Sedgefield tops Palmer’s home club in magazine ranking of PGA Tour courses

Where does Sedgefield Country Club’s acclaimed Donald Ross design rank among courses that play host to PGA Tour events?

Better than Bay Hill Club, the famed course owned and frequented by Arnold Palmer. That’s according to a ranking by 1,800 Golf Digest panelists released online this weekend.

Sedgefield was No. 23 out of 36 courses in the rankings.

Judging by the effusive praise PGA Tour players show to Sedgefield each year during the Wyndham Championship, that ranking might seem a bit low. At each Wyndham, players praise the straight-forward style, shot-making requirements on hilly lies and trademark Ross greens as a welcome venue among the many TPC layouts and newer layouts emphasizing distance over shotmaking.

But it’s impressive when you consider that the top 10 includes seven major championship venues (Augusta National, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach, Riviera, Aronimink, Quail Hollow and Bellerive) and the other three (TPC Sawgrass, Muirfield Village and East Lake) host the Players Championship, The Memorial and Tour Championship, arguably the Tour’s three biggest non-majors.

Many of the lowest-rated courses are the TPC venues, orginally associated with the Tour. TPC courses ranked Nos. 36, 35, 32, 31, 30 and 27. TPC Southwind was 22 and TPC San Antonio was 19.

In addition to Quail Hollow at 9, other Carolinas courses included Harbour Town (Heritage Classic) at 11 and Cliffs at Walnut Cove (Biltmore Championship Asheville) at 29.