Chris,
You beat me to the punch. I bought this mag this afternoon and found some of the rankings rather interesting. Apart from the top 10 there seemed to be a clear liking for new courses while the traditional slipped down the lists.
I found these most interesting:
Newcastle at 7 as high as I've ever seen it in any ranking.
Joondalup at 10. (Golf Digest had it at 28, not in Golf Australia's top 25)
Moonah Links coming in at 12.
The Heritage at 22 (Golf Digest had it at 42)
The Lakes at 24 - as low as this has been for a long while, probably ever.
The Australian at 19 - ditto
Royal Sydney at 30 - ditto
The National Ocean at 36 while the Old is at 39
Toowoomba at 60 - I don't think I've ever seen it in a ranking before.
Concord at 70
Cape Schanck at 75 (while Woodlands is at 69?)
The poor ratings of the Sandbelt courses - Commonwealth at 32, Yarra Yarra at 51, Peninsula North at 54, Long Island at 65, WOODLANDS AT 69 (what's going on there), Spring Valley at 92, Southern at 96 - no Keysborough or Kingswood
No Peninsula South or Horsham.
(I've got an old rankings list - circa 1981 - which had Elanora at 20. These days it never makes a top 100 list.)
There were honourable mentions to three courses who didn't make the list - Ellerston, Ranfurlie and The Willows. They didn't receive enough votes to qualify under the criteria - I assume that means not enough judges had played them. The ratings were worked out on the same basis as Golf Magazine did the World Top 100.
There was a panel of 26. Each member was given a list of 200 courses and asked to rate the course on the categories of course condition, strategic integrity, design and ambience/aesthetics. Each of the scores was averaged acorss the 26-member panel to give average scores for each category and an overall score.
The 26 panel members were:
Steve Allan, George Begg, Andrew Berkman, John Blackman, Tony Cashmore, Michael Court, Neil Crafter, Max Garske, Ian Healy, Andrew Langford-Jones, Len Findlay, Maisie Mooney, Ossie Moore, Geoff Ogilvy, Nick O'Hern, Graham Papworth, Ross Perrett, Bernie Pramberg, Graeme Rowland, Chris Rutherford, Warren Sevil, Bob Tuohy, Ross Watson, Wilbur Wilde, Rob Willis and Anne Wilson.
I suggest Golf Magazine put a bit more time into their presentation. A few of the locations on the list were mispelled.
Danny,
I don't think it matters how many world class courses we have. People do want to know what are the best courses they can play. I bet most Aussies don't know much about the world's top 50 (apart from the ones they see on TV) but they know what the best 10 courses in their city are. And I'm sure people like to compare how their club ranks with the one down the road (whether one doubts the credibility of those rankings or not). Personally, if I'm planning a trip interstate or somewhere in the country I like to know what courses are worth playing. And I've also played some courses in the world Top 100 which aren't significantly better than many top 100 courses in Australia.