Golf Digest Best New 2007

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bestnewcourses_470.jpgNow posted at GolfDigest.com, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak's Sebonack takes the private category.

The Best New Public With Hot Beverage Cart Girls Over $75 goes to Virginia's Highland Course at Primland by Donald Steel and Martin Ebert.

Best New Public Where You Might Have To Change Shoes In The Parking Lot Under $75 goes to another Virginia course, Ed Carton's Spring Creek.

The Best New Public Remodel, Lester George's restoration of The Greenbrier, beats out in stunning fifth place position, the horrid Industry Hills, aka Misery Hills, oh, wait, it's been rebranded as Industry HIlls GC at Pacific Palms Resort. I think the rebranding put it in the top 5.

Best New Private Remodel, goes to Gil Hanse, Brad Faxon and Jim Wagner for their revitalization of TPC Boston, edging out Rees Jones remodels of Bellerive and Atlanta Athletic Club as well as Jack Nicklaus's work at Ohio State.

And Best New Canadian goes to Muskoka Bay by Doug Carrick.

Stephen Szurlej's exclusive photos of the winners are posted, but other than the aerials of Sebonack I wouldn't waste your time unless you want to see a bunch of TPC Boston ground views from behind greens guarded by lakes. Not as horrific as his photo of Rustic Canyon when it won, which actually was taken by a blind ground squirrel. However, considering how easy the two courses are to photograph (I know, I'm biased) and considering the landscape photography work of folks like Lambrecht, Dost, Brown, the Henebry's, Cuban, Furore and Scalletti, Golf Digest should farm this assignment out.

While not award winning, at least some of these images give you a sense of why TPC Boston edged out some tough competition. 

Kuehne Tops This Month's Golf Digest Ranking, Validating Walker Cup Selection

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maar01_wallstreetrankings.jpgI think we know now how the USGA Walker Cup committee tabbed Trip Kuehne for the Walker Cup team: he landed first on Golf Digest's ranking of really rich, really white Wall Street golfing dudes. Surely it wasn't based on his tournament play over the last year.

Meanwhile, USGA President Walter Driver finished a disappointing T-32 but did  take first prize in the Blackberry typing category, clocking in at an impressive 62 words per minute all while measuring closest to the hole in a first round U.S. Amateur match.  

A Few Golf Magazine Thoughts

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I'm not sure how many of you have received the Golf Magazine course ranking issue, but it did cause me to put the brakes on my normal power-flip through the mag. Which is good since I have gotten a few paper cuts lately trying to break my all time leaf through record of 63.6 seconds.

Well, besides the stuff I linked earlier, there were a few panelist sidebars describing their favorite courses, and other than ones from Larry Lambrecht and Masa Nishijima, these descriptions are not exactly packed architectural revelations.

Which brings me to a general thought about the list. While I still agree with it more than Golf Digest's, there is a sense that its panel is a bit behind the times, while Golf Digest, for all of its faults, seems to have a more active group out monitoring what's going on at our best courses.

That's not to say that I think heavy turnover on a list is a good thing, but we are living in a very exciting time with so many compelling new courses, cutting edge restorations and a newfound appreciation for many architectural elements. Looking at the Golf panel and the list it has produced, I just sense there is a lot of dead (star name) weight and an excess of conflict of interests holding back the enthusiasts from really putting together a list that highlights fun, interesting and timeless architecture.

But it's Joe Passov's first full list and if given the time and freedom, I suspect he'll put together a stronger panel.

This also caught my eye:

In 2007, we switched to a web-based system that allowed panelists to vote on a combined master list of 475 courses from around the world. Panelists can only vote for courses they've played. (On average each panelist has played 73 courses on the World Top 100 list.) From this master list, the top 100 point earners make up our Top 100 Courses in the World. The Top 100 in the U.S. are determined by taking U.S. courses from the World list, in order, and then rounding out the list with the remaining top point earners that did not make the World list.

The points break down as follows: Each course placing in the top three earns 100 points; spots 4-10 earn 85 points, followed by 11-25 (70 points), 26-50 (60 points), 51-75 (50 points), 76-100 (40 points), 101-150 (30 points), 151-200 (20 points), 201-250 (10 points), 251+ (0 points). Any course that received a "remove from ballot" vote has 10 points deducted. The results at the top were remarkably similar to 2005, with Pine Valley, Cypress Point, St. Andrews' Old Course and Augusta National keeping their 1-4 spots.

Does anyone understand this balloting system. Help me here!

This was interesting:

Our rankings are guided by our panel, whose 100 members represent 15 countries. The men and women who cast their votes include major-championship winners, Ryder Cup players, architects, leading amateurs, journalists and a cadre of nearly a dozen course connoisseurs who've had the doggedness to play all Top 100 Courses in the World.

To keep it fair, course architects and course owners on the committee can't vote on their own properties. In the end, the opinions of our staff editors are factored in as well.

So we trust the panel to figure out a great course, but we re-jig the final tally as we see fit. Well, at least they're honest about.

Now, that doesn't explain how Torrey Pines-South is still on the list.

Golf Magazine 2007 Rankings

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The U.S. list is posted here, the world top 100 here.

A sidebar on panelist's favorite courses is here, while this is the list of people who rarely ever pay to play golf.

Just taking a quick glance I noticed several interesting things, but all in all it looks like the usual suspects are still popular. But I have paying work to attend to, so in the mean time let the bickering begin.

"Just about the only list they haven't done is a list of the 100 best courses that have not yet appeared on a list."

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John Huggan uses his Scotsman's Sunday Edition Scotland On Sunday takes issue with the Hall of Fame and his beloved Golf Digest's lastest world course ranking.
Golf Digest's "100 Best Courses Outside the United States," is but the latest in a long list of lists that contains the likes of America's 100 Greatest ... Best New Public ... Best New Private ... America's 50 Toughest Courses ... America's Best Resorts ... America's Best Golf Cities. Just about the only list they haven't done is a list of the 100 best courses that have not yet appeared on a list. Maybe next year.

Top of this year's rankings is the links of Royal County Down in Northern Ireland, which has bumped the Old Course at St Andrews down to second. Third is Royal Dornoch, with Royal Portrush fourth. Muirfield is a surprisingly lowly fifth, with the top ten rounded out by Royal Melbourne's composite course, Ballybunion, Turnberry, Carnoustie and New Zealand's Cape Kidnappers.

Having played nine of the magazine's top ten (not Ballybunion), I am somewhat qualified to comment on the real order, which should read: 1) Muirfield; 2) St Andrews; 3) Royal Melbourne; 4) Royal Dornoch; 5) Carnoustie; 6) Royal Portrush; 7) Royal County Down; 8) Morfontaine; 9) Sunningdale; 10) Portmarnock.

Elsewhere, there are even more outstanding examples of the inexplicable. Loch Lomond is as high as 11th. It's a good course and the scenery is lovely, but how anyone not addled by either old age or an excess of alcoholic beverages could rank it above the likes of Sunningdale (12th), Morfontaine (13th), Kingston Heath (15th), Portmarnock (24th), Hoylake (33rd) or Barnbougle Dunes (57th) is a mystery on a par with the current location of Lord Lucan. Perhaps the voters meant to say that Loch Lomond is the best course in the world hardly anyone from Scotland ever gets to play; that makes more sense.

Then there is dear old North Berwick. Many of the self-proclaimed experts on a favourite architecture website (golfclubatlas.com) of mine are quick to extol the virtues of this eccentric East Lothian course - they love what they love to call "quirk" - but to rank it 50th in the world outside of America is more than a bit of a stretch. Only if the thought of hitting over improbably placed walls or to impossibly contoured greens is even remotely appealing could one rank North Berwick above Walton Heath or Melbourne's Metropolitan, to name but two.

Other oddities leapt to my attention. Most Australians will be wondering at the admittedly stunning New South Wales finding a spot above the cunning Kingston Heath. Had it not been for the tragic and wholly inappropriate redesign of a couple of greens on the back nine (what were you thinking, Donald Steel?) I have no doubt that the always fun Royal Aberdeen would be a lot higher than 56th. And that Royal St. Georges - where someone called Ben Curtis was singled-out as the best player in the 2003 Open - is apparently the second-best course in England will lift more than just a few eyebrows skyward.

Some rhetorical questions came to mind, too. Porthcawl is better than Troon? Cruden Bay is better than Hoylake? And Kingsbarns is better than Birkdale, Troon, Lytham and Portmarnock? Come on!

My last shakes of the head came upon discovering some courses that have no business being in the top 500 never mind 100. I'm talking about the beautiful but architecturally flawed Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand; Spain's overrated Valderrama (ask almost any of the competitors in the Volvo Masters); Old Head in Ireland - a caricature of a links; and the nice but hardly memorable Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda.

A Few Rambling Golf Digest Ranking Thoughts...

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  • I know I say this every time, but it's very hard to get past Medinah No. 3 as the 11th best course in America, ahead of Sand Hills, National Golf Links, Fishers Island, and Pinehurst. You can find more subtly, character and nuance in one hole than Medinah has in all 18. There's a reason Medinah has constantly been under construction (and surely will be again someday soon.)
  • The GolfClubAtlas gang is perplexed by Riviera's drop to No. 61, from 47th in 2005 and somewhere in the mid-20s in 2003. Apparently they've forgotten that a certain architect has treated George Thomas's masterful design like a Rottweiler treats a fire hydrant? Is this really that difficult to understand?

  • San Francisco Golf Club drops six spots after a restrained, first-class restoration by Tom Doak and crew? Depressing.

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  • Of the courses leaving the list (box left), Crooked Stick is the only surprise. More stunning is the continued exclusion of Baltimore Country Club (Five Farms) and Eastward Ho!  Resistance to Scoring has to be killing those two.
  • Speaking of the most ridiculous of all architectural evaluation categories, check out the bottom ten of 2007's top 100 in resistance to scoring: Laurel Valley, Kittansett, Estancia, Camargo, Maidstone, Milwaukee, Sage Valley, Sanctuary, Shoreacres, and Valley Club. Four of those courses would rate in the all-time most fun (they're in bold, in case there was any doubt). I'd consider each a model for ideal design. They're walkable, fun, quirky, enjoyable for all and filled with just enough nuance to keep a good player honest.
  • Ron Whitten writes: "In just the past two years, a number of former 100 Greatest courses have undergone major remodeling programs, including Atlanta Athletic Club, Bel-Air, Bellerive, Jupiter Hills, Oak Tree and Stanwich (Golf Digest's Best New Remodel of 2006). All that these courses need now are the minimum 40 panelist evaluations to qualify for reconsideration on the 100 Greatest."  Bel-Air undergoing major remodeling the last two years? Try the last forty!  

  • Ron Whitten writes: "The lesson for contenders and pretenders: If you're not improving, you're probably not moving. Not onto America's 100 Greatest, at least."  Now, I'm all for the restoration movement and blowing up dogs like Bellerive, but is constant improvement a message that needs to be sent?  Thoughts?

What Tree Management Can Do For You...

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Bradley Klein on Augusta National's drop in the Golfweek Top 100 Classic Course ranking :
 The biggest news this year is that the country's most prominent championship venue has lost valuable ground. After years of renovation and modernization designed to keep Augusta National a fresh test for the Masters, the storied 1933 co-design by Alister MacKenzie and Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones today clings to a spot among the very elite, having fallen seven spots in the last year to No. 10.

It's a rating that folks at most courses would die for. But for students of architecture (including our team of 410 raters), the slide is what happens when a prominent course stretches and narrows itself contrary to its original design intent. In an era when virtually every other championship course is removing trees to recapture interesting angles of play, Augusta National in Augusta, Ga., (joined only by Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club, which dropped from No. 48 to No. 52) is that rare classic layout that's still planting them.

The two newcomers to the Classic list, No. 82 Eastward Ho! Country Club in Chatham, Mass. and No. 83 Engineers Club in Roslyn, N.Y., both got there through sustained restoration programs that included greens recapture, putting back lost bunkers and sustained tree management.

Golfweek's 2007 Rankings

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I got my first look at the Golfweek Top 100 (not posted online). Obviously it was hard not to giggle at the site of Augusta National dropping from 3rd to 10th (Dr. MacKenzie, Bobby Jones and every other golfer with use of their eyes has been wondering what took so long). It was also great to see Herbert Fowler's Eastward Ho! finally get the recognition it deserves by making the list, though this essentially ends its reign as the best kept secret in America.

On the modern side, Rustic Canyon is somehow hanging on at No. 100 in spite of well, we won't go there.  Not making the list was Erin Hills, the new Hurdzan-Fry-Whitten design outside of Milwaukee. Golfweek's Brad Klein obviously didn't give it a very high score:

Errant Hills Award: Erin Hills, Hartford, Wisc. A much-ballyhooed new co-design of Golf Digest architecture editor Ron Whitten and professional designers Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry. Too bad it opened a season early in late 2006, though inadequate fescue turf cover is the least of this sprawling daily fee’s problems. The U.S. Golf Association heralds it as a likely future U.S. Open site, but the routing is a mess, in large part because Whitten insisted on moving no dirt at all – thereby taking trendy “minimalism” to its absurd extreme. The raw site is great, but half a dozen holes are inexcusably awkward and much of the bunkering is overexcavated and unmaintainable. The 593-yard par-5 10th hole offers a blind, fall away Biarritz green; the short par-4 second putting surface ends before it begins; and the completely blind par-3 seventh “Dell Hole” plays up and over to the bottom of a vast taco shell. They should have thought “inside the bun” on this one.

2006 Golf Digest Best New

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Golf Digest unveils its latest Best New Courses awards, and a couple of things stand out.

After a decade of using a $50 green fee to separate affordable from upscale public courses, we believe an increase to $75 reflects the economic landscape of the times.

Sheesh, couldn't even raise it to $60?

No major embarrassments like last year's award of a Best New Remodel to a former Best New Course Award winner, though the panel gives longtime Top 100 course Stanwich the Best New Remodel. And since Tom Fazio did the work, the course is setting itself up nicely for another Best New Remodel award in ten years.

Here's the best new private list, the best new upscale public list, the best new affordable list, and the best new Canadian courses.