Branson & the Ozarks, Missouri

Branson is known for live entertainment, Silver Dollar City, and the 43,000-acre lake that wraps around the southern edge of the Missouri Ozarks, and golf is rarely the first thing visitors associate with it. That works in your favor. Four courses operating in and around Branson play through terrain that is genuinely distinctive: steep elevation changes carved through limestone ridgelines, dense hardwood forests, and water features fed by Ozark springs. Green fees top out around $165 and start in the mid-thirties. For golfers passing through the region or looking for a trip that combines affordable golf with a substantial off-course program, Branson delivers more than its reputation suggests.

The Ozarks provide the architecture. The hills here are older and more weathered than the Rockies, covered in oak, hickory, and cedar rather than exposed rock, and the courses use the natural topography rather than manufacturing it. Elevation changes of 100 feet or more within a single hole are common. This is hill golf through hardwood forest, and it rewards the player who adjusts to what the land presents.