Last Week, Zagat relased its 6th Edition of America’s Top Golf Courses. Based on the experiences of 6,054 avid golfers who played an average of 8.8 rounds per month, the survey covers 1,149 of the top public, semi-private and resort layouts, as well as urban driving ranges and the leading private courses.
Here are some of the results and some interesting trends:

Top-Rated Course: Long Island’s Bethpage, Black, host of the upcoming 2009 U.S. Open, took honors as the top-rated course in this year’s survey, thanks to a supremely challenging layout by A.W. Tillinghast.

Interesting Numbers: The economic crisis has hit the country hard, but seems not to have hit golfers enough to keep them off the course. Nearly half of surveyors (44 percent) say that the economy has not affected their game, and only 16 percent say that they are playing less because of it. A whopping 74 percent of these avid golfers say they will take one to three golf-specific vacations in the next year. However, players are adjusting to the economic climate as 33 percent of them say they are seeking out special deals more than before and 16% report playing at cheaper courses than in the past.
Some affordable options? This Survey’s lowest priced layout, Kansas’s Buffalo Dunes, costing a mere $25 per round. Long Island’s Bethpage Black, this year’s winner for Top Course, is also listed as a top-five pick for best in value.

Quality Over Quantity: According to industry reports, only 72 new 18-hole courses opened in the U.S. in 2008, the lowest total in decades (in 2000, 518 courses made their debuts). But while quantity may have dipped, new quality courses abound. Newcomers include Nevada’s Jack Nicklaus-designed The Chase at PGA Golf Club Coyote Springs; Utah’s Sand Hollow Resort, a John Fought design that weaves through red rock outcroppings; and Oregon’s Tetherow, a Scottish-style track from David McLay Kidd of Bandon Dunes fame. Golfers can expect more layouts from high-profile architects in the year to come.

Greener Grass: The race to be green is in full swing at courses across the U.S. In New York, Long Island’s stand-out, Bethpage, is the highest rated club taking on Environmentally Friendly operations. Colorado’s venerable Broadmoor has instituted a recycling program and water-use restrictions, and converted 50 acres of turf to native grassland. South Carolina’s Kiawah Island had all five of its courses certified in 2008 as Audubon International Cooperative Sanctuaries, and Hawaii’s Mauna Lani now generates its own solar power.

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