Which U.S. cities are like a second home to the avid golfer?

To mark National Golf Lover’s Day on Oct. 4, LawnStarter ranked 2023's Best Cities for Golfers.

We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on 6 categories. More specifically, we factored in public and premium course access, course quality, golfer groups, and climate, among 25 metrics.

See the 10 birdies and 10 bogeys of golf cities below, followed by key stats from our report.

Key Insights:

• Scottsdale Is King: For the second year in a row, the low round of the day goes to Scottsdale, Arizona, which ranked top 5 in 5 of 6 categories. Scottsdale blew away the competition, scoring a hole-in-onein Public Course Access, Premium Course Access, Training Access, and Course Quality. It also ranked No. 2 in Community. 

• The Perfect Storm: Florida-based golfers might feel they missed the fairway with only 2 Florida cities, Orlando and Tampa, appearing in our top 25. That’s a bit of an eyebrow raiser for those familiar with Florida’s reputation as the “golf capital of the world,” thanks to legend Arnold Palmer. Florida cities were dinged for their Climate scores.

• The Home of Golf: At No. 2 overall, Orlando, Florida, was the only city apart from Scottsdale, Arizona, with a top-3 ranking in at least 2 categories (No. 2 in both Premium Course Access and Training Access). Orlando also ranked top 10 in Public Course Access (No. 6) and Course Quality (No. 8). Orlando really is one of the most magical places on Earth — for golfers.

• Golden Statement: California and Arizona each have 5 cities in thetop 25, making them the most golf-friendly states on our list. California golfers will feel they won the match, however, with a total of 9 cities in our top 50 compared with Arizona’s 6.

• Biggest Movers: St. Louis was the top-25 city that jumped highestsince 2022. The Gateway to Golf shot 57 spots up the leaderboard from No. 68 to No. 11 thanks to a new metric, amateur golf contests (No. 9). Sacramento was the biggest overall mover, climbing 125 spots — from No. 157 to No. 32 — after scoring an ace in Community.

• Putting Golf at a Premium: The best cities on our list make top-tier golf a priority. Every city in the top 10 ranks 34th or better in Premium Course Access, with 8 ranking 15th or better. They also score highly on Course Quality, with only 3 ranked lower than 26th and 5 ranked in the top 10.