ORLANDO, Fla. (April 21, 2011) – Golfweek magazine – the most authentic, authoritative and independent voice in golf – is releasing its fourth-annual Golfweek’s Best Tour Courses You Can Play list as part of its April 22 issue. Featuring layouts from the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour and LPGA, the new list highlights the top 50 courses on the professional golf circuit in 2010-11 that allow any golfer to tee it up where the pros play.
“The quality of this list attests to the public nature of golf today, even at the big-time tournament level,” said Bradley S. Klein, national director of Golfweek’s Best Courses ratings program. “The list runs the gamut of wonderful courses here in the U.S. and elsewhere: from Pebble Beach Golf Links on the PGA Tour at No. 1, to Fallen Oak in Mississippi on the Championship Tour at No. 11, Kinderlou Forest Golf Course in Georgia for the Nationwide Tour at No. 16 and Pumpkin Ridge’s Ghost Creek in Oregon on the LPGA circuit at No. 26.”
Pebble Beach Golf Links (Pebble Beach, Calif.), St. Andrew’s Old Course (St. Andrews, Scotland) and the Straits Course at Whistling Straits (Kohler, Wis.) take the top three spots on the list once again, while Royal St. George’s Golf Club (Sandwich, England) and Carnoustie Golf Club’s Championship Course (Carnoustie, Scotland) break onto the 2011 list at No. 4 and No.5, respectively. Royal St. George’s will play host to the 140th Open Championship July 14-17; two weeks later, Carnoustie, site of seven Open Championships, will stage its first Ricoh Women’s British Open.
Additionally, though many of the iconic courses on the list have considerable greens fees, the Golfweek’s Best Tour Courses You Can Play rankings also feature a handful of municipally owned and operated layouts – including Torrey Pines’ South Course (No. 29) and North Course (No. 45) in San Diego, TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course (No. 32) in Arizona and TPC Harding Park (No. 41) in San Francisco.
To produce the Golfweek’s Best Tour Courses You Can Play list, an expert team of 675 evaluators rated each layout 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.
Visit Golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest to view the complete list of Golfweek’s Best Tour Courses You Can Play.
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 675 evaluators, surveys 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 51,000 votes. Golfweek’s Best Courses lists include: Modern, Classic, New, Casino, Municipal, Campus, Residential, Resort, Canadian, Caribbean & Mexico, Great Britain & Ireland, Courses You Can Play and Tour Courses You Can Play. The full criteria for evaluating the golf courses may be found at Golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest.
About Golfweek
Founded in 1975, Golfweek is the most authentic, authoritative and independent voice in golf. Serving enthusiasts who are truly passionate about the game of golf, the Golfweek brand includes Golfweek magazine, Golfweek.com, Golfweek OnDemand, Golfweek Mobile, Golfweek Custom Media, The Golf Wire, The Apparel Wire, The Tour Van and TurfNet.com. Golfweek is part of Turnstile Media Group, which specializes in developing diverse media platforms that engage and strengthen the communities they serve. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Orlando, Fla., Turnstile Media Group is also the parent of Professional Artist, Community Media Holdings, The Seminole Voice, The Winter Park/Maitland Observer and Turnstile Connect.
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Elizabeth Hawkins
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EHawkins@Golfweek.com
