Forbes Traveler - Top 10 Golf Cities in America

[Jason McNamara]

Clearly Forbes had private access in mind, but let's go the other route.  Matt, what would you public-only list look like?

[Garland Bayley]

For those of you doubting the veracity of picking Chi-town numero uno, please remember that Jans National is there.

[Jim Colton]

Pat, the pictured course is Prairie Landing, and I agree with Jack C's assessment of the gca devotees in the Windy City

Wow, amazing to see my ol' stomping grounds as the highlighted course for the #1 golfing city in America.  Prairie Landing is nice...but it's not that nice.

[Mark Smolens]

Jim, I still want to know where that $13 million dollars went to build PL.  Oh that's right, DuPage County is next to Chicago. . . wonder if Blago got a cut?

[Sean_A]

This is a very odd list.  At first I thought it must be some sort of balance between city and golf, but it doesn't appear to be that way.  That said, assuming I had access to a few good privates and I was looking to do other stuff on a break, I would place Chicago quite high on places to go and get a few games in because its a great city - one of the finest in the world imo.

Ciao

[C. Squier]

I was shocked to see Chicago as #1 too....once I got past #8 I thought "we" weren't going to be on the list.  Just about fell out of my chair when I saw #1.  Anywho, reading the "Full Story", it seems that plenty of intangibles went into the list, including overall city experience, tournament history, golfing "soul" (whatever that means), and sense of place. 

All in, that does get Chicago a lot closer to the top than simply public golf architecture.  It is one of the best summertime cities you'll find. 

Winter?  Not so much.

[PCCraig]

Pat, the pictured course is Prairie Landing, and I agree with Jack C's assessment of the gca devotees in the Windy City

Wow, amazing to see my ol' stomping grounds as the highlighted course for the #1 golfing city in America.  Prairie Landing is nice...but it's not that nice.

I've been there a couple times but didn't recognize the course. I never minded PL and thought it was a somewhat fun course.

Otherwise, I will not complain that the right city won!!!

[herrstein]

I like where I live: Chattanooga, TN.
The Honors Course.
Lookout Mountain GC.
Black Creek Club.
Chattanooga Golf and CC
Council Fire.
The public courses are usually in great shape, too. Brainerd has nine D Ross holes.
The big difference here in Chatt is that the quality of maintenance is very high, across the board.
The quality of life beyond that is VERY high, lots of outdoor areas, good restaurants, level one trauma care, low crime, visual beauty, and now more jobs due to VW and Wacker Chemical locating here from overseas.
people open doors for you.
Traffic is not bad most of the time.
Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, Knoxville al within 2 hours easy drive.
I love it here.

[Mark Smolens]

We have great golf, public and private, plus I can sit at the bar at Tufano's on a Friday nite and watch golf on tv while downing one or two Lite beers and some lemon chicken.  Chicago is indeed #1

[tlavin]

We have great golf, public and private, plus I can sit at the bar at Tufano's on a Friday nite and watch golf on tv while downing one or two Lite beers and some lemon chicken.  Chicago is indeed #1

We're certainly #1 for lemon chicken in our own Little Italy!

[PThomas]

We have great golf, public and private, plus I can sit at the bar at Tufano's on a Friday nite and watch golf on tv while downing one or two Lite beers and some lemon chicken.  Chicago is indeed #1

We're certainly #1 for lemon chicken in our own Little Italy!

or chicken with capers on it, yum!!!

[Matt_Ward]

Jason asked, "Clearly Forbes had private access in mind, but let's go the other route.  Matt, what would you public-only list look like?"

As I mentioned before ...

Denver and its immediate surroundings would be on the list.

Albuquerque is also a good choice -- if one extends the range to Santa Fe it becomes even more so.

I do agree on Scottsdale / Phoenix although the price tag is not cheap for most people's budgets. Ditto on extending that Las Vegas.

For smaller-sized options you can add the twin areas of Mesquite / St. George. I would still throw forward Pinehurst and its immediate surroundings.

I also favor Charleston over Myrtle Beach because you get more from the community of Charleston than the endless array of fast food havens and strip malls that dominate the Grand Strand landscape -- so much of the golf there is like the other elements I just mentioned although there is an upper crust of solid alternatives worth playing.

Although it may not have a dominant great public layout the offerings you get from Cape Cod are quite decent and many are affordable.

Chicago clearly has to be considered for the slew of public options.

The Dallas / Ft Worth area is also a good bit better than years past.