last week there was a short thread tiltled "Golf Digest top 100 USA complete list"......
GCA has discussed these lists ad nauseum since it's inception, and continues to with each "new" ( read "updated" ) list publised...
The last post was somewhat misleading, in that it referred to/included the earliest lists of Golf Digest , which was not their Top 100 List......
As a summary only ( as I understand it), Golf Digest was the first golfing publication to publish a list in 1966 but it was NOT Top 100 in the US, it was "America's Toughest 200 Courses" . That list was updated in 1967. However the list now known as Top 100 US ( interestingly titled "America's 100 Most Testing Courses") was not published until 1969, and listed the courses by inclusion to a "first ten" "fifth ten" grouping, but with no specific numerical designation within the grouping In 1971 the list was broken in to "first ten" through "fifth ten", then had a "Second Fifity", again aphabetically. That format continued until 1987 when the Top 100 courses finally were listed by number (Sawgrass CC #100). The name changed in1975 to the present one: "America's 100 Greatest Golf courses".
Since that first GD list in 1969, throught the recently released 2009/2010 list, there have been 229 seperate courses identified.
Golf Magazine was second to publish, debuting with a Top 100 , but "World", I believe in 1983 ( a World 50 debuted in 1981). Their US Top 100 was first seen in 1991 ( Wannamoisit # 100). There have only been 170 courses identified by Golf magazine.
If you combine the two lists, there have been 269 courses..ie Golf has identified 40 courses that have not made the GD list.
And, finally (snore, snore snore) as you all know , Golfweek found their own niche in 1997 having TWO lists, Modern (Bluffs on Thompson Creek #100) and Classical (Kebo Valley #100). Of interest may be that GW has identiifed only 136 classical courses, but, understandably enough given the golf boom of the 90's and early part of this decade, 223 Modern courses.
If you combine these 3 magazine's lists ( forget T&L, Zagat etc etc..) 423 courses have been identified....
and the trivia question is: How many Clubs/Golf complexes located in close proximity under teh same ownership, have had more than one course listed as Top 100? Obvious hint: Winged Foot and the Bandon Group?
Cheers
Scott