The 10 Hardest Golf Courses in the World

• Khalid Al Mansoor
• . July 9, 2025
• . Update: July 9, 2025 7:04 pm
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The golf lovers who desire the best adventure of the game shall experience the best in these age-old courses. The hardest golf courses in the world incorporate cruel design, tough topography, and harsh weather conditions that humbled even the professionals in the game. Windy links courses to mountainous designs; these golf courses are the most hardest golf courses in the world.

Top 10 Hardest Golf Courses in the World

Top 10 Hardest Golf Courses in the World

1. The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, South Carolina

One of the most difficult golf courses in the globe is the Ocean Course, which is the design of Pete Dye, also called the Marquis de Sod. This is over 7900 yards out of the back tees and it is full of mammoth dunes, thorny marshand and treacherous pot holes. This hosted the Ryder cup in 1991 whereby the world class players won holes by playing with double bogeys since this course is one of the most difficult golf courses in the world.

2. Carnoustie Golf Links, Dundee, Scotland

The 1999 Open Championship left Carnoustie with the nickname Carnasty and established it as one of the most demanding golf courses in the world. Located on the inhospitable North Sea coast of Scotland, at 7,421 yards, and because of sheer unrelenting winds and devilishly wicked pot bunkers, this produces the frightening effect of Carnoustie – feeling like being hit by a truck. It is because of this that the collapse by Jean Van de Velde here makes it one of the toughest golf courses on the planet.

3. Ko’olau Golf Club, Oahu, Hawaii

Ko’s ulau golf club slope rating was initially 172, and it is one of the most difficult golf courses on Earth. Fairways are narrow, bordered with Hawaiian jungle and far more than 80 deep bunkers; six ravines await missed shots. Even after the adjustments of its slope to 152, Koolau is one of the most difficult courses in the entire world, in which a score below 80 is indeed an epic accomplishment for most golfers.

4. Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin

Golf courses created by Pete Dye include Whistling Straits, whose 967 bunkers (that averages 54 bunkers per hole) make it one of the most challenging golf courses in the world. Their position is that of an unused artillery field on Lake Michigan. The course is held to be very tricky to the extent that Lee Westwood jokes that he has found the 10 hard holes of the eight impossible holes. The bunker penalty that Dustin Johnson faced and was penalized for in the 2010 PGA Championship is the best example of why this course is considered to be one of the most difficult golf courses in the world.

5. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Golf Club, Yunnan, China

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, with a distance of 8,548 yards, is the longest course globally and one of the most difficult golf courses in the world. 3,040 meters high in the Himalayas means balls travel further and less predictably. The course has a 711-yard par-five and a 525-yard par-four, so it is hardly possible to make a score below 80, and it ranks among the top challenging golf courses in the world.

6. Palm Course, Saujana Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Palm Course in Saujana is also called the Cobra; this is one of the toughest golf courses in the world, as it has jungle-lined fairways and numerous water hazards. The championship has played six Malaysian Opens and tested such pros as Vijay Singh. Its super-fast, undulating greens are regarded to be more difficult to putt than those at the Augusta National course, and it is therefore one of the toughest golf courses to score all over the world.

7. Bethpage Black, New York

No course in the world reminds players at the first tee that it is only a recommended course to play and warns golfers that they better be a highly skilled golfer because, when Bethpage Black is concerned, there is something called an easy golf course; hence, being recommended only to the highest skilled golfers. It is a 7,426-yard A. W. Tillinghast design that has hosted U.S. Opens in 2002 and in 2009, when only Tiger Woods managed to play below par in 2002. 

8. Cape Kidnappers, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand

Cape Kidnappers is both perilous and challenging, with 183-meter cliffs that run to the sea, and is one of the toughest golf courses in the world. The courses designed by Tom Doak open holes to the winds of the Pacific Ocean, and the fairways look folded, and the narrow passages between precipices and ravines. 

9. Le Touessrok Golf Course, Ile aux Cerfs, Mauritius

Le Touessrok is designed by Bernhard Langer and it is the only course among the toughest golf courses in the globe that can only be accessed either by a speed boat or by helicopter. It is built on its island and has severe carries on mangroves and water hazards, and along with such carries are bunkers that are over 200 yards long. The beautiful location of the Indian Ocean hides its challenge, and it is one of the most challenging golf courses to play in the world and score.

10. Royal County Down, Newcastle, Northern Ireland

Royal County Down is often ranked as the best course in the world and even crowned as the best course outside America, but that is not the only good thing about the course; it is also one of the most difficult golf courses in the world. The state of the course includes narrow fairways surrounded by purple heather and golden gorse, making it a nightmare to recover. It is one of the most difficult golf courses in the world to play, with deep bunkers, blind shots that need a local caddy, and domed greens that cause imperfect shots to be thrown into trouble, making this the Beauty and the Beast course.