Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2026 ranking of the top par-3, short and non-traditional public-access golf courses in the United States. Golfweek’s Best introduced a ranking of these layouts in 2023 to acknowledge a recent and rapid rise in short courses. In 2024, we broke the category into two lists: public-access courses and private layouts. This ranking for the public-access layouts can include resorts, municipal courses and daily-fee operations.

Basically, they all fit the bill of not being a traditional-length, traditional-par course. And just like the best short courses, we threw out some of our rules used for rating traditional courses and asked our raters to submit one overall score for each course based on how much they enjoyed the design and the environment. Those individual ratings were then combined to form one average rating. Each course had to receive a minimum of 10 votes. 

For this list, we included each course’s average rating on a points scale of 1 to 10. We also included each course's 2025 ranking if applicable, its location, the designers, the year it opened, the number of holes, the total length and the par. An asterisk indicates a course that is new or returning to the list.

1. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (Bandon Preserve)

2. Golden Gate Park

3. Sand Valley (The Sandbox)

4. Big Cedar Lodge (Top of the Rock)

5. Gamble Sands (Quicksands)

6. Pinehurst Resort (The Cradle)

7. Big Cedar Lodge (Mountain Top)

8. Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail (Grand National Short)

9. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (Shorty's)

10. Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail (Magnolia Grove Short)

11. Kohler Blackwolf Run (The Baths)

12. Palm Beach Par 3

13. Streamsong (The Chain)

14. Boar's Head (The Nest)

15. Prairie Club (Horse)

16. Big Cedar (Cliffhanger)