Each trip is evaluated across four dimensions. The overall rating is not a simple average, it’s weighted toward golf while still reflecting lodging, food, travel, and vibe. We don’t publish exact weights to avoid gaming; the model is tuned to match how golfers remember trips.
Focused on the course itself: architecture, routing, bunkering, greens, strategy, and variety. This score excludes lodging, food, and amenities.
A review of hotels, lodges, and houses—optimized for groups and value, not just luxury.
Evaluates on-property and nearby offerings, including on-course convenience and variety across days.
The human and logistical experience: pace, caddies, travel complexity, and overall atmosphere.
We publish a consolidated view of major publication lists to provide context alongside our original ratings.
We aggregate placements from major lists, such as:
Our ratings are produced by a curated group of contributors with deep, firsthand experience in destination golf. The group is intentionally cross-disciplinary, composed of golf course raters, restauranteurs, and travel bloggers who collectively evaluate trips from the fairway to the final dinner reservation.
Golf course raters bring an architecture-first lens, with familiarity across classic, modern, and contemporary design styles. Their focus is on routing, strategy, walkability, and how a course reveals itself over repeated play.
Restauranteurs contribute perspective on food quality, consistency, service, and the practical realities of dining well across multiple days. This ensures food scores reflect not just standout meals, but the full, lived experience of eating during a golf trip.
Travel bloggers and destination writers evaluate logistics, flow, and overall experience — including travel complexity, pacing, lodging practicality, and how seamlessly a trip comes together for real groups.
To qualify as a rater, contributors must have personally visited at least five of the Top 50 ranked trips and submitted detailed, on-site reviews. This requirement ensures ratings are grounded in comparative experience, not reputation or secondhand impressions.
Ratings evolve over time as trips are revisited, conditions change, and new courses, lodging, or dining options emerge. Our goal is not to freeze ratings in time, but to keep them accurate, current, and earned.
We are always interested in experienced golfers with firsthand destination golf knowledge. If you meet the criteria and would like to contribute, apply below.
