Is Dallas-Fort Worth the nation's best golf city?

What’s the best metro area (among the top 50) for golf in the United States? Well, according to Golf Digest’s October issue, it’s the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, based on such factors as climate, cost of public golf, amount of public golf, quality and accessibility.

Does that surprise you? Did you think it might be the Phoenix area, or perhaps Orlando?

Public golf is very good in the DFW area, especially the municipals. (Check out this story I did earlier this year on golf in the Metroplex.)

Here are the top five after DFW: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Tampa (tied with L.A. for fourth). The rest of the top 10 were: Orlando, Seattle, Houston, Nashville and Cleveland, which was tied for Portland for 10th.

To me, the most confusing category is climate. Dallas ranked 12th in that category based on average temperatures and number of playable days, but in truth, the climate in DFW is brutal in the summer and pretty iffy in the winter. Spring and fall are nice in the Metroplex, but that’s true almost anywhere. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati overcame their winter climate issues with their impressive cost rankings – fifth and sixth respectively.

To me, climate should probably be weighted a little more when you’re ranking a golf city. The best, according to the survey? San Jose, Calif. No. 2 was Orlando. No. 3 is San Diego. I didn’t crunch the numbers, but I’ve played plenty of golf in all three locations, and I can tell you that San Diego has by far the best golf climate in the United States, if not the world.

Buffalo had the lowest cost for public golf, followed by Oklahoma City and Louisville.

Chicago has the most public golf for its golfers and also the best quality, according to the survey, which ranked the Windy City No. 1 on both counts. But its numbers for climate (40), cost (32) and accessibility (50) drove its overall ranking to 22nd.

The city with the most accessible public golf, New Orleans, ranked dead last overall in the survey. The Crescent City ranked 45th in climate, 39th in cost and 50th in amount of public courses. There just aren’t many golf courses there. But 45th in climate? I can’t understand that. New Orleans has mild winters, nice springs and falls, albeit with humid, but manageable summers. It’s a climate that’s pretty identical to Houston, which ranked 20th in climate.

What city do you think should top the list? Let us know.