The Difficulty With Ranking Golf Courses

There’s few things in the sport that get people more worked up than the publication of Top 100 course ranking lists. Whether it’s to tick off the places they’ve played, plan their next golfing getaway, or to simply be used as a conversation piece in next weekend’s fourball - rankings get people talking. However, since these lists began, there have been huge inconsistencies between where courses are placed, and in some cases, whether or not they feature at all. In the UK alone, Royal County Down, Turnberry (Ailsa), St Andrews (Old), and Royal St George’s have all topped the ranking lists of various publications over recent years, showcasing just how difficult it is to even pick ‘the best’ course - let alone another 99 in a consistent order.

Join us as we dive into more detail on the difficulty of ranking golf courses, and take a peek at some of the decisions the panels have to make along the way.

Time and Travelling

The first issue is arguably the most obvious, and most important. How do you play enough courses to give a full and fair assessment of each? Oftentimes publications looking to make a visit to courses as part of a ranking review will try and squeeze in a couple of rounds on the same day - although it could be argued this might not give enough time to fully absorb everything the club has to offer. But even doing this means that you could be out for a solid six months at a time in order to cover every potential inclusion. As a result, most publications enlist a team, or panel, of reviewers, perhaps splitting up by location to tackle courses in their own regions. However, this can come with its own disputes …

Subjectivity

Let’s say Person A is doing the ranking lists for the North West of England, and proclaims that Royal Birkdale is the best in the region, putting forward the argument that it’s also probably the best in the country. Meanwhile, their Northern Irish colleague says the same for Royal County Down. How do you decide between the two? Inevitably, there’ll need to be an editor or lead panellist to make that final decision - but surely they have their own biases too? One of the things that make golf course rankings such a hot topic is their subjectivity, creating the opportunity for some fierce debate. It would be foolish to think this didn’t extend towards those pulling the list together in the first place!

Types of Courses

Speaking of subjectivity - just how do you rank courses of wildly differing character against each other. Royal Lytham is arguably the toughest course in England. Surrounded by houses, and with no clear and obvious view of the sea, it’s far from picturesque. However, it is also potentially one of the best-designed links courses on the planet, still causing issues for the world’s best when they return for The Open. Meanwhile St George’s Hill in Surrey is one of the prettiest places you can play the sport. A castle for a clubhouse, tucked away from the hustle and bustle, the course is lined with heather and winds wonderfully through the woodland. These are two entirely differing golfing experiences, and you’ll likely find the golfing audience at large split entirely 50/50 on which they’d prefer to play! Should the rater take into account the surrounds? Or merely the 18-holes themselves? This is one of the hottest debates around Top 100 lists.

Previous Standings & Current Politics

One of the biggest dilemmas faced by panels is how to separate the history of a golf course from its current place in the rankings, or whether this should also be taken into consideration? It’s extremely difficult to justify why a course that has always been a Top 10 stalwart and carries a big name has suddenly slipped down the list. After all these courses now charge the greens fees of a Top 10 venue, and visitors have pre-booked their rounds a year in advance! As such, you tend to see very little movement from some of the courses at the sharper end of ranking lists, perhaps trading a place or two here and there; but ultimately creating a slightly closed club that can be difficult to break into, regardless of how much improvement has been made by a course further down the ladder.

Related to this point; Royal Liverpool currently ranks the lowest of the courses on The Open rota, although it is still firmly rooted within the Top 50 in the UK & Ireland. Don’t be surprised to see it gain a few places from 2023 onwards, after it next plays host to golf’s oldest major - making golfers more aware of its history within the sport, and creating an increased demand for tee times. Particularly if Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy repeat past heroics from Hoylake! As with everything in life, there’s inevitably a recency bias at play when pulling these lists together.

But How Clean Was The Locker Room?

One of the biggest questions that ranking lists have to wrestle with is what to take into account from their trip. Playing a twilight or early morning round when the clubhouse is closed will present a different experience to being wined-and-dined by the overly-keen secretary as they look to improve their club’s standing. But should this play a part in the composition of the lists? How about the friendliness of the Pro Shop staff? The availability of range balls? The size of the car park? The quality of the Club Sandwich? All of these things play a part in how the general golfer will feel once they leave the gates - but whether or not they should influence a venue’s position in the ranking lists is an ongoing debate, and one of the biggest explanations for some of the differences between lists from different publications. It could also be contested that beating your handicap on a glorious summer’s day, might have an effect on your opinion of a course too …

So, What’s The Best Way of Doing It?

There isn’t one single ‘best’ way of compiling a list. Whether a list wants to take into account a club’s off-course amenities is up to the panel. Similarly, hosting something like The Open does add gravitas. And whilst this might not make the holes play any better, the golfer may feel that they know the venue better before arriving, thus having a more enjoyable day. Given the size of the task, splitting the job of ranking the courses between a panel is also a very sensible solution, allowing the publication to have visited all of the venues within the last 12-months or so.

But with all of these things, the most important thing is to be honest with the audience. Explain the methodology, let them know what was included in the review, add in what outside influences may have come into play (such as the club’s recent renovation of greens ahead of a major event). Then let the audience argue it out for themselves.

After all, as has been long-proven with these lists, there is never going to be a consensus on which truly is the best course in the UK, Europe, World, etc.

Although, it probably is Royal County Down.

Visit The Golfshake Course Section