The September 2016 issue of Golf Magazine arrived in the mail and is now on the newsstands. It is in the September issue of every even year that Golf Magazine publishes its latest list of the top 100 public courses in the United States, better known as "Top 100 Courses You Can Play".
Six courses have made the list for the first time:
The above six replaced the following from the 2014 list:
I will always be a statistics nut and have kept a log of every course that has ever been on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" list. I've analyzed each of these lists over the years and below are some interesting facts about the list over the past twenty years in this post.
Here is the breakdown by state of the 213:
Six courses have made the list for the first time:
- # 43 Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point - Bronx, NY
- # 48 Gamble Sands - Brewster, WA
- # 61 Mid-Pines Inn & Golf Club - Southern Pines, NC
- # 78 Sentry World - Stevens Point, WI
- # 87 The Golf Courses at Lawsonia (Links) - Green Lake, WI
- # 96 TPC Deere Run - Silvis, IL
The above six replaced the following from the 2014 list:
- Princeville (Prince) - Princeville, Kauai, HI (Taken private)
- Cuscowilla - Eatonton, GA (Taken private)
- Lakota Canyon Ranch - New Castle, CO
- Pinehurst #8 - Pinehurst, NC
- Coeur D'Alene - Coeur D'Alene, ID
- The Boulders (South) - Carefree, AZ
I will always be a statistics nut and have kept a log of every course that has ever been on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" list. I've analyzed each of these lists over the years and below are some interesting facts about the list over the past twenty years in this post.
- Thirty-nine states have had courses on the list. Here are the eleven that are still waiting: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.
- California leads the states with 19 courses of the 213. Arizona and Michigan are tied for second with 15 and Florida has 13.
- The nine Northeast states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont combined have only 15 of the 213.
- Hawaii has 8 of the 213.
- Scottsdale, Arizona is the top city with 6 entries (Troon North (Pinnacle), Troon North (Monument), Grayhawk (Talon), Grayhawk (Raptor), Talking Stick (North), and Legend Trail).
- Pinehurst, North Carolina is next with five entries (Pinehurst #2, #4, #7, #8, and Pinehurst Plantation).
- Bandon, Oregon has four entries (Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, and Old Macdonald).
- No other city has more than three.
- Thirty-three courses have made an appearance on every one of the ten biennial lists.
- Forty-eight courses have been on only one of the ten lists including all six of this year's newcomers.
- Three courses no longer exist. High Pointe, Tom Doak's first design in Williamsburg, MI, opened in 1989 and closed by 2009 due to the economy; Beechtree, also a Tom Doak design in Aberdeen, MD, and Blue Heron Pines, a Steve Smyers design in Cologne, NJ, went the other way and were sold to become upscale housing.
- Tom Fazio has been a prolific course architect having designed 26 of the 213 courses (including two collaborations). Jack Nicklaus has 17 (including two collaborations and a redesign). Pete Dye has 15 of the courses.
- The family Jones (Robert Trent Sr., Robert Trent Jr., and Rees) have designed 33 of the courses plus 3 redesigns.
- Only 19 of the 213 courses were designed prior to 1950 and include classics by Donald Ross, C.B. Macdonald, Alister MacKenzie, and A.W. Tillinghast.
- For the 2016 list, California still leads the pack with eleven entries followed by Florida with eight and Oregon, and South Carolina with seven.
- Thirty-three states have at least one entry on the current list.
- Pete Dye has 10 designs on the 2016 list as does Tom Fazio (including two collaborations), Jack Nicklaus has 6 (including one collaboration), the the team of Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw has 5 and Donald Ross still has 5 of his efforts on the list.
- Only 15 courses on the 2016 list were designed prior to 1950.
Here is the breakdown by state of the 213:
- Alabama - 4
- Arizona - 15
- California - 19
- Colorado - 9
- Connecticut - 1
- Florida - 13
- Georgia - 6
- Hawaii - 8
- Idaho - 3
- Illinois - 9
- Indiana - 2
- Iowa - 1
- Louisiana - 1
- Maine - 3
- Maryland - 3
- Massachusetts - 5
- Michigan - 15
- Minnesota - 5
- Mississippi - 3
- Missouri - 1
- Montana - 2
- Nebraska - 2
- North Carolina - 11
- North Dakota - 1
- Nevada - 8
- New Jersey - 4
- New Mexico - 4
- New York - 6
- Ohio - 3
- Oklahoma - 1
- Oregon - 8
- Pennsylvania - 1
- South Carolina - 9
- Texas - 6
- Virginia - 6
- Washington - 3
- West Virginia - 3
- Wisconsin - 8
- Wyoming -1
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