[Mark_Rowlinson]

In my copy of George Peper's 'Golf in America' (1988) there is a list of Golf Magazine's 100 Greatest Courses in the World.  There is no explanation of the judges' criteria.  I wonder which courses have moved up or down significantly in the 16 years since then and, which have been condemned to the scrap heap for good?  This post comes in two parts because at the first time of asking the document was too long.

1 Pine Valley
2 Muirfield
3 Pebble Beach
4 Cypress Point
5 Augusta National
6 Royal Melbourne Composite
7 St Andrews Old
8 Ballybunion Old
9 Royal Co Down
10 Merion East

11 Seminole
12 Royal Dornoch
13 Shinecock Hills
14 Pinehurst No 2
15 Oakmont
16 Winged Foot West
17 Oakland Hills South
18 Turnberry Ailsa
19 Olympic Lake
20 Muirfield Village

21 Royal Birkdale
22 Carnoustie
23 Prairie Dunes
24 Southern Hills
25 Baltusrol Lower
26 Portmarnock
27 Los Angeles North
28 Riviera
29 Casa de Campo Teeth of the Dog
30 Harbour Town

31 Oak Hill East
32 Royal St George's
33 Royal Portrush Dunluce
34 Medinah No 3
35 Shoal Creek
36 Royal Troon
37 Woodhall Spa
38 The Golf Club
39 Sunningdale Old
40 Kasumigaseki East

41 TPC at Sawgrass
42 Cascades Upper
43 Colonial
44 Chicago
45 Quaker Ridge
46 National Golf Links of America
47 Inverness
48 San Francisco
49 Wild Dunes Links
50 El Saler

More to follow...

[Mark_Rowlinson]

The remainder:

51 Firestone South
52 Hirono
53 Royal Liverpool
54 Kingston Heath
55 New South Wales
56 The Honors Course
57 The Country Club
58 Phoenix
59 Crystal Downs
60 Wentworth West

61 Long Cove
62 Oak Tree
63 Scioto
64 Huntingdale
65 Royal Lytham
66 Cherry Hills
67 Butler National
68 Durban
69 Sotogrande Old
70 Pevero

71 Canterbury
72 Royal Dar-Es-Salaam
73 Victoria
74 Royal Montreal Blue
75 PGA West Stadium
76 Ganton
77 The National Golf Club of Canada
78 Royal Adelaide
79 Essex
80 Bali Handara

81 El Rincon
82 Capilano
83 Saucon Valley Grace
84 Garden City
85 Baltimore Five Farms East
86 Walton heath Old
87 The Australian
88 Club de Golf Mexico
89 Maidstone
90 Plainfield

91 Kittansett
92 Doral Blue
93 Yale University
94 Troon
95 Sunningdale New
96 Somerset Hills
97 Sun City
98 Point O'Woods
99 Commonwealth
100 Royal Porthcawl

[Chris Kane]

Mark,

Kingston Heath has moved from 54 to 21, largely as the result of a restoration which involved rebuilding many of the bunkers and significant tree removal.  Graeme Grant, the greenkeeper at the time who was responsible for the work, sometimes post here - hopefully he can tell us more.

[JohnV]

Here are the top 50 from the 1988 list with today's rankings listed first (XX means not in the list anymore):

1   1 Pine Valley
3   2 Muirfield
7   3 Pebble Beach
3   4 Cypress Point
5   5 Augusta National
8   6 Royal Melbourne Composite
6   7 St Andrews Old
13   8 Ballybunion Old
10   9 Royal Co Down
14   10 Merion East

22   11 Seminole
16   12 Royal Dornoch
4   13 Shinecock Hills
9   14 Pinehurst No 2
15   15 Oakmont
18   16 Winged Foot West
25   17 Oakland Hills South
17   18 Turnberry Ailsa
39   19 Olympic Lake
37   20 Muirfield Village

28   21 Royal Birkdale
26   22 Carnoustie
23   23 Prairie Dunes
41   24 Southern Hills
45   25 Baltusrol Lower
40   26 Portmarnock
59   27 Los Angeles North
36   28 Riviera
34   29 Casa de Campo Teeth of the Dog
67   30 Harbour Town

42   31 Oak Hill East
32   32 Royal St George's
12   33 Royal Portrush Dunluce
52   34 Medinah No 3
XX   35 Shoal Creek
38   36 Royal Troon
46   37 Woodhall Spa
48   38 The Golf Club
44   39 Sunningdale Old
XX   40 Kasumigaseki East

57   41 TPC at Sawgrass
94   42 Cascades Upper
100   43 Colonial
31   44 Chicago
61   45 Quaker Ridge
20   46 National Golf Links of America
58   47 Inverness
27   48 San Francisco
XX   49 Wild Dunes Links
93   50 El Saler

[JohnV]

Here are the second 50:

XX   51 Firestone South
35   52 Hirono
72   53 Royal Liverpool
21   54 Kingston Heath
43   55 New South Wales
96   56 The Honors Course
33   57 The Country Club
XX   58 Phoenix
24   59 Crystal Downs
78   60 Wentworth West

XX   61 Long Cove
XX   62 Oak Tree
71   63 Scioto
XX   64 Huntingdale
54   65 Royal Lytham
90   66 Cherry Hills
XX   67 Butler National
70   68 Durban
XX   69 Sotogrande Old
XX   70 Pevero

XX   71 Canterbury
XX   72 Royal Dar-Es-Salaam
XX   73 Victoria
XX   74 Royal Montreal Blue
XX   75 PGA West Stadium
62   76 Ganton
XX   77 The National Golf Club of Canada
50   78 Royal Adelaide
XX   79 Essex
XX   80 Bali Handara

XX   81 El Rincon
XX   82 Capilano
XX   83 Saucon Valley Grace
55   84 Garden City
91   85 Baltimore Five Farms East
82   86 Walton heath Old
XX   87 The Australian
XX   88 Club de Golf Mexico
60   89 Maidstone
XX   90 Plainfield

XX   91 Kittansett
XX   92 Doral Blue
XX   93 Yale University
XX   94 Troon
XX   95 Sunningdale New
69   96 Somerset Hills
XX   97 Sun City
XX   98 Point O'Woods
XX   99 Commonwealth
XX   100 Royal Porthcawl

[JohnV]

Huge turnover, especially in the bottom half, but that is probably not a surprise in 16 years with all the new courses and the way more people have traveled the world to see courses.

Biggest move up percentage wise is probably Shinnecock from 13 to 4.

Interesting that 3 of the top 50 have dropped of the list entirely.  33 of the top 100 are gone.

[Scott_Burroughs]

I have to admit I haven't ever heard of a few of the ones from the '88 list.

Phoenix (Japan?)
Huntingdale (England?)
Pevero (Spain?)
Bali Handara

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Phoenix is apparently at Miyazaki, Japan and is credited to someone called Ohashi (1971)

Huntingdale is in Australia and has been mentioned in recent posts.  It is the regular host to the Australian Masters.  According to Darius Oliver's lovely book, 'Australia's Finest Golf Courses', it was designed by Charles Alison 'who never actually set foot on the site'!  It seems that it is in the Melbourne sandbelt but was built on a stretch of former swampland and it became very soggy during the winter, so the course was rebuilt by Jack Newton, Graeme Grant and John Spencer in the 1990s - and from what I've read on GCA it is merely a shadow of its former self.

Pevero is in Sardinia and was built for the Aga Khan by Robert Trent Jones in 1970.

Bali Handara is in Indonesia.  Peter Thomson/Wolveridge/Fream 1974.

[Paul Richards]

Having played 73 on of the courses on the 1988 list, and 72 on the most recent one, I'd love to offer some of my opinions here.

However, in a previous thread, Alex Wyatt chided me for my lack of architectural knowledge, so my response was:


>Alex

Thanks for your extremely enlightening discussion of golf course architecture.

Obviously, you are a tremendous authority, and I will defer to you on all discussions not pertaining to my home course or Chicago courses henceforth.


 
 
 

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Pevero has had some extremely good reviews from folks I know and it is still 17th in GolfWorld's Europe ranking.

Bali Handra is located in the mountains in Bali, and is apparently quite pretty. Nobody I talked to when I was there thought it held a candle to Nirwana Bali though.

Harbour Town falling off despite being arguably better now than in 88 must be more a result of style.

I like how international that list was, seems to be more so than today.

[Paul_Turner]

I've played Bali Handara.  Beautiful course in some of the most stunning scenery imaginable.  Some good holes (particularly the few at the start and finish) , but it's never Top 100 in the world.  I think I have few pics somewhere.

A few courses in the older list look worthy:  Sunn New, Porthcawl.

[Jack_Marr]

No Lahinch? I think this could be the most enjoyable course to play in Ireland.

[Top100Guru]

Where is Fisher's???

[Tom_Doak]

This is the list published in the magazine in 1987 ... the first time, I believe, the top 100 in the world were ranked.

Fishers Island was not in that list because not enough of the panelists had been there yet.  Crystal Downs was 59th because it was still short of a quorum.  Lahinch was just below #100 then, with some of the panelists holding its quirkiness against it, the same factor which keeps Prestwick out of today's list; Lahinch has since established itself well inside the top 100.

It is interesting to see how much fashion [and politics] change over time.  New courses are the most volatile because the same designers' more recent works take the luster off their previous ranked courses ... as Wade Hampton and Whistling Straits have replaced Wild Dunes and PGA West.  Courses like Butler National have passed by because they no longer get brownie points for being on Tour, and because they have been supplanted as the hardest tests of golf.

Of all the XX's there are only a couple I would vote for among the top 100 today ... Long Cove, Plainfield, and maybe Yale [if I'm ignoring the conditioning and recent work] or Porthcawl [if I'm ignoring the par-5's].  

[Paul Richards]

Tom;

You are usually 'spot-on', but when you said:

>Courses like Butler National have passed by because they no longer get brownie points for being on Tour, and because they have been supplanted as the hardest tests of golf.


you lose me.

Butler is STILL one of the toughest tracks anywhere.  It just needs a bit of TLC, which, I understand is on its way.  

Butler needs an extensive tree management program and once they deepen their bunkers (ala Bethpage or Olympia Fields), they could host an Open tomorrow.

Except, of course, for their membership policies.  

That being said, Butler belongs high amongst the 100 best Modern courses.  

[Paul_Turner]

The fact that Sunningdale Old is in the Top 50 in both lists and Sunningdale New only scrapes into the earlier one, really highlights to me, that 36 hole clubs often have a course that gets suffed in the rankings.

Isn't the New a match for the Old?  

[Paul Richards]

Paul:

>Isn't the New a match for the Old?  
 
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Not even close!!!

 

[Paul_Turner]

Paul

In what way?

Anyone agree with Paul?

[Paul Richards]

Paul:

The 'old' is a quirky, yet fun, heathland course, with some great holes (driveable tenth, I believe), which plays up to the stunning clubhouse.  

On the other hand, the 'new' is a rather uninteresting slog with hardly a memorable hole amongst its offerings.  Our group of 16 placed the 'new' just about at the bottom of the 14 or so courses we played that trip.

[Alex_Wyatt]

Wrong again. Sunningdale New is wonderful. And quantity of play just means you should probably get a job.

[Paul_Turner]

Paul:

On the other hand, the 'new' is a rather uninteresting slog with hardly a memorable hole amongst its offerings.  Our group of 16 placed the 'new' just about at the bottom of the 14 or so courses we played that trip.

Paul

No memorable holes?

Holes 4,5,6,10,12,15 are amongst the VERY best holes in the UK!

[Paul_Turner]

The 5th.  Not as impressive now.  But not exactly a boring hole!

[Paul Richards]

paul

my computer crashed and i have no access to my notes.  however, i have a very good memory of courses and holes, and that is my thought.

just one man's opinion.

[Mark Brown]

I think the new rankings reflect the fact that links courses, and old courses with character (although they may be a bit short) are appreciated more -- perhaps because more people have a deeper appreciation of classical strategic architecture and don't look at "long and hard" as necessarily being great.

Obviously, there are some courses built or restored since 1988 that should be in the top 100 now

[JohnV]

I may have gotten some wrong since we keep having power failures here due to some big storms in the area, but here are the courses that are on the new list that weren't on the 1988 list.

11 Sand Hills  
19 Pacific Dunes
29 Fishers Island
30 Bethpage (Black)
47 Morfontaine
49 Kauri Cliffs
51 Shoreacres
53 Whistling Straits (Straits)
55 Garden City
56 Loch Lomond
63 Camargo
64 Highlands Links
65 Kingsbarns
66 Winged Foot (East)
68 Cabo del Sol (Ocean)
69 Somerset Hills
73 Lahinch
74 Bandon Dunes
75 Naruo
76 Cruden Bay
77 Valderrama
79 Kiawah Island (Ocean)
80 Kawana (Fuji)
81 Spyglass Hill
83 World Woods
84 Ocean Forest
85 Valley Club of Montecito
86 Congressional (Blue)
87 Peachtree
88 Wade Hampton
89 Shadow Creek
92 Yeamans Hall
95 St. George's
97 East Lake  
98 European Club
99 Paraparaumu Beach

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