Last month Golfweek Magazine came out with its biennial golf course architectural edition entitled "Best." The magazine, like several others such as Golf and Golf Digest, send knowledgeable golfers across the state, the country, the continent, or for that matter the world, to rank the best of the best golf courses. Of course the ranking of golf courses is about as exacting as determining who was the best guitarist of the rock 'n roll era. In today's social media world, there are no hidden gems when it comes to golf courses. Whether it's in northernmost Michigan or the heart of Kansas, if you build it they will come… and rank it too.
The ranking of golf courses is just about 50 years old. In the November 1993 edition of Golf Digest that sold for 75 cents, the featured front page story was "New Ranking: America's 100 Greatest Courses." Perhaps trying to avoid any true controversy, Golf Digest combined courses in groups of 10. At that time I was 20 years old, attending college, and working summers at Beverly County Club in Chicago. The article was a big hit among the Beverly membership because their home course was ranked somewhere between number 51 and 60. Keep in mind that this is way before TPC courses, destination resorts like Bandon and Kohler, and the advent of heavy earth moving machinery. There was a lot of tradition in those earliest of rankings.
The usual suspects were atop Golf Digest's ranking. They are still mentioned today. I speak of courses like Augusta National, Pine Valley, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, and Pinehurst. Yet while the ranking of golf courses is truly subjective, there are some aspects of a golf course's pedigree that enhances its ability to be highly regarded.
It helps to have a well known golf course architect. For instance, the site of next year's United States Open, the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, was designed by Donald Ross in 1907. One year later Ross designed Beverly. He did hundreds of courses including Oak Hill, Seminole, Scioto, and one of my favorites, Ravisloe. A great many of the ranked courses are from the golden age of golf course architecture running from 1900-1930. Those architects of note included Alister Mackenzie, A.W. Tillinghast, George Thomas, Seth Raynor, and C.B. Mcdonald. The post World War II era featured the "bigger is better" school of design and included Robert Trent Jones Sr., Pete Dye, Dick Wilson, and George Fazio. Nowadays there is a minimalist movement afoot featuring the likes of Tom Doak, Mike Devries, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and Gil Hanse. Having a well known golf course architect is definitely a big boost.
Being located in the same "neighborhood" is also of benefit when it comes to getting your golf course noted. Lake Merced on San Francisco's southwest corner features four highly regarded golf complexes that are ranked on some list in the recent Golfweek rankings. The San Francisco Golf Club is listed at number 16 in the ranking of the Top 200 Classic Courses pre-1960. It is the only Tillinghast course west of the Mississippi. Slightly west of the S.F Club is the Olympic Club, host of many U.S. Opens, a future PGA Championship, and a future Ryder Cup. It is ranked 44th among the classics. Across from the Olympic Club is Harding Park, most recently the site of Collin Morikawa's triumph in the PGA Championship. Both courses were the work of Willie Watson and Sam Whiting. The other course near Lake Merced is Lake Merced Golf and Country Club. It hosts an LPGA event annually and is ranked 174th among the classics. Allister Mackenzie had a hand in its design in 1923.
Another good "neighborhood" is Pebble Beach with the highly ranked Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, Cypress Point, both courses at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Spanish Bay, and Poppy Hills. First opening in 2000, the Bandon Dunes complex on Oregon's southwest coast features four highly ranked courses from the modern era. The same is true for Long Island, Kohler, Wisconsin, Streamsong, Florida, and a host of other golf meccas. It only makes sense that a great golf course on the western banks of Lake Merced might have an equally great test of golf on the eastern banks of Lake Merced.
Finally, golf courses get their kudos by hosting a tournament of importance. Most fans of the game will never have the handful of Ben Franklins to play at Pinehurst, but we know about the course and its greatness from watching the U.S. Open every decade or so. The same is true for the financial ramifications of paying to play Pebble Beach, but because of both men's and women's major championships coupled with a yearly dose of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, our television eyes tell us that it is one great golf course. The same is true for Spyglass Hill.
I have always marveled at the fact that my first ever round of golf was at an exclusively private country club with its golf course designed by Donald Ross. I played it on the occasional Looper Mondays for the caddies. Beverly hosted a handful of Western Opens and three of them were won by Hall of Famers' Chick Evans, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus. Francis Ouimet won the U.S. Amateur at Beverly in 1931. Vinny Giles won the 2009 U.S. Senior Am there. Early on my caddie friends and I ventured to the suburbs and played at another highly ranked course, namely Cog Hill. The Western Open was contested there with Tiger Woods winning five times while Matt Kuchar won the 1997 U.S. Amateur at Cog. Early on I was hooked with the idea of playing different golf courses with an eye to playing great golf courses.
I have played pretty much every well known course I've mentioned in this article except for those on the east coast. I've teed it up on all the famous Northern California courses and because of my Midwestern roots, I've been to Erin Hills, Blackwolf Run, Whistling Straits, Blythfield, Arcadian Bluffs, Point O' Woods, and Crystal Downs, the gem of Michigan golf (thanks to Mike Devries and Jim Hegarty). In fact I think it's pretty easy for me to say that unless I've missed someone out there, I am in second place locally when it comes to playing the great as well as highly ranked golf courses of America, Canada, Scotland, and Ireland.
Some 25 years ago I was in third place locally after George Hoberg Jr. and his golfing partner, Ron Garcia, when it came to playing great courses. Ron is now an 80-something, still plays golf regularly, and has teed it up on more great golf courses than anyone else in our region. Next week we'll tell the story of Ron Garcia, the courses he has played, and the experiences he has had. No, he hasn't been to Augusta National, but he has played at Pine Valley and Merion.
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