The ten courses that have been tagged in the most instagram posts.

[Tim Martin]

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/lists/golf-courses-on-instagram-augusta-national-pebble-beach/

This is a link to a 9/4/24 article in GolfWeek. Regardless of architect or architectural style none on the list surprised me.

[Tom_Doak]

Shoreacres is the surprise, even if you don’t have to have been there to name-check it.  They haven’t had that many new guests since the internet was invented!

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

Surprised Sleepy Hollow isn’t listed, just based on Jon Cavaliers posts

[Cal Carlisle]

Shoreacres is the surprise, even if you don’t have to have been there to name-check it.  They haven’t had that many new guests since the internet was invented!

I just assumed the list would be dominated by tournament venues getting tagged by patrons.

[Ronald Montesano]

Cal Club, Shoreacres, and Chicago are quite surprising.


I wonder if the Western Golf Association has a large social media presence. None of them is the sort of club that is looking for members and adoration.


Social media is a funny game, ever evolving.

[Joe Zucker]

This is almost surely a data collection problem.  For example, are people tagging the right accounts?  For Bandon Dunes or Pebble Beach, is there an account for each course or are people tagging the resort? How do you attribute those differences?


It also, just doesn't pass the smell test.  As Tom mentioned, many of the privates have few guests.  Bandon has to have 50,000+ times as many visitors as Chicago GC.  My best explanation is that a lot of posts that are highlighting "Top 10 Courses in America" are bringing up the count for exclusive courses.  As with anything using data, definitions matter.

[Matt Schoolfield]

This is almost surely a data collection problem.

I agree wholeheartedly with Joe. My first takeaway from this, after looking up some of the entries and being shocked at how low the actual numbers are, is that (1) posts need to be from public instagram users, which are the minority, (2) they need to be tagged at all, since most folks don't bother tagging such recognizable places exactly because they are recognizable, (3) use the exact same hashtag or account tag, which are nonstandard, and who even uses hashtags anymore.

I think the idea of instagrammable golf architecture, as a shorthand for intentionally photogenic design, and it's effect on golf culture and architetur is very real, and worthy of attention, but I think that accurate data collection on that subject will be challenging. Perhaps a better way to approach is analysis of publicly available photos with geotags on specific tee boxes in their metadata.

[Jeff Schley]

This is almost surely a data collection problem.

I agree wholeheartedly with Joe. My first takeaway from this, after looking up some of the entries and being shocked at how low the actual numbers are, is that (1) posts need to be from public instagram users, which are the minority, (2) they need to be tagged at all, since most folks don't bother tagging such recognizable places exactly because they are recognizable, (3) use the exact same hashtag or account tag, which are nonstandard, and who even uses hashtags anymore.

I think the idea of instagrammable golf architecture, as a shorthand for intentionally photogenic design, and it's effect on golf culture and architetur is very real, and worthy of attention, but I think that accurate data collection on that subject will be challenging. Perhaps a better way to approach is analysis of publicly available photos with geotags on specific tee boxes in their metadata.

Agree as well.  One reason it isn't attributable to is paying $ for advertising as CGC/Shoreacres would rather be under the radar than on it. I would guess, it is the tournament venues and large resorts. ANGC, Pebble, Bandon, TPC Sawgrass/Scottsdale, Pinehurst.