Arnold Palmer was a prolific businessman, and one of the key pieces of his portfolio was Arnold Palmer Design, which has designed over 300 courses and counting since he designed the first nine holes at Pennsylvania's Indian Lake Country Club in 1967.
The collection he left behind around the world are a huge piece of his legacy, as Arnie's Army will be able to play a course he designed for many years to come.
Palmer's golf course architecture business really took off in the late-1980s and into the mid-2000s. Over these decades, Palmer leaned on excellent lead associates including Frank Duane, Ed Seay and Erik Larsen. Despite Palmer's passing in the fall of 2016, the company moves forward. With Thad Layton now the Senior Golf Course Architect, this year Palmer Design opened brand new Lakewood National near Tampa. In 2016, they redesigned Orlando's Shingle Creek Golf Club. They are also currently working on the second course at Castle Stuart in the Highlands of Scotland.
Golf Advisor reviewers have an affinity for Arnold Palmer Design golf courses, and we saw many reviews of Palmer courses come in shortly after his passing in September 2016 paying their respects. While courses like Bay Hill are regular PGA Tour tournament venues, his courses are known to be fun, and perhaps a little less penal than some of his contemporaries. In 2016, two of his designs, Scotch Hall Preserve and Classic Club, made our Top 50 courses in the U.S., and many more made respective state lists. Three Palmer designs have received 700 or more reviews on Golf Advisor: Starr Pass (700), Legends Course at Orange Lake Resort (709) and Starfire Golf Club (769).
In celebration of the King's legacy, we're sharing the top 25 Palmer-designed golf courses in the U.S. according to our all-time golfer reviews dating back to 2012. To compile the list, we took a course's combined score of their overall and layout all-time averages to determine the Top 25 (minimum 10 reviews all-time).
Top 25 Arnold Palmer Designs according to Golf Advisor ratings
Phoenix
Year built: 1997
24. The BOG
Saukville, Wisc.
Year built: 1995
Tucson, Ariz.
Year built: 2003
Lakewood, Fla.
Year built: 2017
Conyers, Ga.
Year built: 1995
Kahuku, Oahu, Hawaii
Year built: 1992
St. Augustine, Fla.
Year built: 2000 (Co-design with Jack Nicklaus)
Bay St. Louis
Year built: 1997
Saint Francisville, La.
Year built: 1988
Dayton, Nev.
Year built: 1991
Orlando, Fla.
Year built: 1961 (redesigned, 1989)
Fenton, Mich.
Year built: 2001
Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Year built: 1996
12. Aviara Golf Club
Carlsbad, Calif.
Year built: 1991
Shallotte, N.C.
Year built: 1999
San Antonio, Texas
Year built: 2001
Bloomington, Ill.
Year built: 1997
Fernandina Beach, Fla.
Year built: 2001
Palm Desert, Calif.
Year built: 2006
Port Aransas, Texas
Year built: 2008
Saugatuck, Mich.
Year built: 1999
Pensacola, Fla.
Year built: 1997 (redesigned 2006)
Bellaire, Mich.
Year built: 1986
Klamath Falls, Ore.
Year built: 1997
Merry Hill, N.C.
Year built: 2009
Tee it up at an Arnold Palmer design? Write a review here.
Do you have a list of all his designed-courses? IF so can you kindly send it to me. Paul R. Dunn
paulandbj@nc.rr.com . I am the author of Great Donald Ross Golf Courses Everyone Can Play - editions 1 and 2, published by Roman & Littlefield.