How the ratings work

Who rates these?

Pocket Looper is built and rated by its founder. The catalogue began as a personal record of the courses played across Florida — the number on each one is the score kept then, and it still is. Courses beyond Florida are scored the same way, on the same scale, by the same hand, so a 9.1 in Tampa and a 9.1 in Ayrshire mean the same thing.

What the number means

The scale runs from 1 to 10, to one decimal place.

• 9.5 and above — the handful of courses worth planning a trip around.
• 9.0 to 9.4 — outstanding: the best golf in its state or country.
• 8.0 to 8.9 — very good; you would go back, and tell a friend.
• 7.0 to 7.9 — a good day's golf, with something holding it back.
• Below 7 — in the directory because it exists, not because it is recommended.

The score weighs the design and the land it sits on first, then how the course is kept, then everything around the golf — the walk, the welcome, the value. It does not weigh prestige: a famous name earns nothing on its own.

Courses with no number

A course that has not opened yet, or has not been played yet, shows Unrated — or Opening and the date — where the score would be. A number there would be a guess dressed up as a rating, and the whole point of the site is that the number is not a guess. The directory holds thousands of courses in this state; they are there to be found, and they get a score when they have earned one.

The two lists

The Top 250 Public and Top 100 Private are the best of the United States and nothing else. A course is not on either list because it is rated; it is on a list because it belongs at the top. Everything else lives in its state or country list, and in search.