Q&A With Stephen Hennessey
A conversation with Golf Digest's course ranking editor
Issue No. 32, May 7, 2025
In today’s newsletter, we have an interview with Stephen Hennessey, Deputy Managing Editor for Golf Digest. As you’ll see, he wears many hats in his role, but his main focus is overseeing the course rankings and the panelists.
Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where our focus is on conversations you can have over cocktails in the clubhouse.
I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.
This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.
This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, Acorn Hills is a college student-owned business leading the apparel industry by offering a more eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. By using seed paper tags that can be planted to limit waste, Acorn Hills received national recognition from The Weather Channel and USA Today and has partnerships with retailers and local sections of the PGA of America. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.
Fore, please…
We’re excited to announce the new From the Drop Zone Pro Shop. We believe this new shop will have higher quality and faster shipping, so you can get better gear to you quicker. And some items are even priced lower than in our old shop. Visit the Pro Shop today to get your merch.
Registration is open for all Events From the Drop Zone. Our events visit some of the best public courses in New Jersey, feature friendly competition, and good company. Sign up today for our full event calendar:
Parkway Playoff: June 1 at Charleston Springs
Cart Rider Cup: June 21 at Neshanic Valley
The Bucket: September 6 at Galloping Hill
FTDZ: Steve, thanks joining us for this Q&A! You're a managing editor with Golf Digest. What does your role entail?
SH: Like most folks at Golf Digest, my job entails many things. (I’m also the host of a Golf Digest podcast, The Loop, and oversee our gambling content.) But my biggest responsibility is overseeing our golf course content and our course-ranking panel. I’ve overseen the America’s 100 Greatest course panel for nearly 10 years now, and it continues to be the part of my job I enjoy most.
FTDZ: We've all seen the lists of the Top 100 and look forward to every release. A lot of us base our golf travel and bucket lists on these lists! So, what does Golf Digest consider when evaluating a golf course?
SH: Golf Digest is the gold standard in course rankings, as it’s the oldest and most established (our first top-100 list was published in 1966.) Our rankings are entirely based on the scores from our course-ranking panelists, who are all single digit handicaps who are enthusiasts of course design. Our scoring criteria is meant to identify the best architecture nationally and regionally—the rankings are only about the course design, nothing to do with things like amenities or service.
Our scoring criteria continues to evolve but it’s currently based on six categories: Shot Options, Challenge, Layout Variety, Aesthetics, Conditioning and Character. Our panelists assign a score 1-10 (using fractional scoring up to four decimal points) to each course they play, and those scores determine our America’s 100 Greatest, Second 100 Greatest, Best in State and America’s 100 Greatest Public rankings.
The rankings are solely based on the scores of our panelists, too. Editors like me have nothing to do with our rankings. In a number of cases, I disagree with our panelists in terms of where a course ranks, but we differ from our competition in that there is no editorializing at all with our new lists when they come out—the scores are the scores.
FTDZ: Does this criteria differ from what you personally consider a good course?
SH: Ha, piggy-backing off my previous answer, yes! My biggest desire with our rankings would be for us to use a seventh category, Fun, which we started collecting scores for in 2015.
We have yet to convince our editorial board that Fun has a place in identifying great architecture. But I can say for sure that Fun is a factor when I discuss my favorite courses with others. On the other hand, our rankings are meant to take the subjectiveness out of evaluating courses, so I can understand not wanting to make a decision counter to the legacy of our rankings. But I would say architects are factoring playability and fun when designing courses as much as ever, so I’d like us to consider using the Fun category in some capacity.
FTDZ: Fun is certainly subjective so I can see why it is not included in the rankings. But it is an important part of golf architecture! So what is the most fun course you've played? What makes it the most fun?
My favorite course (different than best, but to me it’s perpetually underranked in our list, though it continues to improve its standing post renovations) I’ve played in Sleepy Hollow Country Club. It’s the type of course with plenty of thrilling shots that a higher-handicap like me can execute (so many to list, but my favorites are the reverse-Redan seventh, the approach into the Punchbowl 15th and the tee shot at the famous 16th). It has incredibly fun, engaging architecture that plays the way it’s intended with firm turf offering a variety of options. And it has some of the best views of any course I’ve played—perched up way above the Hudson River with copious views. I’m using the word ‘favorite’ a lot, which is what we tell our panelists not to do. The toughest thing for them to do is to remove the subjectiveness out of it. Our panelists can’t play favorites, but I can since Golf Digest editors don’t evaluate courses. To me, Sleepy Hollow is as fun as it gets.
FTDZ: Back to more objective criteria, what is the best course you've played, even though it may not match the GD ranking?
SH: Fortunately for me, like I said, I don’t have the tough task of evaluating courses based on our scoring criteria. If I were to use our scoring system, Pine Valley is the undisputed best course in the country, if not the world. It is nearly the ideal in each piece of criteria, aside from Aesthetics. But that’s a predictable answer, so I’ll give you a course that you’ll continue to see popping on world ranking lists for the next few decades. Cabot St. Lucia’s Point Hardy course is so new, having just opened a little over a year ago, but it very well might be a top 30 course in the world. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were given a challenging but spectacular piece of land, and they built nine greensites that sit atop the cliffs along the Atlantic Ocean. It’s certainly the most stunning course I’ve ever played.
FTDZ: What course that you haven't played yet is on your bucket list?
SH: I’ve been lucky enough to play 40 of our current America’s 100 Greatest Courses and eight of our top 10. But Cypress Point is the big one I’m missing. Having played Pine Valley and Augusta, that’s my next white whale.