America's Top 100 Golf Communities: How We Chose

The goal in creating the Top 100, like last year, was to identify those communities that best combine superb golf with homes and facilities of the highest quality, an extraordinary location and a wealth of lifestyle opportunities. To be eligible, communities must offer property owners an opportunity for membership in an affiliated private golf club. Limited public access to the course, such as for guests at a resort, is allowed but may detract from a community's ranking. This year, a few newcomers, many of which are still under construction, particularly caught our attention, and for some complex cases, other specific requirements were established.

Once we whittled down the list to a manageable number, each property was rated in five categories: golf (up to 30 points); quality of housing (20 points); community amenities and activities (25 points); location, including natural setting and proximity to cultural and other activities (20 points); and X-factor, such as buzz, eco-friendliness, tournament play, and if there's a celebrity resident or medical center (5 points). The points were then totaled to rank the top hundred.

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