Nemacolin, the Pennsylvania traveling with family or partners who don’t play—it is time to seek out a more comprehensive experience. You need resorts that pair championship-caliber golf with five-star lodging, gourmet dining, premium spas, and a wealth of other amenities.
“The modern golf traveler wants more than tee times,” says Fiona Ashton, event manager for International Golf Travel Market, a global industry trade group. “Golf remains the anchor of the trip, but travelers are now choosing destinations that can offer exceptional dining, wellness, culture and experiences for non-golfers too.”
IGTM’s new research shows that 79 percent of golfers would be more likely to visit a destination offering a strong mix of golf and lifestyle experiences, rather than just great courses.
Fortunately, there are numerous resorts that provide this perfect balance. These are America’s most luxurious golf resorts. Each location features at least 36 premier holes, along with top-tier amenities, ensuring a memorable visit—even if your score isn’t quite up to par.
1 – Sea Island
Nearly 20 professionals from the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, and Korn Ferry Tour reside at Sea Island. The reason is simple: this venerable resort lacks nothing, with no weak points in its impressive portfolio. While only a select few golf resorts can claim a Forbes 5-Star hotel, Sea Island features two—the Cloister and the Lodge at Sea Island—alongside a collection of luxury rental homes, a relaxed country inn, and a sporting club lodge. The spa is highly rated, and the property offers a staggering array of world-class activities, including inshore and offshore fishing, watersports, cycling, bowling, falconry, shooting, tennis, horseback riding, and a beach club. A diverse selection of restaurants adds to the prestige, ranging from fine dining and high-end steakhouses to casual Southern fare. Naturally, it also houses “the greatest locker room in golf,” The Men’s Locker Room, which features its own bar and a cigar lounge.
Sea Island boasts three exceptional courses, led by the Seaside, a long-time host of the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic. (It is currently undergoing renovations and is scheduled to reopen this October.) The century-old, British links-inspired Plantation course was rebuilt and upgraded in 2019 by Davis Love III, who also redesigned the hidden gem Retreat course. For those looking to refine their game, Sea Island offers one of the world’s most technologically advanced golf performance centers and practice facilities. The golf here is as good as it gets, but so are the accommodations, the cuisine, and the overall experience.
2 – Nemacolin Resort
Arguably the best resort you may not have heard of, Nemacolin features two 18-hole courses designed by Pete Dye, including a U.S. Top 100 venue and longtime PGA Tour host; while playing, you might even hear lions roar. There is also a state-of-the-art golf academy and teaching center. While the golf would be the highlight anywhere else, it is arguably the least interesting aspect of this property.
The passion project of billionaire Joseph Hardy III, founder of 84 Lumber Co., the resort already featured two incredible hotels and several beautiful beaches and watersports, there is a world-class tennis and pickleball facility, 35 miles of island bike paths, golf simulators, a nature center, and bowling. Each course has its own clubhouse, and there are a dozen restaurants across the hotel and clubhouses. The cuisine features an eclectic regional influence, ranging from Southern barbecue to low-country oyster roasts and premium steakhouse fare at the Ocean Room.
4 – Pebble Beach
The namesake Links at Pebble Beach remains the top public golf course in America according to nearly every major ranking. However, that is just the beginning of the story at the nation’s most famous golf destination. Pebble Beach features three superior courses on-site, including the oceanfront Links at Spanish Bay, which is currently undergoing a significant upgrade by renowned designer Gil Hanse. There is a fourth 18-hole course just outside its gates, a new par-3 layout from Tiger Woods, and a state-of-the-art golf academy. Next year, Pebble will host the U.S. Open for the seventh time.
Along with the stellar golf, there is a trio of Forbes 4-Star hotels, including the boutique Casa Palmero and the Inn at Spanish Bay. The historic Lodge at Pebble Beach recently completed a costly renovation of its guest rooms, dining venues, and public spaces. With 17 dining and drinking establishments, a beach club, a tennis club, hiking, watersports, the scenic 17-mile drive (with loaner Lexus vehicles available), and a top-rated spa, there is truly something for everyone.
5 – Pelican Hill
Situated on more than 500 clifftop acres overlooking the Pacific, The Resort at Pelican Hill has long been a premier luxury destination on the West Coast, consistently earning top ratings. The Newport Beach legend is currently being reborn as the world’s first St. Regis Estate, a higher tier of one of the most iconic luxury hotel brands in the world, similar to Ritz-Carlton Reserve. In preparation, both acclaimed oceanfront Tom Fazio golf courses—North and South—are being fully renovated by renowned architect Brian Curley, with completion expected by the fall. Other new upgrades include an enclave of ultra-luxury two-to-four-bedroom villas featuring their own pool complex, cabanas, and butler service. There is also a renowned spa and the iconic Coliseum Pool, one of the world’s largest circular pools, measuring 136 feet in diameter and lined with over 1.1 million hand-cut glass tiles.
6 – Reynolds Lake Oconee (tie)
The boutique Ritz-Carlton hotel at Reynolds Lake Oconee was fully renovated in 2025, adding a new speakeasy and six luxury cottages. As one of the few Ritz properties in the United States with a club floor lounge, it features a 27,000-square-foot deluxe spa and fitness center. The 12,000-acre resort also offers hundreds of condos, cottages, and luxury homes for rent. In addition to one of the nation’s largest golf facilities, it boasts more than 370 miles of shoreline, excellent fishing, and watersports, plus nearly every land-based activity, including a world-class shooting facility, falconry, off-road driving, and over 20 miles of private hiking trails. Wellness facilities are exceptional, featuring incredible gyms, 115 weekly fitness classes, and 14 hard and clay courts.
For golf, there are four 18-hole courses and one 27-hole layout (plus three private 18-hole courses) designed by the likes of Tom Fazio, Bob Cupp, Rees Jones, and a stunning Jack Nicklaus Signature course, all offering breathtaking waterfront scenery. A key golf highlight is the Kingdom, widely regarded as the top immersion golf academy in the nation, with schools led by former PGA Tour pro Blake Adams. It is also home to the TaylorMade custom fitting facility used by many of the world’s elite players. Restaurants are located in all five clubhouses, with many more at the Ritz-Carlton, ensuring that adventurous foodies will never run out of options.
6 – Kohler (tie)
Either of the two 36-hole facilities here could anchor a resort on this list: The links-inspired Whistling Straits (Straits and Irish courses) hosted the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup, while the highly ranked inland courses at Blackwolf Run (River and Meadow Valleys) held the Women’s U.S. Open. All four Pete Dye-designed 18-hole courses are highly ranked. There are skilled caddies available, and the most recent addition is one of the best short courses in the industry, the par-3 Baths. The resort features a full destination golf academy, an indoor simulator center, and, arriving in 2027, Purebred Farm, a 14-hole course with full-sized par-3, par-4, and par-5 holes.
Off the fairways, Kohler is a living, breathing luxury town-resort integrated into a charming, Utopian planned village. Unique amenities include the Kohler Design Center, where the nation’s leading name in high-end bathroom and kitchen plumbing and cabinetry will custom design your next home project, as well as tours of the Kohler plumbing factory and an art museum. Naturally, the spa-centric company operates one of the most acclaimed resort spas in the nation, Kohler Waters, and there are dedicated cycling, fitness, and yoga studios, plus a brand-new racquet sports complex in addition to existing tennis and pickleball courts. A variety of outdoor adventures, including fishing and canoeing, can be found at Kohler’s River Wildlife nature preserve. The resort offers four distinct lodging options, ranging from the luxury American Club to the approachable Inn at Woodlake and a collection of private wilderness cabins. A diverse array of eateries is spread throughout the golf clubs, village, and hotel, with culinary offerings impressive enough to anchor an annual resort epicurean festival.
8 – Wailea
Hawaii offers plenty of great golf and many wonderful hotels, but only Wailea combines 54 holes with standout lodging choices like the Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea and the Four Seasons. The Gold Course by Robert Trent Jones II is the flagship and the most challenging. The Emerald (the most player-friendly) and the Blue are also beautifully maintained in the Hawaiian style, featuring immaculate grooming, gleaming sand, vibrant blue water hazards, black lava rock, and stunning ocean views.
The non-golf options here are too numerous to list. The two hotels feature nearly 20 dining venues, including eateries by Nobu Matsuhisa and Wolfgang Puck. Each offers a lavish spa, fitness center, racquet sports, extensive pool complexes, beaches, and a huge array of water sports and off-site activities, ranging from whale watching and scuba diving to volcano tours and helicopter sightseeing.
9 – Troon North
Scottsdale is one of the world’s premier golf travel destinations, serving as the epicenter of desert-style golf with its amazing Sonoran ecosystem, some of the finest winter weather imaginable, and plenty of standout golf resorts. However, none is more acclaimed than the impressive combination of the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale and Troon North Golf Club, the 36-hole facility that served as the birthplace of Troon Golf, now the world’s premier global luxury golf club management company. The resort is now taking things a step further with the all-new Scottsdale Golf Retreat at Troon North, a hotel-style enclave of 26 one-to-four-bedroom luxury villas opening this fall.
The original layout, Monument, is credited with helping to usher in the “Member for a Day” upscale public course era when it opened in 1990. Designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, Monument is named for the massive boulder tower in the middle of the third-hole fairway—as photogenic a signature hole as exists in golf. The duo also added Pinnacle, and ever since, Troon North has been at the top of the list for visitors, rated as the best 36-hole facility in Arizona by Golf Digest. The on-site Four Seasons offers deluxe lodging in Southwestern-styled casitas and suites with private plunge pools, more typical of Bali than Scottsdale, a large luxury spa, a slate of guided desert tours and activities, tennis and pickleball, and a recently revamped restaurant lineup with a surprising number of choices for a property of this size.
10 – Sea Pines Resort
Harbour Town Golf Links, one of the most iconic PGA Tour venues, is famous for its distinctive lighthouse, but it also holds a place in golf history as the first design work of Jack Nicklaus, under the tutelage of lead architect Pete Dye. Harbour Town recently underwent its first complete overhaul in decades by Davis Love III and reopened last November. It is better than ever.
The course is part of Sea Pines Resort, which boasts the 4-Star Inn at Harbour Town, currently being fully upgraded for 2027, with all 60 of its oversized rooms being redone and outfitted with luxury bathrooms. Sea Pines also offers an array of homes (with up to seven bedrooms) and two other impressive 18-hole courses: Heron Point, a challenging and danger-fraught design by Dye, and Atlantic Dunes, an essentially new course built on the site of the Ocean Course. Widely acclaimed, it features water on nearly every hole. Harbour Town itself, home of the lighthouse, is a marina village filled with shops, dining, and fishing charters within the large resort. The 5,000-acre Sea Pines community also features bike and walking paths, racquet and paddle sports, stables, a beach club, a protected forest preserve lined by boardwalks, nearly a dozen bars and restaurants, and a strong lineup of family activities and entertainment. It firmly anchors Hilton Head with several more golf courses, restaurants, and activity-rich gated communities surrounding Sea Pines.