Shivas:
I'm sure you are right.
One of the problems with going so deep down a ranking list is that, much like state-by-state lists, you start to lose focus on what it is you are actually looking for. The rankings are set up to reward courses that "have it all", but once you get down to the courses that don't have it all, what's more important? Length? Conditioning? Or, character?
It's character which seems to take a beating in the second hundred listed. The courses that are served up are mostly "more of the same" -- mostly designed by the same architects, and mostly displaying the length and conditioning to be considered for the top 100, although most of them were found lacking precisely in the area of character. Meanwhile, the courses with character -- places like Belvedere in Michigan or Plymouth in Massachusetts -- are relegated to some other category altogether, and not really under consieration for the top 100. [CORRECTION: Belvedere is listed at #148, probably about where it should be.]
I've got to go back and look at the second 100 again. What about all the old Philadephia courses? How many of them made it? There ought to be a bunch of them.