pga west stadium

Making the Cut

PGA West’s Stadium Course is ranked among the top 10 best public-access golf courses in California, according to a list from Golfweek magazine.

Staff Report Current Digital, Golf

pga west stadium
PGA West's Stadium Course has its signature 17th hole also known as “Alcatraz".
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY PGA WEST

PGA West’s Stadium Course is ranked among the top 10 best public-access golf courses in California, according to a list recently released in Golfweek’s "Best Courses You Can Play".

The Stadium Course has attracted such accolades before, rated as one of the “Top 100 Courses to Play” in 2016-17 by Golf Magazine and earned a spot in Golf Digest’s “Top 50 Toughest Courses in America” at No. 4 in 2007. The Pete Dye course covers 7,300 yards and has the highest stroke (76.1) and slope (150) ratings of all courses at PGA West.

Pebble Beach Golf Links led the Golfweek list followed by Pasatiempo (Santa Cruz), Spyglass Hill (Oebbke Beach), Torrey Pines (South - San Diego), Rustic Canyon (Moorpark), Rams Hill (Borrego Springs), CordeValle (San Martin), Torrey Pines (North - San Diego), and Yocha Dehe at Cache Creek Casino (Brooke) rounded out the top 10.

Coachella Valley courses new or returning to the list included SilverRock in Palm Desert at 21st and La Quinta Resort (Mountain Course) at 27th. Also included were Desert Willow (Firecliff) at 20th, PGA West (Nicklaus) at 22nd, and Indian Wells Golf Resort (Players) secured the final spot for California courses at 30th.

The courses were judged by a nationwide network of raters, who continually evaluate courses and rate them based on the magazine’s criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state to produce the final rankings.

All the courses on the GolfWeek list allow public access at some level whether it’s standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel.

To view the entire list by state, visit golfweek.usatoday.com.

GolfWeek publishes two other lists annually that are the foundation of its course-ratings program: Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses and Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses.

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