I'm thinking back to the first time I visited Somerset Hills, in 1980. If you'd told me it would one day be ranked 23rd in America I'd have laughed.
To be clear: I love the course, but these lists are starting to get silly.
Tom,
Please do tell us what is silly about this particular list! Give us details. Inquiring minds want to know.
Is it that quite a few great golden age designs have been wonderfully restored (many by you and your talented associates) and received elevated recognition, thus eclipsing yours or other's original modern designs?
What you once described as "Shabby Chic" is finally near perfectly presented and meticulously maintained and it's a shock to you to have received a higher level of recognition??
All lists are subjective and flawed, and this one is no exception, but maybe...just maybe, the current composition of panelists believed it was the architectural gem you yourself have described it as.
Don't you keep "Top Ten" and "Best Holes" lists on your own web site? Would a client who doesn't have a course or a hole listed think these are silly lists? Who knows, but singling out a single course that is universally recognized as a brilliant and daring golden age design seems sillier to me (and apparently a few others here as well).