{"id":275160,"date":"2025-11-10T23:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275160\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T23:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T23:18:14","slug":"in-top-100-course-rankings-tiny-margins-separate-best-from-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275160\/","title":{"rendered":"In Top 100 course rankings, tiny margins separate best from rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are no dangling chads, no contested recounts. But the vote for GOLF\u2019s Top 100 Courses in the World <\/a>produces agonizingly close results. For each new ranking, our magazine\u2019s 120 panelists cast ballots in buckets: 1-3, 4 -10, 11\u201325, 26\u201350, and so on. Each bucket carries a corresponding point value. When all the ballots are in, those point values are averaged to create the final roster.<\/p>\n

It sounds tidy. But that tidy system gives way to tiny margins with hefty consequences. Courses that appear a world apart in public perception can, in truth, be separated by mere decimal points. In the most recent vote, for instance, the course that finished 101st, the Golf Club, a Pete Dye<\/a>-design in Ohio \u2014 just missing a coveted Top 100 slot \u2014 trailed the course ahead of it by only 0.3 points.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s less than the difference a single panelist\u2019s shifted opinion can make. Maybe that rater didn\u2019t see the course this cycle, their plans scuttled by a flight cancellation or a spell of nasty weather. Any number of factors can come into play.<\/p>\n

To break ties, GOLF gives the edge to the course that appears on more total ballots, a reflection of broader consensus. Still, the margins remain paper-thin. For the architects, owners, and superfans who track these results like stock prices, it\u2019s worth remembering: every ranking is a snapshot, not a verdict.<\/p>\n

When the difference between No. 100 and No. 101 comes down to tenths of a point, you start to appreciate the obvious truth \u2014 there are far more than 100 courses in the world worthy of a Top 100 list.<\/p>\n

In a recent episode of the Destination Golf<\/a> podcast, Simon Holt, who heads GOLF\u2019s course-rating panel, discussed the nitty-gritty of the ballot and the statistical nuances behind the rankings. It was part of a conversation devoted to this year\u2019s close contenders\u2014the courses that finished 101-150 in GOLF\u2019s new World Top 100, which will be published Nov. 19. You can listen to the entire episode here<\/a>, and watch a snippet devoted to the vote count in the video above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are no dangling chads, no contested recounts. But the vote for GOLF\u2019s Top 100 Courses in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-275160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}