ORLANDO, Fla., (Oct. 15, 2009) – Golfweek – the publication preferred by serious golfers – will release its annual Golfweek’s Best New Courses list as part of its upcoming Oct. 17 issue. As one of the most popular lists of the magazine’s extensive collection of Golfweek’s Best rankings, the 2009 New Courses list features the nation’s top 50 new layouts that are fast-becoming golf’s hottest must-play courses.
The top three tracks on the Golfweek’s Best New Courses list all hail from the western United States: Rock Creek Cattle Company (Deer Lodge, Mont.) takes the top spot, while Palouse Ridge Golf Club (Pullman, Wash.) and Rainmakers Golf Club (Ruidoso, N.M.) rank No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Each of these layouts represents the outstanding caliber of courses being built despite fluctuations in the economy.
“The downturn in the market has meant that architects can now spend more time polishing each project – thus resulting in the considerable quality of our new list,” said Bradley S. Klein, national director of Golfweek’s Best Courses ratings program. “Whether it’s Tom Doak working on Rock Creek Cattle Company in Montana, or Pete Dye crafting his namesake Pete Dye Course (No. 7) at French Lick Resort in his home state of Indiana, designers are making more certain than ever that everything is in place on opening day.”
To produce the Golfweek’s Best New Courses list, a nationwide team of more than 475 evaluators rated the layouts on the basis of 10 criteria, including routing, conditioning, variety and memorability of holes. The result is an average of scores, which then dictates a course’s overall ranking.
“Brad Klein and our Golfweek raters continue to stay out front in compiling the best course rankings in the industry,” said Jeff Babineau, vice president and editor of Golfweek. “This Golfweek’s Best New Courses list has some quality newcomers, and we know our readership looks to this list each year with great anticipation.”
Visit Top100.Golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest to view the complete list of Golfweek’s Best New Courses.
About Golfweek’s Best Ratings
Since beginning its rating system in 1997, Golfweek has developed the most respected ranking structure in the industry. Every year, Golfweek’s nationwide team of course raters, which currently boasts more than 475 evaluators, survey more than 2,200 courses – rating each nominated course on the basis of Golfweek’s 10 strict standards of evaluation. Collectively, Golfweek raters have turned in more than 45,000 votes. Golfweek’s Best Courses lists include: Modern, Classic, New, Casino, Municipal, Residential, Resort, Caribbean & Mexico, Courses You Can Play and Tour Courses You Can Play. The full criteria for evaluating the golf courses may be found at Top100.Golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest.
About Golfweek
Founded in 1975, Golfweek is the most authentic, authoritative and independent name in golf. Reaching more than 1.3 million readers each week, the magazine delivers the most complete news and information about the game, its players and the golf lifestyle – all to golf’s most important audience. The Golfweek brand also extends beyond the print publication to include Golfweek Custom Media, GolfweekHomes.com and Golfweek.com, which features golf’s first online television network, GolfweekTV. Golfweek is part of Turnstile Publishing Company, one of the nation’s leading media brands specializing in high-end publications for active and affluent audiences. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Orlando, Fla., Turnstile Publishing Company is also the parent corporation of Community Media Holdings and the TurfNet Media Network, as well as such publications as Art Calendar, The Seminole Voice and The Winter Park/Maitland Observer.
Contact:
Elizabeth Hawkins, Marketing Director
407.563.7006
EHawkins@Golfweek.com
