White has always suffered because of the comparison to its next-door neighbor, Sand Hills, which is uniformly regarded as one of the most important courses built in America in the past 70 years or so. How's that for competition!
... If the White was the only destination course in the Sand Hills it would be in the Top 50 USA.
I wonder if that last statement is true. Pacific Dunes faces three other neighboring courses that are widely regarded as fantastic. Yet it still established and holds onto its place among America's great courses. Same with the other Bandon courses.
Without having played Dismal, it seems to me a couple things hold it back in the rankings. First, the course as unveiled to the public apparently wasn't just rough around the edges. From what I read, parts of it were near unplayable. While the club and Nicklaus have changed that, that's taken time, and it's hard to overcome those first impressions.
Second is an idea I got from reading Michael George's post. He said, "If the measure of a good golf course is one that gets better the more that you play it, then Dismal River fits that description. I did not know what to think of it after my first round. By my third round, I was hooked and have loved it since."
So it took Michael three rounds to 'get' DRW. Similar, in a way, how it takes many golfers a number of rounds to get and appreciate TOC. But how many magazine raters play DRW multiple times? My guess is many do not. If they base their ranking on one play, no surprise it doesn't do as well as it might.
When DRW opened, lots GCAers criticized it. I almost never see that any more. I almost entirely see strong approval ranging up to near-total love.
I really enjoyed the parts of the profile that told how involved Jack was in the routing process. That sounds like a lot more than the 'editing' role I thought he fills on his courses.
It does interest me that with all the kudos DRW now gets on GCA.com, most here seem to prefer Tom's course. As Terry said, "Everybody is going to go hole-by-hole with the Red vs. White and Red will win every time. That's reality."
Is that right? If so, where would you guys rank both these courses?