GCA Golf Course Ratings?

[Richard Choi]

I just posted this in the other thread, but I think it deserves a wider view.

What do you think about keeping GCA's own golf course ratings? We have questions all the time about which course is better and which course is a must play in a particular city. While it is nice to have Golf Digest and Golf Magazine rankings, they usually only cover top 100 and folks here at GCA have different perspective on golf courses than magazines or worse, user rated course ratings.

We can simply have people rate (Doak course rating?) a course that they have played (on honor system, I think we can all trust folks here) combine and average the ratings and have them posted here.

I will be happy to collect the data and publish them.

Would you be interested in this effort?

[John Moore II]

Yes, I will make a list using specific architects, or even just in general, from best to worst of what I have played. Just say when to start.

[Jonathan Cummings]

You guys should probably check with Ran on this....

JC

[Ian_L]

Yeah, I'd keep it unofficial at least, maybe on a different webpage?  I'd submit mine, though...

[Andy Troeger]

After having been on here for a few years, I don't really think a GCA list would be any better than the ones the magazines already put out. It would include many of the same courses, little different slant...

[Richard Choi]

Andy, I agree that you will see little difference in the top 100 list. However, our list will be at least several hundred deep and will be much more comprehensive overall.

I can collect/post the results on another site...

[Ian_L]

Will there be a minimum number of ratings? 

[Matthew Hunt]

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,27002.0.html
and
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/opinionhunt.html

[Andy Troeger]

Richard,
Once you include state rankings I think the magazines each include something like 750 courses each--most of them overlap of course. I'm not sure you can get THAT much more comprehensive.

I'm skeptical you can get enough ratings from this group to make a list as comprehensive as the magazines let alone more. This has been discussed before and rarely gets off the ground for whatever reason.

[John Kirk]

Hi Richard,

I wouldn't waste my time with this.  Let the three major magazines take care of offering three good opinions on the subject.  Brad Klein works his ass off preparing his lists.

(whisper...call me)

[Paul Jones]

Didn't someone already do this and Ran posted it.  I think the catch was only the courses you played.

[PCCraig]

I don't think its a bad idea to have an official GCA list.

Perhaps we could take the three magazine rankings (or in an ode to b. klein just the golfweek listings), then take some sort of voting poll based on points as to find which courses the members enjoy more or less. Then we could have "write in" courses to ones that we may of missed.

We shouldn't feel like we are stepping on anyone's toes, this could be a fun project.

[Phil_the_Author]

What's the over/under on whether Pine Valley or Augusta National with NGLA as a dark horse third will get the first phone call from soneone claiming to be a GolfClubAtlas rater and can they get access to rate the course for our Top 100 list?

[PCCraig]

I've already called Augusta   

[Bill Brightly]

Whoops, posted this under a captioned thread by accident:


Richard,

I have been thinking about this idea: a Golf Club Atlas checklist/scoring sheet along the lines of what USGA raters and the magazines use. Maybe ours would have a different angle, one that weights architecture more than conditioning, etc.

I have never seen the forms used by other raters. Perhaps there are other GCA members who might be able to modify one for GCA use? Then if any of us choose, we could submit a GCA rating on the courses we play.

It is a lot of work and many won't bother, but perhaps there are few who would enjoy studying a course along a specific set of "architectural" guidelines.

P.S.  Let me know when you get it finished. 
 

[Bob Jenkins]

Bill B,

I am like you and would love to see the forms raters use. Tom H, is that possible?

As for a GCA Atlas list, it is easier to complain about the lists we see in the magazines.

From my years of looking at the lists put out by various mags, there are very few raters who have played even most of the courses that would contend. Looking at the courses I have played over the years, by far the most are on the west coast of the US and Canada, with a few sojourns to Scotland and the odd game in the eastern US and Canada. When I see pics of Merion, great courses back east, it is interesting but unless you have been to our played the course, you really cannot comment. I am sure there are lots of you on the east coast who have never set foot in Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona. How do you balance that out?  I bet a majority would have played Pebble at some point in time but probably 10%, if that would have played Ballyneal, for example.

In Canada, it is clear that the ratings we see are tilted to the center of the country, even considering the number of courses and population spread.
Not sure how to overcome that.

Regards,

Bob Jenkins

[Andy Troeger]

I am like you and would love to see the forms raters use. Tom H, is that possible?

I think the criteria each magazine uses is pretty readily available on their websites. They're all pretty different.