Lists. We love to look at them. People talk about them, but simply being on a list doesn’t verify anything as truth or fact. After all, it’s just a list.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop me from getting worked up when I see one.
Golf Digest’s list of top 100 courses has been published for a number of years now and it has always irritated me. Why? Because according to them, the top two states with the best golf courses are New York and California. Grrr…
I don’t have anything against New York. California maybe, but not New York. My issue stems from the fact that the two most populated states have the most courses on the list. I’m not going to start yelling about some sort of conspiracy theory, but when you (and I mean you, the reader) think of great states to play golf in, does New York come first to mind? To be fair, Golf Digest is rating the greatest golf courses and not golf destinations… but one can not help to think that they are saying “New York has the greatest golf courses.”
I’m taking this point of view from my comfortable abode in North Carolina. I would say that with South Carolina is probably the #1 destination for golfers in the US to take golf vacations. So where do these two states fall on the list? Have a look:
Combined, North and South Carolina are still four great courses shy of the twelve that Golf Digest gave to New York and two less than California. I’ll pause for a deep breath now.
OK, so looking further at the list it is understandably filled with a ton of private courses and New York and California is filled not only with people, but some of the richest. This starts to explain some things, but I’m still annoyed. My next step was to look at Golf Digests’ list of top 100 public courses to see if there is a better distribution… or at one that I liked.
OK, so now I feel better. South and North Carolina are now at or near the top and well ahead of New York. California is still up there, but I can live with it. When looking for a place to play some great golf, this type of graph is much better than the first one. Now some of these courses may cost a pretty penny to get on to, but it will in most likelihood represent the state well in terms of quality of public courses.
The surprises here, at least to me, are two states I didn’t expect to see at or near the top. Michigan and Oregon both have many courses in the top 100. Again, similar to New York, not two states I would consider being high on the golf vacation list. I may have to rethink that.
Now I have played golf in more than just the Carolinas. I grew up playing in western Pennsylvania and the surrounding states. There are lots of great courses there and all over the country. I think that my problems with these lists are more climate driven and something I have to get over. In the back of my mind its hard to imagine great courses in areas that have such short golf seasons. Sounds silly, but I guessthe first step is admitting you have a problem.
Hi, my name is Dave and I’m a location-based golf snob.
Let me know where you think the best golf is outside of the Carolinas. I know we have a lot of readers from a lot of different places and I want to hear from you. This can be a sort of group therapy.
There, I feel even better now, but I still have a problem with California.
Florida can’t even beat out Illinois? Or Ohio? Or Nevada or Hawaii? Hmmm…
Tell you what would be interesting – a graph plotting a course’s age or length or slope or some other basic facts on the 100 list. I wonder if you’d spot a fitted line that showed that shorter courses rated more poorly. Because, for a long time, course difficulty and length were big factors. Golf Digest says they’ve moved away from using difficulty as such a heavily weighted factor, but how much have they moved away from this?
Yeah. The other surprise was Illinois. Another state I would never have thought to see that many courses on the list.
I should be able to gather the info to do what you are talking about. It may take a while, but would make for interesting talk.
No surprise that Michigan is near the top. We have more than 800 courses here.
So what if North and South Carolina didn’t make the list? It may be a great golf destination, but maybe it’s just because it’s got a big collection of “adequate” golf courses. With only 100 on the list, I can see how courses built longer than 25 years ago (with the exception of Pinehurst and a few others) can be seen as “better” – i.e. those in New York in particular.
Get off your high horse, buddy, and consider something outside of a 100-mile circle from your house. How many courses have you even seen in NY and Cali if you’re from NC?
I actually played a lot of college tournaments in New York up in Binghamton, Albany and Colgate. And John, I don’t think that I’m on a high horse if I admit that I have a problem.
I know there are a lot of great golf courses outside of the Carolinas, that was the purpose to the last few statements in my article. I want people to tell me where they think the great golf is…outside the Carolinas. I did not mean to insinuate that the Carolinas are #1 and everything else is playing for second place.
That being said, your statement about older courses baffles me. So I’m to consider courses outside of the Carolinas, and if they are older, that makes them better? So are Murfield and Harbor Town and the other 12 Nicklaus courses designed before 1980 the only ones to be considered and not his 260 others? I don’t think we should rule out newer courses because they don’t have the “charm” of older ones.
Thanks for your comments. I know I speak for our entire staff whe I say that we are looking for more readers like yourself to make comments and state their opinions. It makes for good reading and banter.