![\"The](\"\/b\/imgs\/numbers_game\/tng_title.gif\" "\\"The")
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.<\/p>\nLists. 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.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop me from getting worked up when I see one.<\/p>\n
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…
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\nI 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.”<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
![\"Top](\"\/b\/imgs\/numbers_game\/top_hundred_courses_by_state.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"Top](\"\/b\/imgs\/numbers_game\/top_hundred_pub_courses_by_state.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Hi, my name is Dave and I’m a location-based golf snob.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There, I feel even better now, but I still have a problem with California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Twenty two percent of the best courses in the country are in the two most populated states. This doesn’t seem fair, but if you count only public courses, thing look better and even a couple surprises appear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the_numbers_game"],"yoast_head":"\n