Fascinating list, and quite a bold project to undertake in those days. And to think that the 17 people on this distinguished panel traveled about by steamer ship rather than airplane. To include, or even to get to Lawsonia or Prairie Dunes (the latter having only been open 4 years when the list was solicited) is also amazing. I even doubt one could disparage the list for the courses having courted the raters, or that the results were biased by the statistical unreliability of the small sample. Imagine that.
Anyone who has played Engineers (home to two majors before 1921) will know what a magical place that was - and still could be. I am still saddened by knowing what could have been of Gil Hanse's restoration plan nearly a decade ago, had the green chairman who sponsored the plan not died tragically.
Manoir Richelieu, also by Herbert Strong, is something of a curiosity. It was a much heralded layout in northeastern Quebec, though the version I saw two years ago (since renovated by Tom McBroom) had already been altered greatly.
Ironically, RTJ, the only American architect among the panelists, played no small hand in modernizing several of the courses on the list in ways that undermined their classical greatness.
Notice that Troon and Royal Birkdale are missing from the list, as are Cruden Bay, Machrihanish, and Nairn. Dornoch's absence is also notable, esp. given the fact that 12 of its present holes (1-6, 12, 14-18) were in place by then.
Also interesting - the paucity of Southern/Southwest courses. Nothing in S.C., Texas, Oklahoma (not even Southern Hills), Arizona, and only two in Florida.