Scotland golf course rankings: Me vs. the Big Magazines spark debate

Golf course rankings: subjective, arbitrary, incomplete and AWESOME! Who doesn’t like looking at rankings, especially right before or after a big golf trip where you played a bunch of nominees of the world’s best?

I recently posted my Official Scotland Top Ten at GolfEurope.com: ranking the best courses I played while over there in the fall. I have now compared the list to three others: Golf Digest’s Best outside America, Golf Mag’s Best in the world, and Golf Monthly’s best in the UK and Ireland.

Now, I do have one - count ‘em one - trip to Scotland under my belt, making my rankings superior to any “committees” or “panels” full of “experienced” and “fair” judges, so keep that in mind when looking at the three magazine’s far inferior compilations. Maybe Tim, Kiel and I, along with other experienced bloggers like Ron Mon and Shanks will form a mutt panel of our own and release the glossy TravelGolf.com Best in Europe edition.

My Rankings

In parentheses is Golf Digest’s World Ranking, followed by Golf Monthly and then Golf Magazine.

1. Old Co. St. Andrews (1 - 2 - 3)
2. Royal Dornoch (5 - 51 - 15)
3. Turnberry (11 - 1 - 17)
4. Carnoustie (12 - 12 - 21)
5. Gleneagles, King’s (NR - 10 - NR)
6. Kingsbarns (20 - 8 - 65)
7. Royal Aberdeen (NR - 27 - NR)
8. Prestwick (NR - 39 - NR)
9. New Co. St. Andrews (98 - 37 - NR)
10. Duke’s (NR - NR - NR)

One notable course I played that didn’t make my Top Ten:

Nairn Golf Club - Many might put this Walker Cup host as high as 6th or 7th among my candidates. I wasn’t thrilled with it. Maybe it’s because I had played Dornoch the day before. You ever go on a date with a girl, then the next weekend go out with a different one and you can’t help but think about the previous one the whole time? That’s what happens with any course you play after Dornoch.

So which of the three lists (besides my own perfect one) is best? Well, Golf Digest and I agree on the order of the top four, but they give Kingsbarns too much props and Gleneagles and Royal Aberdeen not enough.

Golf Monthly inexplicably puts Nairn above Royal Dornoch, meaning their panelists likely sniff glue before rating courses on occasion. They are the only list that gives Gleneagles its due however.

Golf Mag’s first four are solid, but doesn’t have any of my courses after that.

Eh, all three of these rankings are looney. For my full article, click here.

What do you think?

How Golf Monthly put Nairn ahead of Royal Dornoch (above) is beyond me.