Forest Hills Golf Club

Forest Hills was designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1926, six years before Augusta National. In March 1930 Bobby Jones won the Southeastern Open here, played over two rounds at Augusta Country Club and two at Forest Hills, and that victory was the start of the year in which he won the Amateur and Open championships of both Britain and the United States, the only Grand Slam of its kind.

The course has been altered twice. In 1984 the Arnold Palmer company redesigned several holes to make room for the Augusta University athletic complex. In 2004 the layout was worked back toward Ross’s original design, and it has stayed that way since. The greens were rebuilt more recently in TifEagle Bermuda under Bobby Jones Links management, which now runs the course.

What it asks of you

Ross routing on rolling Georgia sand hills, with the elevation change that makes Augusta a good golfing town in the first place. This is not flat Florida Ross; the land moves, and the routing uses it.

It is a genuine test from the back tees and entirely playable from the front, which is what a public course in a golf city ought to be. The greens are the interest, as they always are on a Ross course, and the recent rebuild has made them quicker and more consistent than they were. Length is honest rather than modern.

The connection to the university runs deeper than the land swap: the course is operated in association with Augusta University and is home to its golf programme, which is part of why it is kept to a standard most municipal-priced courses do not reach.

What players say about it

This is a public course with a substantial review record. The notes below summarize recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveler review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course. We report what comes back repeatedly rather than isolated remarks, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favor

• The course is repeatedly named the best public course in Augusta by local publications, and reviewers echo it.
• The greens draw strong praise after the rebuild, with more than one account describing them as private-club quality and better than some.
• The Bobby Jones history is a real draw, and reviewers treat playing where the Grand Slam year began as worth the trip on its own.
• The practice facility, the range and the clubhouse are well regarded for a course at this price level outside tournament week.

What comes up against

• Conditioning is uneven and this is the clearest fault line in the reviews. Accounts range from wonderful to poor, with divot-filled tee boxes and worn fairways cited in the negative ones.
• Masters week pricing is the loudest complaint. Rates multiply for that period, and visitors who paid them and found the course in ordinary condition say so bluntly.
• The 1984 alterations still show in places, and purists note that 2004 was a restoration in spirit rather than a full return to Ross.
• Demand around early April makes tee times hard to get for anyone who has not booked well ahead.

Getting there and when to go

The course is in Augusta, a few minutes from the university and a short drive from Augusta National. Augusta Regional airport is fifteen minutes away and Atlanta a little over two hours by road.

Georgia golf runs all year here, with spring and autumn the best of it and midsummer hot and humid. Avoid the week of the Masters unless the tournament is the reason you came, and book ahead if you are visiting in the surrounding weeks.

Green fees

Rates and tee times are handled by the course and rise sharply around the Masters. See the course’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published architecture and local coverage for the history and the successive redesigns, and the course’s own site for access and booking. The opinion section summarizes public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The course has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.