"Most Fun" Golf Course Ranking

In this month's edition, Golf Digest published three lists of the Most Fun Golf courses, one for public in America, one for private and one for Great Britain and Ireland. These lists will not be reproduced here due to the fact that they have not yet been posted on the Golf Digest website. However, I feel a little discussion is in order about some of the rankings. The private and GB&I lists are both discarded from this discussion as I have played none of the 70 courses listed. However, I have played 7 of the top 50 public courses.

First, as Bandon Dunes noted on their site, the Resort has 3 of the top 5 and 4 of the top 6, with Old Macdonald being ranked #2, Bandon Preserve #3, Pacific Dunes #4, and Bandon Dunes #6. Bandon Trails makes the list at #27. My first thought when I read this was "I wonder how much the resort had to pay to get THOSE rankings?" I stand by that assessment. How was this list determined? I have played 3 of the 5 courses at Bandon, and while they were certainly fun to play, I can't honestly say that I had exponentially more fun at Bandon playing with a great group of guys than I had about a month later playing Metropolitan Municipal in Oakland, CA with virtually that same group of folks.

No, it seems to me that the magazine simply threw together a list of courses that are popular today and/or have some kind of scenery involved. It seemingly does not take anything else into consideration. What is their justification for the Gil Hanse designed Rustic Canyon being ranked #30, so far behind the Bandon courses? Did Gil or the club forget to cut a check to Golf Digest? What of a course like Tobacco Road, a course with more variety and visual stimulation than most on the list than I have seen?

There is little rhyme or reason here and no mention of what methodology was used to determine this list. The #1 course on the list, Pebble Beach, is certainly understandable given the course's history and aura. But beyond that, it gets a little lost, honestly leading me to believe that this list was merely bought and paid for by advertisers and glad handing course owners trying to get their names at the top of the page. Take my not so humble opinion for whatever you choose to, but do so with the knowledge that I simple tell things as I see them. Sometimes, that might irritate people...and I do not care.