Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2026 ranking of the top par-3, short and non-traditional private 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. 

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 the 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 number of 10 votes. 

For this list, we included each private course’s average rating on a points scale of 1 to 10. We also included each course's 2025 ranking, its location, the designers, the year it opened, the number of holes, the total length and the par. 

1. Pine Valley (Short Course)

2. Philadelphia Cricket Club (St. Martins)

3. Augusta National Golf Club (Par 3 Course)

4. Oakwood CC (Short)

5. Hamilton Farms (Hickory)

 Hurdzan, Dana Fry