth Raynor — with Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. engaged separately to plan the surrounding residential subdivision — and opened in July 1926. It is ranked 10th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings. Raynor died of pneumonia in January 1926, six months before the course opened; his associate Charles Banks completed the work. The layout is widely considered Raynor’s crowning achievement — a links-style masterpiece built on bluffs overlooking Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound.
The community is small, the membership is limited, and the atmosphere is one of quiet understatement. Spring opening on the island is a genuine event — members who have waited through a Northeast winter make the ferry crossing to find one of the most spectacular settings in American golf ready for another season.
10. Garden City Golf Club — Garden City, New York
Garden City Golf Club, incorporated in 1899, is a links-style course just twenty minutes from Manhattan on Long Island’s Hempstead Plain. The course was originally designed by Devereux Emmet, with significant contributions from Walter Travis, and it ranks 58th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings — a position it has maintained with remarkable consistency since 1981. Membership is restricted to approximately 400 members, all men, with admission by invitation only.
The course is known for its firm, windswept conditions and strategic bunkering that rewards thoughtful play. Its proximity to Manhattan makes it one of the most convenient world-class courses in the country. Spring brings the treeless landscape alive with ocean-influenced breezes that remind golfers why this course was compared to the links of the British Isles from the day it opened.
11. Myopia Hunt Club — South Hamilton, Massachusetts
Founded in 1875 and relocated to its current property in 1882, Myopia Hunt Club is one of the oldest sporting clubs in America. The golf course, designed by Herbert Corey Leeds, opened in its current 18-hole form in 1898 and hosted four U.S. Opens — 1898, 1901, 1905, and 1908 — a span of major championship hosting unmatched in the early history of the game. The course is ranked 54th nationally in Golf Digest’s 2025-26 rankings.
Myopia is not strictly a golf club — it is a hunt club, and the equestrian program remains central to the institution. The golf course shares the property with polo fields and riding facilities, giving it a country sporting estate character that is increasingly rare in American club life. Spring at Myopia is a New England event, with the North Shore of Massachusetts awakening slowly from winter. The course’s exposed hilltop setting means wind is a constant factor, and early-season rounds often require layers and patience — qualities that Myopia’s membership has cultivated for nearly 150 years.
12. Wannamoisett Country Club — Rumford, Rhode Island
Wannamoisett Country Club rounds out this list as a Donald Ross gem that serious golfers revere. Designed by Ross in 1914, the course occupies just 104 acres in Rumford, Rhode Island — even more compact than Merion — yet it has hosted multiple USGA championships and is consistently voted among the top 50 courses in the nation by Golf Magazine, Golfweek, and Golf Digest. It ranks as the third-best course in Rhode Island in Golf Digest’s latest assessment.
Ross’s genius at Wannamoisett was making the most of limited land. Every hole demands precision, and the course’s small, crowned greens — a Ross hallmark — reject anything less than a well-struck approach. Spring at Wannamoisett brings the kind of conditions that Ross designed for: firm turf, wind off Narragansett Bay, and a course that rewards the thoughtful golfer over the long hitter. For clubs and members who appreciate the craft of golf course architecture, there may be no better way to start the season than walking eighteen holes of Donald Ross’s meticulous design on a cool New England morning.
A Century and a Half of American Golf
The Season Ahead
These twelve clubs represent something larger than world-class golf. They represent continuity — institutions that have survived world wars, depressions, and cultural upheavals by staying true to their founding purpose: providing a place where the game is played with care, where traditions are maintained, and where members return each spring to pick up exactly where they left off.
In an era of year-round golf destinations and climate-controlled practice facilities, the seasonal opening of a great Northern course is a reminder that some of the best things in the game cannot be rushed. The wait is part of it. The anticipation is part of it. And when the first tee shot of the season rises into a cold April sky over a course that has been played for a century or more, the wait is always worth it.
Sources: Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Courses 2025-26; USGA Championship Archives; club public histories (Shinnecock Hills, Winged Foot, Oakmont, Merion, The Country Club, Chicago Golf Club, National Golf Links, Oakland Hills, Fishers Island, Garden City Golf, Myopia Hunt Club, Wannamoisett).
