GOLF released its latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World (2025-26), and while Pine Valley again took the top spot, there were three newcomers and two returnees to the ranking. Here, we’ll introduce you to them.
CapRock is part of a flock of relatively fresh arrivals in a Nebraska Sandhills region bursting with new courses. But plans for it had been gestating for years, giving Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner time to puzzle out the best use of a distinctive site where sandy chop hills brush up against the Snake River canyon. They made the most of that millennia-old hazard, pinning multiple greens along the bluffs and leaning into the drama of its drop-offs. The gorge plays a particularly compelling role in a constellation of par-3s that call on your inner Evel Knievel.
But CapRock is no drumbeat of forced carries. As it wanders through the dunes, the course swings through all points of the compass and serves up a panoply of ground-game options. While its light-on-the-land aesthetic carries echoes of Sand Hills — the O.G. of the region, whose minimalist ethos helped spark a movement — CapRock has a personality all its own.
Two years ago, when GOLF tallied ballots for its 2023-24 ranking, CapRock finished just outside the Top 100. The turf was still maturing, and only a handful of panelists had seen it. Its breakthrough this year is an emphatic statement for a course deeply rooted in its surroundings yet very much a place apart.
Josh Sens is a senior writer and course rater for GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com.