Sean
Good to see that there is at least one person who beleives that there is one course (Brora) that Tom does not rate highly enough.
Rich
Not World Top 100 by any means but don't get me started on The Northumberland, Brancepeth and Seaton Carew. The CG is like Robert Parker's scores. It is one (educated and informed) man's view of things. It wouldn't be healthy if other (equally educated and informed or not) people didn't have different views. Just like Parker scores, however, I suspect there are people who view CG rankings as objectively correct and set in stone.
Extending the wine scoring analogy, the problem with this exercise lies in the averaging of different people's views. Averaging scores for a wine means that you average the views of tasters who like the style of a particular wine and those that don't. Many people love Barossa Shiraz, for instance. Others find the style overblown and overpowering. Take a great example of Barossa Shiraz. Many tasters might rank it a 9, say, in a 10 point scale. Those who don't appreciate the style might score it a 5 or maybe a 6. The average score is, say, a 7. In fact, however, it isn't a 7 point wine to anyone but rather a 5 or a 9 point wine. I would rather calibrate my palate with that of a critic whose tastes I know, so that if, say Critic A scores a wine well I can expect to enjoy it. (Similarly I know that if Parker scores a wine in the high 90s I need to read his note carefully to see if it is likely I will enjoy it, that score serves as a warning note rather than an endorsement).
Similarly with golf courses, I would rather understand what sort of courses a commentator likes than see an average score. I suspect many would score somewhere like Kington very low indeed but Sean's recommendation made me want to visit and I will always be grateful I did. The bi annual Golf World rankings have, in recent years, seen Turnberry favoured over Muirfield. To me that's obvious nonsense but obviously there are enough on their panel who disagree and who shift the average that way. This is an interesting exercise but I'm not sure it will tell me much about the real ranking of any of these courses.