Readers' Choice Rankings:
The Top 38 Golf Destinations

October 17, 2008

• 2009 Readers' Choice Awards | Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
• RANKINGS: The Top 50 Public Golf Facilities | Private | Resort
• RANKINGS: The Top 10 in the U.S.: Public Facilities | Private | Resort
• RANKINGS: The Top 38 golf destinations in North America and Europe
• SELECTED PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS: Public | Private | Resort | The Best of the Best
• WEB EXCLUSIVE: Top 10 Facilities in each ranking category: Public | Private | Resorts
• WEB EXCLUSIVE: State By State: All the facilities scoring at least 75 points
• Send us your comments: Readerschoice@golfworld.com

Methodology for the Destination rankings
In conjunction with voting for the Readers' Choice Awards program, Golf World readers also offered their opinions on various golf destinations areas around the world. Using a 10-point scale, readers were asked to evaluate 38 different destinations based on seven criteria -- quality of golf courses, accessibility of area, hotel accommodations, dining, friendliness, ambiance and overall value. A destination's score within each of the criteria is the percentage of readers who gave the destination a "top three" score of 8, 9 or 10. (For example, the 87.3 score Charleston/Kiawah Island, S.C., received for quality of courses means that 87.3 percent of the readers gave this destination either an 8, 9 or 10 rating for that criteria.) An overall total score for each destination was determined by averaging the scores in all seven categories.

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1.	Charleston/Kiawah Island, S.C.
								Total
	87.3	67.3	90.1	86.7	84.8	87.3	70.9	82.4
2.	Hawaii
	90.9	48.4	93.5	87.7	87.7	94.7	57.2	80.0
3.	Pinehurst, N.C.
	95.3	57.5	83.0	81.3	81.9	89.1	71.0	79.9
4.	Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.
	90.1	79.3	90.0	87.8	71.6	77.5	62.6	79.8
5.	Orlando, Fla.
	83.1	88.1	90.1	83.4	72.9	68.8	71.2	79.6
6.	San Antonio, Texas
	80.7	75.4	82.5	80.7	84.2	73.7	75.4	78.9
7.	Monterey Peninsula, Calif.
	94.2	51.8	89.9	89.1	68.1	95.7	50.0	77.0
8.	Myrtle Beach, S.C.
	86.5	73.0	78.8	78.8	76.2	60.1	80.4	76.3
9.	Ireland
	97.4	49.6	70.2	55.2	96.6	96.6	64.7	75.7
10.	San Diego, Calif.
	82.2	74.0	83.3	86.3	63.0	78.1	60.8	75.4
11.	Northern Michigan
	88.5	47.1	76.0	72.1	85.6	76.0	80.8	75.1
12.	Bermuda
	70.9	64.0	84.1	78.3	83.7	87.2	55.8	74.9
13.	Kohler, Wis.
								Total
	93.4	50.5	85.2	77.8	77.8	81.3	57.1	74.7
14.	Hilton Head, S.C.
	82.8	56.1	83.3	79.5	76.5	79.5	64.3	74.6
15.	Scotland
	98.3	56.7	71.4	55.0	78.3	94.2	65.8	74.3
16.	Reynolds Plantation/Lake Oconee, Ga.
	87.0	50.0	83.7	67.4	80.4	82.6	65.2	73.8
17.	Oregon Coast
	100.0	19.5	71.6	70.7	84.4	88.3	80.5	73.6
18.	Las Vegas
	76.1	80.5	91.9	92.5	57.0	67.8	48.0	73.4
19.	Sarasota/Naples/Florida West Coast
	76.9	73.8	84.5	76.6	64.6	69.2	63.1	72.7
20.	Bend/Sunriver, Ore.
	88.7	32.1	76.9	69.8	79.2	83.0	75.5	72.2
21.	Williamsburg, Va.
	80.0	62.7	73.0	73.3	72.0	74.7	69.3	72.1
22.	Lake Tahoe/Reno, Nev.
	73.1	54.9	79.2	84.3	72.5	78.8	58.8	71.7
23.	Palm Springs, Calif.
	61.8	61.8	85.2	82.3	57.4	72.6	56.5	71.3
24.	Caribbean
	64.2	50.5	82.6	73.1	78.9	77.9	65.3	70.4
25.	Canada
	70.8	56.3	69.8	66.0	83.3	78.7	66.7	70.2