Sure enough - it was #10 on the most recent GOLF DIGEST list of international courses, which excluded all of the U.S. courses. So, it's not really a world list. Figures they would find a way to exaggerate.
Tom--
I assume that you mean Golf Digest when you wrote "they" in your last sentence in this post. If you are suggesting that it was the Trump Golf organization exaggerating, I would respectfully suggest that there are probably at least 10-20 other courses that have exaggerated by quoting Golf Digest in their advertising since GD published their original "world excluding USA" list. Also, I just checked the Turnberry website and found a reference to Golf Magazine's last list but no reference to Golf Digest's lists. Does Steve Shaffer represent Trump Golf?
GM's 2017 listing is probably heavily weighted by panelists who have played the pre-Ebert Ailsa (#16...up from #23 in 2015) and not played the post renovation course. Top100's latest list (published Dec 7, 2017) has Ailsa at #14 (up from #19 two years earlier). Finally, when GD later published a World 100 including USA courses it had Ailsa at #18 (up from #22 two years earlier)
Best
Paul