Pebble Beach, left, and the Pacific Dunes are both spectacular sights.
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What is the number?
GOLF's new ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the US is just that: a list of the best courses in the country, arranged in numerical order, “1” being the best.
It sounds straightforward. Hard statistics, hard facts. But as anyone who follows ratings knows, while the list itself is decided and fixed, the thinking behind it is not. It reflects the views of our fellow students. They are sharp-eyed and well-traveled, these people know their stuff. But ultimately what they offer is theirs opinions. Which brings us back to the question above.
What is the number? Or, to put it more precisely, what makes one subject “better” than another that happens to be consistently underrated?
To provide a deeper understanding of the thinking behind the standards, we'll be asking our partners in the coming days to weigh in on the “which is better?” debate: a comparison of studies aimed at clarifying how our panelists think about design. We'll start with two outstanding public access courses, Pebble Beach Golf Links, California, and Pacific Dunes, Oregon, ranked 9th and 19th, respectively, on the new US GOLF 100 list.
Which is better? Read on.
Pebble Beach is better!
by Top 100 Course rater Jeff Lewis
The latest trend among golf course designers is to talk in rosy tones about “natural golf” and then switch gears the next minute to read LIDAR Topographic survey data to interpret the site's potential from the quality of the humps and bumps on the map. .
No technical training is required at Pebble. The response it causes is visceral, raw. When it comes to golf, the Monterey Peninsula is still the best nature has to offer. The main difference of the course that calls itself “the greatest meeting of the world and the sea” is in fact, close to the sea, nowhere more spectacular than the 7th and 18th holes, where the meeting takes place on the range. It just can't be beaten.
Pacific Dunes wins with grass, complex green variety, bunkering, flow. But Pebble crosses the entire Pacific Dunes in travel, finishing hole and seaside golf beauty. As for LIDAR data, who knows which site is better, but many golf course designers continue to post Pebble fairway optimization plans. Good luck with that.
As a final tipping point on the scale, I'll refer to Jack Nicklaus, who named Pebble's 8th hole his favorite golf hole.
Pacific Dunes is better!
by Top 100 Course rater Jeff Lewis
The more shooting options, the better the golf course. Links courses often have many greens at a lower level that can be approached in a variety of ways. And they tend to have a lot of variety because the mood changes from hour to hour and day to day making them very interesting.
The little stone calls itself “the links” but it's actually a park near the beach. A big parkland course by the sea. But they are not links. Pacific Dunes is part of the Bandon Dunes Resort, which has achieved the most authentic representation of UK/Ireland links in the United States. I would say that Cabot Links is the only one in Nova Scotia that is true to the British Isles in its conditions.
The climate along the southern coast of Oregon is so similar to that of the UK that the greens staff, basically from scratch, have been able to recreate the turf conditions found in classic links courses. That is important. Just because you design a course with greens that allow for multiple approaches doesn't mean it will if the course is too soft. It has never been so soft in Oregon.
Obviously, Pacific Dunes is also beautiful. About as breathing as Pebble any day. But for me, it's fun because I'll always take the links course and everything that comes with it during the parkland course.
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