Durban CC hangs in

Durban Country Club remains the only South African golf course to be included in Golf Magazine’s biennial ranking of the top 100 courses in the world.

The storied course just north of Durban’s golden mile of beaches has for some years now not been South Africa’s top course, losing out to the Gary Player course at Sun City or Leopard Creek, and it is perhaps a little surprising that it hangs on on what is described as the gold standard of golf course ratings… perhaps because Gary Player is the only South African on the distinguished 100-member panel and he obviously can’t vote for his own courses!

Durban CC has slipped to 81st from its 2003 position of 70th but that it continues to be recognised by a group that includes Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskopf, Annika Sorenstam, Pete Dye and an array of other golfing personalities confirms its status as South Africa’s first, and for many years only, truly classic golf course.

According to the editors of Golf Magazine this year's lists have been infused with new blood with eight courses appearing in the Top 100 of the United States for the first time while the World list also has eight “newbies” (their word!) and two breaking into the top 50 for the first time.

Interestingly the mythical Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey (near Philadelphia) remains the No1 course, on both the U.S. and World lists, even though it is said to be more exclusive than Augusta National in Georgia.

Pine Valley has never staged a major tournament but it continues to attract superlatives because, according to one writer, a) it possesses more world class holes than any other course, b) the finest 18 green complexes of any course, c) the finest collection of three shotters, d) the finest collection of two shotters (especially those under 370 yards), e) the finest collection of one shot holes, f) the finest three hole start and g) the finest three hole finish.

In addition to it being a famous test of golf, Pine Valley, according to my research on the internet, served as a central gathering point for architects to discuss and analyse specific design features during the Golden Age of golf course design. Starting in 1912 when George Crump acquired the property, a who's-who of architects came, saw, and in some cases contributed to its design; men such as Harry Colt, Hugh Wilson, George Thomas, William Flynn, Charles Blair Macdonald, Walter Travis, Robert Hunter, A.W. Tillinghast, Donald Ross and the inimitable Alister Mackenzie.

And though Colt was paid as an advisor by Crump, and though Crump consulted with many of the architects listed above, and though Crump died before the 12th - 15th holes were put into play, there is no mistake that Crump, a rank amateur, deserves credit for the incorporation of so many classic design elements.

Set on sand dunes that bordered the ocean thousands upon thousands of years ago, the property was wind swept and scrub covered when Crump first saw it in or around 1909. One of the first architects to come see it with Crump was Charles Blair Macdonald who immediately noted, “here is one of the greatest courses - if grass will grow.”

Judging from photographs it still has the look of sandy, scrubby grassland - providing a link to the original Scottish links - but that does not stop it from being consistently ranked ahead of such golfing Shangri Las as Cypress Point, the Old Course at St Andrews, Augusta National, Pebble Beach and Muirfield.

The course prides itself in being one of the toughest challenges in all of golf. Among Pine Valley's trademarks are "Hell's half acre" (a barren wasteland on the 7th hole), "The devil's a** hole" (an extremely deep bunker on the 10th hole), and the famous 18th finishing hole, which many say incorporates every element of golf.

Although it is regarded as one of the greatest courses in the world, Pine Valley has not played host to any major golf tournaments. This is because there is not enough room on the course to accommodate tens of thousands of spectators. In fact, the only time Pine Valley has ever had mainstream exposure was a 1962 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf match between Gene Littler and Byron Nelson.

Pine Valley did, however, give rise to one of my favourite golfing fables. In 1951, Philadelphia amateur J. Wood "Woodie" Platt began a round at Pine Valley birdie-eagle-ace-birdie. With the clubhouse just 12 paces from the fourth green, Platt opted to fortify himself before tackling the brutal par-3 fifth. He never left the bar. Six-under-par through four holes on the world's toughest track, Platt called it a day. "Why go on?" he said later. "I couldn't do any better -- only worse."

A striking feature of the World Top 100 list is how often the name of Alister Mackenzie pops up; either as the sole designer of a great course or as a collaborator with another architect.

Mackenzie, whose name appears among the credits on six of the Top 25 and two of the top five, Cypress Point (2) and Augusta National (4), could therefore arguably be honoured as the best designer ever.

According to author Curt Sampson, in his seminal book “The Masters,” Mackenzie, a ruddy Scot, was a real character who was fond of remarking “being a Scotsman, I am naturally opposed to water in its undiluted state.”

The good doctor is said to have “abhorred long grass, narrow fairways, small greens and water hazards and (who) considered the Old Course at St Andrew ‘to be a sacred place, subtle, complex, and by far the best golf course on earth.’”

Footnote: Golf Magazine’s rating panel of 100 includes major championship winners, Ryder Cup players, architects, leading amateurs, administrators and others respected for their golf knowledge. Each is asked to assign a letter vote, from A+ to F-, to each of the 575 nominated courses they have played.

A's are reserved for the world's top 10 courses, F's for those that don't deserve to be on the ballot. Consideration is given for strategic design, playability, setting, tradition, condition, examination, etc. The panellist determines the importance of the criteria in each case.

Votes for courses played during the past five years are weighted 1.5 times those that have not. Architects cannot vote on their own designs. Once the panel's nearly 25,000 votes are received, letter grades are translated into numbers. Finally, the editors simply do the mathematics by dividing a course's total by the number of panelists voting on it. The result, they claim, is the most respected ranking in the world.