Are there blind spots in our Top 100 rankings? Our audience shouted out some

“The 48-par Lido is crazy. It’s the fourth-best course in Sand Valley.” — Social media commenters react to our latest ranking of the world’s top 100 courses

This may be my own bias, but given the potential for backlash, I think our New World roster has been largely well-received. Even so, you can’t reduce the number of golf courses on earth to 100 without pissing off some people. In turn, these reactions reveal the persistent biases that influence how many golfers view the game.

One of the most persistent tendencies is to conflate championship pedigree with architectural merit.

“How come Olympic Club isn’t on the list?” one commenter asked.

“There’s no Adele Estate here,” said another.

Powerful course, for sure. But if we reshuffled the deck and focused strictly on design, I don’t believe our panel would rank Olympic Club in the top ten in California, or Adele Estate in the top ten in Ireland.

The same pro-golf proclivity showed up in the comments, with people marveling at how poorly represented Florida and Arizona were. Of the two states, only the Seminole made the list. For some readers, that’s hard to fathom considering how many Tour pros live in those Sun Belt enclaves—as if the architectural splendor is the reason they’re here, not the weather and tax breaks.

Other familiar accounts also surfaced. Some felt the list was too U.S.-centric and, in Tunnel View, too New York-centric. Others expressed disbelief at South Africa’s lack of representation. Someone made a heartfelt comment about the Cape Breton Highlands Links Course (I felt the same way). Stretching west in the Great White North, I can also recommend Jasper Park.

Then there are the criticisms aimed at the highest levels. Pine Valley has been ranked No. 1 since it was first included in the Top 100 in 1985, and he painted this gem: “Kick Pine Valley low. No one even knows what the course looks like… How can we rank it No. 1 just for prestige?” In fact, about 100 of our 127 course raters have played the game.

Then again, that’s the beauty of practice. This is subjective. We have to agree to disagree. Although the bet is not really Small — rankings do drive business — and the enthusiasm they ignite still brings to mind that quote about discord in niche academic circles: People care so much because the stakes are Feel So small. Golfers imbue their arguments with equal passion, and their arguments are most persuasive when imbued with a sense of perspective.

I look forward to our next Top 100 program, which will focus on the best programs in the United States, and then people can rightly accuse us of neglecting the rest of the world.

Three things I’m thinking about

New bite for dog teeth: In other Top 100 news, Teeth of the Dog lands at No. 75 in our rankings, an impressive result for a course that has been closed all year for renovations overseen by Jerry Pate Design. That’s about to change. The famous Pete Dye resort at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic will reopen to the public on December 7. A friend who owns a home at the resort told me that spaces had been reserved for residents and their guests for the first two days.

another pebble refresh: Something’s also happening in Monterey, where the Pebble Beach Inn reopened earlier this month after an ambitious redo. The changes include a redesigned Stillwater restaurant, which features a wrap-around dining room, floor-to-ceiling windows and a central bar with ocean views, and (keeping with the Top 100 theme) the world’s 15th-ranked course. All are part of a resort-wide effort to beautify facilities and public spaces, with the latest headline being the reopening of Pebble’s famed 19th hole Tap Room.

Check my own list: This is a common topic in post-race conversations: Which courses in the Top 100 have you played? Depending on your tone, checking off a list like this may come across as either forced or annoying, or some combination of the two. Personally, I’ve never bothered to crunch my numbers. But after our latest rankings were released, and after being pressed by friends, I finally counted: I’ve played 62 of the 100 games. My takeaway from this is two-fold: While I’m not deprived, I clearly still have a lot of traveling to do.