Golf Digest recently published a list claiming to compile the top courses in the United States as determined by a bracket-style rating system. In each corner of the bracket was a different region (e.g., Atlanta, Phoenix), but it seems that the raters failed to give one region its credit where it was due.
Pine Valley, widely recognized as the Number 1 golf course in the United States (and among the Top 5 in the World), is located in Pine Valley, a small town in southern New Jersey.
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And despite the fact that the New Jersey state lines have remained the same since the club’s founding in 1913, Golf Digest included Pine Valley in its “Greater Philadelphia” region rather than grouping it with its New Jersey brethren.
As you may imagine, this quickly sent golf social media into a tizzy, as Pine Valley is, indisputably, a New Jersey golf course, and Pennsylvania has several other courses that should’ve been considered (rather than being bumped in lieu of Pine Valley).
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Although Pine Valley was the most offensive aspect of this list, it was not the only one. New York was afforded two regions—Long Island and Westchester County—that listed courses less than an hour apart from each other.
Similarly perplexing, Florida was limited to Jupiter/West Palm Beach and, thus, places like TPC Sawgrass, The Concession Golf Club, and Streamsong.
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Yes, Golf Digest does other rating lists for best in-state, but that also doesn’t mean they can arbitrarily ignore state borders just to fudge certain courses onto the list.
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