Augusta National, Pebble Beach Take (Not Too Surprising) Hits In Revamped Golf Magazine World Top 100
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Ran Morrissett now helms the revamped Golf Magazine World Top 100 ranking, long the most respected listing of the planet’s best architecture. And while it’s a little tough to take a list covering the world seriously when there are only 80 or so voters and five panelists are said to have not voted at all, the overall statement says the list is once again about architecture.
Gone are more than twenty panelists, former head Joe Passov and numerous courses that appeared to have bought their way onto the list. The full 2017 list can be seen here and not surprisingly, the controversial Ayodhya Links and Oitavos Dunes are gone this time around, with Nine Bridges and Trump International Aberdeen both plummeting (53 and 54 spots respectively).
Another sign of the changing times? These five courses were said last time to be destined for the top 100 but none made the list. Only one, Royal Aberdeen, made the magazine’s 2019 list of the 50 next best.
The print package includes the panel, criteria and some dazzling, slightly over-Photoshopped images.
(Note: accessing the list on a mobile device can be jarring as the outdated Golf.com platform is unable to display images and an ad while scrolling, leading to a terrible viewing experience. The early rollout today featured many other glitches and timeout problems reported on discussion groups.)
Anyway, the headline from the list revamp is the dip of Augusta National and Pebble Beach, as Josh Berhow notes in this item focusing on these two icons taking some hits from the architecture-focused panel dinging both for not keeping up with the times by emphasizing restoration.
Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, dropped from 5th to 9th in the most recent ranking (its lowest ranking ever), and Pebble Beach Golf Links fell out of the top 10, from 9th to 11th.
This from an unnamed rater probably summed up the views of many sensing the architecture just isn’t dialed in enough to warrant top five status any longer:
The raters acknowledged Augusta National’s drop in the December issue of GOLF, saying “When the trend everywhere is to remove trees, widen playing corridors, increase playing angles and promote strategic and attacking golf, something had to give. We appreciate that Augusta National is in the uniquely difficult position of annually hosting the Masters. Still, the founding vision of Bob Jones and Alister MacKenzie matters, and a sense is starting to develop among panelists that the club is moving too far away from it.”
