Seven of the top 59 golf courses in Canada, from bottom left and moving clockwise: Fairmont-Jasper-Park-Lodge (No. 3), Kananaskis-Mt.-Lorette (24), Cobble-Beach (28), Greywolf (7), Grand Mere (23), The Algonquin (13) and The Ridge at Manitou (25).
Every second summer, SCOREGolf compiles a listing of the Top 59 public golf courses in Canada, as decided by a panel of knowledgeable volunteers from across the country. It complements our biennial Top 100 ranking, which includes public and private courses, most recently released last year.
If you’re asking — or have forgotten — why we rank just 59 public venues, it’s because 59 is considered a magical number in golf, a score carded on the PGA Tour 13 times (the latest being Jake Knapp at this year’s Cognizant Classic) and on the LPGA Tour once, that being Annika Sorenstam in 2001. Yes, Jim Furyk shot 58 at the 2016 Travelers Championship and Cristobal Del Solar went one shot lower than that on the Korn Ferry Tour last year. But we’re not shrinking the list any farther. Who knows how much lower these pros are going to go?
This year’s Top 59 includes the usual suspects up top, slightly reordered from 2023 but still led by the duo at Cabot Cape Breton. Right behind them are the historic Alberta Fairmont properties in Jasper and Banff. The golf course at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge reopened on July 1 after last year’s devastating wildfire and while there is lots of work to be done, the Stanley Thompson-designed golf course at Jasper might wind up even better with some additional long views opened up by the loss of trees to the fire.
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The list includes two municipal (city-owned) courses in Lakeview (Mississauga) and King’s Forest (Hamilton) and remote courses such as Waskesiu (Saskatchewan), Northumberland Links (Nova Scotia) and Grand-Mère (Quebec), proving a brand name and big marketing budget isn’t required for a course to crack this ranking.
One name that’s notably absent? Longtime RBC Canadian Open host Glen Abbey, which has fallen out of favour with our raters through the years. Note, however, that the tournament’s new semiregular home, the North Course at TPC É«É«À² at Osprey Valley, moved up into the top 20 this year. It’s slotted between the other two courses at that wonderful 54-hole facility.
Is the list perfect? Of course not. No such subjective exercise is. But it is an honest effort, combining the opinion of nearly 100 panellists judging golf courses on beauty, strategy, challenge, design, conditioning, par-3 holes, par-4 holes, par-5 holes and fun factor. Let us know what you think.
*A course had to be rated by at least 10 SCOREGolf panellists between 2018 and 2025 to be eligible for this ranking.  
Jason Logan is the editor of SCOREGolf magazine, which is
co-owned by Torstar, the Star’s parent company. He is based in
É«É«À². Follow him on Twitter: .
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