{"id":11850,"date":"2026-05-31T17:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/11850\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T17:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:43:32","slug":"rory-mcilroy-names-his-top-four-golf-courses-from-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/11850\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy names his top four golf courses from around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 7, 2026, 11:30 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0When Rory McIlroy appeared as a guest on \u201cNew Heights,\u201d the podcast hosted by brothers Travis and Jason Kelce, McIlroy fans learned a few new nuggets about the golfing great, including his lack of familiarity with Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

When McIlroy was asked to name his Rushmore of golf courses, he needed to clarify that meant four, not fully understanding the reference to the majestic South Dakota mountains with the faces of\u00a0George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln\u00a0carved into them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should probably know that,” McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never asked that to someone not from America,\u201d Travis said, breaking into laughter. \u201cThat\u2019s so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

McIlroy thought quickly on his feet and determined he\u2019d pick four different geographical locations. He chose Kingston Heath on the Melbourne Sandbelt of Australia, Royal County Down in his native Northern Ireland, Pine Valley in New Jersey and Cypress Point in California.<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s so hard because I\u2019m leaving out so many great golf courses,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to do four but those would be the four off the top of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

“You took us around the world, so, that\u2019s pretty dope,\u201d Travis said. \u201cYou gave us four that I haven\u2019t played yet.”<\/p>\n

\"No.<\/p>\n

Hard to argue McIlroy\u2019s selections, though we can always quibble, which have the following ranking on\u00a0Golfweek Best\u00a0lists:<\/p>\n

Kingston Heath: It’s not even No. 1 in Australia as that honor is bestowed to Royal Melbourne \u2014 and at T-21 on the Golfweek’s Best International Courses<\/a> list our panelists might object.<\/p>\n

Royal County Down: No argument here. It ranks first on Golfweek’s Great Britain and Ireland Classic Courses<\/a> list as well as the overall Golfweek’s Best International Courses<\/a> list.<\/p>\n

Pine Valley: A perennially No. 1 for the U.S., it has slipped to No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list<\/a> in recent year but still about as good as it gets.<\/p>\n

Cypress Point: Who passed Pine Valley? Cypress Point, that’s who! The 18th hole gets picked on for not being a great finishing hole but if you ever get a chance to play Cypress Point, don’t even think about it, just say yes.<\/p>\n

\"Stewart<\/p>\n

A social media post got the armchair architects among us chattering.<\/p>\n

Golf Digest Australia’s Brad Clifton wrote: Royal Melbourne must be fifth.<\/p>\n

Score Golf Lorne Rubinstein chimed in: He’s missing Royal Dornoch but maybe he’s not been there.<\/p>\n

Art Stricklin had a suggestion or two: Might replace Kingston Heath with Merion or maybe Oakmont, but very strong list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 7, 2026, 11:30 a.m. ET \u00a0\u00a0When Rory McIlroy appeared as a guest on \u201cNew Heights,\u201d the podcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[58,399,59,185,186,2642,1256,65,189,1258,69,193,67,62],"class_list":["post-11850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-accessfree","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sourcegolfweek","tag-sstssportsgolfcourses","tag-sstsncourses","tag-tagarchitecture","tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","tag-taggolf","tag-taggolf-courses","tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagpga-tour","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}