@Tiger, thanks for the heads up!
Mike/Guido, The European underworld is controlled by the Russians, They own Italy, and other than being beautiful and full of gorgeous love starved women it's not worth much so you just might be picking the wrong team.
I'm not quite sure how to interpret what you wrote. 15,000 golf courses in the US, no arguments here. Yes most 90% of the US courses I've played were on some sort of list. As well as 90% of all the courses I've played around the world not to mention being of some sort of architectural significance. Do you mean that my sampling of courses in the US is not a good indication of relative quality of green keeping and maintenance? That could be true, I don't know, but honestly I wouldn't want to prove you wrong if that's what you mean.
Once you've played a Dutch polder course, then we can have this debate. So I'm inviting you and anyone else to come try if poor quality and maintenance is on your list ha ha. However there are much nicer courses I'd prefer to share on your maiden NL voyage. Excuse the errors and typos as this was written from my phone while my kids are cleaning out my pocket book shopping for clothes...