The course selection in any golf game is always one of the most important considerations as it’s an enjoyable and diverse mix of courses which keeps your rounds feeling fresh. With PGA 2K25 dropping with 45 courses, there are a lot of options to choose from and play through, meaning something for anyone heading out for a round on the digital links.
When it comes to the best courses, there’s no objective answer. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to find your favorites and sing their praises to help others see what you love about them. These are my standouts from my first rounds through the collection and what makes them so great.
10 Best PGA 2K25 Courses
10. Top Of The Rock
While Top of the Rock may not show up anywhere near the first page when sorting for plays or rating, it’s a personal favorite of mine. For starters, it’s an aesthetically pleasing delight. There may not be another course in the game that made me wish I could actually tee up there more so than playing Top of the Rock.
More importantly, as a 9-hole Par 3 course, it offers something unique from the majority of the courses on offer in 2K25. With a short playtime, it’s an excellent option to squeeze in a quick round when you haven’t got a lot of time, while a Par 3 course will always appeal if you’re looking to work on your approach game as it gives ample opportunity to hit into a variety of green shapes and orientations.
9. Nipawin Golf & Country Club
Nipawin is perhaps the most deceptively tricky course I’ve encountered in PGA 2K25. While it can outwardly appear to be a fairly bog-standard offering — and will play as such if you’re on your game — it’s set up to harshly punish any misplays. With firm fairways and just enough little tricks — like a middle of the fairway tree to play around — any horizontal dalliances with the long sticks will find you playing out of a bad situation. Once on the green, Nipawin offered some of the most tricky greens in the game, with fast surfaces meaning even a slight misread can see your ball sliding just wide only to move well past the cup if your distance isn’t dialed in just right.
8. Atlantic Beach Country Club
Currently the highest-rated course in the game by public ratings, I’m a little cooler on Atlantic Beach Country Club, but that’s not to say it’s not still an excellent option. Critics of golf often point to the exclusivity of the game with the finest courses locked away in club memberships. And when you tee up on Atlantic Beach amid all the digital homes on the course, it’s hard to not be jealous of the folks who get to live and play there on the regular.
7. Torrey Pines South
The Farmers Insurance Open provides one of the more unique opening rounds experiences in professional golf, with competitors completing their first two rounds over 36 unique holes, playing both the North and South courses at Torrey Pines. There’s a reason that when the weekend rolls around, or when the US Open comes to town, Torrey Pines South is the course of choice, however. It’s a delightful and challenging course — one of the best the golf world has to offer — and it’s never a bad time to head out for a trip around 18 holes of the best Torrey Pines has to offer.
6. Huntington Sound
If you love the beach, then Huntington Sound is the course for you because you’re going to have to work very hard not to find yourself there over the course of your round. White sand traps are everywhere on Huntington, creating a course that looks great and forces you to mind your accuracy on every shot. Get loose with your swing and veer even a little off course, and you’ll find yourself having to recover to keep your round on the rails.
5. Marigot Cove Golf Club
By now, it should be no surprise that a course that has you hitting into a picturesque scene carries a lot of appeal when I’m choosing where to tee up, and Marigot Cove Golf Club has beautiful holes to spare. It’s not all sizzle with no steak, either. Marigot Cove provides some challenging and intriguing holes, and a round that always keeps me interested from Hole 1 to Hole 18.
4. TPC Sawgrass
When it comes to reasons to choose a course for a round of PGA 2K25, there are two broad types of appeal. First, you can choose to go for a course you’ve never seen before to experience a unique and fun set of challenges. Alternatively, you can opt for something iconic and have your go at one of the most famous courses with some of the most famous holes in the sport.
As far as iconic holes go, it’s hard to beat the end of TPC Sawgrass, home to perhaps the most iconic 17th & 18th pairing in all of golf. Holding a lead coming into the final holes at Sawgrass sure beats the alternative, but golfers are well advised to avoid getting cocky as the water-filled 17th and 18th aren’t just famous, they’re dangerous as well.
It starts with the shot into Sawgrass’ infamous par 3 17th, the island green. With nothing but water to hit if you miss the green, there’s no option but pinpoint accuracy when you step up to the tee. Many a championship round has fallen apart with a wayward strike into 17. Should you come out the other side unscathed, congratulations — you now get to play a hole where the best laid strategy to date is famously to play it “with a two-stroke lead.” With water running along the entire left side of the fairway of the par 4, it only takes a little error to see your round come apart at the last point of asking.
Sawgrass has been a video game mainstay for a reason.
3. Pebble Beach
Speaking of the chance to play iconic courses with iconic holes, there are few as iconic in all of golf than No. 7 at Pebble Beach. A borderline criminally short par 3, if you only saw a basic scorecard impression of No. 7, it may be hard to understand why it’s so universally revered and beloved. When you see it in reality, it becomes apparent.
Backed by the Pacific Ocean, the rocky perimeter produces some truly breathtaking visuals when the waves crash in on the rocks. While the digital version is not providing quite the same showstopping visuals on windy days, it still feels wonderful to set up in the virtual tee box and have your crack at the hole that packs in more acclaim per yard than perhaps any in the world.
Pebble is about more than just one hole, however, lest you think you’re committing to a whole round for the virtual facsimile of one real world experience. It’s a fun course in addition to its appeal via historic significance, making it always a delight when it comes up in the rotation.
2. Central Otego Golf Club
This was one of the first courses I played in 2K25, and I found it to be an absolutely charming one. It starts with the lovely fall vibes that it gives off. As a northeasterner I’m territorially protective of the beauty of changing leaves, so a course that provides a lovely fall aesthetic is already starting off with a leg up on the competition.
The clear standout design feature for Central Otego are the many, many rocky outcroppings sprinkled around the course. Not only does this create a unique look, with the splashes of greys standing out among the course’s fairways, rocks present their own challenge as well. Get a little loose with your shot and send it toward a patch of the hard stuff and you could find your ball careening off in any which direction at high speeds, turning a comfortable hole into an exercise in recovery that keeps you on your toes.
1. Highfield Golf Course
My personal favorite course in the game has to be Highfield Golf Course, as it simply has everything I’m looking for when heading out for a round of virtual golf. Visually, Highfield is positively gorgeous. It has water and cliffs, castles and villages. Nearly every hole feels like it’s begging to be on a poster, while avoiding the “eighteen holes of the same thing” problem that many courses can fall into.
Over the ball, I found the course to play wonderfully as well. Just as it’s visually varied throughout the round the holes of Highfield produce a diverse set of challenges keeping the whole round feeling fresh and fun. On a difficulty level it strikes an ideal balance of creating some intriguing spots without feeling overly punishing to new players. All around a stellar offering.
The best and most fun courses is a topic that’s about as subjective as it gets. Did your favorite course make the cut or is there a winner that you feel was overlooked?
