I of course will not be voting and only post this because I believe it is as important to know who voted as it is to see who won the ballot. The least we can do is post who votes and which clubs they are affiliated with in what capacity.
John,
Why not vote? Either:
1. You joined clubs with inferior courses and you don't want any of the staff/members to see your honest opinion.
2. You love your clubs' courses but don't have enough confidence in your homer opinion and don't want to appear as a shill.
Yes I know I gave my club ***. But guess what, I can only find 7 or 8 courses on the Golfweek Modern list that I honestly think have a good shot at being better and I didn't join just for the cherry chicken salad ....
Jud,
I am simply not a very good person. I can not vote on anything without taking into consideration on what is in it for me. Given the current state of the game and my uncanny ability to play anywhere, anytime I choose at any course in the world, whenever I write a dues or assessment check I vote in the positive in the strongest of terms. I am not going to write a club a check and then pretend to be above my desire to not feel ripped off by voting another course higher. I also have some strange shallow need, that I don't understand, to be liked and tend to like people or things that are nice to me in return. Then comes the architects who I am affiliated with or have been kind to me in the past. I'm going to give Kavanaugh, Nuzzo, Brauer, Crowley, Doak, Fazio, Coore, Richardson, Dye, Nicklaus, and even Shackelford (because his dad played for John Wooden) passes. Sorry for whoever I missed.
Now back to my second sentence "I can not vote on anything without taking into consideration on what is in it for me." If I were given free golf and access to each of these 52 courses I would say to hell with bias and submit votes that protect my intellectual integrity. ie: Sand Hills *** and so forth. So please note: There was a time in my life where I desired to be a rater and am not above the process if I get my taste for my efforts.
One other thing. This process was not open to 1500 like minded golf fans. It was open to people who choose to improve their status in the golf community through not only bragging about the courses they have played but enjoy flying the flag of intellectual elitism. I'm sure the number is closer to 50. I'm giving Doak a pass not only because I am now a member of one of his courses but because he has been flying that flag since he reluctantly enrolled at M.I.T. I know he is good at math because he developed the formula of # of stars = value of a course/number of design credits. How else could Old Mac get one star?