That was kind of a flawed exercise because all it did was ask us for a few favorite courses, and list the courses with the most votes. So, something like Trump Aberdeen could rate really high, if all of Martin Hawtree's associates voted for it. [My guess from looking at the results is there was a bigger representation of Europeans on this panel than on others.]
Funnily enough, that was the way GOLF MAGAZINE did their World Top 50 in 1979-81, before I got involved with it. They had a very international panel, and just asked every panelist for their top ten.
Do you see how that would turn out? The same 30-40 suspects in the US, UK and Australia got nearly all of the votes, and a place like Prairie Dunes got none, because if you'd seen that you'd probably also have seen most of the world top 20. So the remainder of the list was nominees from the least-traveled panelists, mostly Asians, which none of the well-traveled panelists had the opportunity to vote against.
That's how Royal Hong Kong, Royal Selangor, Wack Wack, and a couple of others were rated in the top 50 in the world in 1979. None of them would be in the top 500 today ... it's not changed opinion, but a more thorough system. And that's how Tobacco Road makes a top-50 list ... a few of the people who love it, vote, and the people who would vote against it don't have a chance to.