Peter Williams: Golf Digest caught napping when it comes down to Cape Kidnappers

So Cape Kidnappers is now, according to Golf Digest, the best golf course in New Zealand. This week the influential American magazine published its annual rankings of the top 100 courses in America, the top 100 public access facilities in the USA and the 100 best outside the United States.

Kidnappers ranked 47th on the international list with Wairakei (54th), Russley (57th), Paraparaumu (60th ), Gulf Harbour (76th) and Kauri Cliffs (93rd) the five other New Zealand courses to make the list which was topped by the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland.

And just who, you might ask, has made these decisions about which many a marketing and public relations dollar can now be spent ? The magazine itself is suitably vague on the answer.

They say initial nominations came from national golf associations, which were augmented by comments from "many friends around the world", more than "800 course rating panellists" and a "collection of panellists whom we know and trust."

Hmm. No names, no reputations, and, I am certain, nobody who actually made the effort to visit and play all the courses on the list.

Judging a golf course is like a rating any work of design. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and many a golfer will form an impression of a golf course simply by the score he shot.

But I am certain of one thing - a good golf course is one that is enjoyable to play. For that reason I cannot fathom Cape Kidnappers as the best golf course in New Zealand.

It is without doubt the most difficult and the most penal. Although I haven't played it, I have toured the entire course, stood on every tee and been on every green.

Despite the various options as to what tees you play from depending on your ability, I haven't met anyone who's actually played to their handicap there.

Most report horror stories of scores they haven't shot in years, of up to half-a-dozen lost balls and an expensive green fee they say they will pay just once.

It's great to see Wairakei recognised on a list like this, I am sure, for the first time. The improvements made in the last decade under the new ownership of Gary Lane, Trevor Farmer and Peter Francis make it, in my opinion, the best golf facility in the country.

It isn't too penal, requires plenty of challenging shots where you won't lose your ball if you mishit, and walking up the tree-lined valley of the 14th fairway provides you with some of the most serene and peaceful surroundings you could ever want.

The inclusion of Gulf Harbour and Kauri Cliffs is predictable, although their respective positions are surprising.

Paraparaumu's high placing surely owes more to reputation than anything else. The place is badly in need of some modernising, which is being planned, and some new greens. But it's been a fixture on Golf Digest lists for years and this will have helped its cause.

Putting Russley on this list, and at number 57, is a nonsense. It isn't even the best course in Christchurch.

While a lot of improvements have been made in recent years, it is still an inferior golfing experience to the Christchurch Golf Club at Shirley and many a course in other parts of the country.

Who was backing the cause of St Andrews in Hamilton? Or Hokowhitu in Palmerston North? Otatara in Invercargill?

New Zealand can be pleased that this country does have half-a-dozen courses ranked on this widely-read list. Scotland and Canada each have 13 and Australia has eight, including second-ranked Royal Melbourne.

But considering the first club was formed here in 1871, it seems good golf courses are a modern phenomenon in New Zealand.

Of our six on this list, four have been built in the last 35 years, three of them in the last decade.

Of the top five in both the "Best in America" and "Best Outside the US" lists, none were built after Augusta National in 1933.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY