Golf Magazine World And U.S. Additions

Golf Magazine's biennial World and U.S. course ranking should be unveiled any day now, but in the meantime golf.com posts a teaser slideshow of the courses added to the U.S. and World list. Great to see Kyle Phillips and team's redo work along with superintendent Thomas Bastis's exquisite attention-to-detail at Cal Club recognized by the panel.

The newcomers:

1. Old Macdonald at Bandon Dunes (#43 US/#74 World)
2. Gozzer Ranch (#70 US)
3. The Alotian (#76 US)
4. Caves Valley (#82 US)
5. California Golf Club of San Francisco (#97 US)
6. Castle Stuart (#56 World)
7. Diamante (Dunes) (#58 World)
8. Barnbougle Dunes - Lost Farm (#82 World)

"We want to continue to give the local folks a great golf course and also want to maintain our rating nationally."

Steve Lynn of New Mexico's The Daily Times looks at the revenue problems of the well-regarded Pinon Hills, the most blatant example yet of water costs impacting the health of a golf operation.

Meanwhile, the golf course is watering less despite spending more on the nonpotable water.

The course spent $42,000 on 134 million gallons of water in 2004.

By contrast, it spent $151,000 on 118 million gallons through October this year while spending about the same last year on $172 million gallons.

At the same time, the course has cut its budget. The city projected a $1.35 million budget that funds the city's golf courses this fiscal year, a decline of almost $90,000 from last fiscal year's budget.

The city expects higher green fees to raise revenue by $100,000, parks department director Jeff Bowman said.

"We want to continue to give the local folks a great golf course and also want to maintain our rating nationally," Bowman said.

"Golfweek" ranked Piñon Hills the No. 4 public golf course in the nation this year.

Naturally those last two sentences provide a nice reminder to those who don't think courses overspend to appease panelists.

Westwood Affirms #1 Ranking With Runner-Up Finish

Jason Sobel on the HSBC results and Westwood solidifying his spot at the top:

For now, though, all accolades and celebration should be heaped upon Westwood, who emerged from his first week atop the world ranking by putting greater distance between himself and the competition. That he failed to triumph at the HSBC should only serve as a symbol for his career: He might not always be good enough to win, but he is indeed good enough to be the best.

Sure, it sounds like a bizarre conundrum, but in a week that began with the world's best players brandishing swords in one another's company, bizarre might very well now be the norm anyway.

The SI guys weren't so kind.

Morfit: It is a bit odd that Westwood is winning so infrequently. On the other hand, he's played golf pretty infrequently, so maybe finishing second this week isn't so bad. I'm a lot more worried about a few other players who got a lot of publicity coming into the week.

Shipnuck: I'm way past the point of getting excited about Lee Westwood racking up another lucrative top-5 finish. To paraphrase "Glengarry Glen Ross," he needs to put down the coffee. Coffee is for closers.

Hack: Second place, a set of steak knives.

Shipnuck: Third place, you're fired. That means you, Luke Donald.

"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50"

The European Tour's statistics expert Ian Barker defended the World Ranking after Butch Harmon criticized the elevation of Lee Westwood to the top spot.

"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50 and Martin Kaymer would be comfortably the world number one," Barker, the European Tour's director of information services, told Reuters.

"Anyway, Butch may well have his wish on Sunday because Martin will go to number one if he comes second in Valderrama."