Course Rating Methodology

So obviously there is a full page of this site dedicated to rating individual courses on a 1-10 scale, with the special designator of 0 also in place. But what methodology is used to determine the ranking for each individual course? There are numerous factors that are considered in determining the final number. Variety of design, of course, is one. Course conditioning. Ease of walking. How well a course "flows." Atmosphere. On and off course scenery. Finally, and hopefully not much, personal bias. But in order to understand those words, perhaps some more definition is in order.

Variety of Design: The best courses prompt golfers to hit all manner of different shots. Variety in the course design will always produce a variety of different shots played. Here, the key things to look for are the balance of straight, left, and right moving holes. That number will almost never be 6-6-6 simply because par 3's are almost always straight, but the closer the numbers are together, generally, the better the course you will find. Another key feature of design variety comes in variety of approach distances. How much difference in effective yardage is seen in the par 3's? Do the par 4's and 5's mandate thought from the tee or is the player merely able to "fire away?" How varied are the effective approach yardages to those holes? On the par 5's, are they all long irons to the green or is at least one of them long enough to prompt the player to hit 3 solid full shots? This is really the key metric to determine course greatness.

Course Conditioning: This really just looks at the condition of the fairways and greens. Bunker sand typically will not considered unless is greatly effects play (i.e. the sand is so deep and fluffy that balls plug two inches deep on every shot that winds up in the bunker or something similar) The rough and beyond will also not be considered often because, well, rough is meant to be rough and not friendly. The first thing to look at in the fairway is frankly whether or not the entire fairway is grass and has no significant bare spots. Second, how dense and smooth is the playing surface in the fairway. The same conditions go for the green. The speed of the greens in relation to putting surface contours will also be considered. And finally how firm the golf course plays will be strongly considered.

Ease of Walking: Flat out, a course that cannot be walked with relative ease will not be ranked highly. Typically it will not be viewed as a negative if a large hill is navigated during the play of the hole and is integrated as a solid design feature. But a course that plays a hole over flat ground then requires the player hike up or down a large/steep hill to get to the next holes that also plays on flat ground will certainly have that considered a negative. Excessive green to tee walks or long detours around ravines, creeks or the like will also be considered negatives.

The "Flow" of the Course: The best golf courses, same as the best movies, build up and cool down multiple times over the span of the course/show. How well the course does this is crucial in making a determination of the quality of the course. This takes into consideration use of scenery, hole difficulty, use of natural features and how the use of those ebb and flow through the round.

Atmosphere: This is more the club features. Clubhouse, the feel on the first tee, history of the club and so forth. While these things should not skew how the course itself it viewed, the truth is, in most people, it does. Might as well be honest and have it in the open from the start.

Personal Bias: This is obviously another one of those things that shouldn't matter but almost always does. Anything from favoring or disliking a certain designer, to certain design features, even something as simple as pace of play can have an affect on the rating assigned to a course. Same as with Atmosphere, best to just admit this can be the case and move on with it.


Specific Course Examples:
Pebble Beach
Variety of Design: Outstanding. Play clubs from the tee (on par 4's and 5's) can/will range from Driver down to hybrids or long irons; that is about as much as can be expected without trying to force something odd onto the course. The par 3's range from sand wedge (on 7) to 3 iron or more depending on wind (on 12), again, that is as good as one will likely see. Same with approach clubs to the greens, they can range from a very short club on 2 or 4 to long irons or a fairway wood on 13, with 14 certainly being a 3 shot par 5. The course also plays uphill, downhill, with and against the wind but does have a slight imbalance in the play of holes, having only two holes play to the left with 8 holes playing each straight and right. There is, of course, a great reason for that, the course still lacks balance and indeed that may be the only negative about the design variety. Not perfect, but 9 1/4 is certainly a reasonable number.

Flow of the Course: Easiest way to say this is that if there is a course that flows better than this one, it has not yet been seen by this writer. When he finds one, he'll change the rating. 10

Course Conditioning: Bottom line, neither the fairways nor greens have a single blade of grass out of place. If the course were slightly firmer, it would be pushing very close to 10 here, but 9 1/2 is not bad.

Ease of Walking: This is certainly not the easiest course to walk. Having to cross a road between 2 and 3 is certainly not a great positive. Same with the walk to get to the 6th tee. Other than that, the walk is not bad. The hills are crossed during the play of the hole and the average green to tee distance is not great. Overall, 9 on the walking, perhaps even a touch better than that for those not playing the blue tees (less than 9 for those playing the US Open tees...which is likely no one reading this).

Atmosphere: Very high. Outstanding tournament history. Great feel on the first tee. Incredible scale. The walk up 18 is simply incredible. Anytime you play a course having as high of expectations as one likely has with Pebble, and then the course exceedes those expectations, it's something special. 9 3/4 here.

Personal Bias: Well, that's all ready included in the numbers you see above.

Total: Variety of Design and Flow of the Course will be weighted 3 times, Course Conditioning weighted twice, with Ease of Walking and Atmosphere weighted once to come up with a final total of 100 possible points. Final Score- 95.5

Ross Bridge
Variety of Design: The player will likely never hit less than driver on a non-par 3 hole from the tee. At least from the back markers that is the case. The par 3's have slight variety, but none will be approached with less than a long iron. The par 4's will all involve mid to long iron approaches and the par 5's are all 3 shot holes with wedge approaches. As far as variety in directions, the course does very well, having 6 holes play to the left, 5 going right, and 7 playing straight. It also manages to play uphill and downhill rather well. 7 for variety

Flow of the Course: This course flows as well as it can given it's extreme length and limited variety. But the difficulty in holes and scenery make for the variety. The course moves from easy, to moderate, to heroic, to easy and does it quite well. Also the scenery on some of the holes around water and looking over the valley and onto the ridge line is quite nice. This course does well to not overload the players with too much visual information. Great variety here, 8 overall.

Course Conditioning: This course does very well being located in the deep south and having bent grass greens. While not keep up with Pebble Beach, this course have very good conditioning over all, though it could handle being a bit firmer in general. 7 1/2

Ease of Walking: This is tough to evaluate because the course is carts only. However, if they were to allow walking, it would be very difficult. Some of the largest hills on the course are traveled between holes and there are several significant green to tee distances. Sadly, this course is a 2 for walking, but they all ready knew that.

Atmosphere: This course was impressive in the way it maintained quality given it's length. There was an expectation and anticipation coming into the round given the length and notariety of the course, and it did not disappoint. 5 out of 10

Total: 67

RTJ Golf Trail @ Magnolia Grove (Crossings)
Variety of Design: Not exceptional. Par 3's all play as medium to long holes. Par 4's all require mid-iron approaches, par 5's are all approached with short wedges. Virtually all approaches have no option for a rolling approach. The directional variety is just fair, having 10 straight holes, and 4 each playing left and right. 4 3/4

Flow of the Course: The flow is somewhat flatlined until the end of the round. The first has little to get the golfer really excited or really difficult, yet it has no breaks in the action either. The course does pick up for a strong finish on 16-17-18, but the perceived quality of that might actually be skewed by the fact that there is little to get the blood flowing in the rest of the round. 4 1/2

Course Conditioning: This course is generally wetter than would be favorable. Area rainfall is not the only factor in that, the course lays down plenty of water on it's own. As such, the fairways as almost always rather soft. They are full with no bare spots, same as the greens. The greens are generally rather nice, better than the fairways. But this course is certainly not one where you will be wowed by the turf. 5

Ease of Walking: The course is easier than Ross Bridge, listed above, but that is not saying much. This is a very difficult course to walk, having numerous long walks, several of 250 yards or more. At least the course travels over most of the largest hills during the play of holes. 4

Atmosphere: There is decent atmosphere here. The scale of the clubhouse, the service provided by the club, and the quality of the practice facilities are all top notch. There will also likely be some type of anticipation to play here by all. Also, the course has good tournament history, currently hosting an LPGA Tour event. 4 1/4

Total: 46

Duplin Country Club (note: the name of this course may have been changed to Majestic Pines, information is unclear)
Variety of Design: Very little. 16 holes are virtually straight and two holes dogleg right within 100 yards of the green. Greens have little interest and most approach clubs are short irons. 1 1/2

Flow of the Course: Flatlined. Virtually no ups or downs. No changes in scenery and so forth. 2

Course Conditioning: Fair, greens were bumpy, fairways had some bare spots. 2

Ease of Walking: Actually quite good. The transitions are easy, with only a long walk from 9 to 10 and 18 back to the clubhouse. 9

Atmosphere: None. 1

Total: 24.5

The number for Pebble Beach is nearly as high as possible. No course is perfect and even among the handful of courses that might surpass Pebble Beach at #1 on the list here, those will likely not score 100. It is also unlikely that a course will score as low as 10, which is as low as the scoring can go.

All new course reviews posted will have this matrix added in.