Bucket list courses aren’t usually my jam, if only because of the correlation (at least in this country) between prestige and price. Robert Louis Stevenson might’ve called Monterey Peninsula “the most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation,” but felicitous is not the F-word that comes to mind when I see $800 greens fees.

Golf should be a game of the people, which is why I put together this list of the 10 best hidden gems near bucket-list courses. I’m not discouraging you from taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but if you do, you might need some attainable options in the vicinity to help mitigate the damage to your bank account.

—Joel Beall, senior writer