Criteria for the Top 100

Ratings of golf clubs have reached an almost insane level.  It seems like every golf publication  is getting in the game  with ratings based on all sorts of criteria.  

The grandparents in the rating game are  Golf Digest with its  Top 100 Golf courses in the U.S.  and Golf Magazine with its Top 100 in the world.

But of course there is now  Top 100 modern courses, Top 100 classic courses, top 100 clubhouses Top 100 locker rooms. The list goes on.

As a guy who has played the Golf Digest Top 100 in the U.S. I am often asked  “what are your favorite courses? and why?

The why part is the tough question.  For me the number one criteria  is the aesthetics or physical beauty of the course.  That is why places like Pebble Beach  and Cypress Point are so special with the Pacific Ocean pounding  on their shores.  But  many courses in the mountains are breathtaking as well.

Courses with lots of history  capture my attention as well.  Merion is one of my favorites where Bobby Jones closed out his grand slam and Ben Hogan  came back on bandaged and badly injured legs, caused by a near fatal car accident, to win the 1950 US Open.

A great locker room is hard to beat.  There are certainly the shiny new expensive ones with marble counters and showers and exotic woods in the lockers,  but locker rooms like the very old one with metal lockers at Winged Foot, carry you in the door and share with you the history of the major tournaments  of the club, almost like walking into a museum  or the old grand showers  with old ceramic tiles and huge rain like shower heads.

Don’t forget the food.  Things like the signature beef jerky at Mirabell in Scottsdale  is hard to forget.

But in the end, especially if you are joining, its the service and the membership.  Courses and club houses certainly catch your attention but there are plenty of those to choose from, but its the relationships that bring a club alive.

In Utah I learned that there are less than 20 private golf clubs in the entire state, 1/3 of them are real estate developments in Park City.  Yet there are many wonderful golf courses in the state and  plenty of golfers.  Several head pros told me  “people join golf courses for many reasons, the greatest being the social fabric of the club. The bulk of their social fabric revolves around the club”  In Utah, the Mormon church fills that function, leaving a lower demand for golf clubs”