The New Golden Age of Destination Golf: When to Go, and When to Wait
Golf is in the middle of an unprecedented building era. From the sandhills of South Carolina to the mountains of British Columbia, more destination-grade public courses are under construction right now than at any point since the late 1990s. The architects involved read like a who's who of the game's greatest living designers: Tom Doak, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, David McLay Kidd, Rod Whitman, and a rising generation of next-wave talent carving their names into new ground.
For trip captains, this creates a genuinely difficult planning problem. These destinations don't open fully formed. They open with one course, then add infrastructure, then add a second course, then a third. The question isn't just *where* to go — it's *when*. Go too early and you're paying a premium for an incomplete experience. Wait too long and you've missed the moment.
There's also a case for going early that has nothing to do with optimization. Watching a world-class course in its first season — fairways still finding their footing, the routing not yet worn into habit — is its own kind of experience. If you're close enough to make it a day trip, or if you're a golf obsessive who wants to say you were there first, early is often worth it.
But if you take one big trip a year, fly in with a group, and want multiple rounds on multiple elite courses, timing matters. This guide breaks down every significant upcoming destination opening in the U.S. and Canada, tells you what's there now, what's coming next, and when each destination crosses the threshold that makes it worth building a group trip around.
Streamsong — Bowling Green, Florida
Streamsong isn't new. But as of March 2027, it becomes something genuinely unprecedented: the only golf resort in the world with courses designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, and David McLay Kidd — four of the most celebrated architects in the modern game, all on the same piece of reclaimed phosphate-mining land in central Florida.
Bone Valley is the name of McLay Kidd's fifth course at the resort, a tribute to the prehistoric sea that once covered this terrain, leaving behind one of North America's richest fossil beds. Kidd found megalodon teeth during construction. The course flows across dramatic ridgelines, natural bowls, and raw sand — felt uncovered, not manufactured. Preview play begins October 30, 2026. The official opening is January 26, 2027. By March, Bone Valley will be fully groomed and ready for the kind of group trip that generates stories for years.
Streamsong already has a lodge, restaurant, and the full resort infrastructure that makes a two-or-three-day group trip seamless. Adding Bone Valley transforms it from one of America's best golf resorts into arguably its most architecturally diverse. Four rounds on four completely different courses by four architects — plus a fifth on The Chain, the 19-hole short course — without leaving the property.
This is the no-excuses trip. Book March 2027 and go.
Wild Spring Dunes — Mount Enterprise, Texas
The second Dream Golf project from Michael Keiser Jr. is the one that proves the model scales beyond the coasts. Wild Spring Dunes sits on 2,400 sandy, secluded acres in the Piney Woods of East Texas — roughly equidistant from Dallas and Houston — where Tom Doak found terrain he described as some of the best he'd worked on in a decade. Doak compared it to a hybrid of Pine Valley and Pinehurst: native sand, towering pines, spring-fed creeks, and 120 feet of elevation change that gives the routing drama you'd never expect from Texas.
The full 18-hole Doak course opens to the public September 8, 2026, at $275 per round, walking only. A second course by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw — routed through hillsides and meadows with even more dramatic elevation — is under construction and projected to open in 2027. Overnight cottages arrive in 2027 as well.
If you're within driving distance or anchoring a Gulf Coast swing, the Doak course alone is worth the trip in fall 2026 — go early and experience it in its first season. But the destination tips from compelling to exceptional when Course 2 opens and you can play 36 holes across two elite routing philosophies back to back, with a bed on property. Wild Spring Dunes in 2027 is a serious entry on any trip captain's list.
Cabot Revelstoke — Revelstoke, British Columbia
Every destination on this list is defined by its golf first. Cabot Revelstoke is the exception — and it's a meaningful one.
The 18-hole Rod Whitman design sits on a bench of land high above the Columbia River, with views of the Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges from every hole. Whitman was the architect of Cabot Links in Nova Scotia — the course that launched the Cabot brand onto the global stage — and he's brought that same landscape-first sensibility to the mountains. Large greens, wide fairways, bold bunkering: the design reflects the scale of what surrounds it. Limited preview play begins fall 2026. The full opening, alongside a 155-room mountain lodge, is set for 2027.
What makes Cabot Revelstoke different from every other destination in this guide is that the resort experience is fully realized at opening. Lodge, spa, dining, heli-skiing in winter. You're not waiting on infrastructure. You're not waiting on a second course. The one course, in this setting, is the destination. Add The Railyard — a par-3 short course set in a vibrant clubhouse with bowling lanes and elevated dining — and you have a resort that even non-golfers in your group will want to visit.
Kelowna International Airport is two hours away. The golf world has been watching this one since it was announced. Book 2027. Revelstoke is ready.
River Ranch Golf Resort — Pasco, Washington
David McLay Kidd has designed some of the Pacific Northwest's best courses — the original Bandon Dunes, Tetherow, both courses at Gamble Sands. When the ownership group at River Ranch cold-called him in late 2024 about a 300-acre former vineyard site atop the Snake River bluffs in southeastern Washington, he was skeptical. He visited, and called it a "unicorn."
Construction broke ground in November 2025 on sandy, fescue-friendly terrain shaped by prehistoric floods — the same geological conditions that produce the firm, fast conditions Kidd's best courses are known for. The routing follows the natural bluff topography above the Snake River, culminating in a 15th hole that Kidd has compared to the 16th at Cypress Point: a par-3 played from a clifftop promontory, tee shot over the river. Grassing begins May 2026. River Ranch opens to the public in August 2027, managed by KemperSports. Guest cottages and a world-class clubhouse overlook the river.
On its own, River Ranch is a full-day destination. But the smarter trip pairs it with Gamble Sands in Brewster, three hours north — two McLay Kidd courses, 36-plus holes of fescue golf in Washington state, one of the most underrated golf itineraries in America. River Ranch completes that loop. Book August 2027.
Rodeo Dunes — Roggen, Colorado
This is the one everyone is watching. More than 45,000 people entered the lottery for public tee times at Rodeo Dunes in 2027 — for a resort with one course, no lodging, and a $350 green fee. That's how much anticipation Michael Keiser Jr.'s Colorado project has generated.
The first course, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw on 4,000 acres of towering sand dunes less than an hour from Denver, opened for Founder play in May 2026 and has already drawn comparisons to the finest public golf in Colorado. The terrain — rolling dunescape with 125-mile views of the Front Range — is among the best public golf land found in America in a generation. A putting course is coming this fall.
And yet: wait.
If you're flying in and building your one big trip of the year around it, a single course at $350 with no overnight option is a hard sell for a group. The trip completes in spring 2028, when Jim Craig's second course opens. Craig — a longtime Coore & Crenshaw associate making his solo design debut — is already on site and moving fast, with 18-hole preview play possible as early as 2027. Two courses on this land, back to back, with resort infrastructure arriving, is one of the great American golf trips in the making.
If you're local, or close enough to make it a day trip, go in 2027 and see one of the finest new courses in America in its first season. There's real value in being there early. But if you're booking a group trip, 2028 is the target.
Old Shores — Vernon, Florida
Michael Keiser Jr.'s Florida project is the most ambitious on this list and the furthest from ready — which makes it the most important one to understand now.
Old Shores sits on more than 4,000 acres about 30 miles north of Panama City Beach, where Tom Doak found something genuinely unusual: karst depressions — enormous natural sinkholes, some filled with water, some not, plunging up to 80 feet deep — that Doak called "unlike anything I've seen on a golf course." Combine them with long-leaf pine forests, rolling sandy terrain, and 40 feet of elevation change, and you have a site with features found nowhere else in Florida, or arguably anywhere in the country.
The first 18 holes are under construction now. A six-hole preview is planned for fall 2026, and Doak's first associate Angela Moser — who also worked on Pinehurst No. 10 — is overseeing the build. The full Doak course opens fall 2027. From there, the vision is five total courses across 4,000-plus acres: a second 18 inspired by Augusta National, a regulation 9-hole, a 12-hole precision course, and a par-3. A lodge, restaurants, and a small village follow.
Seeing the first holes take shape this fall is a genuine experience for the golf obsessive. But as a booked group trip, this is a 2028 story at the earliest. The lodge and second course need time. Put it on your radar now, follow it closely, and start planning for 2028.
Candyroot — Kershaw County, South Carolina
The newcomer on this list — and perhaps the most intriguing one if you care about what comes next in golf architecture.
Candyroot Lodge sits on 1,200 acres of naturally sandy terrain in the Carolina Sandhills, about an hour from Columbia and 90 minutes from Charlotte. The first course is designed by Mike Koprowski, whose debut design, Broomsedge Golf Club in Rembert, South Carolina, earned national acclaim as one of Golf Digest's best new courses in America for 2025. Koprowski's routing at Candyroot is defined by extreme minimalism — no dirt hauled, no fairways forced, small old-school greens with intersecting slopes, native landforms providing the consequence. Preview play starts Q4 2026. Grand opening is Spring 2027.
Developers Aaron and Ethan Oberman are deliberate about who designs the remaining courses. They're committed to "NextGen" architects — not the Big Five, but the designers who will define the next era of American golf. It's an intentional platform worth watching.
The catch: lodging doesn't scale until 2028, and the second course architect hasn't been announced yet. For Charlotte and Columbia locals, Candyroot in 2027 is an easy call — make the drive, play a genuinely exciting new course, and witness an emerging destination in its earliest chapter. For a group flying in and building a full trip, 2028 is the right target, when beds are on property and the second course is on the horizon.
Sweetens Cove — South Pittsburg, Tennessee
Sweetens Cove has been a cult destination since Rob Collins's original nine-hole layout opened in 2014. No reservations, all-day passes, a shot of Sweetens Cove Whiskey at 8:30 a.m., and one of the most imaginative layouts in American golf. It has always been a day trip. That changes in 2027.
Ground broke in May 2026 on a 13-hole short course designed by King Collins Dormer — Rob Collins and Tad King's firm — that connects to and overlaps with the original nine, creating what Collins describes as a free-flowing, explorative experience built for "cross-country" play. A multi-acre putting green opens spring 2027. The short course opens summer 2027. And for the first time, overnight cabins arrive in late 2027, alongside a private restaurant and bar — transforming Sweetens Cove from a day trip into a proper stay-and-play destination.
Note: Sweetens Cove is expanding, not adding a full 18-hole championship layout. The draw here is atmosphere, originality, and a golf experience unlike anything else in America — which is exactly what it's always been. The expansion gives you a reason to stay for two days and let it sink in. Book late 2027 once the cabins are open.
Breezy Point Resort — Breezy Point, Minnesota
For Midwest golfers who've been watching the destination golf boom from a distance, Breezy Point offers something closer to home. The family-owned Minnesota lake resort is investing $17.8 million in its biggest expansion in decades, anchored by a brand-new 12-hole par-3 course called Ace Valley, designed by Andy Staples. The course replaces the existing Traditional Course and opens Memorial Day 2027 alongside a new three-story clubhouse with full resort amenities.
Breezy Point is a regional resort with regional appeal — Ace Valley is a par-3 course, not a championship 18, and the experience is calibrated accordingly. But for a Minnesota group looking for a long weekend with solid golf, good food, and a lakeside setting, the upgraded Breezy Point earns a look once Ace Valley opens in 2027.
The Bottom Line
The slate of courses opening between now and 2028 is the most exciting in a generation. But not every destination is ready for a group trip on day one — and knowing the difference is what separates a good trip from a great one.
If you're booking something now, Streamsong is the answer. Five courses, four architects, full resort infrastructure. Nothing else on this list is as complete.
If you're planning for 2027, Cabot Revelstoke and River Ranch are the two that reward early commitment. Revelstoke because the mountain setting justifies one course. River Ranch because it completes one of the best two-stop golf itineraries in the country when paired with Gamble Sands. Wild Spring Dunes earns its spot here too once Course 2 opens and the cottages are ready.
For 2028, clear your calendar for Rodeo Dunes. Two courses on 4,000 acres of Colorado dunes — that's the trip that defines this era of destination golf. Old Shores and Candyroot are close behind, each needing another year of infrastructure before they're ready for a full group.
The best problem in golf right now is having too many great places to go. The trick is going at the right time.