Golf courses in South Dakota

Fifty of the 59 South Dakota towns in our directory have a single mapped course, and it is usually a nine-holer. The state’s 83 mapped courses break 49 nine-hole to 34 eighteen-hole, a 59.0% nine-hole share that only two states beat. Nine holes after supper, when the prairie wind drops, fits the place.

The Missouri River divides the state, and the golf with it. East River is farm country, and Sioux Falls, with 9 mapped courses, is the biggest cluster; Watertown has 5, three of them the separate nines of its municipal course, and Brandon and Aberdeen 2 each. West River is ranch land until the Black Hills rise out of it, where Rapid City has 7 mapped courses at the foot of the Hills and the elevation keeps summer afternoons bearable.

South Dakota’s 8.88 courses per 100,000 people is the fifth-highest rate in the country, one course for every 11,266 residents and about twice the national 4.38 in the Golf Course Census. Municipal courses carry much of that: Watertown’s, Mitchell’s Lakeview and the nine at Eureka are all mapped. The season is roughly mid-April to mid-October, shorter in the Hills and in a hard spring.

A trip to the Hills or a tournament in Sioux Falls means a course you have never seen, so read our guide to playing a new golf course first. The surrounding states are in the national directory.

Most courses: Sioux Falls (9), Rapid City (7), Watertown (5), Aberdeen (2), Brandon (2).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates (July 1, 2025) (935,094 residents). Counts are courses mapped in Yardage, not an official registry.

Courses by city

Is your course mapped?

Type a South Dakota town or course name to see whether it is in the catalog.

Missing a course?

If your South Dakota nine is not here, send the town and the course name and we will check.

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