Everybody loves to see the best golfers in the world struggle from time to time.
On the PGA Tour, golf fans are accustomed to seeing players make the extraordinary look routine. Week after week, these athletes effortlessly conquer some of the world’s toughest courses, consistently finishing well under par.
However, there are times when even these top players are truly tested, and we get to witness their resilience in the face of adversity. Major championships, in particular, present formidable challenges with long, thick rough, narrow fairways, lightning-fast greens, and deep bunkers.
Some major venues can humble even the best players on the planet, making them seem like mere mortals. We’ve compiled a list, based on DataGolf’s rankings, of the courses that have proven most difficult for players over the past decade.
Here are the five golf courses where players have recorded the highest average scores to par since 2015.
5. Oak Hill Country Club East Course
Average score to par: +2.86
Oak Hill Country Club, host of the 2023 PGA Championship, is the first course on this list. The East Course has hosted a number of premier events, including US Opens, PGA Championships, and the 1995 Ryder Cup.
Its narrow fairways, length, and undulating terrain make driving difficult around Oak Hill. Add that to the presence of Allen Creek, which weaves through nine of its holes to create a natural hazard, and you’d do well just to keep the ball in play.
Oak Hill has presented a particular challenge to players off the tee. Since 2015, players on the PGA Tour have hit only 45.2% of fairways at Oak Hill, meaning they have really struggled to score well on its par 5s in particular.
Brooks Koepka played in one of the tournaments of his life to finish nine under to win the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, and he was one of only 11 players to finish under par at that event.
That major alone has earned Oak Hill its place on this list.
4. Royal Troon Old Course
Average score to par: +3.01
Scotland’s Royal Troon is the only non-American course on this list. The links course presented players with a daunting task at both the 2016 and 2024 Open Championships.
The 11th hole, known as “The Railway”, is often regarded as one of the most challenging holes in major championship golf. It features a blind tee shot with a railway out of bounds on the right, and then a long approach shot to a small green.
The coastal wind and temperamental weather combine to make Royal Troon one of the purest links tests in golf. The back nine is especially testing when the course is set up long, as it is for major championships.
Players have lost the most strokes both off the tee and on approach at Royal Troon in the last 10 years as they battle the wind coming from the Scottish coast.
It’s hosted The Open Championship 10 times since 1923, with Xander Schauffele emerging as the most recent victor in 2024. Only nine players finished under par at the tournament, with Schauffele winning at nine-under par. Scottie Scheffler called his back nine on Saturday “probably the hardest nine holes that I’ll ever play.”
That quote alone from the world number one should earn Royal Troon a place among the world’s most difficult courses.
3. Pinehurst No. 2
Average score to par: +3.09
Pinehurst No. 2 is one of the most famous golf courses on the planet, and was the host of Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open win in 2024. It is widely regarded as one of the most demanding and iconic courses in the States.
Players have particularly struggled around the green at Pinehurst No. 2 in the last decade. They have lost an average of 0.087 strokes after missing the green at the course, making it the third toughest chipping test on the PGA Tour. But in truth, there’s nowhere players have gained strokes here.
The greens themselves are a key challenge at Pinehurst No. 2. They are large, undulating, and unforgiving, meaning finding the putting surface in regulation far from guarantees a par, even for the best players in the world.
It has also presented the third-most formidable challenge in its par 3s, where players have lost 0.25 strokes on average. The toughest of them all is the famous 17th: A tricky short hole with a large sloping green.
DeChambeau won the US Open with a score of just six under in 2024, in a tournament where only eight players scored under par. It’s known as one of the best golf courses in the world, and clearly one of the most challenging.
2. Oakmont Country Club
Average score to par +4.34
If you need any indication of how difficult Oakmont Country Club was at the US Open, ask Wyndham Clark, who took his frustration out on the locker room in 2025.
The nearly knee-deep rough and lightning-fast greens gave the world’s best players nightmares. Reigning US Open Champion DeChambeau missed the cut, as did Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose.
In the last 10 years, Oakmont has presented the most formidable putting challenge of any golf course. It’s the place where players have lost the most strokes on the green. The long rough also makes it the course where players have lost the most strokes around the green. Having a successful round with the short game at Oakmont is basically impossible.
Combine the course setup with bad weather, and you get what we saw at the US Open this year. The best players in the world were fist-pumping bogeys during the final round of the tournament in the pouring rain.
Eventual US Open winner JJ Spaun was the only player to finish under par, and he needed a 64-foot putt on the 18th green to do that. Oakmont had a reputation as one of the most challenging courses on the planet going into the US Open, and it certainly lived up to the hype.
1. Winged Foot GC
Average score to par: +4.45
The one course even more challenging for players than Oakmont in the last 10 years is Winged Foot Golf Club, host of the 2020 US Open. It’s the course where Geoff Ogilvy famously won the 2006 US Open at five over par.
There is zero room for error around Winged Foot. Just ask Phil Mickelson, who threw away a US Open win on the final hole during this treacherous challenge.
Its narrow fairways punish misses off the tee, and missing the green can leave you in deep sand traps that are difficult to get out of. It’s a truly gruelling test over four days, made more difficult by the New York wind and rain.
On par 3s, par 4s, and par 5s, players have lost strokes everywhere around this course on average in the last 10 years. They have hit the fairways off the tee 46.3% of the time, which is a sure-fire way to rack up big numbers around here.
DeChambeau took his first-ever major victory here at the 2020 US Open, but don’t let his six-under-par finish fool you. That was a dominant performance from the American, who was the only player to score under par at the event.
It was one of his greatest ever tournaments on what is statistically the most difficult course the PGA Tour has visited in the last decade.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
