Golf's 50 greatest destinations : Going on a golf vacation? For our 50th anniversary, we rank the 50 best places

Golf Digest, Sept, 2000 by John Barton

When GOLF DIGEST began 50 years ago, there were just 5,000 courses in the United States, and almost two-thirds of them were private. Golf vacations--and places to take them--were rare. Today, America has more than 16,000 courses, more than two-thirds of them are public, and many of the best ones are clustered in wonderful parts of the country. The game has boomed internationally, too, so there are a lot of great new foreign golf destinations. Never have so many had so much choice of places to visit and play.

To mark our 50th anniversary, we decided to rank for the first time the best golf destinations in the world, from an American perspective. We compiled a ballot consisting of 95 golf-travel destinations--with space for write-in candidates--and sent a copy to each of our 700-plus low-handicap, avid course-ranking panelists. We asked them all to rate each destination they had visited in the previous two years, or were very familiar with, on a scale of 1 (very bad) to 10 (very good). What are the ingredients of a good golf destination? We left it up to the panelists to decide, but suggested that a good golf destination might be one that has:

* A good variety of terrific courses;

* a strong "golf ambience";

* a great setting;

* other area attractions/amenities;

* a good variety of quality accommodations;

* good value;

* good service;

* easy travel, both to and from the destination, and also within it.

The most important question we told the panelists to ask themselves for each destination was this: "How much would a typical reader of Golf Digest enjoy a trip there?"

The response was terrific. We received an avalanche of ballots, averaged the scores, and ranked them.

The results (on the gatefold to the right) include many great talking points--look at the incredibly tight photo finish between Monterey and St. Andrews for top honors--and some surprises. Northern Ireland, for instance, did better than anyone could have expected. Kauai ahead of the Big Island? Austin ahead of San Antonio? Everyone will have an opinion.

50 GREATEST GOLF DESTINATIONS