Golfinsider

It’s one of the game’s great traditions: Golf-loving meeting and incentive attendees wax poetically upon return about their good fortune of playing one of the world’s best golf courses.

Here are 5 highly ranked, celebrated, U.S. public access courses that just about every attendee with a titanium-head driver wants to play:

1. Pebble Beach Golf Links (Pebble Beach, California)—A wondrous blend of lush fairways and greens, craggy rock cliffs, ocean surf and dramatic holes at every glance.
2. Pinehurst No. 2 (Pinehurst, North Carolina)—A major renovation by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore of this heralded Donald Ross design has widened fairways and removed all rough. No. 2 will host the 2014 U.S. Open and 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.
3. Ocean course at Kiawah Island Resort (Kiawah Island, South Carolina)-Featuring 10 holes along the Atlantic, this Pete Dye designed gem will host the 2012 PGA Championship.
4. Whistling Straits at the American Club Resort (Kohler, Wisconsin)—Site of the 2010 PGA Championship, this walking-only, rugged, Irish style layout is framed by Lake Michigan
5. Bandon Dunes Resort (Bandon Dunes, Oregon)—Stretching along Oregon coastline with rolling sand dunes and shaggy beach grasses, this four-course complex offers Scottish and Irish style seaside links golf experiences.

What's YOUR favorite course?