This is the worst thing I can admit: I hate this thread. I always have. I hate the smarmy, self referential subject line; I hate the almost total lack of discourse and/or disputation; I hate that it's gone on for 45 pages; I hate the uninspired amalgamation of the most recent Golf Digest-Golf Magazine-Golf Week ratings that the various lists seem to reflect; and I hate that the net result is not a highlighting of joy producing excellence but instead a mind numbing ledger book of facts and figures devoid of any feeling or context or meaning -- the work of accountants, in the language of business. Yes, perhaps "hate" doesn't accurately describe my feeling; it is much too strong a word. But I do "dislike" it very much, and to an unhealthy degree -- and like some character from Dostoevsky, I am clearly not well. Perhaps this bile is nothing more nor less than the ugly and ignoble passions of jealousy and envy. If so, I have now admited to such mean-minded sentiments, and am prepared to suffer the shunning and banishment that might come my way as a result. But I ask: does anyone have anything to say in my defence?