The new Golf Digest list(s) of "America's Greatest Courses" is out. Obviously any one ranking of courses is going to be incomplete and imperfect, but this is the one that carries the most weight in the golf community. For 2014-15, they have five different rankings: the Top 100, the "2nd 100" (i.e. numbers 101-200; why it's not the "top 200," I don't know), the Best in State, the Best in Canada, and the Top 100 Public. The Top 100 itself is dominated by courses that are private (1-2-3 are Augusta National, Pine Valley, and Cypress Point, which are all famous both for their awesomeness and their exclusivity), and there isn't a public course until #7 (Pebble Beach). You don't see another public until #18 (Pacific Dunes). I've only played one course on the list: #43, Bethpage State Park (Black).
Ultimately it's the Top 100 Public list that I'm most interested in. This year I happened to take note of the courses from the same property or resort that show up on the list -- probably because the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was on TV at the time, and they were playing on 3 of the top 100. So this got me thinking: what are the best golf resorts in the country using the top 100 rankings as a metric of quality?
As best as I can tell, there are six resorts that have more than one course in the Top 100 Public ranking:
Pebble Beach: Pebble Beach Golf Links (1), Spyglass Hill G.C. (11), and The Links at Spanish Bay (49)
Bandon Dunes: Pacific Dunes (2), Bandon Dunes (7), Old Macdonald (12), and Bandon Trails (14)
Kohler/American Club Resort: Whistling Straits (Straits) (4), Blackwolf Run (River) (16), Whistling Straits (Irish) (47), and Blackwolf Run (Meadow Valleys) (72)
Pinehurst Resort: No. 2 (5), No. 4 (59), and No. 8 (80)
Streamsong Resort: Streamsong (Red) (18) and Streamsong (Blue) (24)
Turning Stone: Atunyote G.C. (52) and Kaluhyat G.C. (82)
Limiting ourselves to those criteria (more than one course in the Top 100 Public), then we can use the scores within the rankings to determine which is the most desirable resort to go to (from a strictly golf perspective).* I looked at the numbers three ways: the average score across the courses at each resort (more uniformly high quality = better), the total score for each resort (more courses = more variety = better), and the top ranking course at each site (a standout "must-play" course = better).
*This doesn't quite tell the whole picture of these resorts, as we're only looking at the courses that are ranked in the top 100. Pinehurst, for example, has 6 additional courses that may all be of high quality, but not quite good enough for the rankings.
I look at the those 3 characteristics as all being equal. To compare the resorts, I took the z-score for each category and added those up to get a total score. Here's how it breaks down:
| PEBBLE BEACH | BANDON DUNES | KOHLER | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
COURSE
|
GD SCORE
|
COURSE
|
GD SCORE
|
COURSE
|
GD SCORE
| ||
Pebble Beach
|
67.6226
|
Pacific Dunes
|
65.1785
|
Straits
|
64.7478
| ||
Spyglass Hill
|
62.7138
|
Bandon Dunes
|
63.4556
|
River
|
61.0936
| ||
Spanish Bay
|
57.6485
|
Old Macdonald
|
62.4879
|
Irish
|
57.7387
| ||
Bandon Trails
|
61.5480
|
Meadow Valley
|
56.5514
| ||||
AVERAGE
|
62.6616
|
AVERAGE
|
63.1675
|
AVERAGE
|
60.032875
| ||
TOTAL
|
187.9849
|
TOTAL
|
252.6700
|
TOTAL
|
240.1315
| ||
TOT Z-SCORE
|
2.264
|
TOT Z-SCORE
|
2.914
|
TOT Z-SCORE
|
1.223
|
| PINEHURST | STREAMSONG | TURNING STONE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COURSE | GD SCORE | COURSE | GD SCORE | COURSE | GD SCORE | ||
| No. 2 | 64.2727 | Red | 60.7601 | Atunyote | 57.5788 | ||
| No. 4 | 57.1474 | Blue | 60.1842 | Kaluhyat | 56.0961 | ||
| No. 8 | 56.1970 | ||||||
| AVERAGE | 59.2057 | AVERAGE | 60.4722 | AVERAGE | 56.83745 | ||
| TOTAL | 177.6171 | TOTAL | 120.9443 | TOTAL | 113.6749 | ||
| TOT Z-SCORE | -0.335 | TOT Z-SCORE | -1.746 | TOT Z-SCORE | -4.321 |
In both the average and total ranking categories, Bandon comes out as the clear winner -- unsurprising, since all 4 of it's courses fall in the top 14 overall; that's strong enough to place first in the total ranking. Pebble Beach carries the "top ranking course" category, but that isn't enough to overtake Bandon overall. Kohler finishes 3rd; having a 4th course on the list helps out here, since the numbers are otherwise very similar to Pinehurst. With just two courses each, Streamsong and Turning Stone can't quite keep up with the bigger names, though they still have very strong averages.
Naturally, when it comes to resort destinations there are other things to consider beyond just the golf. The setting at Pebble Beach -- including the accommodations and the other activities available -- could easily be argued as enough to push it back ahead of Bandon. On the other hand, it's hard to ignore the cost:
 |
| Cost figures are based on peak season rates. |
Here it's quite clear that Bandon has a huge advantage over Pebble; in fact it appears that Bandon and Streamsong are relative steals compared to the other resorts. And this doesn't even take into account the cost of accomodations, which is nearly twice as much at Pebble as it is at any of the other sites (and hotel reservations are required to make a tee time). Bottom line: at this point, if I could go anywhere, it's definitely Bandon.
Also not factored in here is the cost of a caddie, which may not be required at every course, but where available they are certainly recommended. (As far as I can tell, caddies are not available at Pebble or Turning Stone.) When you factor that in, something very interesting happens:
Amazingly, they all fall nearly exactly on the trendline of the aggregate data -- in short, it costs just about $6 per Golf Digest point to play golf at each of these resorts.
Two lessons learned here: (1) You probably can't go wrong at any of these resorts, and (2) Golf Digest's "America's Greatest Courses" probably drives the cost of golf far more than we realize.
