Pre internet, one of the earlier guides I used when planning overseas trips was Tom's CG, along with the writings of James Finnegan, who wrote detailed notes on the courses and his experiences when travelling.
Tom's book was a great starting point, and I always found his commentary FAR more useful than the ratings he assigned the courses.
Someone who went just on Rating and avoided his "4"s and even his "3"s(as hit and runners are prone to do) would miss out on a lot of the charm of an area in a compact trip, and some pretty cool places.
On One of my favorite places to play(can't remember his rating-maybe a 3?)
“The sweet spot where high handicappers are not overwhelmed, but good players are punished if they try to overpower the course and miss wide. Carradale nine hole links is studded with outcroppings of rock, which threaten a wild bounce on many holes, most memorably at the difficult par-3 7th. No less than seven of the nine holes are between 200 and 300 yards in length.”
Tom Doak
Commentary On Shiskine
“This rugged links on the western side of Arran is a cult classic, and not just because it only has 12 holes. Five of the holes require blind approach shots with an unusual amount of quirk to them, and there is a succession of improvised signaling devices to let golfers know when it’s all clear to hit away. Nevertheless, the setting is spectacular playing along a narrow strip of links in the shadow of a rocky bluff, which you climb halfway up to play the short 3[size=0px]rd[/size]. It’s a hard course to rate because it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are looking for an extreme example of how different golf can be, Shiskine is not to be missed.“
Shiskine Golf Club received a score of 4 out of 10 from Tom Doak"
I'll take Shiskine and Carradale in the evening over many many courses "rated" by him at 5 or higher.
The same would be true of his 31 Flavors-nearly all of which are some of my favorites.
Which is why going by a simple rating without his commentary and context is useful only to a box ticker and not to someone interested in some of(arguably) golf's greatest experiences which he and others(Finnegan etc.) were kind enough to share with us all.
As Tom has written, his original guide was for friends, many of which were good players, so he downplayed the ratings/recommendations(but not the commentary) on some of the smaller scale or more quirky courses.
The ironic thing is, in my experience, 80-90% of golfers PLAY at a smaller scale and can have their most enjoyment on the very courses that a pure numbers scale would have them avoiding.
It still baffles me why someone would pay 400 pounds to play a large scale course from the forwardish tees and skip a far more engaging course such as Prestwick St.Nicholas or Shiskine for about 1/10th money because they are "too short"