GD Top 100 by Design Variety

[JohnV]

Since design is what we really seem to care about in this group, I sorted the top 100 by the rating given for Design Variety.  The results follow.  As a reminder, here is the criteria for Design Variety. How varied are the holes in differing lengths, configurations, hazard placements, green shapes and green contours?

1      Pine Valley
2      Cypress Point
3      Shinnecock Hills
4      Pebble Beach
5      Augusta
6      Merion East
7      Pacific Dunes
8      Oakmont
9      Sand Hills
10      National Golf
11      Crystal Downs
12      Wade Hampton
13      Victoria National
14      Pinehurst #2
15      Shadow Creek
16      Muirfield Village
17      Fishers Island
18      Southern Hills
19      Olympic Lake
20      Country Club (Clyde/Squirrel)
21      Seminole
22      Winged Foot West
23      San Francisco
24      Winged Foot East
25      Bandon Dunes
26      Bethpage Black
27      Prairie Dunes
28      Los Angeles North
29      Quaker Ridge
30      Oak Hill East
31      The Golf Club
32      Somerset Hills
33      Whistling Straights - Straights
34      Olympia Fields North
35      Honors
36      Oakland Hills South
37      Garden City
38      Blackwolf Run River
39      Forest Highlands Canyon
40      Riviera
41      Camargo
42      Medinah #3
43      Black Diamond Quarry
44      Double Eagle
45      Prince
46      Baltimore East
47      Maidstone
48      Cherry Hills
49      Chicago
50      Estancia
51      Quarry at La Quinta
52      Sycamore Hills
53      Rich Harvest
54      Atlanta
55      Long Cove
56      Canterbury
57      Milwaukee
58      Plainfield
59      Scioto
60      Valhalla
61      Spyglass Hill
62      Butler National
63      Crooked Stick
64      Pasatiempo
65      The Ocean Course
66      Shoreacres
67      TPC Sawgrass Stadium
68      Homestead - Cascades
69      Peachtree
70      Inverness
71      Laurel Valley
72      Baltusrol Lower
73      Interlachen
74      Salem
75      Castle Pines
76      Colonial
77      Jupiter Hills - Hills
78      Mauna Kea
79      Shoal Creek
80      Greenville
81      Cog Hill #4
82      Grandfather
83      Harbour Town
84      Kittansett
85      Eugene
86      Ocean Forest
87      NCR South
88      The Dunes
89      Congressional Blue
90      Bellerive
91      Hazeltine
92      Old Warson
93      Pine Tree
94      Desert Forest
95      Wannamoisett
96      Sahalee (South/North)
97      Stanwich
98      East Lake
99      Point O' Woods
100      Aronimink

Probably no big surprises until you get down to #12 or so.  I haven't been to Wade Hampton, but is it really that good a design.  Riviera at #40?  Valhalla a better design than the Stadium Course?

[John Foley]

Why is TOC so low in design variety? Estancia & Quarry offer that much more variety? Is it due to the routing? The variety of the holes @ TOC is great.

The more I read the discussions about the lists the more obsurd they become.

[THuckaby2]

Just to assist the discussion, here's the definition of design variety, in brief, from the GD web site:

"3. Design Variety. How varied are the holes in differing lengths, configurations, hazard placements, green shapes and green contours? "

Discuss amongst yourselves as to whether the 844 GD raters got this "right"....

TH

[corey miller]

This may be a good list for top 100 courses but have a tough time thinking it is top 100 for solely "design variety".  The category does not even have a qualitative component.

I think there must be a brumhilde(as redanman would say) that has a lot of design variety.  Where are those?

Why do there need to be any categories?

[John_Conley]

Corey:

Golfweek has no categories, but does evaluate with an eye on certain criteria.  I've said all along that Digest opens up a can of worms when they break it out so many ways.  That said, the result is quite good.

If you are looking for another course on the list, the only data publicly available for this is the Top 100 Golf Digest list.

[TEPaul]

"Discuss amongst yourselves as to whether the 844 GD raters got this "right"...."

TomH Baby;

Discussing and comparing architecture is hard enough and tricky enough--but getting into what 844 GD raters think is something I'm definitely NEVER going to be interested in doing or even thinking about.