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Slowly but surely, the face of golf is changing.
Thousands of golf courses have come in for some level of renovation in recent years, from subtle but important nip-and-tuck adjustments to wholesale redesigns. Sometimes, these latter transformations are so significant that we'll consider them new courses - usually, at least half of the holes must be rerouted for this to be the case. All other renovation projects are fodder for this annual piece.
Several renovations we mentioned last year - Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort, Teeth of the Dog at Casa De Campo, Great Dunes at Jekyll Island - will really start to wow golfers this year. And architect Tyler Rae's restorative renovation project at Detroit Golf Club's North Course will debut in front of the PGA Tour when the 2026 Rocket Mortgage Classic rolls around in June.
This year, several other hotly anticipated renovation projects are taking center-stage.
The Old Course at St. Andrews' latest round of revisions
File this under "subtle but important nip-and-tuck adjustments," but anytime the Home of Golf is having work done, it's significant news. With The Old Course scheduled to host the 155th Open Championship in 2027, the firm of Mackenzie & Ebert has stepped in to help the St. Andrews Links Trust make adjustments that include new tee areas on six holes that will stretch the course's championship length to 7,445 yards, up 148 yards from its 2022 Open yardage. The other main changes concern bunkering, including on the second hole, where two fairway bunkers are being moved downrange, and on the 16th, where some fairway space will be added left of the famed Principal's Nose bunker complex, along with two further bunkers protecting that landing area on the left.
Yale Golf Course eyes 2026 unveiling
One of the most comprehensive renovation projects of recent years involves Connecticut's greatest golf icon, a C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor masterpiece built with plows and tons of dynamite and $400,000 - the largest sum of money ever spent on a golf course as of its 1926 opening. The ongoing effort has been estimated at more than $25 million. Yale's second century should open with a bang, thanks to Gil Hanse & Jim Wagner's two-year restoration of the course's greens to their original sizes and shapes and reconstruction of its bunkers to their Golden Age fearsomeness. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the project is the prospect for outside play, which will likely be priced at a premium but well worth it for architecture aficionados.
Seminole's Ross rediscovery
Long considered Florida's top golf course and one of the dozen or so best in the United States, Seminole Golf Club is in the midst of some significant changes aimed at recapturing Donald Ross' original 1929 design, which was subsequently changed by architect Dick Wilson in the 1950s. The club recently hired Gil Hanse & Jim Wagner to advise on unwinding Wilson's changes - including expanding the greens by more than 36,000 square feet in total - in order to present as pure a version of Ross as possible nearly a century later. Significant sandcapping has also been deployed to raise the elevation of several fairways in order to optimize firm and fast playing surfaces. Hanse & Wagner oversaw work on the front nine during the summer of 2025, and will turn their attention to the back nine this summer. The fully restored Seminole should be ready for its membership by later 2026.
10 more significant golf course renovation projects for 2026
Pelican Hill Golf Club (North and South courses) - Newport Coast, Calif.
This 36-hole club home to some of the best ocean vistas availble in public golf will see both of its Tom Fazio-designed courses tweaked by Brian Curley in a project that began this past fall and will continue in stages, with nine holes closed at a time, throughout much of 2026. The project comes during a transition period for the Resort at Pelican Hill, which will be re-flagged as a St. Regis resort property in 2027 as part of the greater Marriott family.
Broadmoor Golf Links - Fletcher, N.C.
After being practically destroyed by Hurricane Helene, it has been a long road back, but this facility's 18-hole course has been put back together by the firm of Carlton Marshall, including three new holes to accommodate an enlarged practice facility, which will use Toptracer. The Asheville-area public course is set to reopen in late spring of 2026.
Lexington Golf & Country Club - Lexington, Va.
The home course of Washington and Lee University is in the midst of a significant upgrade courtesy of architect Lester George, whose original works at Kinloch Golf Club near Richmond and Ballyhack Golf Club near Roanoke are among Virginia's best. The new-look Lexington should make the most of a rollicking piece of former farmland with an engaging mix of holes that will include a new par 3 to help accommodate a greatly expanded practice facility.
Finkbine Golf Course - Iowa City, Iowa
College golf courses are consistently underrated as cradles of development not just for elite players, but the rank and file as well. Finkbine, which has been a University of Iowa amenity since it was built by Robert Bruce Harris in the 1950s, is set for a major upgrade courtesy of up-and-coming architect Scott Hoffman, whose design at Lost Rail in Omaha has helped raise his profile considerably.
Hollywood Beach Golf Club - Hollywood, Fla.
Set on a nearly-square parcel of barely 100 acres, this compact course in the heart of Broward County has been around for more than a century. Architect Richard Mandell has led a complete rebuild that will debut in early 2026. Mandell also oversaw the restoration of Sarasota muni Bobby Jones Golf Club a couple of years ago and is a leading expert on Ross.
Otter Creek Golf Course - Columbus, Ind.
As it gears up for its second half-century of life, this Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design in a central-Indiana town home to striking modernist architecture will complete a comprehensive renovation project overseen by Billy Fuller and Tom Kite that includes robotic grass mowers and state-of-the-art agronomy technology. The previous 27-hole routing will become an 18-hole championship course plus a short course and a pitch-and-putt loop for kids.
Los Alamos County Golf Course - Los Alamos, N.M.
"Oppenheimer-meets-Bagger-Vance" might be a bit of a stretch to describe this 1950s public course built to help attract talent to the nearby atomic research laboratory, but architects Forrest Richardson and Todd Schoeder have completed a lengthy renovation here that has included a couple of rerouted holes to accommodate surrounding infrastructure projects.
Stowe Country Club - Stowe, Vt.
This club in northern Vermont brought in Beau Welling to reimagine its 1950s William Mitchell golf course. Welling delivered by removing hundreds of trees, expanding landing areas and bringing a more diverse and strategic bunkering scheme to bear on a pleasant piece of New England. Non-member play will be restricted to guests of the nearby Lodge at Spruce Peak and select unaccompanied guest opportunities.
Bear Lakes Country Club (Links) - West Palm Beach, Fla.
After recent touch-up efforts to solidify original architect Jack Nicklaus' design on its Lakes course, this 36-hole club elected to go in a different direction with its more open-plan Links layout, hiring Davis Love III's Love Golf Design firm to perform a comprehensive redesign, which clubs superintendent Mike Rienzi described to TurfNet.com as "a non-stop complete and total facelift of everything." Love has described the vision for the project as an "American links," Scotland-meets-South-Florida.
Deepdale Golf Club - Manhasset, N.Y.
This multi-year effort by Scot Sherman (the Love Golf Design team's lead architect also has his own projects) at one of Dick Wilson's best courses is expected to see its finishing touches in 2026.
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