Golf courses in Iowa

Nine holes is the normal size of a golf course in Iowa. Of the 358 Iowa courses mapped in Yardage, 231 are nine-holers and 127 are eighteens, a 64.5% nine-hole share that ranks second in the country, and no state has more courses per person: 11.05 per 100,000 residents, first in the Golf Course Census, one mapped course for every 9,046 Iowans.

The reason is on the map. Iowa’s golf is spread across 263 postal cities, and 212 of them have a single course, usually a nine at the edge of town. Municipal courses are a fixture: Emeis in Davenport, the Muscatine and Ottumwa municipals, Spencer, Storm Lake and Mason City’s Highland Park are all mapped. The bigger cities look modest next to that: Des Moines has 11 mapped courses, West Des Moines 9, Cedar Rapids 7, Council Bluffs and Sioux City 5 each. The university towns are covered too, Veenker Memorial in Ames and Finkbine in Iowa City.

The season is roughly April to October. Courses close under snow and open when the ground dries in spring, and the nine-holers are often the first to reopen. Iowa holds 2.39% of the national catalog, and a 2025 economic impact study commissioned by the Iowa Golf Council, a partnership that includes the Iowa Golf Association, puts golf’s statewide impact at more than $1 billion, which for 3,238,387 people says something about how much of it gets played.

For a game at an unfamiliar nine, our guide to playing a new golf course covers what to look for on the first tee, and the national directory shows how Iowa compares with the other 49 states.

Most courses: Des Moines (11), West Des Moines (9), Cedar Rapids (7), Council Bluffs (5), Sioux City (5).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates (July 1, 2025) (3,238,387 residents). Counts are courses mapped in Yardage, not an official registry.

Courses by city

Is your course mapped?

Type the course or the town, Ames, Dubuque or Fort Dodge, and see whether your Iowa course is one of the 358 in the catalog.

Missing a course?

Give us the course and the town and we will look at mapping it; Iowa’s 212 one-course towns suggest there are a few more nines out there.

Missing a course, or a green that looks wrong? Email support@theyardageapp.com with the course name and city and we will map it.