Augusta Nationwide and Pine Valley are mostly considered as the perfect course within the nation.
Getty Photos/LC Lamprect
Our professional course raters get their say in assessing essentially the most chic golf programs on American soil each two years, like they simply did for our 2024-25 Prime 100 Programs within the U.S. and Prime 100 Programs You Can Play rankings. However our readers — you! — have opinions and experiences, too. Right here we’ll get away a couple of factoids and tee-time fantasies that emerged from GOLF’s 2024 Prime 100 Programs Readers’ Survey.
When taking the heart beat of our viewers with regard to our checklist of the highest golf programs within the nation, we knew we have been going to get some fascinating ideas.
And we did.
Listed here are 7 enjoyable findings from our current Prime 100 Programs Survey.
Who’s your No. 1?
Not everybody agrees on what makes a terrific golf course, so it’s not stunning that our viewers has completely different opinions on which course they understand to be the perfect within the nation.
Pine Valley has lengthy been numero uno, in response to our panelists, so it’s not a shock that the plurality of our readers (34 p.c) see the unique New Jersey membership as the perfect course within the nation. Augusta Nationwide, which is ranked sixth on our U.S. checklist and will get broadcast all around the world each April, drew the second-most first-place votes on this class, with 28 p.c of the vote.
Pebble Seashore, the No. 1 course in our Prime 100 You Can Play checklist, was a distant third at 13 p.c, and Cypress Level, our rating’s No. 2 course within the nation, has 12 p.c.
Who can get on?
A majority of our survey takers (57 p.c) do not know somebody who has performed Pine Valley whereas barely fewer (47 p.c) mentioned they didn’t know somebody who had performed Augusta Nationwide. Nevertheless, greater than twice as many respondents (10 p.c) mentioned that they had performed Pine Valley themselves in comparison with Augusta (4 p.c).
How a lot are you actually keen to spend?
Thirty-six p.c of our survey takers mentioned they wouldn’t pay greater than $100 to play a Prime 100 course, greater than double the subsequent two hottest solutions: not more than $200 and not more than $500 (15 p.c).
For that 36 p.c, discovering a tee time would possibly show difficult as only one course on our Prime 100 checklist may be had for lower than $100 at a peak time, and that’s and not using a cart.
Do architects matter?
Do you care if the course you play is a Ross or a Tillinghast? It appears most of you do!
The vast majority of survey takers (55 p.c) say designers matter when selecting a course to play, with 11 p.c calling it “very” vital and one other 44 p.c calling it “considerably” vital.
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Clear favorites
Our readers even have clear preferences for his or her favourite course designers.
On the subject of basic “Golden Age” architects, Donald Ross is the favourite amongst our readers, garnering a whopping 37 p.c of the vote, regardless of not having a design ranked within the high 10 of our Prime 100 checklist. Dr. Alister MacKenzie, the designer behind each Cypress Level and Augusta Nationwide, amongst many others, was the subsequent hottest at 21 p.c.
On the subject of extra up to date architects, the crew of Invoice Coore and Ben Crenshaw, designers of the one fashionable course in our high 10, Sand Hills, is a transparent favourite, with 26 p.c of the vote. Pete Dye, identified for TPC Sawgrass and Kiawah Island, was second out of the eight decisions, with 18 p.c of the vote.
The ocean calls
It’s no shock, with most of the high programs within the nation buffering or close to the ocean (with the famous exceptions of Pine Valley and Augusta Nationwide), hyperlinks/coastal golf is the overwhelming favourite amongst our readers, with 56 p.c saying it’s their most popular fashion of golf.
Gary Lisbon
The shock is that parkland golf, which incorporates Pine Valley, Augusta, Oakmont and plenty of extra, is available in second with 22 p.c of the vote, whereas mountain golf captured simply 13 p.c of our readers.
Is golf’s most enjoyable gap actually that thrilling?
It’s very often you’ll hear a golf TV announcer describe a drivable par-4 as “essentially the most thrilling gap in golf.”
Our readers, at the least from the standpoint of taking part in these holes themselves, don’t appear to agree.
In our survey, 40 p.c of our readers, in a selection between a reachable par-5, quick par-3 and drivable par-4, mentioned quick par-5s most excite them. One other 34 p.c mentioned quick par-3s thrill them essentially the most whereas simply 26 p.c mentioned drivable par-4s.
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