This Page About Golf design, like art, is in eye of beholder

Golf design, like art, is in eye of beholder

As you've probably read on these pages, The Island Packet recently announced plans to let readers and Web surfers pick the "Best 18 Golf Holes in Beaufort County." Through the end of the year, readers can nominate their favorite hole, which will be compiled into an online ballot, where you can pick your 18 favorites.

What's interesting is that the paper is leaving it up to the reader to determine what constitutes the "best" golf holes. It reminds me of the golf course rankings phenomenon that has become so pervasive in the past few years. Everyone, it seems, particularly new golf course developers, want their course to be highly ranked, and if it is not ranked -- or it should happen to slip in the rankings -- they demand answers.

There have been incidents in which certain golf clubs expressed major issues with how the rankings are done. When Shadow Creek debuted in the country's top 10 several years ago and bumped renowned Seminole Golf Club down to No. 11, there were grumblings on the fairways at Seminole that Shadow Creek had enticed raters with gifts. Despite the fact that this rumor turned out not to be true, Seminole decided that it did not want to be part of the process anymore and began turning away panelist play.

If someone asked you to name the best golf courses in the world, you could probably come up with a dozen off the top of your head. Courses like Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, Pine Valley, Cypress Point and Augusta National surely would come in high on most lists.

But why is this? From where do these standards come? Who possesses this knowledge of architectural intricacies that determine exactly what makes a golf course great? Is this information really quantifiable? And aren't all the judge's opinions somewhat subjective?

If you look at golf course design as an art, there is always going to be subjectivity. As much as a genius as Pablo Picasso was, there are still people out there who will never understand what he was doing, let alone like it. Any time you have any creative exercise, there is always going to be room for disagreement.

A former colleague of mine at Links Magazine, Joe Passov, was recently hired by Golf magazine as the publication's architecture and course rankings editor. He is perfect for the job. Joe is a golf history and architecture buff who has researched and written hundreds of articles over the past 20 years, and he is plenty familiar with how the ratings games work, having served as both a Golf Digest and Golfweek panelist during the past 15 years. It helps, too, that he has played more than 1,100 courses in 21 countries (and 46 states in the U.S.).

Said Passov: "If you say to yourself, 'Well, I'm stepping onto this golf course, and I'm really happy to be here. It's held four U.S. Opens and there's the picture of Bobby Jones on the wall and Ben Hogan, and by golly I'm just predisposed to like this place because it just has an awesome feel.'

"Some people can separate that and simply break it down into design elements. Other people, whether they can separate it or not, feel like it is an integral part of the golf course."

Among the major magazines, Golf Digest and Golfweek incorporate specific criteria in order to eliminate as much of the subjectivity as possible, so that even if a course rater is having an off day, they can appreciate the course's virtues and rate it fairly. Passov said that Golf Magazine would begin publishing ratings criteria in 2006, as well.

Golf Digest has tweaked its criteria every couple of years, having recently removed "tradition" and made it part of a larger category called "ambiance."

"In my opinion, that's not all bad," said Passov. "That means they're examining the process as best they can and trying to come up with the best and fairest rankings possible. But at the end of the day, it's still hard to be perfectly objective when evaluating a golf course. As best as you can try, there are still some subjective factors: Peoples' personal likes and dislikes."

Say what you will about objectivity, but if you play an exclusive club with an immaculate clubhouse that provides you with a Scottish caddie who helps you shoot your lowest score in years, surely that affects your judgment of the golf course. And even if you don't count "tradition" among your criteria, it's hard to imagine factors such as the weather or the condition of the golf course on the day you played it not coming into consideration.

Like college football's BCS system, golf course rankings are an inexact science at best. They're fun, but do they really matter? Yes, rankings sell magazines and newspapers ... just like they sell real estate for developers and green fees for head professionals. But when push comes to shove, isn't simply enjoying the course on which you regularly tee it up the most important factor of all?

So as you try to come up with your favorite 18 holes in Beaufort County, don't put too much detailed thought into it. Don't lose sleep over the contouring of the bunkering or the subtle undulations of the green complex. Just have fun with it. Because at the end of the day, your opinion carries just as much weight as the so-called "experts" out there. Continue to learn more about golf, please visit Island Packet.

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