The Most Expensive Golf Resorts in the World

We rank by the peak fee a visitor pays for one round in 2026, in the course’s own currency. Where a course is open only to hotel guests, or requires a stay to book, we say so, because that is the real price of playing. The interactive table converts each fee to dollars for comparison.

Turnberry overtook Shadow Creek as the world’s most expensive round from June 2025. Non-residents pay up to £1,000 before 1pm in peak season; hotel residents pay around £475, and the afternoon rate is £545. The Ailsa has hosted four Open Championships, and the views of Ailsa Craig and the lighthouse are the best on the Ayrshire coast.

Tom Fazio and Steve Wynn built a forest in the desert, and it remains the purest expression of golf as hospitality. The fee is $1,250 since the course reopened in October 2023, and tee times go only to MGM Resorts hotel guests or invited players. A caddie is extra.

Wynn charges about $550 on a standard day and up to $1,000 over the holidays and during the Formula 1 race, including cart, caddie, food and drinks. Hotel guests can book 90 days ahead; the public 30.

Doral’s Blue Monster uses dynamic pricing, from $566 to $714 including cart and tax. A forecaddie is mandatory, at $25 or more plus a tip.

The fee is $695 from April 2026, up from $675, plus $60 for a cart if you are not staying at the resort. To book more than a day ahead you must stay at least two nights at a Pebble property, and three for Thursday to Sunday play in the autumn. That puts the minimum package at about $2,275. Pebble hosts the US Open from 17 to 20 June 2027, and again in 2032.

The 2027 Ryder Cup venue charges €550 in 2026, and only to hotel residents.

Kingsbarns charges £486 in peak season, from 1 May to 8 November 2026, with a £292 replay within seven days. During Open week in July 2027 the fee rises to £590.

Pinehurst’s championship course is reserved for resort guests on a two-night minimum, bundled into packages. A second round in peak season is $595, and a caddie is extra. No. 2 is the US Open’s anchor site, hosting again in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.

The course on a headland above the Atlantic charged €500 from April to October 2026, and has announced €550 for 2027. A handicap certificate is required.

Laucala does not sell rounds. Villas start at about $5,600 a night, fully inclusive, and the David McLay Kidd course is yours as often as you like. It is the most expensive golf on earth, and the only course on this list where you may play alone all day.

Whistling Straits and Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course both command high fees but publish no 2026 rate. Whistling Straits is walking only, with caddies at $85 plus a recommended tip. Kiawah hosts the PGA Championship in 2031. Diamante in Cabo San Lucas is private: its El Cardonal course, Tiger Woods’s first design, and the Dunes by Davis Love III are open to members and resort guests.

Demand outruns tee times. The R&A counted 112.2 million golfers outside the US and Mexico in its 2025 report, and the great courses cannot add capacity. They ration it instead, through price, stays and invitations.

The same logic drives golf property. A home on a championship course turns the green fee into a membership, and the tee sheet into your own. Our advisers can show you golf homes in Muscat, Dubai and the Costa del Sol.