Best University Golf Courses You Can Play: 9 Campus Picks
Out at Warren Golf Course, on the northeast corner of Notre Dame’s campus, the holes are framed by red fescue and heather, and the Golden Dome sits in the background. On a football weekend the shop runs Friday tee times and a Saturday shotgun start timed around kickoff. Very few golf trips put a Coore & Crenshaw course and a college football weekend in the same two days.
That’s the appeal of a university course. Schools build them for their own teams and then hire the big names to do it: Pete Dye at Purdue and Virginia Tech, Tom Doak at Texas Tech, Robert Trent Jones Jr. at Wisconsin, and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw at Notre Dame. Plenty of campus courses are open only to members or alumni. The nine below take public tee times, through an online tee sheet or a call to the golf shop. Several sit on or right beside campus, so a road trip can take in a round, a game and a night in a college town. Our golf vacation planner helps put the rest of the trip together.
University Golf Courses You Can Play
The Rawls Course at Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)
Tom Doak started with a flat cotton field on the edge of campus and built a whole landscape on it, moving 1.3 million cubic yards of earth to copy the canyons that fall away toward the Caprock east and south of Lubbock. The result plays big and open, with unusually wide fairways, boldly contoured greens and fairway bunkers that jut into your line, so the West Texas wind decides how much you take on from the tee. Four sets of tees run up to 7,349 yards. The closing hole is the one to remember: a 578-yard par 5 with a 4.5-acre lake in front of you and down the right side on the second shot. Jerry’s Grill handles breakfast and lunch, and the shop rents Callaway sets if you’d rather not travel with your golf clubs.
Book it: Public tee times are online through The Rawls Course’s Troon booking page, or call the golf shop at 806-742-4653.
Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech (Radford, Virginia)
Pete Dye reworked this course along 2.5 miles of the New River, and eight holes play right at the water’s edge. Dye said you hear the river “up and down the whole golf course,” and the clubhouse sits on a rock cliff 70 feet above it. He set the par 3s to face all four points of the compass, so the wind and the light change from one to the next. The par-5 3rd runs with the river down the entire right side, and the par-5 9th has it all the way down the left. Expect bentgrass from tee to green, pot bunkers, and five sets of tees running up to 7,665 yards. Preston’s, the clubhouse restaurant, is the place for a drink after the round. Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional (ROA) is the airport Radford points visitors to.
Book it: The course is open to the public. Book on the River Course tee sheet or call the golf shop at (540) 633-6732.
Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
Purdue has two Pete Dye 18s side by side, just north of Mackey Arena and Ross-Ade Stadium. Kampen-Cosler is the links-style course and the one that has hosted NCAA championships, with big sand bunkers, native grassland, ponds and a natural celery bog. Ackerman-Allen is the parkland half, with rolling hills, tree-lined fairways and white sand bunkers. Both are par 72 with five sets of tees, so a group can play links golf one day and parkland the next without moving the car. The complex sells Signature Golf Packages for multi-day stays and groups, and Indianapolis International (IND) is the usual way in by air.
Book it: The public can book up to 7 days ahead on Purdue’s tee-time page or by calling the pro shop at 765-494-3139. If the time you want is gone, the virtual tee-time assistant will text or email you when one opens.
Championship Golf Course at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Red Lawrence laid out this desert course at 5,300 feet, and it’s a par 72 that stretches to 7,555 yards. The fairways are long and wide and roll up and down and side to side, which makes the rolling greens harder to hit than they look. A missed shot ends up in loose desert sand, water or sagebrush. The course has hosted the NCAA men’s and women’s championships several times, and Albuquerque’s climate makes it a round you can play in January as easily as in June. The university sits about 4 miles from the Albuquerque Sunport (ABQ).
Book it: Public tee times are online through UNM’s Chronogolf page, or call the pro shop at (505) 277-4546.
University Ridge, University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin)
Robert Trent Jones Jr. built the Badgers’ home course on the terminal moraine where the last glacier stopped, and it looks out over Madison. The front nine is wide open, running through preserved prairie and marsh, and the first six holes of the back nine are cut through dense Wisconsin woods. Then it opens up again at the 554-yard 16th, with three fairways and 12 bunkers. The 443-yard par-4 18th finishes with a 182-foot climb between the woods and the prairie. Five sets of tees run from 5,005 to 7,289 yards, and the Ice Age National Scenic Trail crosses part of the property. Dane County Regional (MSN) is Madison’s airport.
Book it: It’s a public course. Reserve online through University Ridge’s public tee-time page, where a credit card holds the time and you pay at the course, or call (608) 845-7700.
Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club, University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma)
Perry Maxwell routed the original course, and Bishop Creek runs through the middle of it on ground the South Canadian River shaped over centuries. Rolling hills, native grasses and big bur oaks make it feel a long way from the middle of Norman, though it’s right there. It plays long and tough from the back, up to 7,452 yards, but five sets of tees plus combination tees let you pick your fight. Holes carry names, from the par-3 6th, “Maxwell Classic,” to the 260-yard par-3 15th, “Run It On.” Norman is about 25 minutes from Will Rogers World Airport (OKC), so an OU football weekend and a round fit in the same trip.
Book it: Jimmie Austin is a semi-private club that takes public play. Call the golf shop at 405-325-6716 for a public tee time; calling ahead is the reliable route for visitors. The club also lists times on its Chronogolf page.
Birdwood Golf Course at Boar’s Head Resort, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Davis Love III designed Birdwood to feel like it had always been there, using holes by Seth Raynor and C.B. Macdonald as models. You’ll see those classic “template” holes, starting with a Leven-style par-4 4th. The Blue Ridge Mountains fill the horizon, the par-5 2nd brings Morey Creek into play early with a chance to go for the green in two, and the last four holes wrap around the historic Birdwood Mansion. The par-3 17th, played in the mansion’s shadow, is the one people talk about afterwards. It’s the home course of UVA’s golf teams, and the property also has The Nest, a six-hole par-3 course.
Book it: Birdwood is open to the public for daily play. Call (434) 293-4653 for a tee time. Boar’s Head Resort guests with a reservation can also book online through the resort’s Birdwood page.
The Pfau Course at Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana)
Steve Smyers designed IU’s home course with Fuzzy Zoeller, an Indiana native, and laid it over southern Indiana’s natural roll, moving between forest, open ground and the edges where they meet. Zoysia fairways are framed by bluegrass and then a wispy reddish-orange fescue, and 147 rugged bunkers with overgrown “eyebrows” give it a look all its own. It’s a par 71 with six sets of tees, from 4,586 to 7,908 yards, and the greens range from small to very large. The course is a few minutes from campus, and Bloomington is about an hour from Indianapolis International (IND).
Book it: Online tee times are on the Pfau Course tee sheet up to 90 days ahead. Same-day times go through the shop at 812-855-7543, and groups of 12 or more email pfaugolf@iu.edu. The online tee sheet goes dark in the off-season, so call the shop then.
Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana)
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw built Warren on 250 wooded acres next to campus as a links-style course, and it’s certified by Audubon International as a wildlife habitat. The terrain rolls softly, the red fescue and heather are trimmed back so you can find your ball, and the Golden Dome sits in the background. It plays 7,020 yards from the championship tees, with four sets in all, 88 bunkers and water on six holes. The Warren Grille in the clubhouse covers lunch. South Bend International (SBN) is about 15 minutes from campus.
Book it: Tee times open online up to 14 days ahead on Warren’s tee-time page, or call 574-631-4653. On football weekends, Friday tee times and Saturday shotgun starts are booked by phone, starting 14 days ahead at 7 AM, and the Saturday start times move with kickoff. A virtual waitlist texts or emails you when a time opens.
Michigan’s Alister MacKenzie course next to the Big House takes golfers with no university ties through the university’s Mackenzie-Dye Experience packages.
The Round to Book First
Go back to Warren on a football weekend: red fescue and heather along the holes, the Golden Dome in the background, and a game to follow. That’s the round to book first. It’s a Coore & Crenshaw course on one of the best-known campuses in the country, South Bend’s airport is about 15 minutes away, and the football schedule gives the trip its shape. For a Friday round on a game weekend, call the shop at 7 AM exactly 14 days out.
