Every golf course has a story to tell. Every good walk is your way of reading the novel; experiencing the narrative as it lives and breathes. More than writing numbers on a card, or selecting the proper club, every round you play is a gently guided adventure; an exploration of the land, and an encounter with the art form that is golf course architecture.

The Albatrace Track Index was created to capture this idea in a more tangible form. It is not a ranking system, an appraisal of architectural merit, or a simple means of categorizing courses based on how much “fun” we had in playing them. It is a measurement of something much less visible, but far more important: the balance between a golf course’s substance and soul.

why the track index exists:

Traditional “ratings” or “rankings” file golf courses into a list based on numerical assessments, derived from a very rigid set of criteria. While this is sure to sell magazines (or garner “clicks”), and provoke undeniably entertaining conversations, these rankings take a method of artistic expression – and its myriad of interpretations – and compress it/them into a relatively uninspired sort of hierarchy.

The Track Index is our attempt, here at Albatrace, to positively contribute to the larger conversation about how golf courses are valued, and assess them in a way that honors both their physical “substance” and their subjective “soul”. We want to accurately “rate”, if you will, the architectural merits of a golf course alongside the way that it makes you feel as you are experiencing it. These two things should not exist in separation from one another, but mutually enrich our understanding of the important role that golf courses serve in our individual lives, as well as the greater cultural moment.

We realize that there are other efforts out there similar to ours (for example, Tom Doak’s “Doak Scale” developed for his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses series); the Albatrace Track Index does not strive to rise above any of these, but to work in concert with them. Our belief is that golf courses carry a much greater gravity to them than, say, a massive basketball arena or an American football stadium. They are the hybrid equivalent of a neighborhood playground, a community baseball field, a local coffee shop and a public concert venue. They are places to gather, enjoy nature and the company of others, and play. We believe that the more our world can respect this truth, the better off all of us will be for it.

what the track index measures:

This has been touched on already, but for the sake of clarity: the Albatrace Track Index measures Substance and Soul; physical quality and subjective character.

The Track Index is a two-part, alpha-numeric grading system. The letter (A, B or C) indicates the kind of Substance you should expect to find when visiting each particular course; for example, a course with exceptional Substance would be given a “C” grade. Think golf courses like Pine Valley, Augusta National, or Cypress Point (and maybe even your unsung local muni!). Courses with merely functional Substance are given an “A” grade, meaning they aren’t very inspiring in their design and use of the landscape. There are a lot of “A” grade public courses around the Cincinnati area, where I’m from.

Second, we give each course a number (1, 2 or 3) grade, based upon how much Soul we think it has. Here, we enter the territory of significant debate; as previously mentioned, the Soul of a golf course is a much more subjective category. What we’re really looking for, though, is a sense of belonging: from the moment you arrive, do you feel that the course, and the property as a whole, has a very intentional, curated sort of “atmosphere”? Those courses are going to get a grade “3”. Does the entire property feel relatively soulless; almost as if it were prepackaged, microwaved and slopped onto a paper plate? Those courses are getting a “1”.

So, in this system, you don’t want to be “A1” – a “C3” is rare air, but a “B3” or a “C2” is well worth visiting.

how the track index will be used:

Again, our goal at Albatrace is not simply to shell out ratings to the courses we like the most (or the ones we don’t) purely for the sake of publishing content. We want to have a positive impact on the game of golf at large, by emphasizing the reasons why golf courses are so valuable; ideally, the more we talk about it – so long as that is done in an educated manner – the more we will see public (and private) golf courses given the love and respect that they deserve.

With that being said, you should expect to see a Track Index rating given to every golf course that appears in our “Traces of Golf” photography series, and its accompanying “Track Report” article here in the Albatrace Trail Journal. In the future, we hope to provide ways for you, dear reader, to submit your own Track Index ratings for other courses, and expand our portfolio.

We hope that you will share your feedback with us; these are not meant to be an arbitrary ranking, but more of a description of our experience and interpretation of each golf course we visit. If you feel that we’re missing something important, especially if it might change the grade we’ve given to a particular course, please let us know – open discourse about golf courses and the game at large is one of our absolute favorite things.

Grace and peace!