REVEALED: The hardest golf course on the PGA Tour in 2024

With the dust settling on the 2024 PGA Tour season, we can finally take a deep dive into the stats and details that made this year what it was.

From the longest hitters to the easiest holes, the PGA Tour website is a treasure trove of info that’s just waiting to be mined.

One of the most interesting categories? The list of toughest courses.

And according to the data, there’s a clear winner.

The No.2 course at Pinehurst takes the title. The host venue for the 2024 US Open, won by Bryson DeChambeau, played an average of 2.891 shots over-par across the week.

• Will another USA victory be the death of the Presidents Cup?

• PGA Tour star reveals ‘free stuff’ top pros get – and the list is pretty amazing

That put it narrowly ahead of Royal Troon, host venue of a weather-impacted Open Championship in July. The Ayrshire links played 2.851 shots over-par on average.

Another of the major venues, Augusta National, took third spot (+1.906), with Memorial Tournament host Muirfield Village (+1.504) and Colonial Country Club (+0.824), the host of May’s Charles Schwab Challenge, rounding out the top-five.

That Pinehurst topped the standings is perhaps no great surprise. The US Open is a notoriously high-scoring event and only eight of this year’s field finished under-par.

The raw numbers, though, really expose just how difficult a challenge it was.

There were only 20 eagles and 1,007 birdies across the week, as compared with 1,819 bogeys, 212 doubles and 43 instances of worse than double.

• Scots rocker “owes Bob MacIntyre a tattoo” after losing bet

• The golf rivalry you didn’t think you needed set for $100,000 showdown

The par-70 track played an average of 72.891 across the week.

All told, 12 of the 41 courses visited by the PGA Tour this year averaged an over-par score this year. Interestingly, Valhalla – the host of the PGA Championship – and The PLAYERS host venue, TPC Sawgrass, were not amongst them.

The easiest course, meantime? For the third year in a row, that’s the par-73 Plantation Course at Kapalua, site of the season-opening The Sentry.

It averaged an extraordinary 4.636 shots under-par, with more eagles (66) registered across the week than double or worse (40).

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor