Sports: Zagat's Above Par

If you spend any time around golfers at all, you soon discover that most of them, regardless of their skill level, consider themselves experts on the game. Hackers who can't break 100 are eager to share their thoughts about everything from Tiger's putting stroke to Curtis Strange's boneheaded handling of this year's Ryder Cup team. The folks at Zagat have tapped this endless font of opinion to create their first guide to golf courses. The book covers 1,049 public, semiprivate and resort courses in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Though golfers often exaggerate and, on occasion, even prevaricate, the ratings seem largely accurate. That county course in New Jersey where "the dance floors can be pretty slick" does indeed have "horrible food service." However, it's not true that "the scenery alone is worth the price of admission" at The Boulders in Scottsdale, Ariz., where a weekend round costs $230. The guide is available in bookstores nationwide and at www.zagat.com.